IMMACULATA- One run had already scored and with the tie run on first and the winning run at the plate, the Knights tried to pull off the comeback but came up just short.

The North Penn Knights (21-2) lost to the 4th-seeded Downingtown West Whippets (20-2) 3-2 in the District One 6A Title Game.

“We just didn’t hit today and I really believe in the direction that we are going.  As long as they play the way they’ve been playing, we’ll be okay.  Again it’s timely hitting, we got two of the three, good defense, good pitching, but we didn’t get timely hitting today,” Head Coach Rick Torresani said.

The Whippets came out fast and Cait Coker set the tone right away with a double into the left-center gap to leadoff the game.  Third baseman, Taylor Posner then took the ball out over the center field fence for a 2-run homer and a 2-0 lead.

“When you play teams that you haven’t seen and you’re not too sure of, you go through a stretch at the beginning of the game of trying to feel each other out.  And I didn’t call the right pitches and two girls got the hits,” Coach Torresani said.

The Knights answered back with a run in the bottom of the first inning off an Elia Namey single.  Namey advanced to 2nd on the throw home and it was runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out for Jamie Beer.  Beer sent a fly ball into center field that Meghan Sinkus caught.  Sinkus threw home and her throw was on the money as it got Gianna Costello out on the tag.

In the 3rd inning, a single up the middle by Posner scored Coker and made it a 3-1 game.

The Knights held them to 3 runs for the rest of the game and went for the walk-off win in the 7th inning.  Mady Volpe was a couple inches away from hitting a clutch 2-run homer as the ball went just left of the left field foul pole.  Luckily for the Whippets it was a foul ball and Volpe grounded out.  Beer was on 3rd and Lizzy Stark came up to bat.  Stark hit a ground ball and when the first baseman, Morgan DeFreitas, went to catch the ball for the last out, she stepped off the base and Stark was safe as Beer scored.  Sophia Collins came up next and worked out a 2-2 count.  Whippets pitcher, Katie Zibello, delivered the 2-2 pitch and got Collins to pop up for the last out of the game.

However, the season for the Knights is not over yet.  They qualified for the state tournament by winning in the district quarterfinals and will play the loser of the District 11 Championship game.