PIAA softball tournament: Defending state champ North Penn ends Seneca Valley’s season in quarterfinals
FAYETTEVILLE, Franklin County — A missed opportunity kept Seneca Valley from taking an early lead.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, their frustration was only beginning for they never did solve North Penn pitcher Bella Nunn.
The senior was on the verge of a no-hitter Thursday until Abby Kalkowski’s double with two outs in the top of the seventh. A few moments later, Nunn and the Knights ended SV’s season with a 4-0 decision in a PIAA Class 6A softball quarterfinal playoff at Norlo Park Softball Complex.
Nunn was an outfielder on North Penn’s state championship team last year.
“We had outstanding pitchers the last three years,” said North Penn coach Rick Torresani. “After the state title game last year, Bella came up to me and said ‘Coach, next year is my year.’ I said ‘Yes, it is!’”
Nunn squeezed her way out of a jam in the top of the first inning. Kara Pasquale reached on a fielding error with one out before walks to Lexie Hames and Bella Gross — the former being intentional — loaded the bases.
Nunn got Neve Miller to fly out and she struck out Anna Kalkowski to defuse the threat. Nunn‘s day included 10 strikeouts and five walks.
“We’ve faced good pitchers, but her (Nunn’s) speed and movement on her pitches was something we weren’t expecting,” Pasquale said.
North Penn’s momentum received another jolt when leadoff hitter Gianna Cimino belted the second pitch from Hames over the fence in left field for a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
“That was huge. She’s our nucleus and that’s why she bats leadoff,” Torresani said of Cimino. “She was 4-for-4 with a home run (in Monday’s 6-5 first-round win against Cumberland Valley).”
Three of the walks issued by Nunn were intentional with Hames at the plate. The latter was SV’s biggest home-run threat this season.
“It takes our biggest bat out of the lineup and is very frustrating,” said SV coach Marlesse Hames. “But it also puts a runner on base, and we have to take advantage of that.
“We were bad at the plate and our pitching and catching were a bit off today.”
“Everyone I talked to from the west said, ‘Don’t pitch to her,’” said Torresani of Lexie Hames. “We wanted to make their other players beat us.”
The Knights (23-3) did not sit on their early edge, plating single runs in the second, third and fourth innings.
After a leadoff walk to Tallie Smink in the second, the Knights executed a pair of sacrifice bunts to advance her to third base. She scored when Gabby Battavio swung at a pitch well out of the zone for strike three, but the ball skipped to the backstop and she reached first base.
North Penn added an unearned run in the third and received an RBI-single off the bat of Liv Stevens in the fourth.
Lexie Hames struck out 12, walked seven and allowed three hits in the final game of her junior season.
“That’s a good team with a good pitcher we played,” added Torresani. “We just got the big hit early and they were unable to respond.”
SV (22-2) won a district championship for the second time in three seasons this year.
“We wanted to go for the state title, but we won WPIALs and that was our first goal,” said Pasquale, a senior. “I’m taking away a lot of memories from this team.”
Seneca Valley 000 000 0 — 0 1 2
North Penn 111 100 x — 4 3 3
WP: Bella Nunn 7 IP (10K, 5BB). LP: Lexie Hames 6 IP (12K, 7BB)
Seneca Valley (22-2): Abby Kalkowski 2B
North Penn (23-3): Gianna Cimino HR, Liv Stevens 1B RBI, Isabella Tubertini 1B R
