Happy at Hallahan, McBride is one of Delco’s hidden gems

PHILADELPHIA >> Maddy McBride doesn’t mind the early wake-up calls during the school year.

Every morning she walks out the front door of her Sharon Hill home and heads to the SEPTA station on Chester Pike. She hops on the train and takes a 20-minute commute to John W. Hallahan in Center City.

Academy Park would love to have her. So would Cardinal O’Hara, Bonner & Prendergast and Archbishop Carroll. But the rising junior chose to spend her scholastic years at Hallahan, playing for a softball team that traditionally never wins.

“They’ve been bad for a long time. The seniors who just graduated, they lost to West Catholic when they were freshmen,” McBride said. “The next year they were like 1-14, they beat West Catholic, and last year we went to playoffs and lost to (St. Hubert) by a run.”

It’s not a coincidence that Hallahan has made steady progress since McBride’s arrival. She has changed the culture of the softball program. A two-year varsity starter, McBride pitched Hallahan to the Catholic League semifinals this year. They pushed Cardinal O’Hara, the regular season champion and the top-ranked team in Delco, to extra innings.

“You really see the true change in it, even from last year,” McBride said. “We’ve improved a lot.”

McBride was one of the shining stars on this year’s Catholic League Carpenter Cup team. McBride helped the squad advance to the final day of the tournament, winning three games and dropping two. The Catholics fell to Tri-Cape, 15-1, in Thursday’s semifinals.

In four games, McBride struck out 17 in 14 ⅔ innings of work.

“I’ve been looking forward to this experience since the fifth grade. I would always come out and watch, and now to be playing here against the best competition in the tri-state area, it’s really great,” she said. “And these girls that I played with, they’re just absolutely amazing players. It’s definitely better to have them on my team than to play against them.”

Against a lethal Tri-Cape team, which accrued 15 runs on 15 hits, McBride flashed a fastball with late tailing action. She punched out six hitters and pitched a clean seventh inning, her final of the tournament, to go out on a high note.

“They were a great team,” said McBride, who plays travel ball with the Delco Rage organization. “They swung the bats really well and had a lot of great players.”

McBride will travel to Virginia Beach this summer for a tournament with the Rage. Softball will keep her busy through July, at least, and then it’s back to school for her junior year.

Sorry, Delco, but you can’t have her.

“It’s been great at Hallahan. The education is great. The small school is a perfect fit for me,” McBride said.  “It’s a good way to go to high school — I actually like going to school, you know? It wasn’t anything I expected high school to be — it’s actually a lot better than I ever expected.”