Villa Joe Marie wins District 1 Class 4A title

NEWTOWN, PA. » Following an extended drought that extended back to the previous century, all of a sudden winning district titles has become an annual thing for the Villa Joe Marie softball team (18-3).

Taking on Villa Maria in the District 1 Class 4A title game and needing to win in order to advance to the state tournament next week, Villa Joe prevailed by the score of 5-1.

It marked the second straight district title for Villa Joe Marie, a school that is much more known for having one of the premier girls soccer programs in the nation.

Villa Joe had previously beaten Villa Maria twice this year, but one of those wins had gone extra innings.

As such there was every reason to expect a competitive game, and that’s pretty much how it played out.

Facing righty Ari Butler,

VJM grabbed the early control of the game with three runs in the bottom of the first.

After Ava Tsiouplis and Morgan Murphy led off the inning with infield singles, Becca Minnichbach lofted a fly ball that would probably have gone in the book as a sac fly if it hadn’t been dropped.

Nonetheless, VJM was quickly on the board and then scored two more on a double steal in which Murphy raced home and an RBI single by Maria Gordon.

After stranding a bunch of base runners in its first three at bats, Villa Maria from Malvern broke through against VJM pitcher Leah Pagano with a home run to right by Alex Kilpatrick.

Villa Joe, however, struck right back with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Jill Evans got the inning going with a two-out single, followed by consecutive doubles by Tsiouplis and Murphy.

That was the end of the scoring, although things became interesting in the seventh when Pagano walked two batters with one out before coming back with a ground out and fly ball to left field to end the game.

Pagano finished with an eight-hitter and also received solid defensive support.

Catcher Ally Byrne gunned down runners attempting to steal in the first and third innings, and an infield led by Minnichbach

at shortstop made all the plays for the district champs.

Gordon also turned a double play in the sixth inning when she stepped on third base and then gunned the ball across the diamond to first.

Tsiouplis and Murphy each had two hits batting out of the top spots in the order.