Pennsbury and Upper Moreland were winners in Monday’s opening round of the PIAA Tournament. Jarred Saffren recaps all of the games featuring SOL teams. Neshaminy/Frankford photos provided courtesy of Jesse Garber (http://jsgarber.zenfolio.com/p108954972 )
By Jarrad Saffren
The teams with the best and/or hottest pitchers win at this time of year. That was proven yet again on Monday.
Five Suburban One League baseball teams played in state tournament games. Two—Pennsbury and Upper Moreland—won with strong pitching. Neither team allowed an earned run.
Three SOL teams—Neshaminy, North Penn and Hatboro-Horsham—lost because they were out-pitched. The Redskins, Knights and Hatters scored four combined runs.
The results and recaps from all five PIAA tournament games are below.
PIAA Class 6A Tournament First Round
#1-1 Pennsbury 2, #11-2 Parkland 1 (11 innings)
Pennsbury advanced to the state quarterfinals for the second time in three years.
In the bottom of the 11th, Tyrone Hodges hit a hard one-hopper near the second base bag. The shortstop fielded the ball in short center but held it. He had no shot at throwing out the speedy football safety.
“I have confidence in my speed,” Hodges said.
Billy Bethel bunted Hodges to second. Justin Massielo got ahead in the count and then was intentionally walked, setting up the force at third and second. Dave Murphy fell behind in the count 0-and-2.
But he worked it to 3-and-2 and then took a fastball low and away, loading the bases with one out. Ryan McCarty stepped in and lifted a 1-2 fastball to right. Adam Mellinger drifted into foul ground and caught it.
Hodges took off from third. Mellinger’s throw never even reached home plate. Hodges slid home safely as the cutoff man caught the ball.
“I just wanted to put the ball in the outfield. I knew I didn’t have to put it as far as normal because we had speed on third,” McCarty said. “Off the bat I questioned it. But I knew he was going to score when I saw how hard he was running.”
“As soon as the ball went to the outfield, I knew it was deep enough,” Hodges said. “I just started running as hard as I could.”
Hodges also scored Pennsbury’s first run, in the first. Murphy poked a single to right off the end of his bat. Hodges trotted home from third.
Parkland tied the game in the top of the second. Dylan Miller hit the ball off the glove of third baseman Nick Price.
It trickled into left as Mellinger raced home from second. Price is usually a slick-fielding third baseman. The error bothered him all game, until he made up for it, pitching two shutout innings, the last two, and earning the win.
“He said to us after the game, ‘We wouldn’t have still been playing if it weren’t for me, so I owed it to you guys,’” Pennsbury coach Joe Pesci said.
Price allowed one baserunner in two innings. He had not pitched in more than three weeks before Monday.
“I’m always fresh when I pitch. I’m not a guy that really feels anything in my arm,” Price said. “I just had to get used to facing live hitting again.”
Pennsbury starter Billy Bethel struck out six and allowed one unearned run. He finished five of his six strikeout victims with his nasty curveball.
Nate Derry relieved Bethel, who had reached 98 pitches, in the seventh and tossed three consecutive scoreless innings. Bethel and Derry let up six and three hits, respectively. But both got out of just about every jam.
Parkland stranded 10 runners in the first nine innings.
“Throw strikes and get ground balls. We did a good job of that,” Bethel said.
“Pretty much exactly what Billy said,” Derry said. “Let the defense make the plays.”
Pennsbury made just one error.
The Falcons (19-6) will play Perkiomen Valley—the fourth-place finisher from District One—in a state quarterfinal on Thursday. They are three wins away from the first baseball state title in school history.
Parkland 0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 1
Pennsbury 1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-1 2
#12-2 St. Joseph’s Prep 3, #1-2 North Penn 1
North Penn took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth. Joe Picozzi scored the run.
But St. Joe’s responded with three runs in the top of the sixth. The Knights never scored again. They managed just four hits off of St. Joe’s starter Colin Scanlon.
“We had some baserunners but just couldn’t get the clutch hits when we needed to. That’s been our problem the last two games,” North Penn coach Kevin Manero said. “It happens sometimes. We came up against a great pitcher and didn’t hit balls to the right spots.”
The loss ended North Penn’s 12-game state tournament winning streak. The Knights won state titles in their last three state tournament appearances, in 2009, 2013 and 2015.
“You know, when we won in 2015 we won three games in which the other team had the tying run on second or third in the last inning. You need to win those types of games to win it all. You need a little luck,” Manero said. “It’s hard to go all the way in baseball because when you get to this stage, there are so many close games.”
Manero was still happy with North Penn’s 2017 season. The Knights finished 20-5. “Anytime you win 20 games in a high school season, it’s impressive, you accomplished a lot,” Manero said. “Plus a (Suburban One League Continental) Conference title and a district title game appearance. We ran out of steam at the end but it’s possible we weren’t quite ready this year.”
North Penn will return six of its starters from Monday’s game, and seven of its starters from last Thursday’s District One Class 6A championship. That group includes North Penn’s potent top of the lineup trio, Tyler Siddal, Ryan Bealer and Zack Miles, and its ace, Danny Kirwin.
“We definitely should be contending again next year. We’ll have a good group coming back that got valuable experience this year,” Manero said. “We had 28 guys this year and no one ever complained or said anything about playing time. They were all program-first. So I’m really excited to coach the ones that will be back.”
St. Joseph’s Prep 0-0-0-0-0-3-0 3
North Penn 0-0-0-0-1-0-0 1
#12-1 Frankford 5, #1-3 Neshaminy 2
Frankford took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first and never looked back.
Neshaminy got seven hits and walked four times but did not get enough clutch hits.
“It’s been that same problem the last few weeks for us,” Neshaminy coach Dan Toner said. “We were getting those hits early in the year and scoring a bunch of runs.”
Brian Nicolas had three hits and a run scored for Neshaminy. Ben Raab had two hits and an RBI. Eddie Parry scored Neshaminy’s other run. Joe Kaleck drove him in.
Neshaminy finished 18-6 in Toner’s first season. It also reached the district semifinals and the state tournament.
“It was a very successful season. Getting to the state tournament was a big deal for us,” Toner said. “We had a great group.”
Neshaminy will lose most of its starting lineup. But it will bring back middle infielders Cory Joyce, the shortstop, and Nicolas, the second baseman.
“That will be a great start to our team next year,” Toner said. “We’ll also bring back Kyle Rovny, who threw a lot of innings this year.”
Neshaminy 0-0-0-1-0-0-1 2
Frankford 3-0-1-0-1-0-X 5
#3-1 Dallastown 8, #1-5 Hatboro-Horsham 1
Hatboro-Horsham took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Colin Kennedy hit a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Eddie Schultz.
But then Dallastown scored eight unanswered runs. The score was 3-1 until Dallastown scored five in the bottom of the sixth.
“Things kind of snowballed in the bottom of the sixth,” Hatters’ coach Pete Moore said.
Hatboro-Horsham ended the season at 18-7 and reached states for the first time since 2012, and just the second time in the last 16 years.
“It was a great season and a great group of kids,” Moore said. “I’m proud of these guys and I’ll miss them.”
The Hatters also won the Suburban One League American Conference. They had a 0.28 ERA in league play and shut out six straight opponents at one point.
“You could never expect the run we had with how consistent our pitching was,” Moore said. “We knew we had talent. But it has to come together in the right way for it to succeed like that.”
Hatboro-Horsham will lose eight starters, including its two aces, Brian Edgington and Kennedy. It will bring back its third pitcher, Alex Crim, who would have been a number one on most teams.
“He was great this year,” Moore said. “I’m very confident that he’ll be able to continue on this path next year.”
Hatboro-Horsham 1-0-0-0-0-0-0 1
Dallastown 0-0-2-0-1-5-X 8
PIAA Class 5A Tournament First Round
#1-3 Upper Moreland 2, #12-1 Archbishop Wood 0
Upper Moreland starter Brandon Kohn allowed no runs in 6.2 innings. He also struck out eight.
“Brandon mixed his pitches and kept them off-balanced,” Golden Bears’ coach Dan Heiland said. “He pounded the strike zone and was able to finish batters once he got ahead.”
Tommy Jacob got the last out for Upper Moreland, a strikeout.
“Our pitching has been our strength,” Heiland said. “So good to the point where we only need a few runs each game.”
Upper Moreland scored a run in the second and seventh, respectively. In the second, Jon Searles, who legged out an infield single, scored on a groundout by Dawson Ruggles. The Golden Bears tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh. Shawn Casey led off with an infield single and scored on a two-out error by the Vikings.
“We’ve been doing a much better job playing small ball lately, moving runners and making productive outs,” Heiland said.
Upper Moreland (16-7) will play Whitehall—the District 11 champion—in a state quarterfinal on Thursday.
Upper Moreland 0-1-0-0-0-0-1 2
Archbishop Wood 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 0
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