Villa Joseph Marie reverses trend against Gwynedd Mercy to win District 1-4A title

LOWER GWYNEDD >> Villa Joseph Marie’s pregame talk followed some pretty sound logic.

To go somewhere they hadn’t been, namely the PIAA softball tournament, the Jems had to do something they hadn’t been able to do this season, namely beat Gwynedd Mercy Academy. The Monarchs had won two tight games over VJM in the regular season, but the stakes were different when the No. 2 Jems visited No. 1 GMA on Thursday.

Following their logic, the Jems are going to states after beating the Monarchs 5-2 to capture the District 1-4A softball title.

“Our coaches said if you want to win something you’ve never won before, you have to go do something you’ve never done before,” Jems second baseman Ava Tsiouplis said. “I think we definitely took that into account and knew we had to do whatever it took so we’re really happy to come out on top.”

Tsiouplis had the play of the day when she hustled out a two-run inside-the-park home run in the top of the fifth inning but even from the first pitch, the visiting bench was loud, lively and locked in. That was of utmost usefulness to pitcher Jill Evans, who befuddled Gwynedd Mercy Academy’s pitchers without being overpowering.

Evans, a junior righty, did strike out five but it was her ability to get batters to chase or swing into pop-ups or ground balls that kept the Monarchs mostly off balance. The VJM pitcher, who never trailed, thanked her teammates for keeping confidence in her and giving her an early run in support.

“I was throwing screwball pretty much every other pitch and it seemed to be working well,” Evans said. “More than that, everybody was just confident today. This team was just ready.”

Villa Joseph Marie took advantage of an uncharacteristically off start by GMA ace Maddie Seidel. The Monarchs’ junior right-hander walked the first two batters of the game then gave up a one-out single to load the bags before she walked in a run when Abby Evans drew a free pass.

Seidel, a co-captain on the team, had some props for her defense’s work behind her Thursday with GMA coming up with a few key plays that prevented more damage. While it was Gwynedd Mercy Academy’s second straight District 1 final, falling to Nazareth Academy in 2019, for five of the team’s starters, it was a new experience.

Even with strong fan support, it took a while for GMA to find its energy while the Jems were amped up from the first pitch.

“I think we were all a little nervous, a lot of these girls had never been in this situation in a high-pressure game like this,” Seidel said. “We had a great turnout of fans, which we’re thankful for, but that may not have helped calm their nerves. Emotions get in the way too, you want to win for the seniors and the coaches and everybody who came before us.”

The loss ends Gwynedd Mercy Academy’s season but doesn’t take away from what the Monarchs accomplished this spring. With three sophomores and two freshmen in the starting lineup, GMA won its first-ever AACA title and got back to the district title game with six of its nine starters projected to return.

Senior co-captains Carly Andrews, Lauren Solvensky and Jorden White, along with Seidel, helped bring the team together after a shaky start and went 11-1 in AACA play. The three seniors and Seidel spent a few extra minutes by themselves in the outfield after the final team huddle before walking back to the bench together.

“There were a lot of emotions, we didn’t want to walk in here a mess,” Seidel said. “We’ve played together for four years, this has been their school for four years and I wanted to win it for them as much as anyone else.”

Despite putting two runners on in the second and third innings, the Jems were hanging onto a 1-0 lead heading into the fifth. That would soon change thanks to a big spark from their speedy sophomore second baseman. Maria Goodman led off with a single, then had to go for a run as Tsiouplis flared a ball to left field that ended up breaking VJM’s way.

Tsiouplis figured she had at least a hit barring a spectacular play but when a GMA outfielder dove for the catch, the ball slipped by and rolled to the fence and it was a footrace from there.

“I was just thinking ‘run,'” Tsiouplis said. “My coaches and everyone in the dugout started getting super-hyped so I knew I had to go for it. I was really happy I was able to get all the way home, it felt like a really good moment for that and fired us up.”

Gordon was running too but Tsiouplis started to gain ground as she rounded third and the relay throw made its way in.

“I wasn’t worried (about passing Gordon), Maria is fast so I knew she was good,” Tsiouplis said.

The sophomore slid in just ahead of the ball arriving, staking VJM to a 3-1 lead as the eventual winning run and the Jems would tack on an insurance run in each of the next two innings.

“I think it was pretty big, but I have to credit my teammates for helping bring up the energy,” Tsiouplis said. “The energy came up after that, we kept putting up runs and worked together as a team. We knew we were playing a good team and had to put in 110 percent or else we weren’t going to win, I think we did that and we worked all season for this.”

White, who played great defense at first base that included an unassisted double play to end the top of the second, went out battling for the Monarchs. The senior first baseman led off the bottom of the fifth with a double, but her pinch-runner got thrown out at home when VJM’s defense recovered quickly on an errant throw to quell Gwynedd Mercy’s Academy’s momentum.

An inning later, White doubled again and this time gave her team something more to cheer when the ball rolled to the base of the fence allowing two runs to score and cut the VJM lead to 4-2.

Evans got out of the inning without any more damage and said she didn’t lose any confidence in her ability to get outs going into the seventh inning.”

“If we wanted to do something we hadn’t done before, we knew we needed to do something different and that was the mindset we came out with,” Evan said. “We stayed really, really confident in ourselves and that’s what got us through.”

Seidel will be the Monarchs’ leader next year, a role she’s looking forward to but the junior is also eager to see which underclassmen come back ready to step up next to her. Her message to the returning players was to let Thursday’s second place finish light a fire of motivation they can then share with the new players stepping into starting roles or coming into the program.

Sometimes, the hardest part isn’t getting to a title game but actually winning it. The Monarchs have tasted defeat in two tries, so Seidel wants another shot at winning something she’s never won before by going and doing something she’s never done before.

“We have to learn not to get caught up in the fact it’s a championship game,” Seidel said. “There’s always a next step. You play a whole season, you work so hard so you can’t forget all the work you did to get here so you just keep playing through it.”

Needing three outs to seal the deal, Evans went right back to work. She handled a grounder for the first out of the seventh, got a spectacular diving grab by Gordon at third on a liner for the second and got a ground ball to short that Becca Minnichbach fired to first in time to end the game and send the Jems mobbing to the pitching circle.

“It was the same way the game ended in the semifinals Tuesday, so I knew she had it all the way,” Evans said. “This has been the goal all season, we said right away we wanted to go to states and we knew this was the team to do it with so we were feeling really great at the end.”

VILLA JOSEPH MARIE 5, GWYNEDD MERCY 2
VILLA JOSEPH MARIE 1oo o21 1 – 5 10 0
GWYNEDD MERCY 000 002 0 – 2 5 0
HR: VJM – Ava Tsiouplis. 2B: VJM – Allie Byrne, Becca Minnichbach; GMA – Jorden White (2), Maddie Seidel.