Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, 2017 softball champions of the Inter-Ac League. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Observing the behavior of the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy softball team at the end of last Tuesday's Inter-Ac softball game, it would have come as a surprise to a casual observer that the Blue Devils had just won the league championship outright for the first time in school history.

The SCH players filed onto the field and shook the hands of the players from host Germantown Academy that they had just beaten 20-0 in a five-inning contest. A few of the younger players forced out a yell afterwards, but it was absolutely a low key celebration.

It didn't just happen that way; it was largely the result of the example set by the three SCH juniors, the oldest players on a varsity squad that includes six ninth-graders who are all new to the school this year.

With no seniors on the roster (last year's two 11th-graders did not come out for softball this spring), the junior trio needed to set the tone for the Blue Devils.

"We realized we had to kind of fill the role of seniors for the younger players," said catcher and outfielder Lucy Lamb, who's been a varsity regular since her freshman year along with her two classmates. "It's not just playing. It's the way you carry yourself on and off the field. We wanted to have the team represent SCH with good etiquette and good sportsmanship. We told the young girls that if they needed help with anything at school, not just softball, they could reach out to us."

Even with one league game still left to play, the Blue Devils gained sole possession of the Inter-Ac crown at GA. Now, their total of 10 league victories could not be matched by rivals Penn Charter and Academy of Notre Dame, each of whom already had three losses and could not acquire more than nine wins. In the past, SCH had shared the Inter-Ac championship with erstwhile power Agnes Irwin, but this year's team is the school's first to wear the league crown alone.

The locals still had an Inter-Ac contest with much-improved Notre Dame yet to play, but Tuesday's title-clincher came against a GA squad that has been struggling, and slipped to 0-9 as a result of the loss to visiting SCH.

The Blue Devils outhit the Patriots 14-4 and benefitted from nine walks issued by Germantown's two pitchers. Starting for the winners and retiring after the second inning, junior Kayla "Strawberry Shotgun" McTamney logged two strike-outs, then freshman Alysa Akins threw three innings with one major strike-out against the last batter in the game. Neither SCH hurler gave up any walks.

In SCH's closer games this season, it's been McTamney who has done the heavy lifting for the team, and she's always been ready to go.

Her pitch count doesn't tend to climb very high since, as she noted, "I usually can get ahead in the count, and I don't give up many walks."

When opposing batters make contact, she explained, "I know if they hit me the other girls are going to defend for me and field the ball. Everyone's so talented this year, and we have solid defense."

On Tuesday, GA yielded a walk right away to the Blue Devils' lead-off batter, sophomore Steph DeAngelis. A transfer student and Roxborough native, second-baseman DeAngelis is one of two sophomores who are new to the program. The other is former Little League baseball sensation Mo'ne Davis, who is a longtime student at the school but who is playing on the diamond with the bigger ball for the first time. She has proved to be a superb shortstop.

After the team's third junior, third basemen Rachel Kazlauskas, reached first with a bunt that sent DeAngelis to third, Davis drew a walk to load the bases. GA pitcher Colleen Carrigan (a junior who is primarily a field hockey player) struck out the next batter, then the SCH five hitter, freshman first baseman Katie Reagan, bopped an RBI single to right field.

With the bases still loaded, McTamney helped herself by belting a double to right center, scoring two runs to make it 3-0. A steal put runners on second and third, then when Lamb hit the ball on the ground, GA got the out at first but then dozed off, allowing two more runs to score.

Trailing 5-0 going into the home half of the first, GA had Carrigan smash a triple deep to left field with one out, but she was left stranded on third base.

SCH had the top of the order coming up again at the top of the second, and DeAngelis and Kazlauskas each received a base on balls. Before GA got the first out on a pop up by Davis, steals and a wild pitch got one baserunner all the way home and landed the other on third base.

The Blue Devils' centerfielder, sophomore Colebe Oliver, hit the ball almost straight up in the air a little in front of her. She ended up safe on first as sun glare and crossed signals caused GA to let the ball fall to earth between the pitching circle and the plate.

A little later, Springside Chestnut Hill scored a run on a passed ball and then got another on Reagan's sacrifice fly to left. After the Patriots went down in order in the bottom of the inning, the visitors entered the third frame with an 8-0 lead.

Freshman left fielder Erin Fennessy, who had singled late in the top of the first and was left on base, began the third with a ground-out, but an error on the next play got sophomore right fielder Sena Hoessou-Adin all the way to second. Walks to DeAngelis and Kazlauskas loaded the bases, then two runs scored when Davis drove a base hit right up the middle.

Oliver directed an RBI double down the line in right for an 11-0 tally, and before the side was retired a GA infield error on a ball put in play by Reagan pushed in a pair of runs to make it 13-0.

Akins took over in the SCH circle for the bottom of the third, and the first two batters she faced lined-out to Davis and popped out to Kazlauskas. Patriots junior Kamryn Demasi singled up the gut, but the next batter grounded out to Kaslauskas at third.

Germantown Academy changed pitchers at the top of the fourth, subbing in sophomore Shelby Kuehnle for Carrigan. The defense behind her let a fly hit by Hoessou-Adin drop down for three bases, then DeAngelis walked on. A run scored on a ground-out by Kazlauskas, then another came in on an RBI hit through the left side by Davis.

The sophomore got all the way around to third on the play as the Patriots were slow to retrieve the ball and get control of the situation. After a strike-out, GA made an error on a ball hit by Reagan, and Davis crossed the plate to raise the tally to 16-0.

The Patriot offense made its best showing of the day in the bottom of the fourth round, starting out with freshman Sarah DiLello's double to right field. She held up there as junior Regina Porter got to first on an SCH error, and following a pop-up for the first out, ninth-grader Cianni Williams singled between third and short to load the bases.

The next batter also put the ball in play to the left side, but this time Kazlauskas fielded it and threw home to Lamb for the force-out. A ground-out to Davis at short then ended the Germantown threat entirely.

The Blue Devils made some line-up changes to start off the fifth inning, and one of the new entries, freshman Madison Niebish, hit the ball high in the air to right field and reached third when the Patriots didn't catch it. Hoessou-Adin walked and advanced to second on a passed ball before the batter, DeAngelis, lofted a sacrifice fly to left, bringing in the visitors' 17th run.

Hoessou-Adin then went to third when Kazlauskas singled up the middle, setting up a sac fly to right by Davis. The bags were all occupied after Oliver singled softly to the left side, and when Reagan drove the ball to right center for a hit, the last two runs of the day scored.

The Blue Devils now had double the lead that was required to end the game early; at this point they just needed three more outs. That happened quickly, as Kaslauskas had two put-outs from third and Akins struck out the final Patriot to appear at the plate.

Now sole champions of the league, the Blue Devils had gotten their Inter-Ac campaign off to a solid start with a 6-3 win over traditional rival Penn Charter, the defending league titleholder.

"We knew PC would be tough, and if we wanted to win the Inter-Ac we'd have to beat them at least one time," McTamney said.

Later on, even an 8-2 loss in their rematch with the Quakers had an upside for the Devils.

"You don't go out there looking to lose a game," Kazlauskas explained, "but I think maybe that loss was good for us. It took off that pressure of being undefeated, and it also grounded us. It made us realize this wasn't going to just be a breeze for us - we had to really focus."

With almost half the roster consisting of freshmen, it was important for the older players to accept them and integrate them into the framework of the team.

"A lot of them were really experienced; they've all played travel ball before," Kaslauskas pointed out. "This year I think all but two players on our varsity play outside of school, and that really helps."

Lucy Lamb's mother had attended the old Springside School, where she'd been part of an undefeated championship lacrosse team there before going on to play at Dartmouth.

"She always told me, win or lose, just play your heart out and leave it all out on the field," the SCH junior said. "She also said it feels great to win a title because you clearly see the result of all the work and time you've put in with your team. I'm glad that at our school the softball team will now get that recognition that comes with winning a championship."