Upper Moreland fell to Holy Ghost Prep in Wednesday’s District One AAA title game. To view photos of all the action, please visit the Photo Gallery.
By Scott Huff
Upper Moreland senior Rob Knox was leaving the dugout at the Villanova Ballpark at Plymouth with a heavy bucket of balls in one hand and a PIAA District One Class AAA silver medal swinging in his other hand. He really didn’t look like he wanted to be carrying either.
“It was just one of those days,” said the talented outfielder after the Golden Bears suffered a 6-0 loss to Holy Ghost Prep in the District Final. “It seemed like everything we hit was right at someone, and we could never seem to make anything happen with the bats. This isn’t how we wanted the day to end.”
Upper Moreland came into the district final playing its best baseball of the season. The Golden Bears opened the playoffs with a 12-0 rout in five innings over Marple Newtown and advanced to the title game with a 6-1 victory over Pottstown. Upper Moreland was making its third straight appearance in the District Class AAA final with a District championship two years ago against Pope John Paul II and an excruciating loss to Phoenixville last year when the Bears lost a five-run lead in the seventh inning.
Both the senior class and head coach Ernie Rehr were right back where they wanted to be – in position to win a district championship.
“Last year was tough, but this year really isn’t any easier,” said Rehr. “We just didn’t play our brand of baseball, and that was disappointing. The only way that we can win against the best teams is to play flawless baseball – and we didn’t do that today.
“Baseball, offensively, is about making adjustments,” continued Rehr. “And we didn’t make those adjustments today. We had too many ‘satisfied’ swings. We are a team that is built to win one and two runs games, but we didn’t execute the way we needed to execute on defense. We gave them extra outs and made our pitchers throw extra pitches.”
Upper Moreland never did solve the riddle presented by Holy Ghost sophomore hurler Tim Brennan. Brennan soft tossed his way to a meager four strikeouts – accounted for 12 groundouts – and recorded five outs in the air. The Prep played errorless defense behind Brennan, who issued just a pair of walks – two hits – and four Golden Bear base runners.
“He threw strikes, but he really didn’t do anything special,” said Knox. “We hit some balls hard at people, but we really should have been able to do more with him. It was frustrating.”
The game was scoreless through the first two innings, but Holy Ghost Prep took the lead with a single run in the third inning. A walk – a stolen base (where it appeared that the runner was out) – and a two-out double by Bobby Reading scored the first run. It was the first hit allowed by Upper Moreland ace Charlie Hooker.
The game was still 1-0 going into the fifth inning when Holy Ghost plated its second run. A single – a sacrifice bunt – and a costly two out error allowed the Prep to take a 2-0 lead.
“If you check back to all the games that we lost this year, it is because we didn’t make all the plays in the field,” said Rehr. “This was a game where we beat ourselves with errors.”
The game was blown open when Holy Ghost scored four runs in the sixth inning to take what would become the 6-0 final. Three singles – an error – and a bases loaded triple off the bat of Brennan closed out any hopes of a Golden Bear comeback.
The only Upper Moreland hits came on a two-out double by Eddie Decker in the third inning and a single by Charlie Hooker in the seventh inning.
“We have been able to build a great baseball program here at Upper Moreland, and we have a lot to be proud of by playing in the district final three years in a row,” said Knox. “This loss isn’t the end of the season for us, now we get ready for states. We have to put this game behind us – like I said – it was just one of those days.”
“We will dwell on this game tonight, but we hopefully put this behind us and we can make a run in states,” said Rehr. “The players have the prom to enjoy this weekend, and I hope they remember that they are still teenagers and enjoy themselves. We start with a clean slate on Monday.”
EXTRA INNINGS – Knox missed both the Marple-Newtown game and the Pottstown game due to illness. Knox had pneumonia and lost about 16 pounds – he still has 10 pounds to gain back…“I would like to thank my teammates for winning those games so I could get to the state playoffs my senior year,” smiled Knox…Upper Moreland will join Holy Ghost Prep as one of two District One teams in the 16-team Class AAA state playoff field…The Golden Bears will play the District 3 champion on Monday – June 3rd.
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WP – Tim Brennan LP- Charlie Hooker
2B- Bobby Reading (HGP) – Eddie Decker (UM)
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