O’Hara’s last hope falls into a Ryan glove

CHELTENHAM >> Lexie Cervella stood in the batter’s box representing the winning run in the Catholic League championship game Wednesday at Arcadia University.

The Cardinal O’Hara senior is the team’s cleanup hitter. She had the walkoff hit in the semifinals Monday, in extra innings, to push O’Hara into the league final for the first time in program history.

It was the seventh inning, with two outs, and the Lions were down a pair runs. Annemarie Banes occupied first base after a ringing single. Maura Kane

stood on third after getting on base with a single earlier in the frame.

Cervella, a power source in the O’Hara lineup, was a perfect candidate to send one deep into the alley somewhere. Instead, the senior first baseman lofted a shallow fly ball to center field. Off the bat, it looked as though the ball would drop in for a hit.

Archbishop Ryan center fielder Vicki Black had other ideas.

Black got a good read off the bat and came charging in to make a sliding catch for the third out. It was official: the Ragdolls captured their third straight Catholic League championship with a 4-2 win.

The Lions, who earned the No. 1 seed in the playoffs in part because they defeated Ryan in the regular season, would go home empty handed. Perhaps more disappointing is the bogus truth that the Lions won’t qualify for the PIAA Class AAAA tournament, since District 12 takes only two teams, the Catholic League and Public League champions.

“We really put it together this year,” said pitcher Mary Pat Brough, who battled for seven innings, allowing four runs and six hits with two strikeouts. She’ll continue her education at James Madison in the fall.

“We got it together and became really good friends. I think that was one of the most important things of the season because friendship really makes a team great.”

Kane, fighting tears, was adamant about her team pride.

“We never gave up one game this season. We deserved it more than any other team in the league,” said the junior third baseman, who put together four excellent at-bats and reached base three times. “With all the extra-innings games, we’ve played more innings than any team in the league, easily. I guess it all has to come to an end sometime, I just didn’t want to lose like that.”

FINAL: Archbishop Ryan 4, Cardinal O'Hara 2 for the Catholic Lague title thanks to this great catch in CF. pic.twitter.com/Qjr84iEzzU

— Matt Smith (@DTMattSmith) May 25, 2016

That was an incredible catch by an athletic center fielder, a flex player who didn’t come to bat until a pinch-hit appearance in the sixth inning. Black’s most valuable asset was on display in the most opportune moment.

“I was kind of like … it’s got to be caught, it’s got to be caught,” Black said. “And I didn’t know how low it was. I saw it dropping and I heard (left fielder) Kate (Ostaszewski) screaming, ‘You gotta dive!’ I mean … it was just heart-racing.”

Black said the Ragdolls were looking forward to meeting the Lions again. Earlier this year, O’Hara snapped Ryan’s 33-game winning streak in Catholic League play.

“I don’t think that loss sat with us that much because we knew we definitely should have won the game,” Black said. “I just think that we knew we were going to see them again and that we were out for it. Luckily, we saw them here.”

Ryan cracked the scoreboard with two runs in the top of the first. The Lions were jittery at the start and it showed in the field. Ostaszewski belted an RBI triple and second baseman Izzy Hoch hit a sacrifice fly that was dropped in left field for Ryan’s second run.

“I felt a little pressure, but I realized that I still had my team behind me and I had to give it my all no matter what,” Brough said.

The Lions quickly answered in the bottom of the first when Banes ripped a double down the left-field line, scoring Kane from second base. Ryan tacked on two runs in the third when Reilly Kerr lined one up the middle — barely missing the glove of Brough — for a two-RBI single.

O’Hara had a prime opportunity to plate runs when it loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth, but a baserunning blunder yielded an inning-ending double play for Ryan.

The Lions had their chances against Ryan pitcher Alexa Marasheski, who scattered seven hits and three walks while striking out three. O’Hara worked many good ABs against her — Kane had an epic nine-pitch battle in the fifth — but left eight runners stranded. If anything, the left-on-base stat is what doomed O’Hara.

The Lions kicked up a fuss in the sixth when Banes and Cervella led off with singles. With one out, Breanna Hickey drilled a single to center, scoring Banes. Alas, Brough grounded out to third and pinch hitter Danielle Bradley struck out to end the threat.

“It’s really disappointing,” Kane said. “I think we showed the most heart of any team out there. It stinks that it didn’t work out.”