North Penn scores 6 in 5th to win suspended District 1-6A 2nd round game against Owen J. Roberts
TOWAMENCIN >> The North Penn softball team quickly wrapped up a District 1-6A second-round win over Owen J. Roberts after their contest resumed Thursday afternoon.
The second-seeded Knights scored six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning – Julia Shearer’s three-RBI double followed two batters later by Annabelle Smink’s walk-off single for a 10-0 victory over the visiting No. 15 Wildcats.
“I think I had a 1-1 count so that’s my count,” Smink said. “And then I was just trying to find my pitch and then drive it.”
The contest was halted after the top of the fourth Wednesday with North Penn leading 4-0 after thunderstorms rolled through the area.
The win advances the Knights (20-1) to their fourth straight District 1 quarterfinals with NP hosting No. 7 Haverford 4 p.m. Thursday. Haverford edged No. 23 Bensalem 2-1 Wednesday.
North Penn and the Fords met in the regular season April 24 with the Knights earning a 4-1 home win.
“We had our energy up and then now we have to just keep that going ‘til the next game,” Smink said.
Owen J. Roberts ends its season at 12-7, the Wildcats claiming their first district victory since 2017 in Mondays’ 5-1 first-round win over Truman.
“I told the girls to hold their heads high, they had a great season,” OJR coach Stacey Kushner said. “We had so many injuries and illnesses that we overcame a lot. And to not only host the first round, to make it here, it’s something of an accomplishment.”
Smink collected a two-out single in the bottom of the fourth but OJR’s Natalie Alldred struck out the next batter. North Penn’s Mady Volpe finished a 1-2-3 top of the fifth with consecutive strikeouts.
Bri Wilmot and Gianna Cimino began the bottom of the fifth with back-to-back singles. Carley DiGiuseppe’s bid for a three-run homer to left was just foul but the senior Bloomfield commit drew a walk to loaded the bases. The next at-bat, Sophia Collins dropped a single into left center, scoring Wilmot for a 5-0 lead.
Rachel Lowry’s RBI bunt single brought in Cimino while Shearer cleared the basepaths by ripping a double into right center to have North Penn leading 9-0.
After a pop out to first, Smink enacted the 10-run rule with her single to center plating Shearer while an error put Smink on second.
“They definitely threw a curveball at us – or the weather did,” Kushner said. “Being here, we got home around 8:30 (p.m. Wednesday), I think, to the school but you can’t blame that on how we played today. We were out here yesterday, they basically had four unearned runs and today they hit the ball. There was nothing that we could really do.”
Wednesday, North Penn took a 3- 0 lead in the bottom of the third – the first two on Sarah Sabocsik’s two-RBI single with another scoring as Smink reached on an error. Cimino made it 4-0 in the third with an RBI double.
