The Bryn Mawr Mawrtians push past the St. Vincent Pallotti Panthers in an 11-10 decision.

By Bo Smolka

Devin Hanson was a sophomore when top-seeded Bryn Mawr was upset in the C Conference championship game in 2023. Two years later, Hanson stepped forward as a senior to accept the first-place trophy after the top-seeded Mawrtians outlasted Pallotti, 11-10, in a thrilling C Conference title game that ended on a walk-off single by Bryn Mawr freshman pitcher Violet Schanbacher in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Schanbacher also had a two-run single in the second inning as Bryn Mawr opened an early 6-1 lead. She kept second-seeded Pallotti off-balance with seven strikeouts through four innings, but the Panthers solved her by smashing six straight hits in the fifth inning to tie the game at 8-8. Zoe Hamilton’s blast to right-center drove in the final two runs in a five-run inning.

“Every time we’ve played Pallotti, it’s gone back and forth like that,” Bryn Mawr coach Mike Leatherwood said. “It was a great game.”

Both teams had finished 6-1 in the conference in the regular season, but Bryn Mawr had earned the No. 1 seed by virtue of a 16-11 win in the regular-season matchup on April 17.

The ascending Panthers, seeking their first IAAM softball title, edged ahead 9-8 in the top of the sixth when Malayah White hit a flare that landed just inside the right field line and rolled to the fence for a solo home run. White finished with three hits and scored four runs.

But the Mawrtians answered in the bottom of the sixth with RBI singles by Kate Pearl and Jalise Drayton for a 10-9 lead. Pallotti tied the game again when catcher Kenzie Cameron-McCrae singled and ultimately scored on a wild pitch, setting up Schanbacher’s heroics in the bottom of the seventh.

Schanbacher confided that as she came to bat with the title on the line, she was thinking about … music.

“Just sing songs,” she said. “I am a person that gets in my head a lot, so to get out of my head, I think about completely other things … (and) let my muscle memory kick in. We’ve practiced this so much.”

Taylor Bard led off the inning with a walk for the Mawrtians, and she was on third when Schanbacher lined a no-doubt shot to right-center field that probably could have been a home run if they needed it.

Hanson, who had come so close two years ago, said, “Bottom of the seventh, I was like, ‘Do it for 2023. Get the one at-bat.’ We really wanted it, and we were able to get it.”

Hanson finished with two hits and two runs, including a two-run second-inning home run to the endless center field at Beth Tfiloh’s new fenceless turf field. She also recorded a slick out at shortstop, fielding a ball that had deflected off Schanbacher.

The title is the first for Bryn Mawr since winning the B Conference in 2015.

Pallotti coach Phillip Tomlin just shook his head after the game, acknowledging terrific effort from both teams. “That’s how games go,” he said. “The girls never flinched. We talk about ‘all gas, no brakes,’ and all my little sayings, and the girls bought into that stuff. They always think they can win when we’re up to bat. But I’m proud of these girls. The sky’s the limit for our program.”