Bailey fans 19 in Interboro’s first round state tourney win

WEST GROVE—The Bucs weren’t exactly lighting up the scoreboard in the early going, but with the way ace Bridget Bailey was throwing, they didn’t need to be. The bats did come around eventually, with Interboro banging out 11 hits on the day as the Bucs advance to Thursday’s quarterfinal final round of the PIAA, Class 5A tourney with a 7-0 shutout of String Theory Charter.

With the win, the Bucs will now face District 7 champ Thomas Jefferson Thursday at Carlisle High School. Game time is set for 1 PM

“It’s nice to know we’re moving on to the next round two years in a row,” said Bailey.

Bailey was about as dominant as you could be, allowing just one base hit—a single in the fifth—in facing just one over the minimum, while striking out a whopping 19 Knights’ hitters.

“I mostly just threw my fastball,” said Bailey. “I was moving it around and hitting corners.”

The Bucs manufactured a run in the second. Emily Gavin led off with a walk, then moved all the way over to third on a sacrifice. Up next came Nicole Floyd, who dropped down a squeeze bunt to score Gavin. Interboro added another in the second on an RBI single from Lily Bonner.

“I think we only had one hit over the first three innings,” said Bailey, who also knocked in two runs with a 2 for 4 performance at the plate. “So to get two runs on the board was great. It was nice to be able to pitch with a little bit of a cushion.”

That cushion got significantly larger in the fifth. Katlyn Patton (2 for 3, 2R) got things going in a big way, stroking a ball deep to the gap in left center and pulling in with a triple. Bailey helped her own cause, driving in Patton with a single. A walk to Bonner, an RBI single from Logan Stewart and the second RBI sacrifice from Floyd made it 5-0 Bucs after five innings.

“With the way we’ve all been kind of struggling with the bats lately, it was great to see us all hit the way we did today,” said Patton. “ I haven’t really had a big hit all year, so coming up with the triple made me happy to be doing something to help the team win.”

Interboro added another pair of runs in the sixth on singles from Haley Wittorf, Bailey and Bonner, along with a triple from Sam Bellano.

“They played well,” said Interboro coach Chuck Pedrick. “We still need to work on the hitting, but we’re getting there. Before the game I told the seniors that I wasn’t ready to let them go yet. Now we have at least one more game together.”

Interboro 7 String Theory Charter 0

String Theory AB R H RBI Interboro AB R H RBI
Fiocca—P 3 0 0 0 Bellano—2B 3 1 1 1
Snyder—SS 3 0 0 0 Patton—SS 3 2 2 0
Gilbert—1B 3 0 0 0 Bailey—P 4 1 2 2
Foresta—CF 3 0 1 0 Bonner—LF 4 1 2 1
O’Donnell—3B 2 0 0 0 Gavin—CF 2 1 0 0
Mullen—RF 2 0 0 0 Stewart—DP 2 0 2 1
Gatta—2B 2 0 0 0 Floyd—1B 0 0 0 2
Coco—LF 2 0 0 0 Hill—PH 1 0 1 0
Smith—C 2 0 0 0 Kerwood—3B 3 0 0 0
Totals 22 0 1 0 Wittorf—RF 2 1 1 0
Totals 23 7 11 7

3B—Patton, Bellano

String Theory 0 0 0 0 0 0 0—0
Interboro 0 1 1 0 3 2 X—7

Pitching
String Theory IP R H BB K
Fiocca (L) 6 7 11 2 2
Interboro
Bailey (W) 7 0 1 0 19