Town and Country Newspaper

Sports Article

Perkiomen Softball Mounts Epic Comeback After Tough Second Inning

Written by Matt D'Ippolito, Correspondent
2013-05-01

Perkiomen first baseman Anya Schultz reaches for the throw to the bag on a base hit in Tuesday's home game against Barrack Academy.

It took some early motivation, but once the Perkiomen School’s softball team found its footing, momentum followed in Tuesday’s 14-9 victory over J.M. Barrack Academy.

The motivation came in the form of a five-run offensive showing by Barrack (6-5) at the start of the second. After an uneventful first inning, Barrack lit up the scoreboard with a hard double to deep center field, a base hit and another base on defensive error at second base.

After a sacrifice fly sent another runner home, Barrack had two more errors to be thankful for after a dropped third strike followed by a fielding error at first allowed another runner home and the batter to reach first. One more error at first set up Barrack to bring in two more runs off a massive double before Mindy Gallagher fielded a pop-up to end the tough top of the inning.

Perkiomen’s only score in the second came from catcher Dorita Deveney after she stole second and then third while third baseman Gabby Glinski racked up a full count. On the next pitch, Glinski managed to nail one right between the legs of Barrack’s shortstop to send Deveney home.

On the defensive side of things, Perkiomen would manage to hold Barrack for the next four innings while pushing forth a steady offensive campaign to a 14-5 lead. It started with a strong third inning, bringing the team to within a point of Barrack.

“That one good inning is really what you need to get you motivated,” Assistant Coach Trevor Smith said. “It seemed to really help us out a lot.”

After shortstop Adrianna Munoz got a hit and then stole second, an error in left field off a rocket from Gallagher allowed her to score, with Gallagher just managing to slide into third. Anya Schultz would bat her in next, with Deveney stealing her way around the bases to get the Panthers their fourth run of the game.

Perk would get three more runs in the fourth, with Gallagher batting two in off a hard triple to the back of right field, to gain the lead, and another five in the fifth, with Gallagher smacking another triple into back right to put up another three runs.

Stolen bases and heavy hitting were Perkiomen’s secret weapons on offense throughout the game. They put a stop to the defensive errors early on to halt Barrack’s scoring. Coach Smith chalked the second inning up to early jitters, considering the team was coming off a loss at Barrack on Thursday.

In the top of the seventh, though, freshman pitcher Meghan MacIntyre was finally getting tired. She hit two batters after allowing a hit, to load the bases. An error in left field would bring those three runners home and Barrack scored one more run on a fielder’s choice.

But the next two runners would get out at first thanks to some solid fielding on Perkiomen’s part. Smith couldn’t place any blame on his pitcher, though.

“I think that this is one of the best games she’s thrown,” he said. “She got a little tired there at the end, but after everything she was doing for us beforehand, I can’t really complain. She found it in her to get the last couple of outs and that’s all I can ask for.”

Looking ahead, Smith said the key is to keep up the momentum “and not get too overconfident, just keep our heads in it.”

“If we play like we played today, I have no doubts that we will do great.”

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