Faith Christian blanked by Williams Valley in PIAA-1A 1st round

ROYERSFORD >> Following Faith Christian’s 11-0 five-inning loss to District 11 champion Williams Valley in the first round of the PIAA Class 1A softball state tournament at Spring-Ford High School, Lions first-year head coach Rod Blake reflected on the campaign just completed.

“I’m proud of the girls,” said Blake. “We had our best record ever (17-5), won a district title for the first time, won our division (in the Bicentennial League) for the first time. And this is only our fourth year as a program.”

Faith Christian, the District 1 champion, was going against a Williams Valley perennial powerhouse that last week competed in the District 11 Class 1A final for the 12th consecutive year.

“After the game the Williams head coach said to me, ‘It takes baby steps,’” said Blake. “Our two top pitchers, (freshman) Emily Blake and (sophomore) Maddie Hausman each pitched two shutouts, both with first-year catchers. Our left fielder and second baseman were both first-year players. We’re a young team — we don’t lose anyone for next year.

“We had an eventful season, kept winning even though we had a bout with mono earlier in the season, and today we were determined to leave it all out on the field, and I think we did.”

Faith Christian junior first baseman Gabriel Landis had two of the Lions’ four hits, and cracked a double. Emily Blake and Myah Brown also had hits.

Williams Valley 11, Faith Christian 0
Williams Valley 2 4 1 4 0 – 11 13 1
Faith Christian 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 3 4