Greaney’s home run lifts North Penn past Jaguars
TOWAMENCIN » Amanda Greaney tied a North Penn softball singleseason record for home runs with her three-run blast that capped a fourrun third inning as the fourth-seeded Knights finished the District 1 Class 6A playoffs with a 5-3 win over No. 15 Garnet Valley in the third place game Thursday.
“I saw it coming a little inside but not too far inside and I think I had two strikes on me. I saw the pitch I liked, I drove it,” Greaney said. “I wasn’t thinking hit a home run, I was just thinking, again, put a ball in play and a lot of times it just happened to go over.”
Greaney finished 2-for2, starting the game with an RBI double to right in the bottom of the first, as North Penn (19-5) went out to a 5-0 lead to bounce back from a 1-0 semifinal loss Tuesday to Central Bucks South.
“A lot of times, losing we view it as, it’s not a positive thing but we take it positively,” Greaney said. “We learn from our mistakes and we knew we didn’t come out with enough energy last time and so this time we really came out and did our stuff.”
Victoria Juckniewitz went 2-for-3 with a run scored while Mady Volpe struck out nine in a complete-game effort for the Knights, who in their first PIAA Tournament appearance since 2014 face District 12 champ Saint Hubert Monday at a site and time to be announced.
Lindsey Hunt provided Garnet Valley (169) with all of its runs when she belted a threerun home run to center in the sixth. But after a one-out single by Annie Bechtold two batters later, Volpe retired the next five Jaguars — striking out the side in the top of the seventh.
“We have a young team and when we’re down, it seems like the energy goes away a little bit,” Garnet Valley coach George White said. “And we just talked to them now after the game about how we’ve got to keep that energy up and throughout the whole game. We kept battling, they hit a nice three-run homer there to put them up 5-0 but I felt we were still in the game.
“Becca (Halford) pitched her butt off, she did a great job and then we battled back. We got a couple runners on, Lindsey hit a bomb and we’re right back in it. But too many strikeouts.”
Yet the Jaguars earned their first state berth since 2008. They face District 2/4 subregional winner Hazleton Monday.
Volpe, who took the loss in the semis despite taking a no-hitter into the sixth, picked up the victory in the circle Thursday, the freshman righthander giving up three earned runs on three hits with three walks.
“My changeup was working really well, my curveball was working — my backdoor curve,” Volpe said.
Halford took the loss for GV, the righty allowing five earned runs on seven hits. She walked one, hit one batter and struck out three.
In the top of the first, Garnet Valley threatened after Morgan Mesaros’ double to left center put runners on second and third with two outs. Volpe, however, struck out the next batter and did not allow another baserunner until Halford drew a one-out walk in the fifth.
“I just was not feeling the strike zone at all early on,” said Volpe, who also collected her first hit of the season with a single in the fourth. “I wasn’t really hitting my spots that well but then I came back and I just did my job.”
The Knights grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first as Juckniewitz, who led off with single, scored on Greaney’s opposite-field double to right.
North Penn added its final four runs in the third. Courtney Neal was hit by a pitch and Juckniewitz’s single put two on for Emily Groarke, who singled up the middle to plate Neal to make it 2-0. The next at-bat, Greaney extended the NP advantage to 5-0 with her three-run homer to left.
Garnet Valley made things interesting in the top of the sixth. After Diane Torregrossa began the inning with a walk, Kelly McLaughlin singled to left. With two on and no outs, Hunt pulled the Jaguars to within 5-3 by connecting on a three-run homer to center.
Bechtold collected a one-out single but Volpe got a strike out and a pop out to first in foul territory to end the Jags’ rally.