District 1-6A Softball: Spring-Ford gets revenge on Downingtown West, moves on to semifinals
ROYERSFORD >> Downingtown West handed Spring-Ford its first loss of the season in 2019 when it knocked off the Rams in the District 1 Class 6A semifinals.
Spring-Ford senior Madi Walsh made sure her teammates remembered that fact Thursday before the two teams met again two years later — this time in the District 1-6A quarters.
“In our little pregame huddle I said, ‘We know what happened two years ago. It’s time for revenge,’” Walsh said.
Walsh set the tone both before and during the fourth-seeded Rams’ 11-1 victory over the fifth-seeded Whippets, which ended in four and a half innings due to the Mercy rule.
Spring-Ford’s clean up hitter went 3-for-3 with a single, triple and home run along with three runs scored and five runs batted in to power the Rams’ offense.
PHOTO GALLERY: Spring-Ford vs Downingtown West District 1-6A. quarterfinal
Bot 4th: After Wescott walks in a run, Walsh clears the bags with a triple down the RF line. 10-0 SF pic.twitter.com/aXZE998vU5
— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) May 28, 2021
Rams’ Junior Lexi Wescott went 2-for-2 with three runs and two RBI, and junior pitcher Jules Scogna allowed one run in five innings in the win.
Spring-Ford (18-0) will face either top-seeded Pennsbury or eighth-seeded Quakertown on Tuesday in the semifinals, while Downingtown West (20-2) heads to the district playback bracket to face the Pennsbury/Quakertown loser.
“We said we wanted to make them feel the way they made us feel and that’s what we did,” Scogna said.
“We knew we had to come back and get them,” Wescott added.
Wescott started the game’s scoring with an RBI single in the bottom of the first before Walsh homered to put the Rams up 3-0 after an inning of play.
Spring-Ford added three runs in the third — all on wild pitches — to go up 6-0. Walsh drove in three runs with her triple as part of a five-run fourth to spot the Rams an 11-0 lead after four.
“It was really exciting,” Walsh said of her first-inning homer. “I was like, ‘Girls right off the bat let’s just get it rolling.’ I saw a pitch, swung, we got hype and then we kept that energy up the rest of the game.”
While the Rams were able to resume play Wednesday night to finish off their 9-0 second round victory over Central Bucks East, the Whippets weren’t as lucky.
Downingtown West needed to resume it’s second round game against Garnet Valley in the second inning Thursday at 2 p.m.
The Whippets finished off the 12-2 win in the sixth inning before traveling to Spring-Ford to get ready for Thursday night’s game, which was rescheduled from Friday due to impending weather.
The double header had its impact on Downingtown West in Game 2.
“We played pretty much five innings, but they were five long innings in the hottest part of the day,” Whippets coach Joe Germani said. “They were wiped. I could see it. They just didn’t play like they normally do. Not to take anything away from Spring-Ford because they played great, but we didn’t play like ourselves.”
Top 1st: Jules Scogna hits the first batter she faces but gets strikeout, fly out, strikeout to strand runner on third. pic.twitter.com/yViGvH2sbq
— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) May 27, 2021
Scogna gave up five hits, walked a batter and hit another in five innings in the circle.
The Whippets reached base in each inning against Scogna but she worked out of multiple jams, stranding runners on third in the first and third innings.
“I just know my defense has my back,” said Scogna, who struck out six batters. “It’s really easy when you have a defense that has your back. Just trust your defense.”
Downingtown West leadoff hitter Meghan Sinkus reached all three times, including two base hits, and stole three bases. She scored her team’s only run in the top of the fifth on a sac fly from Lizzie Kern.
Kern, Anne Eliason and Mavica Mendez had West’s other hits.
With a district title no long within reach, the Whippets will turn their focus to earning a spot in states on Tuesday.
“We didn’t string hits together at all,” Germani said. “We made some weird fielding plays that we don’t normally have errors on. We can’t win them all and I’d rather get this one out of the way and hopefully get on to states so we have a better shot there.”
After scoring 20 runs in 10 innings over the past two days, the Rams will hope to continue their torrid stretch at the plate into the semifinal round.
They don’t anticipate the four-day layoff will have any effect in slowing them down.
“Everyone puts in a lot of time and practice,” Scogna said. “We’re just going to keep working hard. This game’s great but we have more goals that we want to achieve, so I think everyone’s focused and motivated right now.”
“We all put the work in, all the time every day,” Walsh said.
SETTING THE TABLE >> Spring-Ford’s first four hitters accounted for 10 of their 11 runs Thursday. Danielle McNeil’s RBI double in the fourth to plate Elli Jarrell was the exception.
Leadoff hitter Noelle Reid tallied two hits and two hitter Bri Peck one, both scoring twice. Wescott and Walsh followed with big production from the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively.
“I just wanted to hit for the team, singles all the way,” Wescott said. “Get my team in, get some runs in for the pitcher, help Jules out, back her up.”
NOTES >> Audrey Wright (two earned runs) tossed five innings in the win against Garnet Valley, including two on Thursday. Ava Zettlemoyer finished off the Garnet Valley game with a shutout frame. The two both tossed two frames tin the loss to Spring-Ford later in the day.
