Volpe’s pitching backs up North Penn hustle in win over Hatboro-Horsham

HATBORO >> As she fired her warm-up pitches Friday night, Hatboro-Horsham pitcher Mikayla Fedele had four sets of eyes locked on her.

Standing in a row down the first base line were the first four hitters of the North Penn batting lineup and all four were taking practice swings in sync with Fedele’s pitches. It was a non-conference game, but for the Knights, it might as well have been a do-or-die postseason game.

North Penn’s focus has turned to playoff level and the Knights showed it in a 7-2 win over the Hatters at the Hatboro Little League facility on Friday.

“They’ve been in playoff mode for a while and that’s them,” Knights coach Rick Torresani said. “They want to be in that mode. Before games, they’re quiet, some of them lay down and they just visualize what they have to do and they’re taking it to heart.”

The hitters lining up prior to the first pitch is something the Knights (13-3, 7-2 SOL Continental) picked up from assistant coach Mary Ward but Torresani said it’s a sign of his team’s focus that the Knights take it seriously. North Penn had nine hits on Friday, but did most of its damage by taking advantage of an uncharacteristically sloppy Hatboro-Horsham team.

Hatboro-Horsham (13-2, 11-0 SOL American) scored in the bottom of the first when Kyleigh Dinnien took advantage of a North Penn error, but that was the only run the Hatters would get until the sixth inning when they trailed 6-1. Fielding did the Hatters in, with eight errors more than adding up in the loss.

“It happens, it’s Senior Night, emotions are running, we don’t play like that,” Hatters coach Joe DiFilippo said. “We gave up five runs in one inning, all on errors, it gets to you. We’re trying to come back and playing from behind when it’s 3-2 is a lot easier than when it’s 7-2.”

The game pitted two teams near the top of the District 1-6A power rankings with the Knights sitting at No. 3 and the Hatters at No. 4. With two hot-hitting lineups set to battle, North Penn was looking forward to the challenge as a way to close out a good week.

“We were so amped, the whole bus ride over we were saying we had to put runs on and put them on early,” Knights second baseman Jordan Pietrzykoski said. “We’re playing every game like it could be our last, laying out for every ball and never giving up.”

The Knights’ five-run third inning started on a hustle play when Victoria Juckniewitz hustled out an infield single. Elia Namey also beat out an infield hit on a close play at first while Courtney Neal had a key two-out RBI single and Paige Paciolla doubled in a run.

Paciolla continued her recent tear with two hits, both driving in a run. Emily Groarke had two hits and made a nice charging play on a fly ball in right field, firing to Namey after the catch for the game-ending double play.

“We just try to go up there and hit the ball hard whether it’s ground balls or line drives,” Pietrzykoski said. “If it doesn’t happen, we know the batter behind us will pick us up.”

ENER-JORDAN-IZER

A cloud of dirt enveloped Jordan Pietrzykoski as the North Penn second baseman tried to shake a copious amount of infield out of her uniform after scoring a third inning run.

She got a lot, but not all, of the dirt and finished the game still coated in a fine layer of infield medley. While putting on a really good impression of the character Pigpen from the Peanuts comic strips, the junior wondered just how she had gotten that dirty.

“That’s a great question,” Pietrzykoski said. “I slid into home and I guess all that powder and dirt got clung into my uniform.”

The junior infielder was all over the place through the first three innings of Friday’s game and her infectious hustle and energy played a big part in North Penn’s rally. She scored the game-tying run in the second inning by running hard on a grounder and again after it turned into an error then celebrated emphatically behind the plate.

An inning later, she scored on Courtney Neal’s RBI single, again hitting home plate in a veil of dirt. Whether it’s the hustle on the base paths or her near-constant chatter on the field defensively, Pietrzykoski does not go unnoticed for the Knights.

“Well, that’s Jordan,” Torresani said. “She’s a really good player and really into every pitch. She’ll come up to me and say ‘don’t worry, Coach, we’ve got this.’ She helps calm me down.”

Told that she would fit the bill as the quintessential player everyone wants as a teammate but is absolutely irritating to play against, Pietrzykoski cracked up laughing, then heartily agreed.

“Coach Torresani always tells me to be loud, be exciting,” Pietrzykoski said as her pitcher stifled a laugh. “It hypes up the rest of the team, I think it’s contagious.”

“She always picks me up and has my back,” Volpe then added.

GROWING UP FAST

Volpe knew it after just one game during the team’s preseason trip to Myrtle Beach.

“After the first game of the season I knew this was the team I wanted to be on,” Volpe said. “Everyone has great energy and it’s all positive.”

The freshman right-hander has been solid all season for the Knights but had an especially good night on Friday in holding a very potent offense to just two runs. It was also a gritty effort, as Torresani said the freshman threw nearly 130 pitches against the Hatters’ relentless hitters.

“She was able to mix her pitches really well,” Torresani said. “Her rise ball was really working, not for a strike, but to give them another eye level. Her changeup came in when we threw it, her pitches were just right there.”

Volpe was excited for the challenge of pitching against the Hatters, especially with the game taking place under the lights.

“I tried to get ahead in counts and stay ahead as much as I could,” Volpe, who struck out seven against four walks, said. “I knew my defense was so good behind me, they’re always sharp behind me.”

Torresani said while the freshman faced a lot of 2-2 and 3-2 counts, he told her it was OK to throw some pitches outside the strike zone. If she were to just pump pitches down the middle, hitters would eventually figure it out.

Once she had the lead, Volpe went to work keeping the Hatters from getting back into the game. She gave up back-to-back doubles in the sixth inning but after a quick meeting with Torresani and her infield, Volpe found a second wind and got two straight outs to finish the frame.

“For a ninth grader, she’s really good and she’s only going to learn with time,” DiFilippo said. “She did a very nice job.”

NORTH PENN 015 000 1 – 7 9 1

HATBORO-HORSHAM 100 001 0 – 2 5 8

2B: NP – Paige Paciolla; HH – Maddy Yeager (2), Britt Hubler, Kyleigh Dinnien. Multiple hits: NP – Paige Paciolla 2-4, Emily Groarke 2-4; HH – Maddy Yeager 2-3