Pennsbury advanced to the PIAA Class 6A semifinals with its win over Perk Valley on Thursday. Upper Moreland saw its season come to an end. (Photo provided courtesy of Cindy Manero.)
CLASS 6A
#1-1 Pennsbury 3, #1-4 Perkiomen Valley 0
Pennsbury reached the state semifinals for the first time in 24 years.
Ryan McCarty pitched a complete game shutout. He allowed five hits and at least one baserunner in every inning but the first.
But he picked off two base runners and threw out the lead runner on a sacrifice bunt attempt. His catcher, Josh Tesarck, threw out a runner trying to steal second, ending the Perkiomen Valley second. Two of his outfielders, center fielder Vaughn Ward and left fielder Tyrone Hodges, made running catches to end innings.
“Perk Valley hit the ball hard today. But Ryan is that kid who says, ‘You’re not gonna do it again,’” Pennsbury coach Joe Pesci said. “He came back and was able to get kids out. Not a ton of strikeouts today but he let his defense play. We have a really solid, fast outfield and a solid infield.”
“That was probably my best outing on the mound so far. I felt really confident and everything’s getting better and better as the season goes on,” McCarty said. “I’ve learned how to pitch a lot better. I didn’t pitch at all last year.”
McCarty did not pitch much this year, either, until another Falcons hurler sustained an injury in April. He is now 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA in 25.2 innings.
“He has stepped up,” Hodges said.
Pennsbury supported McCarty with a run in the first, another in the fifth and another in the seventh.
In the first, Dave Murphy poked an RBI single to right. Hodges raced home from second.
In the fifth, Jake Martell scored from third on a balk. Two innings later, Billy Bethel ripped the ball off the third baseman’s cleat, scoring Hodges.
Murphy went 2-for-2 with two singles, a walk and the RBI. Hodges went 2-for-3 with two singles, a stolen base and those two runs scored. He has scored four of Pennsbury’s five runs in the state tournament.
“Yeah, it’s just about getting on and having somebody drive me in,” Hodges said. “I have full confidence that if I get on, someone will drive me in.”
Pennsbury (20-6), two wins away from its first state championship, will play Liberty—the District 11 champion, an 8-0 winner over Frankford in the state quarterfinals—in a state semifinal on Monday. The Falcons have won 11 straight games.
Pennsbury 1-0-0-0-1-0-1 3
Perkiomen Valley 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 0
CLASS 5A
11-1 WHITEHALL 5, #1-3 UPPER MORELAND 2
The nine seniors of the Upper Moreland baseball team had plenty of success as Golden Bears.
Their exploits extend past Upper Moreland and stretch back nearly a decade, and it's a big part of the reason they factored into so much of the Golden Bears' success the past four seasons.
Thursday, their time in Upper Moreland uniforms came to an end at the hands of a Whitehall offense that's simply been on fire in the state tournament.
Even as they trailed by five runs at the start of the sixth inning, none of the seniors felt like things were over just yet.
"I don't think we ever took our heads out of it, I don't think we ever lost faith in each other," senior outfielder Randy Meehl said. "I think we could have done it. It's unfortunate that we couldn't do it, but everyone wanted it as much as the person next to them."
The Zephyrs had 10 hits, one of them a slap bunt and the other nine hard-hit balls all over the field. Whitehall's batters made Bears starter Tommy Jacob work, fouling off a lot of pitches and waiting for the pitches they wanted. They scored in four of the first five innings.
Upper Moreland couldn't get much going off Whitehall pitcher Zach Gilbert and as a team that wasn't a high-scoring squad all season, it became a tough hill to climb.
"We believed, all year, no one else believed in us but we did," senior catcher Ryan Lowry said. "I'm going to St. Joe's next year, I'm hoping to play club and I've learned a lot of things. I learned teamwork, the real meaning of friendship, I've learned a lot from these guys."
The Bears fell short of states last year when they lost in the old AAA District I title game, and while they lost some key players, they felt like with the expanded classifications, they could put a long postseason run together. That may not have been a belief shared much outside the program, but the seniors knew what they were made of and what they had in each other.
Most of them have been teammates for 10-plus years and they'd won a lot of games at Upper Moreland and outside the high school team.
"Everything we did together is what I'll remember," senior shortstop Brandon Kohn said. "I'll always be a Golden Bear. I live for Upper Moreland. This whole community is great, everyone comes out and supports each other, helps us out, we help each other out."
In Thursday’s contest, Upper Moreland finally got on the board in the sixth when Kohn singled home Meehl. Meehl had reached on an infield single, stole second and moved up on a Lowry groundout before coming home on his classmate's base hit.
It was the way the Bears had played all season, gritty and creating chances for themselves when no one else was going to give them anything. Their second run scored in much the same way when Kevin Walder walked to start the seventh, swiped a bag, moved up on a ground ball and ran home on an error.
"They've been a part of it, part of the tradition," Bears coach Dan Heiland said. "In 2013 (Upper Moreland's last state playoff team), a lot of these guys had brothers or cousins or some kind of relative on that team. They know what this is about, this environment. I'm just very proud of my guys for their effort in this game and for the season."
The nine seniors will do as all senior classes do over the next few months and go their separate ways. Some are playing baseball at the next level, some are still weighing options and for others, this was the end of a run.
"I had a lot of fun," Lowry said. "It was something special and I'll never forget it."
"I'm just sad it's ended," Kohn said. "I'm sad I can't play with them anymore."
The trio of Lowry, Kohn and Meehl felt next year's Bears can be a good team and hoped the returning players saw how they played with heart and confidence.
"It feels like more than four years, we've been together since Little League," Meehl said. "I'll never forget these guys, they're brothers to me. We're always going to be this team, you can't change it and this team is one that will always be remembered."
Upper Moreland (8-6 SOL) closed out its season with an 11-10 record.
UPPER MORELAND 000 001 1 – 2 5 1
WHITEHALL 121 010 x – 5 10 1
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