Pennsbury & Pennridge advanced to Wednesday’s second round of the District One AAAA Tournament. Two games will be resumed on Tuesday.
By Jarrad Saffren
We did not clap our hands, rise from our seats, and call for an encore. But Mother Nature came out for one anyway.
Rain did not go away on Monday, the first day of the District One Class AAAA baseball playoffs. Rain came back, popped a squat, and lit a cigar. (I promise that is my last rain lead.)
The old nag postponed three of the playoff games involving Suburban One League teams.
She could not get her way (Brat) with the other three.
Six SOL baseball teams started first round playoff games Monday. Three finished. The results, near results, and recaps are below.
District One AAAA Playoffs
#17 Pennridge 3, #16 Garnet Valley 2
No. 17 seed Pennridge upset No. 16 seed Garnet Valley (Still an upset, yes.) behind clutch hitting and Lights-out (Dan) Long.
In the first, Garnet Valley took a 2-0 lead on a double and two singles.
Pennridge answered in the second. Kyle Yoder walked. Then Andrew Horne doubled Yoder home. The ball beat Yoder home. But he slid under the catcher’s tag.
“I shouldn’t have sent him,” Pennridge coach Tom Nuneviller said.
After the run, the Rams loaded the bases for Long. He stroked a two-run single to make it 3-2.
Pitching did the rest. Starter Andrew Mayhew struck out six in five innings. Mayhew started Pennridge’s first league game of 2016 but missed the next month with elbow soreness. He threw 33 pitches in his first game back, 50 in his next two, and 82 on Monday.
Mayhew ended the regular season with a 3.50 ERA in Suburban One League Continental Conference play.
“In a couple games he was real good. In a couple others he gave up a few runs in a short amount of innings,” Nuneviller said. “But today he threw well.”
Mayhew retired GV in order in the fifth. But Nuneviller still brought in Lights-out Long because Mayhew had thrown so many pitches.
Long gave up one baserunner and fanned four in two innings.
“His fastball was hard,” Nuneviller said. “His breaking ball worked too.”
Long earned his fourth save. He has closed for Pennridge the last two seasons. Nuneviller explained why Long does not start.
“He’s always been an infielder. He has a good glove, a good arm. And he’s so valuable at shortstop,” Nuneviller said. “You take him out at short, you feel like you’re weakening your team. But he does such a nice job on the mound.”
Pennridge (15-7, 9-5 SOL) plays No. 1 seed Interboro on Wednesday.
“We’re coming off a big win. We’re a confident group,” Nuneviller said. “If we keep playing as a team and get good pitching again, we can compete with anybody. We have to get a good practice tomorrow and be ready for Wednesday.”
Nate Coyle or Ian Kacergis will start on the mound for the Rams. “We’ll see how they are feeling tomorrow and make that decision,” Nuneviller said.
Pennridge 030 000 0 3
Garnet Valley 200 000 0 2
#12 Pennsbury 7, #21 Academy Park 1
For the first two innings Monday, Academy Park starter Taylor Moors pounded Pennsbury hitters inside with fastballs.
In the second, the first two Falcons hitters made weak outs. The plan was working. Then Vaughn Ward blooped the ball down the left field line and ran to second standing up. Tyrone Hodges followed by muscling the ball to right center. Ward sprinted home to put the Falcons up 2-1.
That was all Billy Bethel needed. Pennsbury’s starter gave up one run in six innings. Alec Wilson tossed a scoreless top of the seventh. With one out and a man on first, an AP hitter bounced the ball to Ryan McCarty at second. McCarty fielded the ball, tagged the runner, and fired to first for a game-ending double play.
It was the Falcons’ 10th win in 11 games. Bethel has won four of those games. He struck out nine and allowed three hits on Monday.
“My curveball – I wasn’t getting on top of in the first couple innings. But then I found the grip and it worked from there,” Bethel said. “I tried to keep the fastball away from the batters to get the strikes on the outside corner.”
Bethel did not want to come out after six innings (Has any pitcher ever admitted to being tired?)
“I didn’t want to but coach (Joe Pesci) said it was better for me to come out then,” Bethel said.
Pesci also said Monday was not even Bethel’s best outing.
“I don’t think so. He threw a complete game against (Harry S.) Truman. He threw a complete game against Bensalem. He looked awesome against Bensalem,” Pesci said. “He threw really well today. But Billy’s been throwing three pitches for strikes all year.”
Bethel stuck to two pitches on Monday, the fastball and curveball. All nine strikeouts came on a curve or heater. Bethel either started hitters with fastballs and finished them with curves, or vice versa.
“His fastball had a lot of pop. Guys couldn’t catch up to it,” Pennsbury catcher Josh Tesarck said. “His curveball looked really good too. He just had an all-around great game.”
Bethel’s fastball clocks at 75 miles per hour. But it looks 10 miles per hour faster after his curveball.
“When he went to the curveball, they were off-balanced,” Tesarck said. “Then we knew we could go to the fastball. Blow it right past them.”
Pennsbury scored in every inning, including two in the third. Bryen Kimbrough, Justin Ward, Bryan Nagy, and Hodges each had one RBI.
Pennsbury (15-6, 10-4 SOL) takes on No. 5 seed Boyertown on Wednesday. Ace Zach Conley will start.
“Part of it was, we think we can win this first game with Billy on the mound,” Pesci said, explaining why Conley did not start on Monday. “But you never want to look past a team. You never want to look past a team.”
Pesci actually said that three times, but you get the idea. Coaches don’t look past teams. Ever.
Academy Park 010 000 0 1
Pennsbury 112 111 x 7
#9 Marple Newtown 2, #24 North Penn 1
North Penn lost a one-run game for the sixth time in 2016.
“We were very, very close to being a whole lot better,” North Penn coach Kevin Manero said. “But all those one-run losses defined our season. So it’s not shocking that was how it ended today.”
The Knights made the playoffs as the No. 24 seed after winning four of their last five league games.
“Things were looking bleak for the postseason,” Manero said. “But we got tough and played well.”
No. 9 seed Marple Newtown took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth.
“They had timely hits that we didn’t get,” Manero said. “But it could have been worse. Jared Gorman settled down and made some big pitches.”
With two outs and a man on third, NP second baseman Nate O’Donnell made a leaping catch to end the inning.
“That’s about as good a catch as you can make,” Manero said.
North Penn had chances to come back. Manero even thought the Knights hit the ball well.
“We made consistently good contact. Better than in most games,” Manero said. “But we didn’t execute with men on base.”
In the first, North Penn’s first two batters got on. But the Knights didn’t score. In another inning, they had a man on second but didn’t score.
Gorman suffered his first loss of the season.
“He was good enough to get his sixth win,” Manero said. “He was everything he’s been all year long.”
North Penn graduates 15 seniors, including four-year starter Mason Nadeau and three-year varsity player Alex Peterson.
“Those guys have been a part of a lot of success,” Manero said. “They have done a lot of good things for us.”
Nadeau started in left field as a freshman and in center the last three years. He won two state championships, in 2013 and ’15.
“He takes lot of base hits away. There were numerous plays he made in close games that if he doesn’t get there, it’s extra bases and a couple runs,” Manero said. “It’s tough to say goodbye to somebody who’s been a part of so much.”
Peterson came up from junior varsity when Nadeau got hurt in 2014.
“He has been up ever since,” Manero said. “Between those two, that’s a lot of innings in the outfield over the last three years.”
Six of North Penn’s nine starters on Monday will be back in 2017.
“We have a nice group coming back,” Manero said. “That bodes well moving forward.”
Manero is most excited about his shortstop, Zach Miles, and third baseman, Tyler Seidel. Miles is a freshman and Seidel a sophomore.
“That’s a young left side of the infield we’ll have for a few years,” Manero said. “It’s important going forward that those guys got as many opportunities as they could.”
Manero is also excited about junior pitcher Matt Stevenson, who had a 2.25 ERA in 2016.
“He pitched as well as he could almost every time out on the mound,” Manero said.
The Knights finished 2016 at 12-8 overall and 8-6 in SOL Continental play.
North Penn 000 010 0 1
Marple Newtown 002 000 0 2
#7 Central Bucks South 3, #26 Souderton 0 (Suspended)
It moved in quick and heavy, and left even faster.
Sounds like a disaster in a small town movie.
Maybe this was.
Okay, that’s a bit melodramatic.
But in the top of the third inning Monday, the umpires spotted lightning in the sky (Where it always is.).
Both teams left the field. A PIAA rule forces teams to wait 30 minutes to resume play after a lightning strike. Before Central Bucks South and Souderton even got close to that point, the rain came down “super hard and really fast,” CB South coach Brian Klumpp said.
Rain poured for 20 minutes before the field became unplayable. “It took us a while to even get it ready today,” Klumpp said.
The No. 7 seed Titans scored three runs in the bottom of the second. Tyler Rossi walloped a two-run home run to left. Later, Tyler Watson slammed an RBI double to center. So Tyler’s drove in all three runs for the Titans (Silly, obvious line of the night).
Here’s another obvious line: Dan Klepchick pitched well. The ace of spades gave up two hits and fanned three in three innings. He will keep pitching when the game resumes on Tuesday.
“I talked to him and he said he still felt good,” Klumpp said. “His pitch count was low. It was almost like a bullpen.”
Klepchick threw 33 pitches, 24 for strikes.
“We started off well today,” Klumpp said. “Hopefully the bats come back tomorrow.”
If CB South’s field is not ready, the game will continue at Barness Park in Warrington, where the JV team plays. “Barness wasn’t too bad after storm,” Klumpp said. “Whichever gets ready easiest, we’ll play at.”
#15 Owen J. Roberts 4, #18 Neshaminy 3 (Suspended)
No. 18 seed Neshaminy took a 3-0 lead in the top of the second.
Jake Jones and Josh Lehman singled to center. Lehman’s single plated two runs. Anthony Raposelli and Brian Nicolas scored.
No. 15 seed Owen J. Roberts answered with three runs in the bottom of the third. CJ Weaver drove in a run with an infield single. Then Hensley Griffin hit a two-run single to left.
One inning later, Weaver reached on an error as a run scored.
Rain suspended the game after four innings. It will continue on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
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