The SOL American/Continental earned another come-from-behind win, this time defeating Lehigh Valley 6-4 to advance to the Carpenter Cup semifinals at Citizens Bank Park.
SOL American/Continental beats Lehigh Valley 6-4, clinches first Carpenter Cup semifinal appearance since 2012
By Jarrad Saffren
Suburban One League American/Continental cruised through seven innings.
Of course, to cruise, you must have a lead. Here’s how that went down…
Bottom first.
With two outs, Souderton’s Thylar Summarell and Blake Gular belted singles. Central Bucks South’s Eric Gross barreled the ball past the diving third baseman’s glove. Summarell raced home. 1-nil.
Bottom second. Pennridge’s Luke Nuneviller manned up and took a baseball to the shoulder blade. Father Tom, Pennridge coach, probably held his customarily stoic expression. But we know Tom was grinning inside. His son is as tough as he is.
Nuneviller stole second, ran to third on an overthrow, and scored on Steven Gebre’s selfless sacrifice fly to centerfield. 2-nada.
Steven Gebre attends Central Bucks West.
(I apologize for not including that before his name. I’m really, truly sorry. But now you know where Steven Gebre goes to school, and you know where to find him on weekdays from September through June.)
A 2-0 lead looked insurmountable with half of the one-name club (Klepchick, Gulibon) about to pitch. It looked even more insurmountable with other, two-named aces also about to pitch.
Springfield’s Nick Pave started and gave up this many runs: 0. He also struck out two, both on changeups, one swinging, one looking. I have not seen another high school kid use the changeup as an out pitch. Pave is one of a kind.
He was in line for an easy, slam dunk, landslide, 1972 Richard Nixon type win. And it would have been really cool to see a kid from Springfield—the smallest school in the American/Continental union by far—win a Carpenter Cup game.
I was even scribbling Disney’s address on the envelope containing my Pave screenplay.
Gulibon hurled three scoreless innings after Pave, pausing briefly to hit two batters at the end of his second inning, just to make things interesting.
“I’m just trying to throw strikes, keep the ball down, get ground balls, let my fielders work,” Gulibon said. “Just try to put us in position to win.”
“I was spotting up the fastball. The curveball wasn’t working so well,” Gulibon said. “I noticed that after my first inning. So I worked my fastball off my changeup.”
Pennridge’s Andrew Mayhew came in after Gulibon. Mayhew walked the first batter. But the next grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
Mayhew struck out the last batter, because Mayhew always strikes out at least one.
Klepchick was next. Is there really any suspense here? Sorry. These guys are just too predictable.
Of course Klepchick tossed a nine-pitch 1-2-3 inning. Of course he made two strikeout victims look silly. One swung 10 feet over a plummeting curve. The other swung five minutes late at a high fastball.
“I’m just getting ahead of hitters. That’s one of the main things I’ve been working on this entire season,” Klepchick said. “Today I just kept them off-balanced. And I worked the fastball at the corners and knees.”
This is where it finally gets interesting. Hatboro-Horsham’s Brian Edgington relieved Klepchick in the eighth. 
Shockingly, Lehigh Valley smashed four straight extra base hits. None were even the slightest bit fluky. All four—three doubles, one triple—were tape-measure shots to the gaps. The kind of hits your $45 an hour local batting cage coach always reminisces about. “You’re getting there kid. You’re getting there,” he says, until you realize you’re 10 weeks in and have dropped hundreds on this has-been (Quite possibly never-was).
After the explosion, Lehigh Valley suddenly had a 3-2 lead. That 2-0 edge was not insurmountable after all. Caped underdog hero Pave would not get his capital W. I stuffed my screenplay into a bag.
A fourth run scored on a wild pitch. Game over. Knockout blow. A team doesn’t get off the canvas after that, right?
Let’s go to the bottom of the eighth, the same inning where SOL American/Continental rallied to beat Tri/Cape in the first round.
Upper Dublin’s Cole Swiger scorched the ball through the hole into left. Central Bucks East’s Cameron Komonchak chopped the ball to second. The second baseman threw to second, even though he was closer to first. Swiger beat the throw. Everybody was safe. Central Bucks West’s Thomas Philipps pulled a Luke Nuneviller and took a hardball to the shoulder, loading the bases.
That brought up Wissahickon’s Alex Tappen, fresh off a two-double, two-RBI, winning run performance Wednesday. Tappen tomahawked the ball to third. The third baseman heaved the ball across the diamond, nipping Tappen. But the run scored. 4-3.
CB East’s Collin Sheehan followed and lined the ball to right, plating Komonchak. 4-4.
“I was looking for a fastball early in the count,” Sheehan said. “I got it middle in.”
Upper Dublin’s Justin Horn pulled a Nuneviller/Philipps and took a curveball to the ribs, reloading the bases for his high school teammate, JT Breslin.
Breslin worked ahead 2-0 and waited for his pitch. Lehigh Valley’s Braeden Duff chucked a fastball inside. Breslin turned and ripped the ball down the left field line. Philipps and Sheehan sprinted home. 6-4 SOL American/Continental.
Surely, with one inning left, 6-4 was insurmountable. Hatboro-Horsham’s Colin Kennedy made sure of it. The first batter bounced out to North Penn’s Nate O’Donnell at second. After a bloop single, Kennedy got the last two batters to swing at low fastballs and fly out. He grinned and high-fived his catcher.
SOL American/Continental clinched its first semifinal appearance since 2012. After the win, coach Ed Wall gathered his players.
“This is a great opportunity for you guys,” Wall said. “It’ll be something you’ll never forget.”
Wall turned to CB East coach Kyle Dennis. “Anything else?” he said.
“Nope,” Dennis said. “You said it all.”
And that’s the story of the cruise liner that hit an iceberg and stayed afloat. How’s that for a twist ending?
SOL American/Continental (2-0, Carpenter Cup) plays Delaware County Tuesday at 1 p.m. at Citizens Bank Park.
LEHIGH VALLEY: Eric Santiago ss 2-0-0-0, Jared Burcin rf 1-1-1-1, Tyler Schreiner rf 2-0-0-0, Ivan Solis c 3-0-0-0, Chris Burke dh 2-0-1-0, Trevor Schreiner dh 2-0-0-0, Trey Durrah 1b 1-0-0-0, CJ Peechatka lf 1-0-0-0, Carson Freeman cf 1-0-0-0, Matt Mellinger 1b 2-0-1-0, Emmett McCauley 3b 2-0-1-0, Evan Marushak c 2-0-0-0, Kyle Freibolin c 1-0-0-0, Eric Cichocki ph/ss 3-1-2-0, Brett Foulke lf 1-0-0-0, Tyler Bruno ph/2b 3-1-2-1, CJ Gantz 2b 1-0-0-0, Sammy Kraihanzel ph/3b 3-1-1-1, Steven Luke p 0-0-0-0, Matt Morrow p 0-0-0-0, Michael Jenkins p 0-0-0-0, Braeden Duff p 0-0-0-0, Erick Reyes p 0-0-0-0, TOTALS 33-4-9-3.
SOL AMERICAN/CONTINENTAL: Jake Reed ss 2-0-0-0, Cole Swiger ph/cf 2-1-1-0, Luke Barnum cf 2-0-0-0, Cameron Komonchak ph/rf 2-1-0-0, Thylar Summerell 1b 2-1-1-0, Thomas Philipps 1b 1-1-0-0, Bake Gular 3b 2-0-1-0, Alex Tappen 3b 2-0-0-1, Eric Gross c 2-0-2-1, Collin Sheehan c 2-1-1-1, Luke Nuneviler rf 1-1-0-0, Justin Horn ss 1-0-0-0, Matt Shilling dh 1-0-0-0, JT Breslin ph/dh 3-0-2-2, Steven Gebre 2b 0-0-0-1, Nate O’Donnell ph/2b 3-0-0-0, Noah Goldstein lf 1-0-0-0, Randy Meehl ph/lf 1-0-0-0, Nick Pave p 0-0-0-0, Aaron Gulibon p 0-0-0-0, Andrew Mayhew p 0-0-0-0, Dan Klepchick p 0-0-0-0, Brian Edgington p 0-0-0-0, Colin Kennedy p 0-0-0-0, TOTALS 30-6-8-6.
Lehigh Valley 000 000 040 4-9-4
SOL American/Continental 110 000 04x 6-8-1
E-Lehigh Valley 4, SOL AC 1, DP-Lehigh Valley 2, SOL AC 2. LOB-Lehigh Valley 7, SOL AC 5. 2B-Jared Burcin, Eric Cichocki, Tyler Bruno, Sammy Kraihanzel, JT Breslin.
Lehigh Valley IP H R ER BB SO
Steven Luke 3.0 3 2 1 0 1
Matt Morrow 2.0 2 0 0 1 1
Michael Jenkins 2.1 1 2 2 0 0
Braeden Duff (L) 0.1 2 2 2 0 0
Erick Reyes 0.1 0 0 0 0 0
SOL American/Continental IP H R ER BB SO
Nick Pave 2.0 2 0 0 0 2
Aaron Gulibon 3.0 1 0 0 0 2
Andrew Mayhew 1.0 0 0 0 1 1
Dan Klepchick 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
Brian Edgington 0.2 4 4 4 1 1
Colin Kennedy (W) 1.1 2 0 0 1 0
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