BRINGING THE HEAT
Angel Bunner starred at Conwell-Egan Catholic before going on to pitch for Auburn University, as pictured her. Lower Bucks has a long tradition of having some of the best pitchers in the area. square off late in the year in a night game at the Lower Makefield Complex.
One of the most memorable games from that series came when Pennsbury’s Kathyrn Welch reached into the bat bag of Crossin in the seventh inning and blasted a mammoth bomb off Bunner deep into the night for a walk-off 1-0 victory.
“We never allow the girls to use their own bats to make sure everything is legal,” said McSherry with a laugh. “The girls brought out the Synergy (bat) on us that night. I didn’t find out about it until after the season.”
Finally, the “small” schools in Lower Bucks have also produced some great pitchers. Bristol has a long history of solid pitching, including a real pioneer in Stacie Bonner as well as Beth Angelaccio, who won a state title in 1990.
Morrisville High also produced Cindy Woodward. All she did is help Trenton State win two national titles, serve as the Princeton University pitching coach and be among the first inductees in the Bucks County Sports Hall of Fame.
So, how was Lower Bucks able to produce all this pitching while other areas were just starting to build up the programs.
“I think a lot of the credit goes to the pitching coaches,” said McSherry. “And the pitchers then worked incredibly hard all year long. They were so competitive.”
Applegate sees another factor at play as well.
“Back then there wasn’t as much competition from the other sports,” he said. “Softball was the sport. Those were the glory days.”
When it comes to pitching in this area, New Jersey has caught up and often surpassed Lower Bucks, but it was the Pennsylvania girls who showed the way.
They leave behind a legacy of truly remarkable stuff.
Lauren Cognigni, seen here pitching for Saint Joseph’s University, twirled the ball first at Pennsbury High as part of a generation of outstanding Lower Bucks pitchers.
softball and has featured pitchers such as Kim Ruffing, Kelly Ford, Leah Conley, Tracey Silvestre, and most recently, Lauren Quense (Fordham). One of the biggest reasons Pennsbury’s Cognigni never won a state title was she lost an 18-inning 1-0 thriller to Silvestre in a year in which Neshaminy was the state champ.
And it doesn’t stop there with the big three in Lower Bucks. Truman had Lisa Palmer, an extremely hard thrower who beat Pennsbury twice in one year and later excelled at the University of Virginia. Bensalem had a very capable pitcher in Denise Harmon.
And then there’s the not-so-small matter of the pitching at Conwell-Egan. In fact, you could argue the Eagles’ pitching was as good as anyone else in Lower Bucks.
Leading the way, of course, is Angel Bunner. All the hard-throwing lefty did is shatter all kinds of strikeout records while pitching to a microscopically-low ERA. Bunner later starred at Auburn University and pitched in the pro league. She takes a back seat no pitcher in the entire area.
Said highly-respected former Cherokee coach Mike “Doc” Medrick after facing Bunner in the Rancocas Valley Tournament: “That girl can make the ball dance.”
Conwell-Egan has also produced the likes of Lois Mickles, Carrie McCarthy, Donna Hensor, Laura DeZolt and Ashley Tobar. All of them were hugely successful in their own right and won championships while recording a plethora of strikeouts.
In her senior season, Tobar was named the Pennsylvania Player of the Year. Yours truly never saw Mickles or McCarthy, but DeZolt and Hensor could flat out throw gas.
Many of those Conwell-Egan pitchers also competed in the so-called “Pool Game” in which the Eagles and Pennsbury would annually