Softball: Radnor needs late-inning heroics to advance

PHILADELPHIA — Holly Pachella isn’t one for fielding a throw on a hop — she admits it’s a weakness of hers. Radnor’s senior catcher takes no issue with grabbing the ball out of the air and applying the tag, though. That’s her strong suit.

And when she hauled in an on-the-money relay throw from Raiders shortstop Katie Jordan with the game — and District One tournament advancement — on the line Friday, Pachella helped her team survive for at least one more game of softball. Her tag on Nazareth Academy’s Maddy Miller ended the bottom half of the seventh inning in a wild way, and allowed fifth-seeded Radnor the chance for a five-run outburst in extra innings, enabling the Raiders to take a District One Class AAA quarterfinal clash in eight innings against No. 4 Nazareth Academy, 8-3, at Philadelphia’s Fluehr Park.

Nazareth’s Tamara Jennings initially wacked a Brooke Nicander pitch to deep center with Miller on first base. Raiders center fielder Brooke McClatchy scampered back to pick up the ball, before firing it to Jordan for the cutoff.

Queue the waterworks. “I literally started crying,’ Pachella said. “I was so overcome with emotion.’

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