North Penn Softball traveled to Myrtle Beach a few weeks ago to start their season and characteristically came out with two hard-fought wins. While winning in another state is a thrilling experience, the North Penn Softball girls can agree that there is no better feeling than starting their season with a home win.

Tuesday afternoon, the Knights (3-0) hosted the Pennridge Rams (1-1) for their home opener and their first game back in Pennsylvania. The Knights defeated the Rams 11-1 as the game ended in the fifth inning when junior Gianna Cimino scored the eleventh run of the game.

¨Obviously we want to make an impression for our first game back in Pennsylvania, so the fact that we came out and had a convincing win was a good start to the season,¨ senior Julia Shearer expressed.

After Shearer struck the first batter out, her next pitch was hit over the fence for a home run for the Rams. Shearer immediately bounced back striking out the next two batters and went on to strike out 14 of the 15 potential outs, giving up only two more hits throughout the game.

¨I think our enthusiasm was big. We didn’t let our own mistakes affect other people and made sure the team stayed hyped really helped us push through the game,¨ senior Brie Wilmot stated.

At the bottom of the first, senior Annabelle Smink and Shearer were both walked which resulted in the first two runs for the Knights. Cimino followed up with a double and was then able to score after a single from junior Casey Sokol gave her an open path to home plate.

¨Our communication on and off the field and our hitting and pitching were definitely our biggest strengths throughout this game,¨ Sokol explained.

In the second inning, Shearer hit a double but was just short of a home run as she struck the ball just a couple of feet from the fence. Senior Sarah Sabocsik followed with a bunt single that took the defense by surprise, resulting in a throwing error that allowed Shearer to score her second run of the night. The last run of the inning was scored by Sabocsik off a hit from Smink.

The Knights had already secured a 5-1 lead but that just wasn’t enough. At the bottom of the fifth and final inning, the Knights scored a total of six runs. Contributing to the final six runs of the game was junior Jackie Diaz, freshman Cailin Halfpenny, Shearer, Smink, Wilmot, and Cimino.

¨One game at a time. Every game is important but you don’t want to lose your first one and you want to come out and play hard, which is what they did,¨ Torresani said. ¨It’s always important to win the first home game. You want to start off your season, especially at home. We played two games down in Myrtle and did well, but the nerves are always here at home. I’m just proud of all of the girls. They worked very hard and they continue to work.¨

The Knights look to build their winning streak with back-to-back home games this week against Central Bucks West on Thursday and Owen J. Roberts on Friday, both at 3:45.

¨Pennridge is a good team so by doing what we did against them, shows a lot of promise for what the rest of the season has in store. We have a lot of good teams coming up so this is just a confidence booster for us,¨ Shearer commented.