Spirit, unity defined Lansdale Catholic’s 2014 season

Lansdale Catholic softball coach Paul Suder wasn’t surprised the Crusaders’ 2014 team pulled it off.

The champion of the Reporter/Times Herald/Montgomery Media Team of the Decade bracket, the 2014 Crusaders may have made history as the first team in program history to reach the state semifinals, but that wasn’t why Suder had faith in them. Instead, it was the list of reasons why LC went on that run that spring in the first place.

From coaches to parents but most importantly the players, the 2014 Crusaders were in it together.

“The big thing about that team was, and they showed during this bracket, they were so together,” Suder said. “We had good senior leadership on that team to where every one of those seniors could have been captains. There was little my assistant Frank Ross and I had to do to keep that team in line because the seniors took care of everything.”

Lansdale Catholic entered the 16-team field as the No. 7 seed and after a comfortable first round win, eked out the next three rounds by four percentage points or less in the reader voting. They needed a huge rally in the semifinals to erase an eight percentage point deficit against No. 3 North Penn (2013) and a late surge broke a tie over the final three hours of voting in the final against No. 4 Spring-Ford (2019) for a 51-49 win.

The squad’s six seniors – Kristin Szczpaniak, Alyssa Messina, Alicia Kradzinski, Greta Sheridan, Bridgette Harkins and Jenna Gibbons – were freshmen when LC won a PCL title in 2011. In 2014, it was their turn to put a stamp on the program and it was a goal they were serious about.

“They set a precedent right from the start and they all just followed it,” Suder said. “They were together so long, a lot of those girls even played together in grade school and they, right from the get-go, saw what it took and the kind of work you had to put in and how you needed a few breaks along the way.”

Suder lauded the team’s maturity and attention to detail, saying when there were days certain aspects needed extra work at practice, the players were locked in until the session was over. At the same time, they kept things fun and loose when needed.

While the seniors were the leaders, the Crusaders also relied on some underclassmen in key spots on the diamond. The battery of pitcher Ashley Seal and catcher Alessandra Messina were both sophomores, but they were ingrained as much as any of the six seniors.

“They were just so full of spirit the whole year, it doesn’t surprise me they won,” Suder said. “It was one of the rare years at LC where you could afford to play the girls at their best positions. A lot of times you have to take a good athlete and move them to another position but that year, we had everybody playing in the right spot.”

Again, the seniors set the tone. Sheridan and Szczepaniak were the top two hitters in terms of average and production but they were also cornerstone defenders in the outfield. Amanda Bradley, the junior shortstop, had a good bat but wasn’t overtaxed offensively and therefore thrived defensively.

Alyssa Messina at third and Kradzinski at first controlled the infield corners and Harkins roved around second base. Seal pitched like an upperclassman, winning 13 games with a 2.05 ERA while Alessandra Messina not only had double-digit hits and RBI, she controlled the bases with her arm behind the plate.

Suder’s been at LC long enough he joked he probably played against every other team that was in the 16-team field but in 2014, the Crusaders’ strong schedule played a part in their 20-6 record and deep playoff run.

“We played North Penn, we played Hatboro-Horsham, we played Gwynedd, the Mount, just a lot of really good nonleague teams,” Suder said. “That year, the PCL was very good, (Archbishop) Ryan had a fantastic team so throughout the year the competition was really good.”

While the team was performing on the field, it was also getting plenty of support off of it and that was a key factor as well.

“Not only were they really good players but I can’t overstate this enough, they were really good kids,” Suder said. “They enjoyed being with each other and enjoyed practicing. It was also a great group of parents and if you asked anything of them, it would get done. It was a whole group and you could see where the kids it was from their parents.”

They may not be in the same league anymore, but Suder wasn’t surprised to see a former PAC rival in Spring-Ford on the other side of the final either.

“I knew we had a chance because of the spirit of our team,” Suder said. “It was a parent-coach-team effort that made that year so special.”