Perfect Quense powers Neshaminy to PIAA semis
For BucksLocalSports
— Neshaminy’s stellar pitcher Lauren nuense began the mIAA Class AAAA state WRuUQDPHQW TuDUWHUfiQDO against Daniel Boone by VWULNLQJ RuW WKH fiUVW WKUHH hitters.
In the seventh inning, nuense logged a three-up, three-down inning — an frame in which she once again struck out all three Blazers batters. In between the two faultless innings, she faced 15 Boone batters and retired them all — with nine strikeouts along the way.
For those of you who haven’t been doing the math, nuense pitched a perfect game with 15 strikeouts. She also hit a home UuQ LQ WKH fiIWK LQQLQJ WR help propel the Redskins to an 8-0 win over Boone June 6 at Spring-Ford High School.
“I just try to come out and throw my best every day,” said nuense, who will pitch for Fordham rniversity next year. “The key thing today — my team was perfect. We came alive with the bats and we played solid defense. You have to hit and you have to play defense. We went back to the basics and played well.”
nuense struck out the VLdH LQ WKH fiUVW, WKLUd, VLxWK and seventh innings. Of the six outs that did not come via the strikeout, only one was made outside of the infiHOd. ,Q WKH VHFRQd LQQLQJ, Boone’s Maggie hoch hit a blooper to shallow center fiHOd EuW WKH ’6NLQV’ 0DFNensie Compton made an aggressive play that culminated with a diving catch.
“That was an important play,” said Neshaminy coach Dave Chicilitti. “That was a freshman tracking the ball like a senior. She could have played it safe so that it would be a single but not get by her. Instead, she went after it.”
With the win, the RedVNLQV, wKR fiQLVKHd VHFRQd in the District 1 tournament, improved to 22-2. Daniel Boone, which was District 3 runner-up this year, concluded its season with a 20-8 record.
Neshaminy earned a berth in Monday’s state tournaPHQW VHPLfiQDOV DQd wLOO have a showdown against North menn, which defeated Central Bucks East’s in the opening game of Thursday’s doubleheader at SpringFord High’s Ram Field.
North menn and Neshaminy met in the District 1 VHPLfiQDOV ODVW wHHN DQd nuense played a major role in the Redskins’ 2-0 win. The hard-throwing senior came through with an impressive two-hitter.
“I’m excited about playing North menn,” said nuen-
se. “They’re a great team. It VKRuOG EH D fiJKW. ,W’V JRLQJ to be fun.”
On June 6, the Redskins had a number of big con- tributors on offense — Sarah Snider-Leonhauser slapped an RBI double in WKH firVW, DLDQD LD3DORPEDra knocked an RBI double in the second and Sam Of- fenbach carded a run-scorLQJ VLQJOH LQ WKH fiIWK.
And there was nuense with an RBI single in the second inning to go along with her four-bagger in the fiIWK. :LWK WKH SHrIRrPDQFH produced by nuense on the mound, any of them would KDvH EHHQ VuIfiFLHQW WR JLvH Neshaminy the win.
“I thought Lauren was constantly in control of the JDPH IrRP WKH firVW SLWFK WR the last pitch,” said Chicilitti. “No-one works harder than Lauren. She’s out there six days a week. All her success is attributed to her hard work.”
Even though nuense had a perfect game in a contest that was played in light-tomedium rain most of the time, she did admit to one mistake.
“I should have worn waterproof makeup,” said 4uHQVH, wKR KDG KHr firVW seven-inning perfect game. “After awhile of being out in the rain, my eyelash was hanging down on my eye.”
NOTES: Neshaminy opened states June 4 with a 1-0 win over St. Hubert’s, a game in which nuense tossed a two-hitter. With the bat, Lauren also drove home the game’s only run with a two-out single off the rLJKW-FHQWHr fiHOG IHQFH WKDW drove in shortstop Diana Lamalombara. Defensively, she got dabi DeLeo to line into a double play after surrendering an inning-opening double to losing pitcher Erica Raggazone.
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