Conwell-Egan wins PCL title

Angel Bunner and her senior teammates ended their high school careers in the way most everyone expected.

With Bunner tossing a two-hitter, Conwell-Egan blanked St. Hubert, 4-0, yesterday at Arcadia University for its fifth consecutive Catholic League softball championship and 10th overall. Since Bishop Conwell merged with Bishop Egan in 1993, the Eagles have won the title in all but four seasons.

"It's so exciting," senior second baseman Julianne Petraitis said. "We worked hard all year, really wanted this. It tops off a great season."

Overall, the program has claimed 24 league championships. It won 14 as Bishop Conwell, the first coming in 1971 and the last in 1993. Bishop Conwell, nicknamed the Cubs, won five straight crowns from 1989 to 1993.

This season, the Eagles, ranked No. 1 in Southeastern Pennsylvania by The Inquirer, went 22-3 overall and won the Northern Division regular-season title. The only league loss came against Archbishop Ryan.

"The girls have been tested all year, and they stuck their heads above the crowd," Conwell-Egan coach Sandy Hart said.

The 5-foot-9 Bunner, a hard-throwing lefthander headed to Auburn on a scholarship, struck out five and walked one. Of her 83 pitches, 57 were strikes. She mixed a fastball, change-up, drop, drop curve and screwball.

"I think I was throwing pretty hard," Bunner said. "I threw a lot of drop curves and screwballs. Both of those pitches were working well for me."

Bunner drew 12 groundouts, including seven straight to begin the game and nine in the first four innings. Overall, only three balls were hit to the outfield.

"Angel was awesome," Petraitis said. "She was on fire, bringing the heat. We knew we would need only one run to win."

The Eagles broke open a scoreless game in the bottom of the sixth, notching four runs on just two hits. Two errors - on a misplayed fly to short center field and a low throw to home plate that allowed two runs to score - sandwiched a pair of singles and a hit batsman.

Bunner (single to right field) and junior rightfielder Breanna DiTommaso (single past a drawn-in infield) helped spark the four-run outburst.

St. Hubert's Mary Hoch, a senior righthander, suffered the loss. She yielded six hits, all singles, and struck out five in six innings. Of her 78 pitches, 60 were strikes.

"She gave us trouble," Petraitis said of the Kutztown-bound Hoch. "She had a lot of movement on her ball."

First baseman Samantha Coyle (two-out double to left field in the fifth inning) and catcher Mariellen Medernach (two-out single to right in the seventh) produced St. Hubert's two hits.

The No. 5-ranked Bambies (18-8) reached the league final for the first time since 1994, when they bowed to Conwell-Egan, 10-2.

"It was a super effort," St. Hubert coach Dave Schafer said. "The girls had a great stretch run."

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WP: Angel Bunner. LP: Mary Hoch. 2B: SH-Samantha Coyle.