William Tennent takes it to Gwynedd Mercy Academy

WARMINSTER >> Everyone contributed for the William Tennent softball team Friday afternoon.

The Panthers totaled eight hits by seven different players in a 13-1 win over Gwynedd Mercy Academy in five innings at William Tennent High School.

They also worked five walks, got hit by pitches twice and reached on a pair of errors in their four at-bats.

It all got started in the first inning. Kate Clark led off with a double and scored on Brianna Koonce’s RBI groundout to tie the game at one.

After that, it was all Panthers.

They added six runs in the second inning and six more in the third to take a 13-1 lead that would hold up as the final.

Nikki Reh worked a one-out walk in the second inning before Jenna Cragin got hit by a pitch. Sydne Fairall and Clark followed with walks — Clark’s plating the game-winning run — before Megan Curtis ripped an RBI single.

“I wanted to score the runners,” Curtin said. “I was going to swing at a strike if it was there.

“The last couple games we’ve been leaving runners on. Today we just changed that.”

Caitlyn Mitros followed and blew the game wide open. She crushed a three-run double off the base of the fence in right-centerfield and then scored on a Koonce double to make it 7-1.

The third inning was more of the same. Cassidy Hubmaster led off with a walk before Reh reached on an error. Cragin singled home Hubmaster and Fairall hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Reh. After a Clark single, Mackenzie Clee knocked in Cragin. Aubrey Evans followed with the hit of the day — a towering three-run home run over the leftfield fence to cap off the scoring at 13-1.

“We jumped all over the pitcher,” Tennent coach Deanna Myers said. “We were aggressive. We were swinging at balls that were our strikes. We’ve been struggling with scoring runners that are on base. Today we finally got them all in. It was nice to see everybody on the team be part of that win.”

During all this scoring, Curtin was shutting things down in the circle.

After allowing the first batter of the game to get on and score, the right-hander settled in. She struck out four batters and walked one in three innings of work. She gave up one run on two hits.

“I was just focusing on my spins and making sure I was throwing hard,” Curtin said. “My screwball and my curveball were on today.”

Clee came on in relief and was just as impressive. The left-hander struck out three batters to no walks and allowed two hits in two scoreless innings of work.

For the Monarchs, Hailee Weiss led off the game with a walk. Jess DiBricida bunted her to second and Weiss advanced to third when the throw to first was off. Lauren Slovensky followed with an RBI single to give Gwynedd a 1-0 edge.

“We just got beat,” Gwynedd coach Charlie Bell said. “It happens. It’s a game. It’s going to happen. Maybe it’ll happen again, maybe never happen again.”

Going forward

Tennent is at the bottom of the ultra-competitive Suburban One League Continental Conference standings, but the Panthers are in good shape for District 1 Class-6A. The win improves their record to 7-6 and — entering Friday — they were No. 17 in the power rankings. The top 20 team qualify for the playoffs.

“It’s looking good,” Myers said. “As long as we stay on the same path. Hopefully we get some more wins, but it would be nice to make it to playoffs. Absolutely — the ultimate goal at the end is to be in the playoffs and to win and move on. It would be nice to at least make an appearance in the playoffs.”

Gwynedd is in the middle of the Catholic Academies standings and the District 1 Class-4A power rankings.

They are fifth in their eight-team league with plenty of games remaining to make up ground.

Games against 6A schools like Tennent and Pennridge will help them in the district standings. Entering Friday they were ranked No. 6 out of nine schools. Four qualify for playoffs.

“I wouldn’t say we’re in good shape,” Bell said. “We’re alright where we are.”