Springside junior Natalie Klotz winds up for a pitch.

Minutes before Springside School’s road game last Tuesday, freshman second baseman Alexis Giovinazzo arrived at the field from Penn State University, where she won second place at the 2009 PA Junior Academy of Science Competition for a project involving the physics of softball.

An hour later, with the Lions trailing host Agnes Irwin 1-0 in their season finale, the ninth grader put some of those principles into practice at the top of the fifth inning, applying the necessary force with her bat to drive the ball far out into left centerfield for a game-tying home run.

Unfortunately for Springside, the Owls, who had put up a run in the bottom of the third, were able to duplicate their scoring experiment in the sixth inning for a 2-1 lead. They then got their guests out in order at the top of the seventh to seal the win, improving to 9-2 in the Girls Inter-Ac League and 11-2 overall.

Although they were out-hit by Irwin, 6-4, the Lions played error-free defense while the Owls had two miscues in the field. Natalie Klotz, Springside’s junior pitcher, struck out six batters and walked five.

Entering the game, the Lions still had a chance to secure a share of the league championship. Springside had to beat Irwin, and Notre Dame had to win at Penn Charter. The plot went awry on both counts. While the Lions were still at Irwin’s softball field, a cellphone call from Giovinazzo’s uncle, Penn Charter Director of Admissions Steve Bonnie, relayed the news that Charter had drubbed Notre Dame, 6-1.

Springside finished up 11-4 overall, and to arrive at a final record of 8-4 in the league the Lions had split with Penn Charter and Episcopal Academy and had been swept by Irwin, while winning all of their other games. Save for a 2-0 loss to EA in eight innings, all the Lions’ defeats came in one-run games, with the first Irwin setback settled by the tiebreaker rule in the ninth inning. Springside ended up in third place, and Episcopal was fourth with a league record of 7-5, having been swept by Penn Charter for one more loss than the Lions.

With its victory over Notre Dame on Tuesday, Charter ended its season 15-4 overall and with a 10-2 Inter-Ac record that assured the Quakers of at least a piece of the league title. In a make-up game on Thursday, Notre Dame tried to become a spoiler against Agnes Irwin, but the Owls prevailed in eight innings, 4-3, tying PC for the Inter-Ac championship.

At Irwin last Tuesday, Giovinazzo singled up the middle in the first inning, and fellow freshman Aly Markey did the same in the second. With one out at the top of the third, a grounder hit by the Lions’ Devin McInerney zipped right between the legs of the Irwin shortstop.

After a strike-out for the second out, Springside senior Mary Trocky drew a walk and McInerney moved to second, but another strike-out retired the side. The Lions had now left four runners on base in the first three innings, continuing a pattern that persisted all season long. In its first encounter with Irwin, Springside had stranded nine baserunners, and three of them were on base with no outs in the first frame.

In Irwin’s half of the third inning last Tuesday, Katey Duffy drew a walk, then Springside gloved a grounder and a pop-up for two outs. The Irwin runner had moved to second on the ground-out and she stole third later on, called safe on a close play debated by the Lions. The Owls’ Laura Wagoner then hit an RBI single to right field which landed about 15 feet inside the line. After a walk gave the hosts a second baserunner, a pop-up ended the inning, but Irwin was up, 1-0.

With one out at the top of the fourth, Springside senior Rachel Carpenter singled through the right side, then Owls pitcher Katie Mentzinger shut down the nascent rally with two strike-outs. The junior hurler grew stronger as the game went on, ending up with a dozen strike-outs while yielding just one base on balls.

Giovinazzo’s homer in the fifth tied the game at 1-1, but the Lions then faced a serious threat as the top of Irwin’s order came up on the flip side of the inning. Klotz struck out the first batter, then Alex Caris singled and the Lions walked the dangerous Wagoner, who came to the plate batting left instead of right this time. Following a pop-up for the second out, another walk loaded the bases, but the runners were left high and dry when a fly to right field was snared by Springside senior Ali Aversa.

With two down in the top of the sixth, Irwin appeared to have the third out in hand on a routine ground-out, but the Lions’ Carpenter was safe on the play when the first baseman bobbled the catch. She didn’t get any farther, as Mentzinger recorded her third strike-out of the inning.