PENNSBURY:Shafer, St. Hubert's eliminate Lady Falcons

By Rick Fortenbaugh
For the Yardley News

PHILADELPHIA — Location, location, location.
This seems to be as good an explanation as any as to how St. Hubert’s Melissa Robinson silenced the Pennsbury High School softball team’s bats yesterday, because she sure didn’t do it with trickery or heat.
In the first ever appearance of a Philadelphia Catholic League (PCL) team in the PIAA Class AAAA softball tournament, it was PCL champion St. Hubert’s beating SONL champion Pennsbury, 2-0, yesterday (June 1) on the La Salle University field.
Making the season-ending loss even tougher for the Falcons (18-5) is the fact St. Hubert’s is coached by none other Dave Shafer.
Shafer, of course, enjoyed tremendous success in a previous coaching stint at Bishop Conwell, and this wasn’t the first time the outstanding coach stuck it to Pennsbury.
“The early 1990s," replied Shafer when asked when was the last time he beat the Falcons when he was coaching at Bishop Conwell.
“This was a great win for our program and a great win for our league. Nobody gave us much of a chance in this game."
From the beginning, it was obvious Shafer had his Bambies (20-3) ready to play after capturing the District 12 title the previous week.
Pennsbury came out strong in the top of the first when it got singles by Alyssa Shirley (pictured) and Kirby Groves, but Robinson worked her way out of the jam with two grounders to good-looking shortstop Brittany Meehan.
That was pretty much the end of Pennsbury, which had only two base runners in the last four innings and never more than one runner in an any inning after the first.
The way Robinson did it was pretty simple. The junior righty did strike out the side in the seventh, but finished with just four Ks in the entire game.
It didn’t matter because a steady diet of inside-corner pitches had the Falcons constantly popping up or launching fairly-hard-but-harmless fly balls to Bambi right fielder Tara Robinson.
“Melissa has great control," replied Shafer when asked what makes her so effective. “She spots her pitches really well. Today, she did a great job of getting in on their hands."
Pennsbury’s Kait Schilling also threw a nice game, but was undone by a rocky third inning.
It all started with a walk to No. 9 batter Brianna Kenney. From there, Meehan put down a beautiful bunt single past Falcon third baseman Rebecca Erb and Kristin Tyrell sacrificed them to second.
With runners on second and third and one out, Pennsbury elected to more or less intentionally walk hard-hitting Gina Sciarrone.
On paper, this was probably the right move, but on the field, it was a disaster as pitcher Melissa Robinson helped her own cause by socking a hard two-run single through the middle of the infield.
Schilling prevented further damage in the bottom of the third with a pair of grounders back to the circle. She also sailed home in the last three innings to finish with a two-hitter.
But the fact both Bambi hits came in that third and a walk to throw in proved to be too much for the Falcons to overcome.
Especially for a normally-potent Pennsbury lineup that might have been better served to back off the plate a bit and go opposite field if Robinson compensated by sitting on the outside corner.
“She got us to pop up," snapped Falcon head coach Frank McSherry, when asked what Robinson did to shut down his team.
“You have to give them credit. She pitched really well and we got beat by a better team."
This was the diplomatic side of McSherry. Inside, you just knew he was not happy.
“Yes, we expected to do more (at the plate)," McSherry added. “You can’t get shut out like that."
While Pennsbury silently boarded the bus, the St. Hubert’s players were all celebratory smiles.
After this, you probably won’t hear too many Falcon fans disparage the Philly Catholic League for awhile.
***

LINESCORES
123 456 7 — R H E
Pennsbury 000 000 0 — 0 5 1
St. Hubert’s 002 000 x — 2 2 0
(June 1 at LaSalle)
WP-M. Robinson. LP-Schilling (15-4). RBIs: M. Robinson 2.