OJR Softball Misses States With Loss To Souderton

By the time the bus arrived from the final game of her Owen J. Roberts softball career, Lexi Vaszily discovered the words to sum up her feelings.

"It's sad to think I'll never wear the Wildcat uniform again," Vaszily said. "I'm really disappointed, but everyone tried their best. "It was a good year and everyone did their best, but it was a heartbreak to lose."

The heartbreak came via a season-ending, 2-0 loss to Souderton on Thursday afternoon at Norristown High School, in the final playback game of the PIAA District One Tournament.

The Indians earned the final berth in the state tournament that begins next week.

For the second straight year, the Wildcats missed qualifying for the PIAA state tourney, despite winning the PAC-10 league and going 19-5 overall.

OJR has won the league outright in three of Vaszily's four seasons, and shared the title in the other year, and went to states in 2008 and 2009.

Though they had chances early, OJR ran into a sizzling pitcher in Liz Parkins, who allowed four hits and struck out 12.

"She was good," Vaszily said. "We had some trouble hitting her, but they made plays when they needed to. We just couldn't pull through."

The Wildcats threatened in the second when two runners reached to start the inning, but Parkins' devastating rise ball induced a popped up on a bunt attempt, then recorded a pair of strikeouts.

Parkins then lined a two-out single to center field to score Taylor Schwartz with Souderton's first run off OJR ace Taylor Shultz, who allowed six hits and fanned eight.

In the sixth, a brilliant throw by Indians right-fielder Moira Golden cut down Vaszily trying to reach third on Megan Moore's single.

The Indians scored an insurance run in the top of the seventh. Schwartz led off with a single, and went all the way to third on Sarah Derstine's sacrifice bunt. Meghan Weisel then blooped a single over the drawn-in infield.

"They got the hits with people on and we didn't," OJR coach Kevin Kirby said.

The Wildcats went down 1-2-3 in the seventh, ending the careers of Vaszily and fellow seniors Shultz, Taylor Kelly, Genna Weikert, Rachel Schwab and Jasmine Dutton.

Led by four-year starters Vaszily and Shultz, who will continue playing together at Widener University, this group has put together an impressive run of PAC-10 titles. The sextet have combined for 22 varsity letters and have never finished lower than first place in the league.

"We're not down on their accomplishments, just down on the way that it ended," Kirby said. "Our two goals every year are to win the league and get to states, and we came up just short."

"It was an awesome experience," Shultz said. "I'm going to remember it for the rest of my life. I'm glad I got to experience it with these people. It was a lot of fun."