CB South gets best of Pennridge in rubber match
DOYLESTOWN >> Pennridge came into its first round District playoff game facing a familiar foe.
As the No. 19 seed, the Rams were pitted against Central Bucks South, the No. 14 seed. Earlier this season on Apr. 9, Pennridge edged out the Titans on its home field, 2-1. But in a rematch one month later, CB South topped the Rams at home in a blowout 8-1 victory.
Monday’s rematch provided a perfect opportunity for Pennridge to avenge its previous loss, but that did not come to fruition. In fact, the outcome proved to be quite similar to the second matchup. On a windy afternoon, Pennridge was bested by CB South, 8-2.
In the first inning, the Rams matched their run total from the last time these two teams met as they quickly jumped Titans pitcher Kylie Kenney. Kylie Watson and Gianna Iadonisi both bunted, and Watson reached second. With Watson in scoring position, Makenna Patterson nailed an RBI single to center, allowing Pennridge to draw first blood. After that, Kenney shut down the Rams’ bats and escaped the inning without ceding any more runs.
CB South immediately responded by taking the lead. Two errors by Pennridge allowed Alexa Ortman and Rebecca Brennan to reach the corners. Tara Tumasz was then walked by Patterson, which loaded the bases with no outs. Katie Hines, bat
ting in the cleanup spot, launched a sac-fly that drove in both Ortman and Brennan thanks to another error by the Rams. Patterson regained her composure, finding the next two outs to mitigate the damage.
Kenney flashed her dominant form over the next four innings, striking out the side in the second and extending her strikeout streak to six in the following inning before Iadonisi grounded out. She then recorded 1-2-3 innings in the bottom of the fourth and fifth. The senior was simply pitching phenomenally.
“I focused on my spots a lot more, and I knew after that, I wasn’t going to give up any more runs,” said Kenney after the game. “That one run in the beginning really fired us up, and we really started hitting.”
The Titans offense was indeed fired up. During the second, Sophia DeFobo reached second on an error, and Alexa Ortman drove her teammate in by smashing a double off the wall in center field. Brennan immediately followed with a single, extending the Titans’ lead to three runs.
They didn’t stop there, though. While CB South was held at bay in the third, it roared back in the next two innings. They scored four more runs to build a sevenrun cushion. During the fourth, the Titans loaded the bases on two separate occasions. The first time around, Patterson loaded the bases and had recorded no outs when Brennan came to plate.
Patterson earned a much-needed strikeout, but the next batter—Tumasz—hit a single through the gap between first and second, driving in both Kate Hammond and Sophia DeFobo.
With Tumasz and Ortman on the corners, Katie Hines doubled, scoring Ortman and making it 7-1 in CB South’s favor. The Titans proceeded to load the bases once more, but Patterson fanned Kenney with two outs to end the scoring outburst. Ortman went on to tab another RBI in the bottom of the sixth, further extending CB South’s comfortable lead.
Kenney began to show come chinks in the armor in the final two innings. Her streak of 1-2-3 innings came to an end in the sixth as she gave up a leadoff single to Catelyn Thrush. She also walked Patterson, but she downed the next three batters without much incident. The senior pitcher’s only other blemish on a sterling day came in the top of the seventh.
Pennridge first baseman Morgan Henry led off with a double and later advanced to third on a fielder’s choice. She then crossed home plate after Kenney let off a wild pitch. But with the game thoroughly in hand, Kenney struck out the final batter, bringing her total to 10 for the game and wrapping up the win for the Titans.
“I think Kylie is one of the best pitchers in the area,” said head coach Kevin Rosini. “When the competition gets tougher, she gets better … She’s a Division-1 pitcher.”
Awaiting CB South is No. 3 Pennsbury, a squad that currently boasts an impressive 16-2 record and narrowly defeated the Titans in the final game of the regular season, 2-1. Rosini is optimistic about this matchup.
“I think we already have some (confidence),” Rosini said. “We know what it’s like to play in big games. We won a championship last season. We had a lot of ups and downs during the regular season. Some kids were hurt, and other kids have stepped up. We just saw the pens last week, so I feel like that’s helpful. I think we’ll be ready to play.”