Lansdale Catholic scores 8 in 5th to wrap up rain-suspended District 12-AAA final
CHELTENHAM — It’s an odd feeling, clinching the District 12-AAA title in just one inning, but that’s what the Lansdale Catholic softball team did as it finished out its rain-suspended matchup against Frankford Thursday afternoon, beating the Philadelphia Public League side 14-0 at Arcadia University.
Wednesday, LC jumped out to a 6-0 lead behind a strong pitching performance from their ace, Shannon Hill and some timely hitting. Unfortunately for the Crusaders, the skies opened up at the start of the fifth inning and it started to storm, forcing the umpire to delay the end of the game a day.
Thursday Lansdale Catholic came ready to play, especially on the offensive side. LC scored eight runs in the top of the fifth and after a strong inning of pitching from Hill, the game was over on the ten run rule.
Some teams might have found it a little difficult to get up for a game after having already played over half of it the day before, but they came out today hotter than the day before.
“I don’t think it was hard to get prepared.’ Hill said. “It ended up being just one inning the only difference was it was hotter. We had a little break and we got it into our heads that we needed to come out and do well.’
Before the rain delay, It looked like the Crusaders were thrown off by the slow pitching style of Frankford’s starting pitching, but they were more than up to the task when play resumed.
“We had a talk coming back and we were very disappointed in our swings yesterday,’ Lansdale Catholic coach Paul Suder said. “It wasn’t even so much the speed of the pitcher as it was our approach to hitting. Yesterday we took a lot of first pitch strikes and then we were swinging at balls that were either low or up.
“It’s my opinion that she (The opposing pitcher) struggles to hit the zone, it’s not like facing someone who is painting the corners, when you get that pitch it may be the only one you get so you need to be ready and prepared and that’s basically what we told them today.’
Next for the Crusaders is trip to the PIAA Tournament for the second straight season. LC takes on the District 1 runner-up Chichester — which fell 1-0 to Villa Maria in the district final Thursday at Strath Haven — in the first round of states Monday at a site and time to be announced.
Suder knows that they will have to get ready to face much better pitching at the next level.
“Obviously the pitching is going to be different in the next round we play,’ he said. “So that’s the way we’re going to approach it we’re going to have to turn it up a notch. We have to bring them in and get as many swings as they can tomorrow and work on our defense.’
Maggie Wunder started the scoring for LC in this one. She smacked an RBI double over the left fielder’s head that brought in a run, something her coach has come to expect from the sophomore second baseman.
“She (Wunder) has been big all year,’ Suder said. “In our opinion she’s been one of our start players and as just a sophomore she’s come a long way. Team leader as a sophomore, outstanding defense, lead-off batter, that’s a lot for a sophomore to handle and she’s a battler 100 percent, great future ahead of her.’
A two-RBI single from Alessandra Messina and a run-scoring double from Kaelyn Motts later and Lansdale Catholic was already well on its way to a District 12 title.
Hill shut the door in the bottom of the inning, striking out a batter to finish the game with nine strikeouts and no runs surrendered.
“Yeah I felt good,’ Hill said. “I just go out and kind of throw whatever the coaches tell me. I just trust them and do whatever they tell me and try and throw strikes.’
