McKeown, Taylor power Haverford past North Penn, into District 1-6A semifinals

TOWAMENCIN >> After a walk and a strikeout her first two times at the plate, Brooke McKeown had an hunch what to expect from North Penn’s Mady Volpe in the top of the fourth inning.

“I kind of just knew the outside pitch was going to come,” the Haverford senior center fielder said. “So I was ready for it and just landed.”

With two runners on and two outs, McKeown slashed a pitch the opposite way into left field. And when it got past the diving attempt by the Knights left fielder, it was a full-on sprint around the bases for the East Stroudsburg commit.

It did not end until McKeown followed her slide into home with an emphatic fist pump – her three-run inside-the-park home run giving the Fords a 4-0 lead in the District 1-6A quarterfinal Thursday afternoon.

“I thought that she (the Fords’ third-base coach) was going to stop me,” McKeown said. “But then she sent me home.”

Kerri McCallum led off the top of the fifth with a more convention homer and that was more than enough for Emma Taylor. The junior left-hander dealt No. 2 North Penn its first shutout loss as No. 7 Haverford finally got over the Knights and clinched a PIAA berth with a 5-0 victory.

“When knew we could and we were kind like we’re tired of losing to this team and let’s make it to states,” Taylor said. “Let’s keep going through districts, like we got this.”

The Fords (19-3) lost 4-1 to NP on the same field April 24 and fell twice to the Knights in 2019, including an 11-0 five-inning defeat in the district quarterfinals. Thursday, Haverford took advantage of North Penn defensive miscues – its first four runs were unearned – while Taylor, a Yale verbal commit, allowed seven hits but stranded 10 base runners and struck out nine.

“I threw against them in that (April 24) game, too, so we kind of knew what each of their hitters was like,” Taylor said. “But we knew that – I don’t want to take anything away from them – but we could take them on, we could take that team as a whole.”

McKeown 2-for-3 with three RBIs and a run scored while McCallum went 2-for-3 with an RBI and run scored for Haverford, which earned its second state appearance – its first coming in 2019 – and a semifinal matchup Tuesday home against No. 11 Neshaminy, who upset No. 3 Hatboro-Horsham 3-1.

“We got to represent Delco but it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we’ve good a good lineup up and down, we know we can beat anyone,” Taylor said.

For North Penn (20-2), it was a just a poor time to have a bad game, as five errors and an inability to drive in runners denied the Knights a third straight district semifinal appearance.

“We didn’t play defense well,” North Penn coach Rick Torresani said. “Mady pitched her guts out but we didn’t get the timely hitting and like I’ve said from day one, in playoff softball, you have to have timely hitting, play good defense and get good pitching. And told the girls we didn’t get two of the three.”

Julia Shearer was 3-for-4 with while Carley DiGiuseppe went 2-for-3 for the Knights, who had their 14-game win streak snapped.

The Knights began Thursday resuming their suspended second-round game with Owen J. Roberts in the bottom of the fourth already up 4-0 then scored six in the fifth for a 10-0 victory. But a few hours later, Knights were shut out for the first time since a 2-0 11-inning loss to Central Dauphin in the 2019 PIAA quarterfinals.

North Penn’s path to state this year now lies in playbacks with a win Tuesday needed to continue its season.

“We played well, we hit the ball well in the morning and then we come down and we don’t do it,” Torresani said. “Is it because we played an inning early and then we had to come back – I don’t know. I don’t think so. These girls are used to that. We just our bad game in a wrong time and that’s the way it goes.”

Volpe took the loss in a complete-game effort, the NP right-hander giving up five runs – one earned – on five hits walked two, hit one batter and struck out seven.

North Penn had two baserunners in four of the seven innings but Taylor stymied the home side each time.

The Knights had runners on the corners after Volpe reached on a two-out error in the first but the Fords lefty struck out the next batter. After Haverford went up 1-0 in the top of the fourth on an error, NP put two on after a DiGiuseppe single and Sophia Collins’ walk only for Taylor to end the threat with a groundout. Then in the fifth, Shearer led off reaching on an error followed by a Sarah Sabocsik single but Taylor retired the next three, two by strikeout.

“I had a good game against them last time but I just needed to keep focusing on my spin, especially from our game yesterday,” said Taylor, who gave up just one walk. “So I just trusted my spin and went from there.”

Haverford plated its first run in its half in the fourth as a two-out error on Taylor’s grounder in front of the pitcher’s circle allowed pinch runner Sarah Hubley to score from second.

With one out in the top of the fourth, Rachel Yocum reached on an error while Ava Cohen walked on the next at-bat. After a strikeout, McKeown came up and connected off her travel teammate – playing with Volpe on PA Chaos Gold – for the inside-the-park homer and a four-run advantage.

“It’s pretty cool to be able to hit that home run and get the team even more excited,” McKeown said.

McCallum made it 5-0 as she started the fifth inning with a solo shot over the fence in left center.