North Penn’s Mady Volpe is is The Reporter/Times Herald/Montgomery Media 2021 Softball Player of the Year

As was young softball player, Mady Volpe was advised her future in the sport was not going to be in the pitcher’s circle.

She wisely did not listen.

Volpe put together one of the finest season this area has seen to cap a fantastic career at North Penn. The senior right-hander – the 2021 The Reporter/Times Herald/Montgomery Media Softball Player of the Year – put up impressive strikeouts and shutouts totals and earned state and national accolades as she helped lead the Knights to their first PIAA championship since 1985.

“I worked really hard to get here,” Volpe said. “When I was 11-years-old I was told that I wasn’t going to be a good pitcher and that I should stop pitching so just looking at my 11-year-old self just to be like you made it this far, it just means a lot.”

Volpe posted a 0.68 earned-run average and struck out 335 batters – an average or just about 12 per game (11.96) – in going-26-2 in the circle, the same mark as the Knights, who won the Suburban One League Colonial Division then went on to claim the Class 6A state crown with an 11-0 victory over Haverford in State College.

“It felt awesome from the first workout,” said Volpe, set to next pitch at the Division I level at Coastal Carolina. “Coach (Rick Torresani) went up to me after the first workout and he’s just like ‘We’re winning it this year.’ And yeah, he usually says that every year but this year I could tell that he really meant it.”

The win in the PIAA final avenged a 5-0 District 1 quarterfinal loss to the Fords as Volpe finished the season with 42 consecutive scoreless innings – tossing six straight shutouts after the defeat, the last four in PIAA play to finish with 17 shutouts on the season.

“I think with my pitching it was that it wasn’t predictable,” Volpe said. “I mean, yeah I threw a riseball pretty much every game but it just something different like OK in the beginning the season I have my riseball, my curveball but towards the end of the season I started developing my changeup and that really was the main reason why I threw that 42 scoreless, no runs – that whole thing – so I really give props to that and Coach, of course.”

After her stellar season, Volpe was named 2020-2021 Gatorade Pennsylvania Softball Player of the Year, the Overall Pennsylvania Player of the Year and a Class 6A first team pitcher by the Pennsylvania High School Softball Coaches Association (PaHSSBCA) and was selected as a First Team pitcher on the Maxpreps All-America Team. As a team, North Penn finished 17th in Maxpreps final national rankings.

“After we won the state championship, I got like maybe two hours to sleep and I woke up to my parents knocking on my door in my room and they were like ‘You just won Gatorade Player of the Year.’” Volpe said. “I was like, ‘What?’ Like the course of 12 hours just two major life accomplishments just happening that was insane.

“Then I remember I was sitting in the movie theater with one of my friends and I just check my phone and I see on Twitter I got tagged in this Maxpreps All-American thing and I won First Team All-America, I was like ‘What the heck?’ It’s just all this stuff happening at once – it was just really, just mind blowing. It really just shows that all your hard work pays off.”

Along with her superb stats, Volpe was just as proud as having grown into being a team leader, putting in the work to set the tone for a NP side that had just four seniors. The Knights continued their winning ways – earning a four straight SOL conference/division title, a third consecutive PIAA appearance and the program’s fourth state championship.

“We have the fall workouts and I stepped up as a captain on the team,” she said. “And before every workout we ran hills and we just ran sprints before, so I think that was something that I was really proud of myself for, just being a leader and being a positive influence on the incoming freshmen and sophomores because those sophomores, they didn’t have like a season before but they were the ones who stepped up the most in this year.”

Offensively, Volpe had a .318 batting average for a NP squad that outscored opponents 193-23. She had 28 hits, 23 RBIs, three doubles and two home runs – belting three-run shots against Pennridge April 9 and Perkiomen Valley May 19.

“Hitting’s something that comes and goes for me,” Volpe said. “But it was just awesome to be able to hit sometimes too.”

Volpe said she was aiming for 300 strikeouts in her senior campaign and started the year with her best K total – striking out 18 as the Knights edged Quakertown 1-0 in eight innings in their opener March 30.

She registered double-digit strikeouts in each of North Penn’s first 12 games and on the season did it 22 times, including in five of the eight postseason games to end up with her total of 335.

“That was unexpected to say the least but I mean at the end of the day it’s just the person who’s calling the pitches as well and Sarah (Sabocsik) as well,” Volpe said. “Sarah is an amazing catcher and her and Julia (Shearer) are going to do great things next year. I’m really looking forward to that.”

Volpe struck out nine in pitching a four-inning no-hitter as the Knights gave Torresani his 400th career win in a 16-0 victory over Central Bucks West May 6. A day later in tight battle with Hatboro-Horsham, Volpe had 10 strikeouts in a five-hit shutout as North Pen handed the Hatters their first loss 1-0 in eight innings.

Three days after the win over Hatboro-Horsham, Volpe pitched a five-inning no-hitter, striking out 13 as NP topped Pennridge 11-0.

“I think after the first Hatboro-Horsham game that we played – cause they were like the most competitive team we played at that point – I walked away from that game and I said ‘We’re winning this,’” Volpe said. “Because at that point there was no one stopping us.”

After falling to Haverford in the district quarters, the Knights faced Hatboro-Horsham again, this time the winner getting a PIAA berth with the loser’s season done. Volpe came through once more, allowing just one hit – a single in the fourth – and struck out 10 in a 1-0 victory.

North Penn avenged its first loss of the year in the District 1 fifth place game against Pennsbury, besting the Falcons 6-0 as Volpe struck out 13 in a five-hit shutout.

Volpe tossed back-to-back two-hit shutouts in the first two rounds of states – striking out seven in defeating Northampton 7-0 in the PIAA opener then tallying a postseason-high 14 Ks as NP beat Penn Manor 4-0 in the quarters.

The Knights rolled to the final with a 10-0 win over Penn Manor in five innings, Volpe striking out a dozen in the five-hit shutout.

In the state 6A final, Volpe and North Penn made sure there was not going to be a replay of their previous matchup with Haverford. The Knights grabbed a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first then added two more in the second. The support was more than enough for Volpe, who struck out seven and gave up just two hits as NP pulled away for an 11-0 win over the Fords.

“That felt really awesome,” Volpe said. “We knew from the start we had a hitting practice before and we felt really good so that was awesome. We knew that there were people that didn’t want us to win and we embraced that and we just let the haters hate I guess you could say and we just played our game. And all the fans and people who came out were awesome as well.”

Softball continued in the summer for Volpe, as she headed to South Carolina to work out with Coastal Carolina and also played with her travel team PA Chaos 18U Gold Spina, which competed in the Premier Girls Fastpitch (PGF) Nationals in Huntington Beach, California in July.

“The next step is just getting better every day,” Volpe said. “I just know that I need to work hard and it’s not going to be easy so just pushing myself and being close to my teammates and my family.”