The SOL American-Continental rallied for a dramatic 7-6 come-from-behind win in Wednesday’s Carpenter Cup opener. Check back to view a gallery of Keith Clemens’ photos...CLICK HERE.
SOL American-Continental comes back from 6-0 deficit to win Carpenter Cup opener
By Jarrad Saffren
I am about to do something that all hacks do at some point: Paraphrase Charles Dickens, in a much more trivial context than the French Revolution.
Wednesday’s Carpenter Cup first round game between Suburban One League American-Continental and Tri-Cape was a tale of two lineups.
SOL American-Continental’s first lineup got one hit, made six errors, and dug a 6-0 hole for their teammates. Five runs were unearned.
SOL American-Continental’s second rocked four extra base hits, pitched five shutout innings, and came back to win 7-6.
This is an all-star team of prospective college players. Both lineups were capable. One just had a good day, the other a terrible day.
“Everyone on this team is good,” Central Bucks West’s Thomas Philipps said. “It was just an off day for that first group.”
“The second lineup got to get into the game flow without being on the stage,” SOL American-Continental and Upper Dublin coach Ed Wall said. “The first guys started and went out nervous and played uncharacteristic baseball. Plus their pitchers were really good.”
Tri-Cape’s second pitcher—Denny Bentley—struck out five batters in three innings.
“He had a really good breaking ball off of a hard fastball,” Wall said. “He spotted both really well.”
Tri/Cape took a 3-0 lead in the second. Justin McFaden hit an RBI single to left. TJ Dezzi lined a two-RBI double to center.
The Jersey boys added another run in the fourth and two more in the fifth. In the fifth, SOL American-Continental’s shortstop fielded the ball, stepped on second, and had a year to throw out the runner at first. But he skipped the ball under the first baseman’s glove. Both runs scored.
SOL American/Continental looked done.
Then Wall pulled his starters. Players can play five innings in Carpenter Cup games. So one lineup goes five, the other four. The starters usually go five.
The second lineup’s success started on the mound. Central Bucks South’s Dan Klepchick entered in the fifth. Tri-Cape had scored in three straight innings.
Klepchick retired six of seven batters, allowing just a two-out single in the fifth.
In the bottom of the sixth, SOL American-Continental loaded the bases for its best hitter, Wissahickon’s University of Virginia recruit, Alex Tappen.
He fell behind 0-2, worked the count to 2-2, and got his pitch, a fastball away. Tappen cranked the ball down the right field line. It dropped just inside the line. Upper Dublin’s Justin Horn and North Penn’s Nate O’Donnell sprinted home to make it 6-2.
“You have to protect down 0-2. Once I fought back to 2-2, I knew I was going to get a good pitch,” Tappen said.
Central Bucks East’s Colin Sheehan grounded out to first, scoring Philipps to make it 6-3. Then Cameron Komonchak muscled a sacrifice fly to short right, plating Tappen.
Souderton’s Aaron Gulibon came in and pitched a perfect top of the seventh. Hatboro-Horsham’s Brian Edgington fanned two, both on fastballs, in a scoreless top of the eighth.
O’Donnell led off the bottom and poked a double down the right field line.
I looked at the on-deck circle and saw Tappen’s thick, power-hitting frame step into it. “Tappen go-ahead homer?” I said to the reporter next to me.
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” he said back.
Almost.
Philipps – with Tappent in the on-deck circle - walloped the next pitch over the left field fence. Tie ballgame, 6-6. The ball would have been out to dead center, 400 feet from home plate, 30 feet deeper than left.
Wall pumped his fist in the third base box.
“It was not just the runs, but the way he hit the ball. That thing was a rocket,” Wall said. “He caught every bit of that pitch. I couldn’t be happier for the kid. Big hit, big moment.”
“I got my foot down early,” Philipps said. “I was sitting fastball in a 2-1 count. It was definitely one of the best moments of my baseball career.
“I knew it was out. But you always have to run it out.”
Tappen followed with a double to dead center that bounced and hit the fence.
“It was a hitter’s count, 3-1,” Tappen said. “High school pitchers these days, especially with no one on, 80, 90 percent of the time will give you a pitch right down the middle. So I was sitting on that and put a good swing on it.”
Sheehan bunted Tappen to third. Then Tri-Cape’s pitcher threw the ball just a bit inside. It sailed over the catcher’s glove to the backstop. Tappen charged home from third to give SOL American/Continental its first lead, 7-6.
“It didn’t look like a wild pitch at first,” Tappen said. “Then I heard Coach Wall shout, ‘Get going! Get going!’”
Hatboro-Horsham’s Colin Kennedy held the lead in the top of the ninth. The first batter reached on an error. But Kennedy picked him off. Then he forced a tapper to Horn at short. Horn charged and gunned the ball to first.
After a single, Kennedy got the last batter to swing late and fly out to right. The players from the first lineup jogged onto the field to high-five their teammates.
“We got you next time,” they probably said.
Klepchick, Gulibon, Edgington, and Kennedy pitched five scoreless innings and retired 15 of 18 batters.
“Not many runs in our league. Pitching was so strong this year and everyone had a good year,” Kennedy said of the SOL Continental. “Gulibon killed the league. Brian killed the league. Klepchick too.”
“Our league has the best pitching in the state,” Edgington said. “And this is a friendly competition. You always want to do better than the kid before you.”
SOL American/Continental (1-0, Carpenter Cup) plays Lehigh Valley in a quarterfinal Friday at 2 p.m. The game will be played at Richie Ashburn Field in FDR Park.
Richie Ashburn was a Hall of Fame centerfielder and indelible broadcaster for the Philadelphia Phillies.
FDR was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, defeater of Hitler, the Great Depression, and four Republican opponents in presidential elections. Name them all without Googling the answers (Yeah right).
TRI-CAPE: Jaques Colon cf 2-1-1-0, Nick Millhan cf 2-0-0-0, Timmy Dezzi ss 3-1-2-2, Chris Sieg ss 2-0-0-0, Anthony Masselli dh 2-0-0-0, Nick Grotti dh 2-0-0-0, Domenic Bosselli lf 3-1-0-1, Matt Harris lf 2-0-1-0, Max Dineen 2b 3-0-1-1, Billy Jackson 2b 2-0-0-0, Steve Myers 1b 3-0-0-0, Kenny Mendoza 1b 1-0-0-0, Evan Giordano 3b 3-1-0-0, Brad Dobzanski 3b 1-0-0-0, Brian Gallante c 3-1-2-0, Anthony Capasso c 1-0-0-0, Justin McFadden rf 3-1-1-1, Dom Fiorentino rf 1-0-1-0, Christian Scafidi p 0-0-0-0, Denny Bentley p 0-0-0-0, Ryan Lauk p 0-0-0-0, Bill Cavender p 0-0-0-0, Nick Atohi p 0-0-0-0, Chris Mormile p 0-0-0-0, TOTALS 39-6-9-5.
SOL AMERICAN-CONTINENTAL: Randy Meehl cf 1-0-0-0, Justin Horn ss 1-1-0-0, Steven Gebre ss 2-0-0-0, Nate O’Donnell 2b 1-2-1-0, Jake Reed 2b 2-0-0-0, Thomas Philipps 1b 2-2-1-2, Andrew Dietz 1b 2-0-1-0, Alex Tappen 3b 2-2-2-2, Eric Gross c 2-0-0-0, Collin Sheehan c 2-0-0-1, Matt Shilling 3b 1-0-0-0, Cameron Komonchak rf 2-0-0-1, Luke Nuneviller rf 1-0-0-0, JT Breslin lf 3-0-0-0, Blake Gular dh 1-0-0-0, Luke Barnum dh 2-0-0-0, Noah Goldstein lf 1-0-0-0, Cole Swiger cf 2-0-0-0, Andrew Mayhew p 0-0-0-0, Thylar Summerell p 0-0-0-0, Dan Klepchick p 0-0-0-0, Aaron Gulibon p 0-0-0-0, Brian Edgington p 0-0-0-0; Colin Kennedy p 0-0-0-0, TOTALS 30-7-5-6.
Tri-Cape 031 200 000 6-9-4
SOL American-Continental 000 004 03x 7-5-7
E-Tri-Cape 4, SOL A-C 7. DP-Tri-Cape 1. LOB-Tri-Cape 8, SOL A-C 3. 2B-Timmy Dezzi, Nate O’Donnell, Alex Tappen 2. 3B-Max Dineen. HR-Thomas Philipps.
Tri-Cape IP H R ER BB SO
Christian Scafidi 1.0 0 0 0 0 0
Denny Bentley 3.0 1 0 0 0 4
Ryan Lauk 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
Bill Cavender 1.0 1 4 2 1 1
Nick Atohi (L) 1.0 3 3 3 0 2
Chris Mormile 1.0 0 0 0 0 0
SOL American-Continental IP H R ER BB SO
Andrew Mayhew 2.0 4 3 0 0 2
Thylar Summerell 2.0 2 3 0 1 1
Dan Klepchick 2.0 1 0 0 0 2
Aaron Guilgon 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
Brian Edgington (W) 1.0 1 0 0 0 2
Colin Kennedy 1.0 1 0 0 0 0
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