Neshaminy: 'Skins open with a win

By Rick Fortenbaugh
Staff Writer

LANGHORNE — This was one of those season openers that went pretty much as expected.
The preseason favorite in the Suburban One National League, the Neshaminy High School softball team got its season off to a positive start yesterday by beating Bristol, 3-1.
As for Bristol, even though it lost it was a positive in the sense the Class A squad showed it can very much play with one of the top teams in the area.
In fact, Neshaminy is arguably as good a team as Bristol will see during the regular season until it runs into Notre Dame in late May.
“We lost to the best,” said a philosophical Bristol coach Mike Lalli, whose team will be right back in the heater when it hosts Christopher Dock in a key Bicentennial Athletic League game Friday.
“We’ll be fine.”
After showing a lot of promise as a freshman, Neshaminy righty Sarah McGowan came out firing yesterday by striking out four batters in the first inning and 11 overall before departing for reliever Brianna Guidos in the seventh. Many of the strikeouts were off an effective change.
McGowan yielded just one hit and would have had a shutout working if Bristol hadn’t scored in the sixth on a single by Kierstin Cain and two Redskin errors.
“Sarah has improved a lot,” said Neshaminy coach Kathleen Mullins. “She had knee surgery during the off season to remove a tumor. She says it doesn’t hurt and it looks like she can push off a lot better.”
Another good-looking sophomore pitcher, Cain (six K’s) took the loss for the Warriors, but also wasn’t very far away from throwing shutout ball.
Neshaminy’s initial run came in second when a lead off single by Kelsey Ryan and a sac allowed a run to score on the first of Bristol’s two errors.
Bristol’s second error was also a killer as Neshaminy took advantage of it to score twice in the bottom of the third.
Courtney Clee’s hard lead-off single to center started that uprising and was followed by a Bristol error with two outs. This kept the inning alive and Ryan delivered with a two-run single to center.
A junior third baseman. Ryan was 3-for-3 on the day and had half of Neshaminy’s hit total. Clee had two hits as well batting out of the second spot in the order.
“We’re missing our catcher Nicole Adamson, who is a big part of our team,” said Lalli. “We’re not sure what going on there. She tore something and is supposed to find out what’s going on today (yesterday). Our leadoff hitter (Sam Dougherty) also just started practicing a few days ago.
“We’ve been banged up the pre-season, but other than the two errors I thought we played pretty well today.’’
Against a lot of teams those miscues wouldn’t have mattered. Against a team like Neshaminy, Bristol would have needed to play a near perfect game.
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LINESCORES
123 456 7 – R H E
Bristol (0-1) 000 001 0 — 1 2 2
Neshaminy (1-0) 012 000 x — 3 6 3
WP-McGowan (1-0). LP-Cain (0-1). RBIs: N-Ryan 2.

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Pennsbury edges Interboro

FAIRLESS HILLS — It was a close call, but the Pennsbury High School softball team was able to get its season off to a winning start by downing Interboro yesterday, 2-1.
Kait Schilling was the winning pitcher as she scattered eight hits and struck out five.
All the Pennsbury scoring came in the bottom of the fifth. After a single by Deanna Devine, an error and walk to Lauren Rossi, Kirby Groves came up clutch with a two-run single.
Rebecca Erb also doubled for Pennsbury.
LINESCORES
123 456 7 – R H E
Interboro (1-1) 100 000 0 — 1 8 3
Pennsbury (1-0) 000 020 x — 2 4 0
WP-Schilling (1-0). LP-Schwartz. 2B-Schwartz (I), Erb (P). RBIs: I-Sharpless. P-Groves 2