Souderton walks off against North Penn in contested ending
FRANCONIA >> The ball left the bat of Souderton’s Brianna Reuss in the bottom of the seventh, dribbling up the line to North Penn first baseman Kariam Bou.
Racing home from third for Souderton was Dayna Shelly, so Bou rightly went for the force-out to try and keep the game from ending. Only the ball never got to the plate.
Bou’s throw hit Reuss, running up the line, allowing Shelly to score and giving Big Red an unconventional 1-0 walk-off win Thursday afternoon. After the initial play, the two umpires conferred on the call and ruled that it would stand, giving Souderton the win.
Souderton coach Steph Rummel said she didn’t have a good angle on that play. North Penn’s bench protested the initial call and the subsequent ruling.
“She got the ball in foul territory, never moved into foul territory, threw the ball home and the (runner) was in fair territory,” North Penn coach Rick Torresani said. “If you hit the girl in foul territory, it’s interference and she’s out. Why he didn’t call it, I have no clue.”
“It did hit her inside elbow so maybe when she was running it happened to hit that,” Rummel said. “Her feet were in the lane and that’s what I saw. My girls don’t usually run in the middle of the field, but I had a bad angle on it.”
Rummel did say that had the play gone against Souderton, they would still have had the bases loaded, one out and the top of the order up so she was confident had that situation arisen.
It was an odd ending for an otherwise tight game between two pitchers that weren’t giving up much to work with. North Penn (8-9, 7-6 SOL Continental) pitcher Bri Battavio allowed just two hits, struck out three and walked two while also working out of jams in the second and sixth innings.
Souderton’s (10-5, 8-4 SOL) Alex Scheeler gave up five hits, but never more than one in any inning, and didn’t allow a runner past second. Scheeler also struck out six against just one walk, settling in well after allowing two runners in the first inning.
“All my pitches were just working and again, everyone is getting more confident as we go along,” Scheeler, who also had one of the two hits, said. “Umpires are never the same so you almost have to mess around in the first inning to find his strike zone and then I settle in usually when I find it.”
Souderton defeated North Penn 8-7 in their first meeting, a game filled with errors on both sides. Thursday’s contest was much cleaner and even when North Penn committed two one-out errors in the bottom of the sixth, Battavio came right back to get a fly ball and pop up for outs to end the threat.
Remembering the first meeting, Scheeler said she tried to attack North Penn with high and inside pitches. It yielded a handful of singles, but the approach coupled with a good defensive performance behind Scheeler, prevented the Maidens from building much offensively.
“We didn’t get the timely hit,” Torresani said. “Hopefully this doesn’t end our season and chance at the playoffs.”
Of all the plays Scheeler got from her defense, she said the biggest came in the top of the seventh. A grounder by pinch-hitter Grace Hughes was a little too hot for shortstop Alyssa McCormick, but McCormick stuck with it, recovered and threw out Hughes for the second out of a 1-2-3 inning.
After the first, North Penn’s best scoring chance came in the sixth when catcher Jovanna Alfonsi ripped a two-out double to right, but got no further. In Souderton’s second inning, Big Red got Shelly to third with one out before Battavio was able to get Jen Klepfer swinging on a drop ball for the final out.
Even with the offense sputtering, Souderton’s ace wasn’t going to let the game slip away.
“It’s her third game this week and she’s come out strong every day this week,” Rummel said. “I did commend her for that and she kept her composure when she wasn’t getting the calls she wanted. She did an outstanding job today keeping us in the game.”
Shelly started the decisive half-inning with a walk, then moved up a base when McCormick blooped a single into very shallow left field. North Penn shortstop Jamie Beer nearly made a tremendous play, but couldn’t get enough glove under the ball to make the grab.
Shelly then took third on a passed ball but was held at third when Klepfer hit a ground ball that loaded the bases with no throw. Next came Reuss and in a chaotic blink, the game was over.
On an afternoon where Souderton’s top hitters struggled, the lower third of the lineup did enough to keep the Indians’ recent roll going.
“That’s our story, it’s either one or the other and today it worked out for us,” Rummel said. “Today the top of the lineup I think was a little too anxious so the bottom of the lineup took it upon themselves to pick it up and take care of it for them.”
