Blue Devils clean-up hitter Colebe Oliver prepares to pound a pitch. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

After five innings, visiting Springside Chestnut Hill Academy was ahead in last Friday’s Inter-Ac League softball contest, but the Blue Devils were unable to hold onto their slim 1-0 lead. The Academy of Notre Dame scored twice in the bottom of the sixth, and then the Irish closed out SCH in the top of the seventh with one runner left on base.

Notre Dame improved to 4-1 in league play, while Springside Chestnut Hill suffered its first Inter-Ac loss, slipping to 3-1. This outcome, combined with Penn Charter’s 6-4 win over Episcopal Academy, left the PC Quakers alone at the top of the league standings, with a 5-0 record that included a 4-2 victory over Notre Dame.

Defending Pa. Independent Schools champ PC and 2017 Inter-Ac champ SCH face one another for the first time this Thursday in Chestnut Hill. They had to reschedule a game back on April 6 due to the condition of the rain-soaked fields at both schools.

Last Friday at Notre Dame each team’s offense produced a total of four hits. Senior starter Kayla McTamney pitched four innings for the visitors, striking out three while giving up one walk. Sophomore Kylie Woloshyn threw the next two innings, with no strike-outs and two bases on balls. Talented 10th-grader Grace Jackson earned the win for the Irish. Three of the four hits she gave up were to the Blue Devils’ Erin Fennessy, and all three walks issued by Jackson went to another SCH sophomore, Katie Reagan.

While Notre Dame had its regular complement of players for Friday’s contest, Springside Chestnut Hill was missing junior shortstop Mo’ne Davis.

Despite the initial walk to Reagan at the top of the first, SCH only got four batters up to the plate. Leading off the home half, Jackson helped herself with a single, and later a walk gave AND runners on first and second with one out. McTamney got herself out of this situation by fielding a grounder and getting a force-out at third, and then striking out the next batter.

With two outs in the top of the second Fennessy singled over the head of the shortstop, then a ground-out retired the side. The Irish went down in order in the bottom half, and the same thing happened to SCH in the top of the third.

Notre Dame started the flip side of that inning with Sophia Haub’s hit through the right side of the infield. The next two Irish batters put the ball in play, but the Blue Devils came up with a force-out at second base each time. McTamney then wrapped things up with a strike-out.

SCH senior pitcher Kayla McTamney goes through her wind-up at Notre Dame last Friday. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

After Reagan began SCH’s fourth batting stint with a base on balls, Notre Dame dispatched the next three batters. With two outs in the bottom of the inning Brooke McKeown singled for the Irish, then the visitors secured the third out on the following play.

The reliable Fennessy sent a single through the right side to launch the fifth frame, and she went to second on a sacrifice bunt by 10th-grade classmate Becca Arnold. She stayed put during a strike-out, and then junior Steph DeAngelis drove the ball to right field, a few yards inside the line. DeAngelis reached second as Notre Dame relayed the ball to the plate, where Fennessy slid in to beat the throw and score her team’s lone run of the afternoon.

The Devils’ turn with the sticks then ended with a ground-out, and they started the bottom of the fifth with Woloshyn in the pitching circle. The new hurler gave up a walk to Marissa Mycek, who then reached second on a sacrifice bunt by Haub. On this play the ball travelled a third of the way down the first base line, but first baseman Reagan scrambled in to grab it and ended up throwing to first from her knees for the out.

The next two Irish hitters grounded out to SCH senior third baseman Rachel Kazlauskas.

The sixth inning began with another walk waited out by Reagan, who then got to second as the next batter struck out. McTamney then grounded out, and when the visitors sent home their baserunner during the same sequence, Notre Dame also got the out at the plate with time to spare.

The Blue Devils were still ahead going into the home half of the sixth, but they wouldn’t be leading for much longer. A hit batter, an error and a walk loaded the bases with Irish with no outs.

Then, it looked as if Springside Chestnut Hill might get out of this jam when it got a force-out at the plate and then secured a second out thanks to a pop-up. AND’s Mycek, a senior who was a team captain in basketball as well as in softball, led the home team to victory with a hit to shallow center.

She reached second on the visitors’ throw to the plate, which came too late to prevent two Notre Dame runs from scoring. The next batter grounded out to Woloshyn to end the inning, but the Irish had taken over the lead.

Fennessy’s third hit of the day was sandwiched between a pop-up and a strike-out at the top of the seventh. Woloshyn came to the plate, fouling one pitch hard outside the line in right field. In the end, though, she became the seventh strike-out victim for Notre Dame’s Jackson, and the Blue Devils suffered their first Inter-Ac setback.