Upper Moreland and Cheltenham notched wins in SOL baseball action Wednesday.
CHELTENHAM 5, UPPER MERION 4 (10 innings)
The Panthers and Vikings picked up where they left off on Tuesday when play was suspended in the bottom of the eighth with the score knotted (4-4) and Cheltenham runners on second and third.
“Then it just started pouring,” Cheltenham coach Craig Stein said. “Even after it stopped, the field was unplayable.”
Although the Vikings escaped the two-on, two-out jam when play resumed Wednesday, they weren’t as fortunate in the 10th inning when Jack McHugh’s RBI single with one out gave the Panthers the walk-off win.
Kieran Versaw-Barnes, who pitched two scoreless innings in relief on Tuesday, returned to the mound and allowed one hit, fanning five and walking none in four stellar innings of relief to earn the win.
Cheltenham scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the score. McHugh singled home Wes Giles and later scored on a wild pitch.
McHugh finished the game 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Josh Ryan was 2-for-5 out of the leadoff spot, Nissim Leibovitz was 2-for-5 with one RBI, and Wes Giles was 2-for-2 with a triple and run score.
Joe White knocked in two runs for Upper Merion. Mike Hutchinson stroked two hits and one RBI. Nick Marino drove in the other Vikings run. Matt Choi, who absorbed the loss on the mound, scored two runs and was pitching when the rain started. He returned on Wednesday and allowed three hits and one run (unearned) while walking three.
Cheltenham (2-7, 2-5 SOL) plays Upper Dublin Thursday and Hatboro-Horsham Friday. Upper Merion (3-9, 3-5 SOL) plays Plymouth Whitemarsh Thursday but is off Friday and Saturday.
Cheltenham 0-0-0-1-1-0-2-0-0-1 5-10-2
Upper Merion 0-0-0-3-1-0-0-0-0-0 4-7-4
UPPER MORELAND 8, WISSAHICKON 0
Joe Bates delivered another in a long line of stellar Upper Moreland pitching outings, tossing a two-hit gem and outdueling Trojan mound ace Logan Willans. The senior hurler upped his record to a perfect 4-0.
“We’re getting some great pitching performances,” coach Ken Irwin said. “We’ve got guys that are just waiting for their chance.
“Joe was great today. He was hitting his spots, he was throwing all of his pitches for strikes. He must have thrown – 8-10 times his first pitch was over the batter’s head.”
While that is normally cause for concern, Irwin needn’t have worried. Bates had things under control.
“He’d be like, ‘I’m doing it,’ and he would do it,” Irwin said. “He’d smile and come right back and put a pitch right on the corner.
“He was ahead in the count, and he was able to throw all of his pitches for strikes. They hit a couple of balls good that fortunately we were able to catch. To keep that team to two hits is a pretty impressive day.”
The Golden Bears scored all the runs Bates would need with three runs in the first inning of a contest that – according to Irwin – was spirited.
“It was loud,” he said. “Both teams were into it.
“With Christian Leighton on our team – he thinks he’s on the football field. He gets everybody fired up, both teams. It was intense. We were able to get three runs, and that was huge.”
The Golden Bears – who had base runners in every inning except the sixth – added a pair of runs in the second to go on top 5-0 and then all but sealed the Trojans’ fate with a three-run fifth.
“Even at 5-0 against a team like that, you’re thinking it’s not enough – let’s get one or two more,” Irwin said. “After we got those three in the fifth, it was a different game at that point.
“We’ve been getting great pitching, we’ve been playing great defense, but we expected to hit better this year. We haven’t hit our full stride hitting, but today we did what we needed to do. We had a hit-and-run that worked. We did all the things we needed to do to beat a good team because that’s like a playoff-type game.”
Offensively, Brandon Kohn was 2-for-3. Connor Casey was 1-for-2 with an RBI, and Paul Ciampoli was 1-for-1 with two walks and two runs scored.
Upper Moreland (9-2, 6-1 SOL) will be at Plymouth Whitemarsh on Friday to complete Tuesdays suspended game and Wissahickon (6-6, 6-3) is off until next Tuesday when the Trojans will be on the road at Plymouth Whitemarsh.
Wissahickon 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 0-2-3
Upper Moreland 3-2-0-0-3-0-x 8-8-2
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