North Penn’s Mady Volpe named PaHSSCA Player of the Year

Mady Volpe led North Penn to the greatest team achievement this spring — a PIAA 6A state championship.

For her efforts in a dominant 2021 campaign, Volpe is being recognized with one of the top individual awards.

The North Penn senior has been selected as the Pennsylvania High School Softball Coaches Association Overall Pennsylvania Player of the Year.

“It means a lot,” Volpe said. “I’ve been working for this my whole life so it was really nice to see it all pay off.”

The right-hander ended her career with six consecutive shutouts and 42 straight scoreless innings.

“It’s huge for her, the team, the area,” North Penn coach Rick Torresani said. “Mady in the last six games of the year was just unbelievable… Those last six games it was just unbelievable to watch her focus the way she did and when she’s on she’s really unhittable. She didn’t give up a run for 42 straight innings. I’ve been doing this for 29 years, 21 at North Penn, and I don’t ever remember a state championship where a pitcher didn’t give up a run every game.”

She blanked Hatboro-Horsham in a District 1-6A playback game to clinch a spot in the state tournament before silencing Pennsbury to earn the district’s No. 5 seed in states.

In the state playoffs, she shutout District 11 champion Northampton, District 3 third-place finisher Penn Manor, District 7 runner-up Canon-McMillan and, in the state championship game, District 1 third-place finisher Haverford.

“I had no idea (the shutout streak) was for that long,” Volpe, who was named the 2021 Gatorade Player of the Year last month, said. “I really tried to keep it in the back of my mind. Just going out and playing my game – it was really all the team, it wasn’t just me. It was my defense behind me.”

The win against Haverford avenged the final loss of Volpe’s high school career – a 5-0 defeat in the District 1-6A quarterfinals. Volpe allowed five runs – one earned – on five hits in that game. Her scoreless inning streak started that day when she allowed no runs over the sixth and seventh innings.

In the season-defining win, Volpe struck out seven batters across seven innings and allowed two hits.

The Coastal Carolina commit posted an ERA under 0.71 as a senior. She won 26 games, struck out 335 batters and helped the Knights win their first state title since 1985.

Volpe, a first team All-Class-6A pitcher, was joined on the first team by teammates Brie Wilmot (first base) and Julia Shearer (outfield). Wilmot had the game-winning hit to earn a state playoff berth against Hatboro-Horsham and broke the program record this season with 10 home runs. Shearer had a huge state title game, going 2-for-3 with four RBI and four runs scored in the win over Haverford.

“Early on, (Wilmot) was hitting and she was hitting the ball into the gaps,” Torresani said. “She wasn’t hitting home runs yet. Then all of a sudden she had a streak against good pitchers where she hit two or three or four (home runs) in a row in games and ended up hitting 10.The biggest thing for Brie confidence-wise going into the state playoffs was when she got the hit against Hatboro to win the game. That was just huge.”

“(Shearer) was just a catalyst for us with her speed, with her bunts. We knew if Julia got on base, we were talented enough with the rest of the lineup that she would get on second, whether it was a double or a steal, and we’d be able to drive her in to either get an early lead in the first inning or somewhere down the road. The way Julia went hitting-wise is the way we went.”

“(Wilmot and Shearer) were huge,” Volpe added. “It was awesome to see underclassmen step up. I’m really proud of Julia and Brie for getting those awards … It was amazing to find out they were on the first team all-state as well.”

High school coaches and media members nominated approximately 400 players before the PaHSSBCA voted and chose first and second teams for each of the six classifications.