North Penn’s Julia Shearer fans 15 in two-hit shutout of Souderton

FRANCONIA >> North Penn’s Julia Shearer led off the top of the first inning with a single back up the middle. She stole second, advanced to third on a Sarah Sabocsik bunt and scored on an Annabelle Smink sacrifice fly.

Like almost every game for the Knights, that one run proved to be enough.

Shearer threw a complete game shutout — her sixth in seven games this season — to lead North Penn to a 7-0 Suburban One League Colonial Division win over Souderton Tuesday afternoon at Souderton Area High School.

The senior lefty struck out 15 batters to one walk and surrendered two hits.

“I was throwing everything to keep them off-balance,” she said. “I’m pretty confident in all my pitches, so that worked for me today. I don’t think they knew what was coming when I was throwing it and that was working to my advantage.”

Shearer was perfect through three innings. She allowed back-to-back hits to start the bottom of the fourth inning, but she fielded her position on three straight plays to get out of the jam while the Knights (7-0, 3-0 SOL Colonial) held a 3-0 lead.

“That was only the second girl that reached third,” North Penn coach Rick Torresani said of Souderton’s lead runner in the inning. “We got her out, but in the season that’s only the second girl that reached third base. (Shearer) is pitching really well and she’s a Power Five pitcher. I’m just glad she’s on my team.”

The Maryland commit only allowed one baserunner the rest of the way with a one-out walk in the bottom of the fifth. She struck out the final eight batters of the game.

“(Shearer is) a phenomenal pitcher,” Souderton coach Carol Atkinson said. “She’s one of the best in the country right now I think. She threw a great changeup. We didn’t hit her as much as we wanted to, but kudos to her, she’s a great pitcher.”

North Penn extended its lead in the top of the fourth. Gianna Cimino scored on a wild pitch and Bella Nunn squeeze home a run to make it 3-0.

Nunn added another RBI with a two-out single in the sixth to extend the lead to 4-0.

“I’m trying to get everyone to be able to (squeeze) so that when we get in a close game and we need that, I want everybody up and down the lineup to be able to do it,” Torresani said after complementing Nunn’s hitting this season. “She did it, so now I know she can do it.”

Shearer, Sabocsik and Cimino all had extra-base hits in the three-run top of the seventh. Shearer led off with a triple while Sabocsik and Cimino each had RBI doubles. Sophia Orth added an RBI single to make it 7-0.

“We all just got on the same page as an offensive team,” Shearer said of the seventh. “Once we got on the same page we knew what we were looking for at the plate and we all came together to produce those last couple runs.”

McKenna Schroding started for Souderton (3-4, 1-2 SOL Colonial) and kept a strong and experienced North Penn lineup in check for most of the game. In seven innings, Schroding struck out five batters to two walks and surrendered seven runs on 10 hits.

“McKenna’s very good at holding her composure,” Atkinson said. “She’s a very good pitcher. She’s a junior so she still has another year. This is her first year really throwing for us. I think she did a great job. She worked her pitches against their batters very well.”

North Penn 7, Souderton 0
North Penn 100 201 3 – 7
Souderton 000 000 0 – 0
WP: Julia Shearer 7 IP 15 K 1 BB 2 H 0 R
LP: McKenna Schroding 7 IP 5 K 2 BB 10 H 7 R
2B: NP: Sophia Orth, Sarah Sabocsik, Gianna Cimino
3B: NP: Julia Shearer