Another Walk-off Loss for Hatter Softballers at CB South

For six and a half innings, Hatboro-Horsham played its best game of the season Friday afternoon at Central Bucks South in a key Suburban One League/Continental Conference softball game.

But for the fourth time this season, the Lady Hatters left the field victimized with a loss on the final play of the game.

Leading 4-1 when the bottom of the seventh began, HHHS walked away with a 5-4 defeat to the arch-rival Titans as Maddie Bieber's two-out flare blooped over shortstop Daria Edwards and into left field for a game-winning single.

Heading into the final two weeks of the regular season, the Lady Hatters (7-5 overall, 6-4 in conference) need to win all of their remaining games to ensure a spot in the District One playoffs.

That stretch begins on Tuesday at 3:45 p.m. when Hatboro-Horsham hosts North Penn in a conference game. The Lady Hatters have one more conference road game on Thursday at Quakertown and then host Bensalem in a non-conference contest on Friday to cap a crucial week of play.

For the first six innings, Hatboro-Horsham displayed brilliant defense — sparkling with at least a half-dozen star-caliber plays — and clutch hitting and base running to build a lead against the talented Titans (8-5, 7-3).

Facing the Continental Conference's hardest thrower, Hailey Warner, the Lady Hatters struck early to grab the game's momentum.

After Warner struck out the first two batters and was just a strike away from blowing away the side, Edwards golfed a 1-2 pitch into the jet stream of wind blowing from left to right and launched the ball over the center-field fence for a solo homer, her fourth clout of the season and her second off Warner.

Startled by the quick change of events, Warner walked Jen Cader on four pitches and Cader quickly used her speed to steal second conventionally and third on a delayed burst as the ball was returned from Lauren McCarthy behind the plate to Warner in the circle.

When Warner threw wildly to third, Cader scampered home with the second run of the inning.

HHHS pitcher Lexie Campbell, meanwhile, relied on her defense to hold CB South without a hit and to only one walk for four innings after Hope Durreff led off the game with a single up the middle.

The Titans finally broke through to cut the lead in half in the fifth when Bieber broke a string of nine consecutive retired batters with a double to right field.

Bieber should have been out at third on the play, but a relay throw and subsequent rundown went awry and foreshadowed events that would unfold in the bottom of the seventh.

Bieber eventually got to third on a wild pitch and scored the Titans' first run on a ground on McCarthy's ground out to Megan Hallock at third.

Warner would dominate the Lady Hatter batters at times with 10 strikeouts and only allowed three hits and three walks, but Hatboro-Horsham added two seemingly huge insurance runs in the top of the sixth.

With one out, Edwards walked on a 3-2 pitch as Warner worked her with extreme care for the second time after the first-inning homer and Cader made her pay with a booming homer well over the right-center field fence for a two-run home run to make it 4-1.

Campbell showed signs of fatigue in the bottom of the sixth, loading the bases with two outs, but she got out of trouble by getting a pop-up that second baseman Jaynie Black tracked down in the wind for the third out.

With the bottom of the order coming up for CB South in the final inning, Campbell ran out of gas walking two of the first three batters in between a strikeout.

Dureff loaded the bases with a single to center and HHHS finally made a pitching change to reliever Kaeli Simmons. But Simmons plunked Taylor Marinelli on the helmet with a pitch to force in a run and dangerous Maddie Decker stroked a single just over the glove of a leaping Daria Edwards to make it 4-3.

On the play, Marinelli tried to scoot to third as a perfect throw from Jamie Mroz was cut off and Durreff stopped correctly at third. But the Lady Hatters were late getting Marinelli into a rundown and she beat the throw back to second base to cost HHHS a crucial out.

When Taylor Risich slapped a grounder wide of the bag at third, Hallock's only plate was to first base for what would have been the third out of the inning had the rundown been executed correctly.

Instead of finishing off the win, however, Durrett scored from third with the tying run and set up Bieber's heroics.

Bieber initially reacted like she had popped into the final out of the inning, breaking late from the batter's box, but the ball went over Edwards' head and flopped on the left-field grass as Marinelli brought in the winning run from third.

Both teams then went back into position momentarily to continue the inning before realizing the game was over. CB South then reacted in a wild celebration, mobbing Bieber and Durreff as the Titans capped off another walk-off win — their fourth of the year.