Askey’s walk-off homer sends Pennsbury past Neshaminy
FAIRLESS HILLS, PA. » Taylor Askey has done it again!
The No. 9 hitter in the topranked Pennsbury High School softball team’s potent batting order who specializes in hitting big home runs, Askey delivered again on Wednesday with a two-run walk-off homer with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
Even better, this one came against arch-rival Neshaminy as Pennsbury posted a 4-2 victory to run its winning streak against the Redskins to seven straight.
All seven of those victories were against Neshaminy’s Kennedie Ruth, who is one of the top pitchers in the area but has still yet to post a victory over the Falcons despite coming very close several times.
With the victory, Pennsbury finished the regular-season with a record of 19-1 and locked up the top seed for the PIAA District 1 Class 6A playoffs, which get underway next week. Playoff-bound Neshaminy is now 15-5 and it’s unclear if it will get a bye in the 24team bracket.
While any win over Neshaminy is sweet, this one had all kinds of sugar on top because Pennsbury did it without ace senior pitcher Ainsley McClure. She was not at the game after suffering a concussion while playing volleyball during gym class.
“No excuses,” said Pennsbury coach Frank McSherry prior to the game about having to play without McClure.
It was easier for him to say that because Pennsbury’s back-up pitcher is Quinn McGonnigle.
Sure enough she came through with a five-hit, nine-strikeout performance in which she was only reached for two runs in the fifth inning. The Redskins were able to break through in that inning when base hits by Carena Barr and Ruth led to Amanda Slabicki’s hard tworun RBI single to right field.
Slabicki was also the starting
pitcher for Neshaminy.
“We just want to mix it up,” said Neshaminy coach Tim Quense when asked why he started Slabicki over Ruth.
Slabicki pitched three innings and gave up single runs in the first and third.
Pennsbury’s run in the first came on an RBI single by Rowan Mulholland after Caitlyn Martell had led off the inning with a single.
In the third inning Askey blasted a long fly ball to right field and showed excellent speed by flying around the bases for a triple. Martell then drove her in with a sac fly.
Ruth entered the game in the fourth inning and came out firing by striking out the first three batters. After surviving a lead-off double by Pressley Foote in the fifth, Ruth mowed down Pennsbury in the sixth.
Time for Askey to do her thing. With one out in the seventh, Riley
Mahoney singled to center and stole second with two outs. Up stepped up Askey, who used her smooth left-handed swing to loft a deep fly that just cleared the right field fence and set off an ecstatic celebration at home plate.
It wasn’t the first time Askey’s power really showed this year. Among her other blasts was a grand slam in a recent game against Central Bucks West.
This is the second straight year Pennsbury’s No. 9 hitter is causing all kinds of havoc for the opposition. Last year it was Jessica Rowe tearing it up in the No. 9 hole and Askey is doing the same for a Falcon squad that had the perfect ending to the regular season and a great way to take momentum into the playoffs.