Owen J. Roberts Softball Falls to Neshaminy

MIDDLETOWN -- Lexi Vaszily fidgeted slightly in the dugout as a coach wrapped ice around her pulled right quad. A few feet away, starting pitcher Taylor Shultz kept her right arm as still as possible, keeping her own batch of ice in place.

Though Owen J. Roberts (18-5) lost a tough 2-1 game to Neshaminy on a hot Friday afternoon -- ending the Wildcats' run at a PIAA District One Championship -- the goal of reaching the Pennsylvania state tournament remained.

"We're pretty disappointed right now," Vaszily said. "A 10 out of 10. But we can't dwell on it. We have to come back with a fire. We want to get into states and we know we can do it."

Because of the loss in the district quarterfinals, the fifth-seeded Wildcats will host North Penn on Tuesday, then must beat the winner of Downingtown West and Souderton to earn the final spot at states. The Redskins go on to play top-seeded Pennsbury in the semifinals.

OJR eliminated Neshaminy in two of the previous three seasons, but that wasn't a factor on a perfect Friday afternoon.

"It was just two good teams playing each other," OJR head coach Kevin Kirby said.

Vaszily, bad quad and all, gave OJR a 1-0 lead with a two-out home run in the first inning, but the Wildcats gave it back in the bottom of the inning on an RBI by Lauren Altenburger.

Shultz and Neshaminy starter Lauren Quense dueled into the fifth, when Neshaminy pushed across the eventual winning run. Dana Knapp doubled leading off, advanced to third on a fielder's choice and scored on a Diana Lapalombara squeeze bunt.

"I think we all knew it was coming, but it was a good bunt," Shultz said. "There's nothing really you can do. You just have to shake it off."

Quense pitched around two walks, but did her best work in the final inning. Vaszily singled to start the inning and was sacrificed to second. Sarah Dowd then legged out an infield hit and took second on a wild pitch.

Rebounding, Quense induced a pop out from Rachel Schwab and struck out Jasmine Dutton to end the game.

"A base hit and we're ahead," Kirby said. "It just wasn't meant to be, but they're a great team. She's a great pitcher and we knew we weren't going to have many chances. There are a lot of good teams here. Obviously, we would've liked to have been able to play for a [district] championship, but we still have the opportunity to get into states. These kids have great character. We battled all the way back and we'll battle back on Tuesday."

Seniors Vaszily, the school career record-holder in home runs and RBIs, and Shultz will lead that charge.

"We came out strong in the beginning, but made a couple of errors," she said. "We  just couldn't pull through this time. We will next time."