Emma Taylor’s walk-off homer has Haverford in 6A championship game

ROYERSFORD — Haverford’s Emma Taylor crushed the first pitch she saw in the bottom of the seventh inning.

She knew it was gone the moment it left her bat.

The junior pitcher’s walk-off home run was a no-doubter, and the Fords were officially Penn State bound.

The ball traveled 200-plus feet and over the fence in left-center field. Taylor’s walk-off bomb lifted the Fords to a 2-1 victory over Pennsbury Thursday at Spring-Ford High School in the PIAA Class 6A semifinals.

“I knew it was going over as soon as I hit it,” Taylor said. “It was incredible. I couldn’t even make it to first without watching the ball.”

Haverford will play for the state championship Thursday in Happy Valley, where it will face North Penn, a team the Fords defeated, 5-0, in the District 1 quarterfinals.

Taylor expected something good to hit from Pennsbury pitcher Ainsley McClure.

“She had given me a first-pitch strike my first at bat. It was pretty much right down the middle,” Taylor said. “I knew there was a good chance it was coming.”

When asked if it was the biggest hit of her life (as if there’s even a close second), Haverford coach Bob Newman chimed in: “It was the biggest hit of my life!”

Taylor’s round-tripper will go down as one of the greatest moments in Haverford High sports history. The Fords become only the third softball team from Delco to play for a PIAA title. Springfield lost in the old Class 3A division in 2007, but won it seven years later, becoming the county’s first softball team to win a state title. No Delco softball team had ever advanced this far in PIAA’s highest classification, until now.

There was a pile-up at home plate. The Fords greeted Taylor as several players eventually fell to the dirt, overwhelmed with excitement. Everyone was OK.

Afterward the team celebrated more by dancing and singing along to Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” Indeed, good times never seemed so good for the Fords.

Before Taylor strolled to the plate to lead off the seventh, she wiggled out of danger in the top half. Riley Mahony smacked a two-out double, then stole third base. On a 3-2 count, catcher Rowan Mulholland hit a line drive to second base Shannon Gavigan, who snagged it easily out of the air for the third out.

Haverford’s defense was stellar all game.

In the sixth inning, Pennsbury was robbed of the go-ahead run thanks to shortstop Tess Smiley, who slid to her right to keep a groundball off the bat of Ali Charlier from going in the outfield. The Falcons would’ve grabbed a 2-1 lead had Smiley not made the stop.

“It was insane. I just know that we have a really strong defense out there,” Smiley said. “And so I knew I needed to get that ball to save this game.”

With two outs and the bases juiced, Emma Hause hit a shallow fly to right fielder Rachel Yocom, who sprinted toward foul territory and made a basket catch.

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