Sophomore pitcher Sami Snyder logged her second perfect game of the 2025 softball season last Tuesday, when her Springside Chestnut Hill Academy squad visited the Academy of Notre Dame and came away with an 18-0 mercy-rule victory.

Snyder, already a third-year starter, struck out nine batters over five innings, while the Blue Devils' defense gloved one pop-up and had five put-outs on ground balls.

SCH improved to 2-0 within the Inter-Ac League, having knocked off Penn Charter in the league opener, 3-0. The Notre Dame victory gave the Blue Devils a 6-1 record overall, the lone loss coming by a 2-0 score on the road at the Hun School in Princeton.

Springside Chestnut Hill finished second in the Inter-Ac League in 2024, with a record of 8-2. Episcopal Academy won the title with a 10-0 mark, but did not enter the Pennsylvania Independent Schools postseason tournament. In the finals of the tournament, SCH defeated Penn Charter (third in the Inter-Ac) by a score of 10-6.

The Blue Devils graduated only one player from the 2024 roster, first baseman Kamaha'o Bode, and they remain a young team. One of last year's juniors chose not to play this spring, so the only two seniors are Morgan Risnychok and Layla Shands.

Notre Dame, whose softball program struggled in recent years, slipped to 1-6 overall and 0-3 in the league with Tuesday's loss.

Longtime SCH head coach Stephanie Mill felt that against stronger opponents this spring, the Blue Devils haven't hit well, and at Notre Dame the first two batters grounded out to the Irish. Next, however, the visitors would get all the runs they'd need for the victory on one swing of the bat by Risnychok. She whacked the ball deep near the right field line, and as Notre Dame struggled to relay the ball back to the infield, Risnychok just kept on running and made it all the way home. She plans to continue her career at Franklin & Marshall College.

The Irish then walked Snyder, junior catcher Sarah Scally, and Shands to load the bases. Freshman Emma Canton, already a member of the varsity team last spring, directed a hit to shallow right field, and two runs scored. Walks to sophomores Callan Curry and Libby Welch loaded the bases and pushed home a fourth run before Notre Dame got out of the top half of the inning.

In the home half, a ground-out, a strike-out, and a foul pop to Shands at first base began a long string of fruitless at-bats for the Irish.

The top of the second was an anomaly, as Springside Chestnut Hill only scored one run. Sophomore Ella Thomson singled, went to third on a double to right center field by Risnychok, and eventually scored on a wild pitch. After two full innings, it was 5-0.

The top of the third began with a single up the middle by Welch and a walk to junior lead-off hitter Sadie Friedman. Both would score, Welch on a failed pick-off attempt by the Irish that ended up with ball out-of-play, and Friedman on a single by Risnychok.

Later, the Devils had the bases loaded with one out, but were prevented from scoring more runs as Notre Dame retired the side with force-outs at home plate and at third base.

In the fourth inning, the home team quickly found itself in trouble again as the first three SCH batters drew walks to load the bases. Before the top half ended, Springside Chestnut Hill added four more runs to make it 11-0, passing the threshold for the mercy rule to go into effect after Notre Dame batted in the bottom of the fifth.

Even with reserve players entering the game, the Blue Devils' offense didn't slow down, and the visitors piled on seven more runs in the top of the fifth inning to reach the final score of 18-0.

Snyder, efficient as the winning pitcher, threw 42 strikes out of a total of 59 pitches. The sophomore hurler recorded her first perfect game during the Blue Devils' spring training trip to Tennessee.

Risnychok led the SCH offense, going four-for-five at the plate, scoring two runs and registering two RBI's. Canton, the freshman who's a second-year varsity player, went two-for three with two RBIs and one run scored.