Defending PA Independent Schools (PAIS) softball champion Springside Chestnut Hill Academy began play in the 2025 PAIS tournament last Monday afternoon at Laurel Field. The SCH Blue Devils, the top seed, advanced out of the quarterfinal round with a 3-0 victory over number nine Westtown School. Westtown previously won a tournament play-in game against Mercersburg Academy, 6-5.

The biggest news for SCH last Monday involved an individual achievement: sophomore pitcher Sami Snyder recorded her 500th career strike-out during the contest. She's already a third-year starter for the Blue Devils, having arrived at the school and the varsity softball team as an eighth grader.

Going the distance against Westtown, she struck out 12 batters with no walks, giving up three hits. The visiting Moose had a talented young pitcher of their own in current eighth-grader Leah Fulton. She logged eight strike-outs while giving up one walk and six hits.

Monday's quarterfinal at SCH moved along quickly, with Westtown batters going down one-two-three in four of their turns at the plate, while the Blue Devils were out in order three times.

The top of the first inning whizzed by in this manner, but in the bottom half a single over short by senior Layla Shands and a walk to freshman Emma Canton gave the hosts two baserunners with two outs. Westtown's Fulton ended the inning with her third strike-out.

The Moose produced two of their three total hits at the top of the second, with the lead-off batter beating out a throw to first base for a single, then moving to third on a double to center field. Springside's Snyder struck out the next two batters, catching a pop-up to keep the scoreboard clean.

In the bottom of the second inning and the top of the third, each team only got three batters up to the plate. The bottom half of the third began with two SCH outs, but then Shands got to first thanks to an error by the visitors. Senior Morgan Risnychok belted an RBI triple to right center, and although a third out came right after that, the Blue Devils now had what would prove to be the winning run.

The fourth was a one-two-three inning for both sides, and in the top of the fifth an SCH error mounted a Moose runner on second base, but she would be left stranded.

Ella Thomson, a Blue Devil sophomore, singled over the head of the first baseman to start the home half of the inning. A strike-out followed, but Thomson was able to steal second. Junior Sadie Friedman then hit the ball through the right side of the infield. She made it to second as Westtown threw to home but was unable to stop Thomson from scoring to make it 2-0.

Friedman made third on a ground-out to the pitcher by Shands, then Risnychok lofted a very high fly ball along the line in second. Two Moose fielders moved toward the ball, but it fell to earth, and Friedman scored to tack the 3-0 final on the scoreboard. Canton followed this with a single, but a fly out to centerfield ended frame five.

Neither squad got a runner on base in the sixth, and the top of the seventh inning began with Snyder handling a ground ball for the first out. The next Moose hitter singled between third and short, then the last two of Snyder's strike-outs wrapped up the affair.

In its Inter-Ac League play this season, SCH earned a split in its home/away series against defending champion Episcopal Academy. However, the Blue Devils also split with Germantown Academy and Penn Charter. PC lost twice to Episcopal, finishing with a 7-3 record in the league. SCH, which had its second game with the Academy of Notre Dame rained out and then cancelled, came in at 6-3. GA placed fourth, at 5-5.

Episcopal, with a 9-1 mark, won the league title outright for the third year in a row (EA and SCH shared the title in 2022). Also for the third year in a row, the Churchwomen chose not to enter the PAIS tournament, leaving SCH and PC as the first and second seeds, respectively.