Pennsbury defeated District 11 champion Liberty 12-0 in an abbreviated five-inning PIAA Class 6A semifinal game on Monday to earn a spot in Friday’s state championship game. Photos provided courtesy of Donna Longacre. To view photos of Monday’s semifinal, please visit the photo gallery at the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/g/061217_pennsbury_vs_liberty_-_dl#l_dl_28864_53_11_25
#1-1 PENNSBURY 12, #11-1 LIBERTY 0 (5 innings)
BOYERTOWN – Billy Bethel, a fist raised in the air, watched as centerfielder Vaughn Ward hauled in a fly ball for the game’s final out. Moments later, the Falcons’ senior ace disappeared in a dog pile of jubilant teammates.
The Falcons – thanks to their thrashing of a Hurricane team that had won 17 of its last 18 games – had punched their ticket to the state title game against Dallastown. Bethel once again played a starring role, tossing a seven-hit shutout in the abbreviated five-inning contest.
“It’s crazy,” Bethel said. “All year we’ve been preaching three goals that we had. It’s win the SOL, win the district and compete for the state.
“We did that, and now we have a chance to do what no other Pennsbury team has done.”
The Falcons had no problem getting psyched for a rare noon start that was necessitated to accommodate Pennsbury’s graduation on Monday night.
“We were energized, we were really hyped for this game,” senior Dave Murphy said.
The Falcons went down quietly in the top of the first as Alex Super recorded the lone one-two-three inning of the game. It was the Hurricanes’ only highlight in a contest that belonged to the Falcons, who got on the scoreboard in the top of the second.
Murphy drew a leadoff walk, and Ryan McCarty followed with a single up the middle. Both runners advanced on Nick Price’s sacrifice bunt. Kyle Deary’s groundout plated a run that turned out to be the game winner.
In the bottom of the inning, Liberty’s Gabe Albino led off the inning with a single to right but was gunned down by catcher Josh Tesarck, a play that loomed large when the next two batters singled.
“I have a lot of confidence in our catcher,” Bethel said. “He’s got a great arm, and once that happens, confidence goes to our side, momentum builds, and that’s how that inning came about.”
That inning – the top of the third – is an inning they’ll be talking about for a long, long time. It certainly began innocently enough with Super retiring the first batter he faced on a groundout. Bethel followed with a single to left. It was the first of seven straight singles by the Falcons with Justin Massielo, Murphy (RBI), McCarty (RBI), Price (a perfectly placed bunt single down the third base line), Dear (2 RBIs) and Tesarck (RBI) all collecting base hits.
A pair of errors on Vaughn Ward’s grounder to first allowed two more runs to cross the plate. Tyrone Hodges followed with an RBI single, and the Hurricanes’ third error of the inning on Bethel’s grounder to third allowed the ninth run of the inning to come home.
“We were have a good approach at the plate, and guys were hitting the ball hard,” Hodges said. “When you hit the ball hard, good things happen to you, and that’s what happened today.”
“It was insane,” Murphy said “We got up fast in the third inning, but we had to refocus and know that the game wasn’t over.”
But the game was over.
For good measure, the Falcons tacked on a pair of runs in the fourth, benefitting from another Hurricane error as well as a single from Price and two-run single from Ward. After that, it was simply a matter of Bethel collecting the final six outs, which he did with relative ease.
“The last game he was here he got hit around a little bit, his pitch count was up, and he wasn’t thrilled with the mound,” Pesci said of the Falcons’ 2-1 win over Parkland in 11 innings in their state opener. “He came out today, and he was leaving the ball up early, but he made great adjustments.”
“Usually, I throw on a bigger mound,” Bethel said. “Coming out the second time I could adjust and practice to that mound.
“I think I did a better job of preparing for the mound.”
McCarty, Price and Massielo led the Falcons’ hit parade with two hits each on a day that saw all nine starters collect hits. Dear had three RBIs, and Vaughn Ward had a pair.
“You tell me what the scouting report is on us,” the Falcons’ coach Joe Pesci said. “We win on walk-offs, we don’t hit for a while.
“I challenged the kids today to score in four innings. I challenged them to score more than one in an inning. We only got to play five and they scored multiple runs. This is what we’ve been waiting for.
“We’ve been tiptoeing into these wins. Even though we had some games where we shut teams out, we still were tiptoeing through these wins. The defense made some great plays. Nick Price made a nice play on a hard ground ball to his left. The great thing is we all have confidence in each other, no matter who’s called upon.”
In a postseason that has seen the Falcons win twice by one run and twice by two runs with three runs their largest margin of victory, Monday’s win was a novel change of pace.
“We were kind of due for one, and everybody said we were due for one,” Hodges said. “We had a lot of close games, so we were hoping to just put a bat on the ball.
“We know Billy’s going to go out there and do his thing every time he’s on the mound, so we were fully confident that we were going to come out here and it was going to be on our hitting. Our defense is clean for the most part, and we just put our bat on the ball today.”
“You can’t imagine 12-0,” Bethel said. “You’ve got to come out every game fight and battle.
“That’s great for our confidence going into Friday, and now we have to keep building on that. We’ll celebrate on the ride home and then get back at it Tuesday and Wednesday.”
Pennsbury (21-6, 10-2 SOL) will face District 3 champion Dallastown in Friday’s state title game at Penn State’s Lubrano Park (3:30 p.m.). Dallastown defeated District 6 champion State College 6-1, a win that extended the Wildcats’ winning streak to 20 in a row.
Pennsbury 019 20 12-12-1
Liberty 000 00 0-7-4
Pennsbury (12) – Tyrone Hodges 4-1-1-1; Billy Bethel 4-0-1-0; Justin Massielo 4-1-2-0; Dave Murray 3-2-1-1; Ryan McCarty 3-1-2-1; Nick Price 2-2-2-0; Kyle Dear 3-1-1-3; Josh Tesarck 2-0-1-1; Vaughn Ward 3-1-1-2; Jake Martell 0-1-0-0; Justin Ward 0-1-0-0; Alex Ritter 1-0-0-0; Gary Minnes 0-1-0-0; TOTALS 29-12-12-9.
Liberty (0) – Kyle Hlavaty 3-0-0-0; Jared Burcin 3-0-1-0; Elias Gross 3-0-2-0; Sam Kraihanzel 2-0-0-0; Mike Perreault 2-0-0-0; Gabe Albino 2-0-1-0; Jake Wagner 2-0-2-0; Ben Piripavel 2-0-0-0; Alex Super 0-0-0-0; Jake Morgan 2-0-1-0; TOTALS 21-0-7-4.
2B-Jared Burcin.
IP H R ER BB SO
LIBERTY
Alex Super (L) 4.0 11 12 8 2 2
Ian Dougherty 1.0 1 0 0 1 1
PENNSBURY
Billy Bethel (W) 5.0 7 0 0 0 3
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