Marple Newtown Girls Softball Fall to Radnor

RADNOR–has been in games this season. The Tigers have battled, stayed close, and all too many times that they’d care to remember, fell in the end.

The Tigers followed that script again Thursday night, but were faced with the daunting task of trying to hit Radnor junior pitcher Christy Von Pusch.

They didn’t.

Von Pusch tossed her fifth no-hitter of the season in a 3-0 Radnor victory.

The loss dropped Marple Newtown to 3-8 overall and 3-7 in the Central League, while Radnor improved to 8-5 overall and 6-4 in the league.

Von Pusch was the star offensively and defensively. She smacked her second homer of the year, a rocket to right-center field, and drove home two more runs in the sixth.

“Christy is very, very quick,” Tigers’ Coach Sue Salerno said. “Out of our nine starters, we only have two returning starters on the field, so you can say we’re young. But we’ve definitely improved since the beginning of the season. We still need to improve our hitting. We were a little late on everything tonight.”

Madeline Conca, a sophomore, took the loss, though she deserved a better fate. She had a sneaky riser that caused problems for the Radnor hitters, and almost got the Tigers on the board in the third inning when Radnor first baseman Michelle Tolan and second baseman Britney Bentz combined to make a nice play on a dribbler, just catching Conca at first.

“I always liked pitches a little faster,” Conca said. “Once you see [Von Pusch] a few times, you’re able to get around on the ball. But she’s definitely tough to hit. She’s the best pitcher in the league.”

After the Von Pusch second-inning homer, Conca did a nice job of keeping Radnor off balance until the sixth inning.

The Red Raiders made an important adjustment in the later innings. They stepped up in the batter’s box, trying to get a jumper on Conca’s effective riser. Sitting in the back of the batter’s box, the Red Raiders were swinging at air by the time the ball rose.

Radnor opened up what had been a close game and, again, Von Pusch was in the middle of the rally. The Red Raiders got a pair of runners on in the sixth, when Von Pusch nubbed a blooper that didn’t even escape the dirt infield cutout. It landed just beyond second base with the infield drawn in, yet strong enough to score a pair of runs, giving Radnor a 3-0 lead.

From there, Von Pusch closed the door on Marple Newtown. The Tigers couldn’t get the ball out of the infield, as Von Pusch coaxed the Tigers’ first two batters to ground out.

She issued her fifth walk of the game to the third batter of the inning, but any hope of building something against the dominant Von Pusch was quelled when Radnor snared the baserunner trying to steal second for the game’s final out.