DREXEL HILL, PA- It was a pitchers duel for six innings on a sunny afternoon Thursday at Monsignor Bonner-Prendergast High School. With a trip to the Catholic League Semifinals on the line, neither Molly McNulty for Bonner-Prendergast or Melissa Hess for St. Hubert’s were going to allow their teams to lose without a fight to the finish.
It was just over a week earlier where McNulty got the best of the St. Hubert’s lineup, cruising to a complete game win that ultimately earned Bonner-Prendergast home field in this quarterfinal game. However, St. Hubert’s refused to allow Bonner’s star pitcher to dictate the game this time around.
From the first inning on, St. Hubert’s was aggressive at the plate, and had runners on base in three of the first four innings. They scored the first run of the game in the top of the third inning on a RBI double to right field by Lindsey Davies.
Bonner-Prendergast responded in the bottom half of the third inning with a run of their own and the game was tied at 1-1. Both McNulty and Hess were dialed in for the rest of the way and it seemed as though the game was destined for extra innings.
Then came the top of the seventh inning, where McNulty gave up a double by Julia Vizza that was ripped into left center field. Liz Schule then singled down the left field run to put runners on first and second with no outs. With the go-ahead run on second base, opposing pitcher Melissa Hess stepped to the plate to face her counterpart. With a 2-2 count, McNulty fired a fastball belt high that was smashed to deep left field for a double and gave St. Hubert’s a 2-1 lead.
Bonner-Prendergast then tacked on two more runs with RBI fielder’s choice plays to score Hess and Schule.
Leading 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh, all Hess had to do was get three more outs to earn her team a trip to the semifinals. It wasn’t easy, however, as Hess surrendered a walk and a base hit to right field to start the inning. Then, Hess dug deep and was able to get three straight outs on an infield pop up, a groundout to shortstop, and a strikeout to end the game.
St. Hubert's Pitcher Melissa Hess
Prendergast then tacked on two more runs with RBI fielder’s choice plays to score Hess and Schule.
Leading 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh, all Hess had to do was get three more outs to earn her team a trip to the semifinals. It wasn’t easy, however, as Hess surrendered a walk and a base hit to right field to start the inning. Then, Hess dug deep and was able to get three straight outs on an infield pop up, a groundout to shortstop, and a strikeout to end the game.
St. Hubert’s was able to get payback on Bonner-Prendergast from last week’s loss. More importantly, they were able to finally get to McNulty who has been a force on the mound all season, but St. Hubert’s skipper claimed it was far from easy.
“She’s a tremendous pitcher who pounds the strike zone and has great location,” St. Hubert’s head coach David Schafer said. “Our mindset from the first inning was to come in and be aggressive, and unfortunately it didn’t show on the scoreboard until the last inning.”
It was a disappointing end for Bonner-Prendergast, as they had aspirations of going further in the playoffs and perhaps winning a Catholic League championship. Despite coming up short of those goals, Bonner-Prendergast coach Devin Manion is proud of the way her team battled all season long.
“I’m very proud of my team, we won a lot of close games this year and it’s just unfortunate that we came up short today. Give credit to St. Hubert’s, they played an outstanding game today and got some timely hits at the end.”
Next up for St. Hubert’s, they will take on Archbishop Ryan in the Catholic League semifinals on Monday at Arcadia University.