Bats come alive for North Penn in win over William Tennent

TOWAMENCIN >> Bri Battavio fired away, pitching a one-two-three seventh inning to cap off a day in which the North Penn offense bloomed rather nicely.

“Beautiful day, happy to play some softball,” Battavio said.

Under welcomed sunny skies, the Knights racked up 10 hits — including two by Battavio and a go-ahead, two-out single by Jordan Pietrzykoski in the fourth — to pull away from William Tennent, 5-2, in a Suburban One League Continental Conference contest at North Penn Monday.

“We’re feeling great,” Battavio said of the win, which raised the Knights’ record to 2-2. “Our first two losses, they were tough losses, to some good teams too. So I think this win will help build our confidence back to where it was after our first few scrimmages.”

With two outs in the third, a hard-hit chopper by Battavio hugged the left-field line and allowed her to stride into second with a double, scoring Victoria Juckniewitz to put NP in front for the first time, 2-1.

“I just knew that I had to hit my pitch,” Battavio said of her second at-bat of the afternoon against Panthers right hander Katie Clark.

Tennent came right back, as Brianna Koonce belted a solo home run to left, tying things up at 2-2 in the fourth.

But North Penn, getting hits everywhere (from eight different players) and often (in every inning but the sixth), again pulled ahead when Amanda Greaney lined a shot to the gap in left center then raced home on Pietrzykoski’s two-out single to left.

“That was huge,” Knights coach Rick Torresani said, “and then we just added on.”

The next inning, North Penn increased its lead to 5-2 on an RBI single by Elia Namey and a sac fly to center by Amanda Greaney.

The defense kept the margin at three.

In Tennent’s sixth, Greaney, a freshman catcher for NP, threw out Koonce in a steal attempt and — following a double by Emily Curtis — put the tag on Devon Fithian at the plate, the Knights doing a tremendous job of relaying it home.

Battavio went back to work on the mound, shutting things down.

“We were throwing a lot of drop curves and just locating fastballs in and out,” the right hander said. “We threw some change-ups in there but we were just trying to locate the pitches — a lot of in-out.”

Battavio struck out Taylor Cutillo and Maddie Tryon before getting Caitlin Mitros to pop out for a quick and efficient seventh inning.

“It was a great inning for that,” said Battavio, who struck out five in the win.

Early on, Tennent took a 1-0 lead in the first when Caitlin Mitros drew a walk then later scored on a sac fly by Koonce, but North Penn tied it up in the bottom half, with Emily Groarke ripping a single up the middle then later scoring on a groundout by Elia Namey.

The Knights didn’t trail the rest of the way.

“We hadn’t played in a week and a half,” Torresani said, “so I didn’t know what to expect. The defense played great and we got timely hitting, and that’s what you need to do.”

Tennent is at Neshaminy Tuesday and North Penn is at Quakertown on Wednesday.