Springside shortstop Devin McInerney transfers the ball from her glove to her throwing hand in preparation for a toss to first base.

Springside School pitcher Natalie Klotz collected eight strike outs while giving up just one walk last Tuesday, and the junior helped her Lions out-hit visiting Germantown Academy 9-2 to come away with a 12-1 victory.

It was the first complete official game of the 2009 softball season for Springside, which had its opener against Episcopal Academy interrupted by rain back at the start of the month.

GA’s Patriots left Chestnut Hill last Tuesday with a 3-2 overall record and an 0-2 mark within the Girls Inter-Ac League (they’d fallen to Penn Charter on March 31). Germantown pitcher Danielle Battaglia, an 11th-grader, registered three strike-outs and four walks in the Springside game.

Even in warm-ups, things did not go well for the Patriots, as senior Tiffany Lawson went down with an injury. GA’s starting centerfielder and lead-off batter, Lawson has signed with Division I Fairfield University.

However, none of GA’s four errors in the game occurred in centerfield, and Lawson’s bat couldn’t have had a decisive impact on an 11-run contest. Neither could she have done anything about the amount of ball contact made by the Springside batters throughout the game, nor the strong overall effort by the Lions’ Klotz.

Chestnut Hill College sticksters drub Tigers
by Tom Utescher

On her way to the goal, Chestnut Hill College freshman Kelly McKay (right) skirts a Holy Family defender.

In the middle of the 2008-2009 basketball season, the women of Holy Family University laid a 76-25 licking on host Chestnut Hill College, but when the HFU Tigers visited Chestnut Hill’s lacrosse pitch last Thursday afternoon, the Griffins got their revenge.

Junior twin sisters who play both sports for CHC helped lead the Griffin stickwomen on a 23-5 romp over the Tigers, a first-year franchise in lacrosse. Carley Glass posted five goals and four assists, and her sister Maryanne contributed four goals and one assist as Chestnut Hill raised its record to 8-4 overall and 5-2 in the Central Atlantic Athletic Conference. Griffin senior Katie Donovan led all scorers for the afternoon, ringing up nine goals and one assist against Holy Family (0-11, 0-7).

Another Chestnut Hill upperclassman, goalkeeper Steph Jordan, turned aside seven shots for the victory. Her opposite number, Melissa Jenkins, finished with 15 saves for Holy Family, while the Tigers’ offense was paced by freshman Gina Mansi, who recorded a hat trick.

Deciding that what is good for the gander must be good for the goose, Penn Charter has introduced an early-season invitational track meet for girls that is reminiscent of the longstanding boys meet that Chestnut Hill Academy hosts at the start of April each year.

With rainy conditions prevailing during last Saturday’s inaugural Penn Charter Relays, the only field event that took place was the shot put, but there was a lot of spirited competition on PC’s all-weather track as the Quakers competed against visitors from Germantown Friends and Springside School, along with Friends Central.

CHC shortstop Shannan Burdziak (right) looks on as left fielder Jessica Day (left) throws the ball (top left) to cut-off man Amanda Corcoran (#20) at third base. The ball had been hit to left field by Alyssa Cataldo of visiting St. Thomas Aquinas College. Her STA teammate Joy Ferriello (#13) tried to score from second base on the play, but Corcoran threw her out at home where her twin sister, catcher Ashley Corcoran, was waiting.

Both contests in last Wednesday’s doubleheader at Chestnut Hill College were tight games going into the seventh inning, but after that the plot took two very different turns for the host Griffins.

Game one was tied, 6-6, at the end of the sixth frame, then visiting St. Thomas Aquinas churned out seven runs in the top of the seventh and blanked CHC in the bottom half to claim a 13-6 victory. In the second bout in the twin bill the Griffins had a 9-8 edge going into the seventh stanza, and this time they shut down the Spartans and wrapped up the one-run victory.

Each of the struggling squads was happy to notch at least one victory; St. Thomas returned to Sparkill, NY with a record of 3-22, and Chestnut Hill emerged with a mark of 4-22.

Both of Chestnut Hill’s starting pitchers went the distance. In the opener Shannan Burdziak, a sophomore out of Bishop McDevitt High School, did not record any strike-outs, but only walked one batter. She gave up a total of 17 hits, eight of them coming during the pivotal seventh inning. In the second game, Griffins freshman Kayla Shoap struck out five batters, walked six, and gave up a dozen hits.