Spencer, Marple Newtown hang on to beat Chichester

NEWTOWN SQUARE >> The ball sailed off the bat of Chichester’s Sam Falcone and into center field, where Marple Newtown’s Caitlyn Spencer waited with bated breath. It would be a catch Spencer has made a hundred times before, and she is, by coach Mike Snow’s account, one of the Tigers’ most surehanded defensive players, even when the pressure is on.

She took a few steps to her left, stood under the ball and tracked its path. Then Spencer squeezed her glove with two hands for the third out of the seventh inning as Marple Newtown held on for a 5-4 victory.

“I was scared, but knew I could get it,” said Spencer, who was 1 for 3 with a run scored. “There’s a lot of pressure, but I knew I had it.”

In the span of a week, a young and rebuilding Tigers (5-11) team notched its second victory over a club with District One playoffs aspirations. Last

week, it was Penncrest (9-7) and Thursday Chichester (8-4), which won a state tournament game last spring.

The Tigers are having fun playing the role of spoiler.

“It feels good because we know that we’re capable, but our record doesn’t show it,” said Spencer, a senior heading to Widener. “To get those wins, it’s big for us.”

Sophomore Ceire Devlin-Mohan worked two innings in relief of starter Nicole Atkins, who allowed five hits and two earned runs with three strikeouts. A pair of errors in the seventh gave Chichester life. But with the bases loaded, and two runs already across, Devlin-Mohan kept her cool in the circle.

“It was nerve-wracking,” she said. “I knew if (Chi took the lead) we would have had to make a big comeback.”

Devlin-Mohan and Atkins had to navigate through the meat of Chichester’s order, which includes three-hole batter Nicole O’Donnell and cleanup hitter Hayley Coale.

“For the three and four hitters, we wanted to keep the ball away and out of their zones,” Devlin-Mohan said. “We wanted to jam them up, so we threw them mainly curves and screwballs and a few drops here and there.”

Coale had the best day at the plate, going 3 for 4 with two doubles and three RBIs. O’Donnell hit a rocket to the fence in left field for a single in the first-inning, and Coale followed with a run-scoring double over the glove of left fielder Ally DeFruscio.

After Chichester took a 2-0 lead in the first inning, Marple struck back with three in the third, highlighted by four straight singles by the top of the lineup from Sarah Meier, Spencer, Liz Conca and Paige Benasutti, who plated two with a bloop hit to right field. Benasutti had two hits, two RBIs and a run scored on the afternoon.

In the fifth, the Tigers tacked on two insurance runs that proved to be difference. Pinch-runner Megan MacNeal and Atkins executed a double steal and Brianna Clark knocked them in with a single to make it 5-2.

Chichester rallied in the seventh. Alex Maher got things started with a single and moved to second on Rhianna Snyder’s sacrifice bunt. O’Donnell reached base on a throwing error to set up a first-and-third situation with one down. Coale singled up the middle to bring home two runs and Janay Harris followed with a walk. With runners at first and second, speedy centerfielder Monigo Karnley dropped down her third bunt single of the game to loaded the bases. Coale was then thrown out at the plate on a fielder’s choice and Falcone flew out to Spencer in center to end the game.

Based on their slow start to 2016, the Tigers are unlikely to qualify for the District One Class AAA playoffs, which get started in two weeks. But the future is bright for Snow’s up-and-coming team.

“It was one of our (biggest wins). This and the one against Penncrest, because at that point we didn’t have one clutch hit that ended up in a victory,” Snow said. “We’re building on it, and with our record being what it is, we have a lot of girls out there right now who are learning for next year.”