SWINGING AWAY: Hun School softball player Mary Catherine ‘MC’ Shea makes contact in a game earlier this season. Last week, junior Shea went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI to help second-seeded Hun defeat third-seeded Lawrenceville 4-2 in the state Prep A semis. On Sunday, Shea and the Raiders fell just short of the title, falling 4-3 at top-seeded Blair in the Prep A championship game. The defeat left the Raiders with a final record of 10-7. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Mary Catherine ‘MC’ Shea was hitting at the bottom of the order for the Hun School softball team as it hosted Lawrenceville in the state Prep A semis last week but she ended up being the top producer.

Junior right fielder Shea blasted a run-scoring double off the fence in the bottom of the second inning and then added a single in the fifth that led to another run as the second-seeded Raiders rallied for a 4-2 win in the May 15 contest.

With Hun having split its two regular season meetings against the Big Red, Shea and her teammates were fired up for the rubber match with their rival.

“We were all super ready, not that we weren’t the past two games, but this game we came out with a vengeance,” said Shea.

“We lost to them in our first game and we came back and won our second. We knew we had to win, and we knew we wanted to go to Blair.”

On her double, Shea had a good feeling as she made contact.

“I saw the first pitch came up, it was a ball,” said Shea. “The second came outside and then I think I fouled one off. The one I got under, I didn’t feel it but I knew it was soaring. It was there.”

In the fifth inning, Shea fought off a pitch and squibbed the ball past the first baseman to get the Hun rally started. “That was lucky,” said a grinning Shea reflecting on her second hit.

Shea was thrilled to deliver in the semis, noting that she had been slumping at the plate.

“I hit really well in Florida, and then we came back and I got into a little bit of a funk,” said Shea. “I was able to break out of it.”

While Hun banged out 10 hits in the title game last Sunday, it ended up falling 4-3 at top-seeded Blair.

Hun head coach Kathy Quirk was proud of the way her team battled past Lawrenceville to get to the final.

“We just played our hearts out,” said Quirk. “Alanna [Pearson] did a great job on the mound.”

Quirk credited Shea with coming through at the right time against the Big Red.

“MC saved her hits for the end of the season,” said Quirk. “She hasn’t hit all season.”

The Raiders also showed resilience as they battled back from a 2-1 fourth inning deficit with senior pitcher Pearson getting stronger as they game went on.

“It just displays the hard work we have been giving each other and the confidence they have in their teammates,” said Quirk.

“Alanna knows she can’t strike everybody out and that she has a team behind her.”

In the title game, Hun generated scoring opportunities but failed to make the most of them.

“We had 10 hits, they had six, we just couldn’t capitalize,” lamented Quirk, whose team fell behind 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth and responded with three runs in the top of the sixth before giving up the decisive run in the bottom of the frame on a pair of infield hits.

In reflecting on the season, Quirk acknowledged that the Raiders were plagued by uneven play.

“It was a roller-coaster ride; it was up, it was down,” said Quirk, reflecting on a campaign that saw Hun overcome a 1-4 start to end up with a 10-7 record.

“We had some really key big wins. We beat Blair before in 10 innings. We had two big wins against Lawrenceville. We had a 1-0 loss against Northern Burlington, which is one of the top teams in the state.”

Hun’s trio of seniors, Julia Revock, Keelan Ryan, and Pearson, played a key role in the team’s late surge.

“Revock is the only four-year starter. She has done a great job whether she has played first base or whether she was on the mound,” said Quirk

“She is very consistent, she is very dedicated. Her job three-quarters of the time was to bunt. When we called on her, she did what she had to do. Keelan Ryan was a very steady second baseman. Both her and Julia were captains and did a nice job with the leadership skills. We had Alanna for two years. We didn’t know how she was going to be this year (due an ACL injury and broken arm suffered last summer) but I think she got stronger each game.”

Looking ahead, Quirk believes the program has a strong foundation in place.

“We have a good group returning and we just have some unfinished business to do,” said Quirk.

“We are going to have to move some people around and try to find the best combination. Erin Harrigan was the backup pitcher and she is going to be seeing a lot of playing time. There are a couple of kids coming up from the middle school.”

Quirk hopes her returning players have gained some lessons from the topsy-turvy 2018 campaign.

“I think they need more consistency,” said Quirk. “They have got to be able to bounce back when something doesn’t go right and I think they have in most cases.”

In Shea’s view, the squad’s character was a defining quality this spring. “The thing that is remarkable about this team is that we are resilient, we know we can bounce back,” said Shea. “We are at our best when we are down and we don’t let it beat us.”