Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Merion Mercy blanks Villa Maria
MALVERN » The first time the Merion Mercy and Villa Maria Academy softball squads played, back in the first week of the season, the Hurricanes took the early lead in the AACA standings with a 5-3 win. This time around, though, the Golden Bears bats came alive, and starter Kylie Hoffman held the Villa hitters in check, as Merion Mercy (7-4) cruised to a 9-0 shutout victory over the host Hurricanes (5-8).
“It’s senior day, and I am always going to give my seniors every chance to play,” said Villa coach Nikki Hartshorn. “So you take a bit of a risk in shaking up your line-up and just hope the team rises to the occasion. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out today against a very good Merion Mercy team.”
The Golden Bears, currently ranked fourth in District 1, Class 5A behind Rustin, Interboro and Upper Perkiomen, scored in every inning but the seventh, and wasted no time at all getting things going. Hannah Mishinkosh led off the game by beating out an infield single, and moved up to second on a ground out. Darby Myers brought Mishinkosh home with a double to the gap in left center, and Kylie Rex followed with a single to right to plate Myers for a 2-0 lead midway through the first.
Led by Myers, who finished the day a perfect 4-for-4 with a double, a triple and three runs batted in, the Golden Bears banged out eleven hits — five for extra bases — to score another one in the second, three in the third and one each in the fourth, fifth and sixth.
Meanwhile, Bears’ starter Hoffman was dealing, holding a perfect game through the first three innings, and a no hitter into the fifth. Hoffman picked up the complete game shutout, allowing just two hits, striking out eight and walking just one.
“She only allowed four base runners all day,” said Merion Mercy coach Al Poplawski. “She has this gear inside her head that she just turns on and says, nope,
you’re not hitting me. She’s been lights out all year. But this was about as near a perfect team game as you could ask — pitching, hitting and defense all came up big today.”
Without a hit, Villa Maria had its only real threat of the day in the fourth, when Grace Wissler worked a one-out walk, moved up to second when Natalie Bacallao reached on an error, then the two of them executed a double steal to put Hurricane runners on second and third. But Hoffman dug in, whiffed the next hitter and induced an inning-ending ground out.
The Hurricanes broke up the no-no the following inning when, with two away, Lily DeLong drove a ball deep to the gap in left center, reaching the fence on one hop. DeLong reached second easily, and tried to stretch it into a triple, but was tagged out to end the inning.
Georgia Elinsky had the only other base hit on the day for the Hurricanes, stroking a single up the middle in the seventh.
Despite the loss, Villa Maria is still in the hunt for a slot in the District 1, 4A tournament, and Hartshorn believes that the beefed up schedule the Hurricanes have played, plus the return of their primary starting pitcher, sophomore Ariana Butler this Thursday, will have Villa prepared to do big things in the post season.
“We’ve played a lot of tough teams in class 5A and 6A this season,” said Hartshorn. “And we’ve played them tough — winning some, but hanging with them even in the losses. Even today, we played good defense. I don’t know how many chances Elaina Guerzon had at second, but she handled every one of them quickly and cleanly. We just have to get the bats going again.”