Coatesville rallied from an early deficit to defeat Pennridge 5-4 in Thursday’s District One AAAA title game.
By Scott Huff
Don’t be too surprised if Pennridge head coach Tom Nuneviller ends up in Grand View Hospital getting multiple stitches in his tongue after the Rams dropped a 5-4 contest to Coatesville in the PIAA District One Quad-A final. The championship game was played in a sun-splashed Immaculata University Stadium in Chester County.
“You don’t get to play for district championships that often, and this game felt a little like it was pulled out from under us,” said Nuneviller, who must have been biting hard on his tongue. “We were one out away, one run away, one inning away from being district champions.”
And what Nuneviller didn’t want to say – and thus the severe gnashing of his tongue - was one crucial umpire call away from winning the title. Perhaps there were even two more-than-questionable calls from the officials in blue.
The first came with the score knotted at 3-3 in the bottom of the sixth inning. Coatesville had runners on first and third with two outs, and Pennridge had just replaced starter Evan Myers with lefty Trevor Dalton.
Dalton made a pickoff throw to first base, and the Coatesville runner on third base – Aaron Cummings – broke for the plate. Ram first baseman Jake Gordon took the throw and made a strong throw to the plate well ahead of the runner – Pennridge catcher Mike Kacergis appeared to make a tag, but the call was safe and the Red Raiders took a 4-3 lead.
“I was shocked when the umpire called him safe,” said Gordon. “We were all on our way to the dugout.”
“My catcher told me he was out, and I am going to believe my catcher,” said Nuneviller. “But that is all part of the game. We can’t make excuses.”
“We practice that play every day, but we never used it in a game,” said Coatesville head coach Hal Ziegler. “We rolled the dice with it, and it came out good for us.”
Pennridge rallied to knot the score at 4-4 in the top of the sixth inning on a blistering RBI double by junior Tyler Schoultes that plated Gordon (single), but the Rams could not overcome yet a second questionable call in the bottom half of the sixth inning.
The number nine hitter for the Red Raiders – Dylan Scarigi – had struck out twice in his first two at-bats. He appeared to have struck out a third time, but a check swing call by the first base umpire went against the Rams. Instead of going down on strikes, Scarigi drew a walk and was a leadoff base runner. He moved to second on a single – was bunted to third – and scored on a sacrifice fly to center for what proved to be the winning run.
“Calls go against you, you have to be able to continue to play and make things happen,” said Nuneviller. “We scored three runs in the first inning, but we didn’t build on that lead. We needed to take some of the heart out of them, and we weren’t able to do that.”
Pennridge sophomore Danny Shane led off the game with a double – Brad Misialek singled with Shane scoring on an outfield error. David Tatoian singled and both he and Misialek would score later in the inning on RBI groundouts by Kacergis and AJ Molettiere.
Coatesville would score a single run in the third inning and tacked on three runs in the controversial fifth inning that featured the steal of home. The game-winning run for the Red Raiders came in the sixth inning.
“When we got down 3-0, there was no real concern on our bench,” said Ziegler. “We knew that we still had 21 outs to go – and this has been a team all year that has been able to come back.”
The Red Raiders have shown they have the Suburban One League number in the District One postseason. Coatesville has beaten CB East, CB South, CR North, and now Pennridge enroute to its district title.
“We’re not done yet,” said Gordon – a senior playing his final season with the Rams. “We were close to a district title, but we were a couple of close calls and a couple of plays away. We will be ready for states.”
“Our season is not over, we will compete again on Monday,” said Nuneviller. “We just have to lick our wounds.”
EXTRA INNINGS - Pennridge last won the District One title in 1987 – the same year the Rams won the PIAA state title…..Nuneviller was a player on that 1987 state championship team…..Coatesville last won the district title in 2006…..Pennridge will meet La Salle on Monday in the first round of the PIAA Quad-A state single elimination tournament which begins on Monday, June 3, at Ashburn Field in Philadelphia…..The Explorers are the District 12 champion.
Pennridge Rams 3000010 4-8-1
Coatesville Raiders 001031x 5-7-1
[1-9] COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 4, [1-12] NORTH PENN 1
The Indians rebounded from their heartbreaking loss to Coatesville to upend the Knights in Thursday’s third place game. They got on the scoreboard early, plating a single run in the first, two more in the second and a single run in the third for a 4-0 lead. The Knights got one of those back in the fifth, and on a day when hits were at a premium for both teams, the Knights managed just four hits off Rock North starter Brett Newman, who earned the complete game win. The Indians had just four hits of their own, but two of those were home runs with both Ryan Baker and Newman delivering round trippers.
North Penn will take on District 11 champion Parkland in an opening round state playoff game on Monday while the Indians will face the District 3 champion Lower Dauphin.
North Penn 000 010 0 1-4-1
Council Rock North 121 000 x 4-5-0
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