So it looks like practice does make perfect.
Thomas Jefferson spent a lot of practice time since its semifinals loss to North Hills working on defense, and it showed with a perfect display as the Jaguars avenged their WPIAL semifinal loss to the Indians with a PIAA Class 5A quarterfinal victory Thursday at West Mifflin, 4-0.
“I’m telling you, we practiced all week the ground ball to third, touch the bag and throw to first,” Thomas Jefferson coach Heidi Karcher said. “The flares going between the middle (infielders and outfielders), the pop flies to the catcher — those are the plays that are game-changing plays. Literally, that’s what we practiced.”
Coach’s intuition paid off in an outstanding defensive display by the Jaguars to support the pitching of Aubree Shaffer.
The junior allowed only three hits, no walks and struck out seven.
It was a totally different outcome than when North Hills rallied for five runs in the final two innings to beat TJ in the district final four, 5-3.
“We had that game in the WPIAL semifinals and it just got away from us,” Karcher said. “There was a different demeanor in Aubree, a different snap. She has always taken command of the mound. She was on fire, spinning and doing all kind of stuff. That was the difference.”
That and three above-average defensive plays by the Jaguars.
With Emma Sutton on second base and two outs in the top of the third inning, the Indians’ Lily Adamski was robbed on a run-producing single on a diving catch in shallow left-center field by Sophia Janosko.
With two on and one out in the top of the fourth inning for North Hills, Emma Culver hit a sharp ground ball to third that was fielded by the Jags’ Zoie DeCostro, who stepped on third and gunned it to first base for an inning-ending double play.
That snuffed out the Indians’ final threat as Shaffer retired the last 10 North Hills batters in a row.
“TJ played great today,” North Hills coach Libby Gasior said. “That center fielder on that one diving play, they were going all out to make every play, which is why it’s so much fun playing in June because everybody is going all out playing for the same thing.”
While the defense and pitching was stellar for the Jaguars, their bats had some life as well.
Thomas Jefferson had seven hits against Indians senior pitcher Abby Sutton, but five of them were for extra bases.
It started for TJ in the bottom of the first inning when senior Adalina Bracco hit a two-out solo homer deep over the left-field fence.
“It felt great because it’s my first one of the year,” Bracco admitted. “I’ve come close a couple of times, but it felt great. I trust the girls ahead of me and when (Janosko) came up and put the ball to the warning track, I knew I could come up there and do that. So I was calm, 2-1 count, and I was looking for something up in the zone.”
In the bottom of the third, Janosko tripled and scored on a Bracco single.
TJ extended the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning when Giuliana Mendel doubled and scored on a Rylee Nemcheck triple.
The game’s final run in the sixth was a microcosm of how big defense can be.
Two pitches after a pop fly fell foul after being misjudged by the Indians, Camdyn Noderer homered for the exclamation point on the Jaguars’ sweet revenge.
North Hills’ surprise postseason run began as the No. 11 seed in the WPIAL playoffs, continued with a berth in the Class 5A district title game and ended Thursday with the loss that dropped them to 13-9.
“This one hurts, for sure. These kids gave it everything they have,” Gasior said. “TJ played great today, and we just came up a little bit empty. It was a great run, and they had a ton of fun doing it.”
Thomas Jefferson improves to 19-7 and will face two-time WPIAL champion Shaler in the PIAA Class 5A semifinals Monday.
“Losing that (district) semifinal game, there was a little extra fuel in the fire there for us to really want to win that game,” Karcher said. “We practiced so hard to get to where we are right now. I’m just glad it came to fruition.”