500 K Investment: Shearer’s growth as pitcher leads to milestone as North Penn downs Pennridge

SELLERSVILLE >> Julia Shearer never saw herself as a strikeout pitcher and certainly not at this rate.

The North Penn senior has spent the better part of two seasons blowing away batters and she knew entering Friday night’s game against Pennridge at Drukenmiller Park she had a chance to hit a pretty special number. It took her all of an inning, the left-hander striking out the side in the bottom of the first to collect her 500th career strikeout in just her 43rd game pitching for the Knights.

Shearer, who had quite a week, tossed yet another gem with a two-hit, 15 strikeout shutout and added a double and home run at the plate as North Penn downed the Rams 8-0 to remain undefeated.

“When I first started pitching for this team last year, I had no expectations,” Shearer said. “I was thinking more about my defense providing for me than striking everyone out but this year, I really wanted to focus on a lot of swing-and-misses. This week, I was really aiming for 500 and I finally got it.

“This game, for me, was all about the strikeouts.”

The setting was a nice touch too. Thanks to the lights at Druckenmiller Park allowing Pennridge to start games at 6:30 as opposed to after school, Shearer was able to have a nice crowd on hand to see the accomplishment and the senior noted postgame she appreciated all those who came to watch on a Friday night.

On top of the milestone strikeout, Shearer’s fourth inning solo home run was her fifth trip around the bases in three games this week, the highlight coming as three two-run shots in consecutive at-bats in Monday’s 11-1 win against Bensalem. Knights coach Rick Torresani has coached a lot of special players in his time, but he’s never had one who brings it at the same level in each aspect of the game the way Shearer does.

“In coaching 30 years, I’ve never seen anybody that can pitch like her, hit like her, run like her and field like her, it’s just amazing,” Torresani said. “I have to count the innings, but 500 strikeouts in 43 games is amazing.

“Her backdoor curve got really good, her changeup got better, her rise is moving better as it comes into the plate and she’s got more speed. She’s close to 68, 69 where last year she was 64, 65 and I think with her speed right now, she could pitch for anyone being that consistent and a left-hander.”

Shearer didn’t see herself as a strikeout pitcher because she didn’t see herself as a pitcher, at least not at the next level. The southpaw had success when she took to the circle, it certainly helped that she was a hard-throwing lefty, but her intentions initially were to focus on hitting and playing in the outfield in college.

“Fun story, I actually hated pitching for about three years after I started,” Shearer said. “I was going to quit in college and just be a full-time outfielder but last year I had such a good season that it boosted my confidence.”

As a sophomore, that’s just what she did as the starting center fielder and leadoff hitter on North Penn’s state title team in 2021, letting Mady Volpe handle the pitching and taking a couple innings in the circle here and there. Volpe, who currently owns North Penn’s career strikeout record and is having an excellent sophomore season at Coastal Carolina, didn’t have to worry about Shearer taking her spot but Torresani did view the lefty as the heir apparent at pitcher.

All Shearer did in her first season in the circle was lead the Knights to the District 1-6A title and a win away from going back to the state title game. That, plus an outstanding season at the plate, earned her the Gatorade Player of the Year award for Pennsylvania and a call from Mark Montgomery, her future coach at Maryland, to inform her plans were changing.

“I think my success last year had a lot to do with it and seeing my full potential, it made me want to work harder to be able to throw like that in college,” Shearer said. “Maryland wanted me to be a full time outfielder and hitter, just focus on those aspects but after last year my coach called me up and said ‘we need you to pitch here, I didn’t know you could pitch like this.’ Honestly, I was surprised.”

Shearer is a rigorous worker anyway, but she put more time in the weight room over the last year to add velocity and fine-tuned her arsenal of pitches to add more spin that would make it that much tougher to put a bat on any of them. The senior also admitted she has a natural advantage too thanks to her dominant hand.

“When you put speed and spin together, it’s unhittable most of the time,” Shearer said. “It’s also weird to see a lefty throwing that hard too.”

While Shearer and the Knights have been racking up wins this spring, Maryland has put together a pretty good season of its own. One of five players in the Terrapins’ incoming class, Shearer said they all met when they took a visit to campus together and decided on the spot to commit as a group.

That hasn’t distracted her or the rest of the Knights from their goals for this season. North Penn’s five seniors took that loss to Spring-Ford in last year’s state semifinal to heart and it’s reflected in the team’s unblemished record and cadre of notable statistics but also the times they’re on a field and nobody is watching them.

“Their mojo right now is when they start a game, they want it to be a perfect game,” Torresani said. “They’re focused and they have a goal.

“If you’d see our practices, you’d think we were o-15, but the kids have fun and they know when they have to be serious, they know the work they have to put in and I don’t have to say too much because they just do it.”

Shearer wasn’t perfect Friday, but she wasn’t far off. She walked one and the only hits Pennridge managed came in bottom of the fifth inning when Regan Bauman led off with a single and Averi Dockery followed up with a double – the two standouts from the Rams’ dramatic win on Thursday creating a threat – before Shearer bookended strikeouts around a nice play by freshman Tallie Smink at third base to preserve the shutout.

North Penn got all the offense it would need in the fourth inning, senior Brie Wilmot opening the scoring with a two-out, two-run single that left the first baseman dropping to a knee in the box with how much force she’d put into her swing. Bella Nunn followed two batters later with a flare down the third base line to score two more and make it 4-0.

Shearer led off the fourth with her home run to right field, then Giana Cimino plated senior Annabelle Smink with an RBI single and the Knights put two more across in the sixth on an RBI single by Wilmot that scored senior Sarah Sabocsik and a squeeze bunt by Cimino scored Smink.

With an 8-0 lead in the seventh, Torresani gave a few of the Knights reserve players a chance to get at-bats. As Lexi Nyce stepped into the batter’s box to start the frame, Shearer gave her some encouragement before turning to the rest of her teammates and getting them up to the fence to do the same.

“I hope people appreciate my stats, but I also want my teammates to remember me as someone they can depend on both on and off the field,” Shearer said. “On the field, I’ll play for my team and provide for my team while off the field, we’re all best friends. I’d rather be a good player and a good player than have my life be all about softball.

“As long as I can leave this team with that impression, that will be plenty good for me.”

NORTH PENN 004 202 0 – 8 12 0
PENNRIDGE 000 000 0 – 0 2 0
WP: Julia Shearer. LP: Grace Helbling. HR: NP – Shearer. 2B: NP – Sarah Sabocsik, Shearer; P – Averi Dockery.