Rock North rallies past Pennsbury in seventh

FAIRLESS HILLS, PA. >> For a while it looked like the very young Pennsbury High School softball team just might pick up the kind of victory Tuesday it could really as a confidence builder.

That was for a while. When you face a team with the kind of firepower Council Rock North has, it’s like being around a time bomb that can go off at any second.

In this case that bomb was a tanked grand slam into the teeth of the wind by Hannah Stalker as Rock North rallied with five runs in the top of the seventh to beat Pennsbury, 8-4.

“It was the kind of game where you are just looking for a break,’’ said first-year Rock coach John Engelhardt after his team improved to 2-0 and dropped Pennsbury to 0-2. “They are a well-coached team, but we have the type of team where one through nine can do some damage.’’

Afrer Pennsbury took its third lead of the game on a two-run double by Arden Rabiger in the fifth inning, Rock North threatened to score in the sixth when it got two runners on base. Pennsbury sophomore righty Alyssa Hileman worked her way out of the jam to preserve a 4-3 lead, but by getting runners on base Rock North assured itself it would get to the top of its lineup in the seventh.

Even better, No. 8 batter Madson Tomlinson was able to reach base on an infield grounder to start the seventh and advanced to second on a grounder by Elena Calibeo. Up came dynamite lead off batter Sabrina Crane, who got her second RBI of the game with a double to tie it up.

When Taylor Briggs then picked up her third single of the game and moved to second, Pennsbury decided to intentionally walk Nicole Rounsavill to juice the bases. The strategy almost worked when the Falcons got a second out on grounder to short and a force at home plate, but this also brought Stalker to the plate.

The senior left fielder has shown some tremendous power in the past and it was on display again yesterday with a base-clearing line drive over the center field fence.

“We wanted to get Sabrina to the plate in that inning,’’ said Engelhardt. “And Hannah just crushed it.’’

Rock North had 13 hits in all, but also hit into some bad luck when the ball went straight to a Pennsbury fielder. The Falcons also helped with some damaging errors, including two in the fifth when Rock took a short-lived 3-2 lead.

The Indians also had some trouble in the field. Particularly in the early going when a pair of fielding miscues in the bottom of the first helped Pennsbury score two runs on just one hit.

Freshman Jenna Khantzian, who walked in a run in the first inning, when the distance with a seven-hitter and five strikeouts for her first high school win.

CRN: Crane. P: Rabiger. HR — CRN: Stalker. RBIs — CRN: Crane 2, Stalker 4, P: Hileman, Rabiger 3.

Khantzian;

Hileman.