They are here to run the table.

Returning back to the field this spring after a six-game shutout win streak that led to becoming state champions last season, North Penn softball is back and on fire. So far they haven’t lost a game this season and they aren’t planning on it.

After the best possible outcome of a high school sports season, the defending state champs are picking up right where they left off. Last season the Knights ended with a record of 26-2 and this year with a lot of key returners, they have won all nine of their games and have had seven shutouts scoring a minimum of 5 runs in a game.

“It’s just a great group of girls with a lot of chemistry. I have had teams before that were just as good, but they didn’t have the chemistry and something always came up in the season that hurt the team,” Coach Rick Torressani said.

“We had a really strong team last year. I think our connection really helped us propel our play and obviously, we had talent but just how close we were last year, that’s the main reason we were able to go as far as we did and play as well as we did,” junior varsity pitcher Julia Shearer explained.

Coming off such a successful season, some would say the girls have a lot of weight on their shoulders, but for this team, that is in the past, and they have their eye on this year’s prize.

“Everybody says are you going to defend your title and I keep telling the girls and telling everybody that asks me, we aren’t defending anything because we already won. It’s a new year, a new season, we just have to go out and do it again and that’s what our goal is,” Torressani emphasized.

“States happened. It’s over with. It’s a fresh season now and we are trying to keep that momentum going, but we cant stay on the fact that we are the state champions because that gets in our heads and makes us overconfident,” Shearer stated.

At this point, they are about halfway through their season and have so far been on a streak. Coming up is some of their harder games and teams who are gunning for their title.

“We know everyone is out to get us this year. We’ve been told multiple times that teams are out to get us so we have to take that and run with it and really just play our game,” Shearer said. “Starting off with some easier games earlier on in the season builds our confidence and with that confidence, I feel like it will enable us when we get to the harder games to really dig deep and show what we can do because we know it’s there.”

While the amount of dominance they have been showing in the beginning of the season is great, both Shearer and Torressani know it’s only going to continue with the teamwork and hard work this team displays.

“We really play as a team. We all like each other, we get along well and I feel like that connection, us being so close, makes it more lighthearted to play together,” Shearer exclaimed.

On game days the girls wear shirts repping their motto “Run the Table”, meaning they aren’t going to lose again. As Torressani explained after the last game they lost last year, the team was joking around and that’s where it came from.

“They wanted to go out and say hey, we can win every game, so let’s run the table,” Torressani explained.

The Knights are unquestionably a team full of promise and heart. Winning states last year was just the beginning of the long journey of success to come.

“Go with the game plan, know what we are facing and stay confident and humble through all of it,” Shearer said.