North Penn girls score costly victory over Hatboro-Horsham

North Penn raised its overall mark to 4-0 yesterday with a 5-4 Suburban One League Continental Conference win over defending conference champion Hatboro-Horsham but it proved a costly victory.

First baseman Stephanie Farrar, who sparked the win after the host Maidens blew an early 2-0 lead, and left fielder Danielle Kalis both were lost to injuries. The full extent of the knocks was not known at the end of the game.

Farrar was on her way to the hospital with what coach Rick Torresani described as a dislocated wrist suffered in a collision. Kalis suffered a finger injury.

"I'm happy with the win, but it breaks my heart to see the injuries," said Torresani who said that Farrar's season may be over. "I'm proud of the way we came back [after Hatboro-Horsham took the lead.] That was a huge game."

Torresani called it huge because both teams are expected to be in the hunt for the conference title. The Hatters are the defending PIAA Class AAAA champions. While they lost several key players to graduation, they return enough to make them a contender.

North Penn just moved from the National Conference to the Continental this year, but many observers consider the Maidens and Central Bucks South, another newcomer to the Continental, the two big challengers to the Hatters.

Yesterday, North Penn took a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a couple of hits and two errors. The Hatters came back with all of their runs in the fifth inning. Chelsea Edwards drove home one of the runs with a double.

"I think we lost our intensity," winning pitcher Kellianna Bradstreet said of the four-run outburst. "I just kept telling myself to throw strikes and we'd get the runs back."

The Maidens got one back in the fifth with the help of an error. They won it the next inning, the key blow being Farrar's double.

"It was a roller-coaster game," said Hatters coach Kelly Crier. "It just as easily could have been 9-0. We had a couple of cracks in our defense, but we'll learn from it."

Hatboro-Horsham 000 040 0 - 4 5 3

North Penn 020 012 x - 5 6 3

WP: Kelliana Bradstreet. LP:Danielle Dilippo. 2B: HH-Chelsea Edwards. NP Stephanie Farrar.