DiBricida dances out of danger to toss complete game in PJP’s 3-2 PIAA 4A first round win

ROYERSFORD >> With her Pope John Paul II softball team clinging to a one-run lead in the final inning of the uncharted waters of the state playoffs, Lexi DiBricida found herself facing a second and third, no-out jam.

In other words, the sophomore pitcher had the opposition exactly where she wanted them.

DiBricida wiggled her way out of five such second-and-third pickles in Monday’s 3-2 victory over Kennard-Dale in a PIAA 4A first round matchup at Spring-Ford in a true bend-but-don’t-break performance. She surrendered 10 hits and endured traffic on the base paths all day, but when she needed big outs, DiBricida buckled down whenever the pressure ratcheted up.

As a result, the Golden Panthers, who recently captured their first district title since 2011, are on to the state quarterfinals to face District 11 champ and reigning state champion Blue Mountain on Thursday. Not too shabby for a team that won just six games and missed the postseason entirely a year ago, one that now is up to 15 victories in 2024 on the shoulders of their star starting pitcher whose heartbeat slows to a halt in situations in which her hair should be on fire.

“People usually say that I’m a calm person,” DiBricida said after the win. “Sometimes it can get a little nerve-wracking, so I just listen to my coach who calls the pitches and my catcher Charlie (Hallman), and usually it works. I just try to pump strikes and trust my defense to make the plays I need them to.”

PJP entered the top of the seventh with a 3-1 lead, only for District 3 runner-up Kennard-Dale to greet DiBricida with three straight singles to open the inning, scoring a run and leaving two runners in scoring position with nobody out. She responded by striking out Riley Fram for the first out, followed by a pop out to first base. With the Rams (17-6) down to their final out, DiBricida induced a game-ending grounder to short, which Molly Houchins handled dutifully.

“Winning this game is a big step up from last year when we didn’t make playoffs,” DiBricida said. “It helps our confidence, and if we can keep that confidence then we think we’ll be able to keep going. Last year we all felt like we couldn’t really do it, but now we know that we can.”

After falling behind 1-0 in the second inning, DiBricida didn’t have to wait long for her offense to pick her back up. Nine-hole hitter Grace Fitzgerald led off the bottom of the third with a double and scored the tying run two batters later on Rylee Derecola’s RBI triple to center. Houchins singled Derecola home in the next at-bat, and the Golden Panthers (15-8) tacked on a critical insurance run in the fifth when leadoff hitter Abby Simmers reached on a two-base error and later stole home in what turned out to be the game-deciding run.

DiBricida ended up stranding two runners in scoring position in the second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings, a carryover from stranding the tying run at third base with one out in the seventh inning in PJP’s 5-4 district championship win over Upper Perkiomen on May 23. She yielded two runs on 10 hits against Kennard-Dale while striking out four and walking three.

“I came out to the mound in the district championship game with the tying run on third and the whole team looked anxious,” first-year head coach Steve Faella said. “Everybody but Lexi, who you wouldn’t know if she was scared, stressed or ready for a nap. She handles pressure with no problem. We have all the confidence in the world in that whatever situation she may get herself into, she’ll find a way out of it. We should probably start calling her Houdini the way she gets herself out of all of this stuff. She was amazing today. That was a gutsy performance.”

Faella said the plan going into the season was for DiBricida to share pitching duties with the more experienced Abigaile Millhouse, one that was derailed when an injury prevented Millhouse from pitching, sending her over to third base instead. As a result, DiBricida has had to shoulder PJP’s entire pitching load as a sophomore, and she’s responded by pitching the team to within three wins of a state championship.

“I’m so proud of that kid,” Faella said. “She’s by far exceeded the expectations of what we were hoping for. We were hoping at the beginning of the year she could keep us in games and our bats would win them, and now we’re winning games because of Lexi. She’s a heck of a pitcher, man, and she usually gets better as the game goes on. If you don’t get to her early, she gets locked in and starts pumping strikes in there. It’s taught her she can have confidence in herself to go seven innings against these great teams.”

Both DiBricida and Faella said there was no secret sauce to the program’s stunning turnaround. The culture and vibes simply got better, and a previously untapped belief now simmers to life in every game, even if the team finds itself down or on the ropes.

“Last year I feel like there wasn’t a great vibe and a lot of us felt like we couldn’t really do it,” DiBricida said. “Coach Steve has made everything a lot better, and when we get down in a game we never lose confidence. Coach Steve keeps saying ‘Why not us? Why can’t we keep winning?’ A lot of people probably thought we wouldn’t make it this far, but right now we have a lot of belief.”

As for his part in all of this, Faella demurred, as good coaches tend to do. He placed all the credit with his players and is simply overjoyed to experience at least a few more days with a team that has far outperformed expectations.

“I just tried to come in and be positive,” he said. “I wanted to make them believe they were good players, to believe in themselves and that magic can happen when teams come together. It’s all about them. Players win games and turn programs around. I just try to make them realize they’re better than who they think they are. When players know that somebody believes in them, they rise to the occasion.

“They’re a hell of a bunch of kids, and I love them.  Playing with house money is exactly how we describe it. We just want to keep playing as much as we can. We’ve already won, so anything we do from here is just gravy, whipped cream and the cherry on top.”

Pope John Paul II 3, Kennard-Dale 2

Kennard-Dale      0 1 0 0 0 0 1 – 2
Pope John Paul   0 0 2 0 1 0 x – 3

WP: Lexi DiBricida- 7IP, 10H, 2ER, 3BB, 4K
LP: Taryn Ashenfelter- 6IP, 4H, 3R (2ER), 2BB, 8K
2B: PJP- Grace Fitzgerald; KD- Addie Argiro, Taylor Rinaudo
3B: PJP- Rylee Derecola