Sarah Kleinbrahm (right) finished off her spectacular senior season with a league title.
If you didn’t know the name Philadelphia Academy Charter before, odds are you’re likely to now.
Winning a championship tends to do that.
Philadelphia Academy Charter — or PACS, as the school at 1700 Tomlinson Road in Somerton is known colloquially — made history last Thursday, holding off persistent rain and an even more relentless Franklin Towne Charter softball squad in an 8–7 victory at La Salle University. The win delivered PACS a Public League championship, the first major sports title for the school, which is still in its relative infancy stages.
Known around the city for its rigorous academic curriculum, PACS has now added athletic champion to its repertoire, something sure to interest more prospective students into possible matriculation.
“I was a big sports person coming in here, so this sure would make me want to come here more if I was a softball player at another school,” said senior shortstop Sarah Kleinbrahm, who knocked in three of the eight PACS runs. “Before, everyone just looked over us. They would say, ‘PACS? Huh? What’s a PACS?’ No one knew who we were, but maybe they will now. This is a big win for us.”
Thursday was PACS’ second appearance in the league title game, with the first coming in 2012, Kleinbrahm’s freshman season. The Chargers lost to Central that year and have been building to get back to that point ever since. It was pretty clear early on that 2015 title would be PACS’ to lose, given how thoroughly the Chargers dominated the rest of the league competition.
Quite simply, PACS ran roughshod over its competition. Overall, the team went 17–1, its only loss a 7–1 decision to the Catholic League’s Little Flower on April 1. Aside from Thursday’s championship game, the scores were not close, either. In fact, in those 17 wins, PACS scored 240 runs, which averages out to better than 14 runs per game; on the other side, the team allowed just 39 runs, thanks in large part to sophomore ace Riley Walker, who has looked downright superhuman for about 95 percent of the season.
“Sarah is the heart of this team, and I’ve always said we go as she goes,” said PACS head softball coach and athletic director Doug Robinson, who has helmed the program for its entire nine years of existence. “But Riley is our future. When she got here, she was our missing piece to the point where we put it together, and here we are hoisting the trophy.”
PACS defeated Towne 17–6 when the two teams had last met back on April 9, and for four innings last week, it appeared the title game was headed for a similar result. PACS pushed across six runs the first two innings, including a five-spot in the second, and Walker limited the Towne bats to just two hits through the first four frames.
But then, Towne woke up. The Coyotes were making their third straight appearance in the championship game (they won it all in 2013), and got there after erasing a 7–0 deficit against Prep Charter to win a 14–13 semifinal thriller to advance to face PACS. Head coach Jen Daley’s squad tallied seven runs and six hits in the top of the fifth against Walker, who suddenly looked human. Perhaps it was the rain, as Walker admitted afterward it was affecting her grip on the ball, as well as the spin she gets to induce weak grounders; either way, now it was a ballgame. How would PACS respond to an unfamiliar situation?
Quite well, in fact.
Kelsey O’Connor was hit by a Laura Smith pitch to open the bottom of the fifth, and Alley Berdel followed with a single. A pair of Towne errors helped push a run across to tie the score, and Liz Marynowitz’s sacrifice fly to left put the Chargers back on top to stay. Towne had a baserunner in each of the final two frames, but failed to push one across.
“I was a little nervous,” Walker admitted later. “But after we got out of that inning, I said to myself, ‘We can do this.’ I’m just so glad we could win it for our seniors, especially Sarah. She’s always been there for us, and if things are going bad like they did today, she yells at you to get back up.”
For her part, Kleinbrahm gushed just as much in return about her younger teammate.
“We would die without Riley,” she said. “Her bat, her pitching, her personality … she gets us through the day, man. I’m probably more proud of her than her parents right now. I couldn’t ask for a better team. It’s the best year of softball I’ve ever had, just amazing. I worked four years for this and the first three, it was ripped away from me. It’s just the greatest feeling on earth.”
And while it wouldn’t be surprising to see PACS back in this position the next two years with Walker leading the charge, change lies ahead for the Towne softball program. Daley, a former Towne softball player herself, took over the team six seasons ago and led the Coyotes to four championship appearances, winning the one aforementioned title in 2013.
After the game, Daley made it known to those outside the program that this would be her last season in charge (she had already told her players). Daley had been balancing coaching softball at Towne, as well as her teaching and administrative duties. Going to school for a master’s in Educational Leadership at Holy Family at the same time convinced her it was too much, but Daley decided to wait until her four current seniors graduated before moving on. She’ll have at least one more game with her girls, Wednesday’s Class AAAA title game against Archbishop Ryan.
“I realized I just couldn’t give them the 100 percent they deserved from me anymore,” Daley said. “It’s bittersweet, the right thing to do for the girls and for my career. They need someone who can give them more time than I can. It wasn’t the result I had hoped for, but I am so proud of them for coming back and fighting against this team, especially given how badly they beat us the first time around. It was a remarkable effort. This has meant so much more to me than just winning (a championship). I’m thankful for that and everything in between.”
Daley’s coaching counterpart on the other side, meanwhile, was on cloud nine.
“It feels amazing, like we finally achieved what we set out to do,” Robinson said. “You really have to tip your cap to Franklin Towne for fighting all the way back the way they did. It was a much tougher battle than we expected. They never say die, so I really respect our girls for reaching back and digging deep. The Charger spirit rises. They knew they could do it, and we believed in them. It’s a great moment for Philadelphia Academy to get our name out there. This puts us on the map.”
And not only was it a huge moment for Robinson the coach, but also for Robinson the athletic director. In a much bigger picture scenario, the impact of this title will be felt for a long time at the school.
“The most important thing to realize is that this is now history for our school,” he said. “After we’re long gone, when I’m retired and these ladies are enjoying their lives, the banner for this championship, our first Public League championship, will hang in our gym. One hundred years from now, a PACS softball team will look at that banner and challenge themselves to live up to that moment. Internally and externally, this is our history, and it begins right now.” ••
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Sophomore pitcher Riley Walker was called PACS’ “missing piece” by head coach Doug Robinson.
PACS raised the Public League Trophy for the first time in school history.
PACS on top: The Philadelphia Academy Charter softball team earned its first Public League championship last week, holding off a late charge by Franklin Towne Charter for an 8–7 win at La Salle University. The Chargers are 17–1, scoring an eye-popping 240 runs while only giving up 39. Head coach Doug Robinson has been there since the program began nine years ago. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTOS
