Boyertown’s Hurter hurls another gem against Tennent

(3) PJP II One team advances to states Finals Thursday (1) Dock

4 pm vs. (2) Bristol at Plymouth Twp,

One team advances to states Tuesday

(4) Calvary Christian at

(3) Jenkintown

Softball

Six teams advance to states First round Monday

(16) Coatesville 3, (17) Bensalem 1

(9) Garnet Valley 2, (24) Abington 0 (13) Boyertown 1,

(12) Downingtown East 2, (21) CR South 1

(18) Souderton 2, (15) PW 0 (23) Pennridge 1 (19) Wissahickon 3

(10) Ridley 6,

(14) Avon Grove 5,

(11) Neshaminy 8, (22) Perk Valley 1

Second round Wednesday All games 4 pm

(16) Coatesville at (1) Pennsbury

(9) Garnet Valley at (8) Owen J. Roberts (13) Boyertown at (4) Haverford

(12) Downingtown East at (5) Downingtown West

(18) Souderton (1) Faith Christian

at (2) Plumstead Christian

(20) Tennent 0

at (2) Spring-Ford (10) Ridley at (7) Quakertown (14) Avon Grove at

(11) Neshaminy at

(3) North Penn (6) Hatboro-Horsham Three teams advance to states First round Monday

(9) Phoenixville 10, (8) Penncrest 0

(5) Marple Newtown 9, (12) Bishop Shanahan 1

(7) Oxford 4, (10) Pottsgrove 3

(6) Interboro 6,

Second round Wednesday (11) Upper Merion 5

(9) Phoenixville at (1) WC Rustin

(5) Marple Newtown at (4) Merion Mercy (7) Oxford at (2) Springfield (D)

(6) Interboro at (3) Upper Perk

One team advances to states First round Tuesday (4) Lower Moreland

Marie

(3) Villa Maria at at (1) Villa Joseph

(2) GMA One team advances to states First round Tuesday

(4) Calvary Christian at (1) Bristol

at (2) Renaissance Academy BOYS LACROSSE

(3) Dock Two teams advance to states Quarterfinals Wednesday

(1) Penncrest 15,

(8) PJP II (4) Upper Merion

(2) WC Rustin 14, 3 (3) Marple Newtown 18, (6) Bishop Shanahan 3

Semifinals Tuesday, May 24 (4) Upper Merion

4

11, (5) Holy Ghost 7

(7) Upper Moreland

at (1) Penncrest, 7 p.m. (3) Marple Newtown at (2) WC Rustin, 7 p.m.

GIRLS LACROSSE

Six teams advance to states First Round Tuesday

(17) WC Rustin 19,

(9) Pennsbury 17,

(13) Kennett 14, (20) CR South 3 (12) Penncrest 20, (21) Phoenixville 4 (18) D’town West 11, (15) Boyertown 8 (10) Great Valley 17, (23) CR North 6 (14) Springfield (D) 15, (19)

15, (22) CB South 7

(11) Pennridge Second Round Thursday

(1) Conestoga 20, (17) WC Rustin 8 (8) D’town East 13, (9) Pennsbury 12 (4) Radnor 11, (13) Kennett 8

(5) Unionville 11, (12) Penncrest 4

(2) OJR 6, (18) D’town West 5

(7) Garnet Valley 18, (10) Great Valley 3 (14) Springfield (D) 4, 2

13, (11) Pennridge 6

(6) Methacton Quarterfinals Saturday (16) Wissahickon 8 (24) Souderton Upper Dublin (3) North Penn

(1) Conestoga 15, (8) D’East 5 (4) Radnor 11, (5) Unionville 5 (7) Garnet Valley 6, (2) OJR 5 (14) Springfield (D) 13, at

12 Semifinals Tuesday, May 24th (6) Methacton

(4) Radnor at (1) Conestoga

(14) Springfield (D) at (7) Garnet Valley

Third-place playbacks Tuesday

(8) D’town East at (5) Unionville, 7 pm at (2) OJR, 7 pm

(6) Methacton Four teams advance to states First Round Tuesday

11 3 (1) Bishop

Newtown 4

(8) Villa Maria 15, (9) WC East 6

13, (13) Sun Valley 4 22, (12) Delco Christian

Shanahan

(4) Upper Moreland (5) Mount St. Joseph

16, (16)

2

(2) Strath Haven 19, (15) Merion Mercy 5 (7) Upper Perk 17, 5

9,

(10) Dock Mennonite (3) Jenkintown (14) PJP II (11) GMA 16, (6) Springfield (M) 15 Quarterfinals Thursday

(1) Bishop Shanahan 7, (8) Villa Maria 5 11,

(5) Mount St. Joseph

9

(2) Strath Haven 17, (7) Upper Perk 5

Friday (11) GMA Semifinals Tuesday, May 24th (5) Mount St. Joseph (11) GMA

18,

BOYS VOLLEYBALL 3

Marple

(4) Upper Moreland (3) Jenkintown

7 at (1) Bishop Shanhan at (2) Strath Haven

BOYERTOWN » Pitcher’s duels have become commonplace for the Boyertown softball team the last two weeks.

The Bears have now won three of them behind Ella Hurter.

The latest came in Monday afternoon’s opening round of the District 1-6A playoffs at Bear Park where the sophomore left-hander threw a two-hitter and struck out a new high of 16 in a 1-0 win over William Tennent.

Hurter allowed only singles in the first and fifth innings and walked two. She struck out 11 Panthers in a row from the final out of the first inning through the first out in the fifth.

The Bears (16-4) — who won a pair of 2-0 games in last week’s Pioneer Athletic Conference playoffs — advance to the round of 16 on Wednesday at Haverford at 4 p.m.

“Everyone is happy that we won PAC’s and now

TAMPA, FLA. » Jon Cooper had every reason to be confident the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning could keep their bid for a threepeat alive.

“Our story is not finished being written,” the coach said earlier this month with his team on the brink of elimination in the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs. “We’ve got a lot left in us, we feel.”

Andrei Vasilevskiy is one of reasons.

The reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner has won six straight games since the Lightning fell behind the Maple Leafs 3-2 in their opening round series, including a Game 7 gem in Toronto and a four-game

Three teams advance to states First Round Tuesday

(8) Unionville 3, (9) Pennsbury 1 3, 2

(10) Souderton Quarterfinals Wednesday (5) Upper Dublin Thursday, all matches 7 p.m.

(1) Neshaminy 3, (8) Unionville 0

(2) Pennridge 3, (10) Souderton 1 (3) Tennent 1

(6) CR North 3,

Semifinals Tuesday, May 24, 5 & 7 p.m., at Bensalem (2) Pennridge

vs. CR North (1) Neshaminy vs.

Three teams advances to states Quarterfinals Thursday (1) Dock

3, (8) Forest City 0

(4) Berwick Area 3, (5) Holy Redeemer 0 (7) Southern Lehigh 3, (2) Tunkhannock 1 (3) Blue Ridge 3, (6) Dallas 0

Semifinals Tuesday (7) Abington

3, (4) Haverford 0

(5) Upper Dublin

(4) Berwick at 6 pm

(7) Southern Lehigh at Blue Ridge, 6 pm

(1) Dock,

we’re in districts,” said Hurter, who has fanned a total of 40 over her past three outings, including 14 and 10 in the two conference playoff contests. “Everyone just wants to keep playing and keep winning.”

The 13th-seeded Bears scored in the first on a leadoff single through the middle by Alyx Morgan, a sacrifice by Carlee Frantz, an error by the Panther pitcher and a fly to right that dropped in and resulted in a force out at second base with Morgan scoring on the play.

“I think that helped me be more confident in my pitches,” Hurter said concerning the early run.

“We would have liked to help her a little more offensively,” said Boyertown coach Kim Musselman. “In the postseason you have to make adjustments. They were pitching outside and we weren’t able to take it to right field like I wanted us to.”

Boyertown picked up just four singles — two each by Morgan and Frantz — off sweep of the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Up next is Tampa Bay’s sixth trip to the East finals in eight years, where they’ll face either the Carolina Hurricanes or New York Rangers.

“We’ve found a recipe that has obviously allowed us to go deep into the playoffs, and especially in the last 2 ½ years now, and we want to keep it up,” captain Steven Stamkos said after Monday night’s 2-0 victory over Florida gave the Lightning its first sweep of a playoff series in 11 years.

“It’s the most fun and gut-wrenching and nervewracking time of the year, but that’s just an amazing feeling,” Stamkos added. “You can’t really describe it unless you go through it, and this group has certainly

First Round Wednesday

(7) St. Joseph’s Prep 14, 4 (6) (8) Roman Catholic 2, (9) Devon Prep 1

Quarterfinals Saturday

(1) Bonner & Prendergast 8, (8) Roman Catholic 1

(4) Neumann-Goretti

Carroll 1 (6) La Salle (2) Archbishop Wood

2

Semifinals Wednesday, May 25 FDR Park (10) LC

2, 6, (3) Father Judge 1

4, (7) St. Joe’s Prep (1) Bonner and Prendergast vs. (4) Neumann-Goretti

(2) Archbishop Wood Final Saturday, May 28, University of Pennsylvania vs. (5) Archbishop (6) La Salle College

Panther right-hander Katie LaPlaunt, who walked one and struck out two. The hosts had a chance to increase their lead in the third when they loaded the bases on two hits and an intentional walk to Kratz, but LaPlaunt got out of the jam on a pop to short.

Tennent, the 20th seed, got a two-out pop single to shallow left in the first from Vicky Colagreco. They put two runners on in the fifth on a two-out walk and an infield hit by Chloe Hostettler, but second baseman Frantz caught a soft liner to retire the side.

Hurter avoided any suspense in the seventh by striking out the side on 11 pitches.

The Bear hurler contributed her success to her rise ball as she had the Panthers swinging and missing frequently on high inside pitches and also caught them looking at pitches on the outside corner on several occasions. She threw 15 of 16 pitches for strikes in the first inning and finished with 66 strikes on 90 been through it.”

Vasilevskiy had 49 saves and posted the sixth shutout in his past seven seriesclinching wins.

Since yielding three or more goals in each of Tampa Bay’s first six games against Toronto, he’s given up four total in the last five outings.

“It’s my job to just give our boys the chance to win, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job doing that the whole series,” Vasilevskiy said, playing down the way he’s played time and time again during his team’s championship run.

“Nothing special. I think it’s just the way the whole team is playing in those games. The whole series just constant blocked shots, sacrifices, and boys literally breaking bones to stop the puck,” the goaltender

First Round Tuesday (3) Archbishop Wood

15, 0 (4) Conwell-Egan 11, (5) St. Hubert 5

Semifinals Wednesday

(4) Conwell-Egan 7, (1) Archbishop Ryan 5 12,

(3) Archbishop Wood Carroll Final Monday, May 23, at Neumann University (3) Archbishop Wood

2 3

First Round Tuesday (3) Archbishop Wood

3, (4) Conwell-Egan

Ryan 9

14, (4) Bonner & Prendergast 12

(5) LC Semifinals Wednesday (1) Archbishop Carroll

26, (2) Cardinal O’Hara 19, 0

Wood Final Friday, at Neumann University (1) Archbishop Carroll 17,

O’Hara 7

(6) LC (2) Archbishop

18, (6) Archbishop

(5) LC (3) Archbishop

2 (2) Cardinal pitches.

Musselman thinks Hurter has improved over the course of the season.

“Absolutely,” she said. “She’s more consistent. She doesn’t go as deep in the counts. I think Ella feeds off her teammates when they get hyped. The chemistry is awesome on this team.”

Tennent had won the Suburban One League Freedom Division championship for the second straight time with a young team.

“Every girl on that team is coming back next year,” said Panther coach Rich Clark. “They played great. In the first-round bracket you can get a lot of one-sided games. They played their hearts out. Katie pitched great. There’s nothing to hang our heads about. They just battled the whole time.”

The Bears were making their first district appearance since 2017. Fourthseeded Haverford received a first-round bye. The top six district finishers advance to the PIAA Tournament. added. “Just such a great effort by everybody on our team. It’s obviously not just me. I’m just trying to do my job as best I can.”

Pat Maroon, chasing his fourth consecutive Stanley Cup title, snapped a scoreless tie a little over six minutes into the third period. Ondrej Palat added a empty-net goal with 22 seconds remaining for Lightning, who had two goals disallowed within a 48-second span of the second period.

The Lightning joined the New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens as the only franchises to win at least 10 consecutive playoff series. Maroon, who won with St. Louis in 2019 before signing with Tampa Bay two years ago, has been a part of 14 consecutive series wins.

First Round Tuesday (3) LC

18, (6) Father Judge 1 (4) Devon Prep 12, (5)

2

Semifinals Wednesday (1) La Salle

18, (4) Devon Prep 2 (2) St. Joseph’s Prep 15, 7

Final Friday, at Cardinal O’Hara (1) La Salle

8, (2) St. Joseph’s Prep 6

First Round Last Thursday Archbishop Carroll (3) LC

(3) St. Joe’s Prep 3, (6) Roman Catholic 0 3, (5) Archbishop

(4) Archbishop Wood

Ryan 0

Semifinals Last Saturday (1) La Salle (4) Archbishop Wood (2) Lansdale Catholic Final Tuesday at Archbishop Carroll (1) La Salle (2) Lansdale Catholic

3, 3, 0

3, (3) St. Joe’s Prep 1