Upper Merion climbs Mount St. Joseph for District 1-5A victory

SPRINGFIELD >> In the first round of the District 1-5A playoffs, the 10th-seeded Upper Merion High School softball team cruised to a 12-0 mercy rule victory over seventh-seeded Mount St. Joseph Academy.

With the victory, Upper Merion junior Kayla Warren earned her first playoff victory on the mound thus sending the Vikings to the quarterfinals.

“It feels great to win in the postseason,” said Warren. “I know everyone here wants to win after working so hard during the regular season.”

“We knew that as soon as we left the bus it was game time. We just all came together as a team and came away with the win.”

Warren threw five complete innings while only letting go three hits. She also performed well on the plate going 4-for-4 with three RBIs.

The game was kept close for most of the game at 2-0 until the Vikings scored 10 runs in the top of the fifth inning to seal the upset win and move on to the second round.

Upper Merion head coach Missy Toto was thrilled for her team getting the big first-round victory.

“We finished the regular season really well with the bats and pitching,” said Toto. “We wanted to bring that into the postseason and we knew Mount St. Joes was a really great team.”

“If we continued what we have been doing the last couple weeks, we knew we would give them a good game.”

As for Mount St. Joseph, its season comes to an end after not scoring any runs and only earning three hits against the Vikings.

Mount St. Joseph head coach Mike Leinheiser wasn’t too upset of the loss despite letting go 10 runs in the fifth inning.

“The wheels just fell off in the last inning,” said Leinheiser. “A couple balls were hit hard and some not so much and there’s nothing we can do about that.”

Upper Merion will now focus on the quarterfinals where the Vikings will visit No. 2 seed Bishop Shanahan on Wednesday.