Bensalem, Souderton, and Wissahickon were winners in District One Tournament action Wednesday. Souderton/Quakertown photos provided courtesy of Kim Supko. Bensalem/CB South photos courtesy of John Gleeson, and North Penn/Conestoga photo courtesy of Cindy Manero. Check back for galleries of the Souderton/Quakertown and Bensalem/CB South games.
CLASS 6A
#1-5 BENSALEM 5, #1-12 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 3
The Owls picked up their first postseason win since May 21, 2012, when they crushed Glen Mills 13-0. This one was a whole lot tougher, and the Owls were propelled by the strong arms of Stephen Aldrich and Nick Fossile.
Aldrich earned the win, allowing three hits and three runs (all unearned) while striking out eight and walking two. Fossile allowed one hit in 2.1 scoreless innings in relief.
“(Aldrich) did a great job – he was a little tired, but we got an extra inning out of him,” coach Harry Daut said. “He’s just been good all year, and Fossile was just flat out good.
“It was really a good game.”
The Owls put a pair of runs on the board in the first without the benefit of a hit. Keith Parrish, Aldrich and Jon Revell all drew free passes, and a pair of runs crossed the plate on a two-out error.
In the fourth, they added two more runs to go on top 4-0, benefitting from a pair of errors as well as singles by Brian Swentkowski and Parrish, whose bunt single plated a run.
“Parrish got a bunt down – a safety squeeze that turned into a hit,” Daut said. “That was a big point in the game.”
South made things real interesting with three runs in the fifth. John McSweeny hit a one-out double, and Justin Mauz walked. One out later, Jake McKeown legged out a bunt single to load the bases. All three runs scored on an error.
In the bottom of the inning, Scott Rooney tripled with one out and was replaced by pinch runner Austin Shay, who scored on a balk.
Parrish (2-for-2, 2B, RBI, run) led the Owls’ attack. Jake McKeown was 3-for-4 with a run, collecting three of the Titans’ four hits.
Wednesday’s game was the third meeting between the two teams – who split their regular season crossover series.
“CB South is a classy team – they’re well coached,” Daut said. “This is our third really good game against them. We were just fortunate to come out on top.”
Bensalem (17-3, 10-2 SOL) will host Souderton in a quarterfinal game Friday at 3 p.m. Central Bucks South (8-4 SOL) closed out its season with an 11-9 record.
Central Bucks South 000 030 0 3-4-3
Bensalem 200 210 x 5-7-1
#1-13 SOUDERTON 4, #1-4 QUAKERTOWN 2
Blaise Sclafani and David Gulibon put on an impressive pitching display, combining for 15 strikeouts with 12 of those coming against the Panthers’ top five batters. Sclafani – who earned the win – struck out 12 in 5.1 innings. He allowed just four hits and two runs (both unearned).
“He was on fire,” coach Mike Childs said of Sclafani. “And then Gulibon came in with one out in the sixth inning because Blaise ran out of pitches.
“He came in with the bases loaded, walked a guy in, and it was 4-2 with the bases loaded and one out. He struck out the next two guys. They both did really well.”
The Indians broke a 1-1 tie with three runs in the sixth – all with two outs.
Conlan Wall led off the frame with a single and moved up to second on Luke Barnum’s sacrifice bunt. Luke Shank hit a ball to the right side, allowing Wall to move up to third with two outs.
It looked as though the Panthers might escape unscathed, but that didn’t happen as the Indians scored three two-out runs.
“Blaise (Sclafani) comes up and hits a laser ground ball in between third and short that scored our second run,” Childs said. “The very next play (David) Gulibon hits an infield single between short and third.”
Tim Robinson entered the game as a pinch runner for Gulibon, and it was safe all around when Luke Taylor, who bats from the left side, hit a ball that was misplayed on the infield, and just like that, the Indians led 4-1.
“Between Blaise hitting that ball to put us up 2-1 with two outs, with Gulibon hitting that opposite field ground ball between short and third and then the misplayed ground ball – that was a big dagger for them and a key for us,” Childs said. “The kids are playing loose now – their warm-ups were loose.
“Pitching-wise for those two guys to do what they did today, and we still have Jordan (Morales) and (Aaron) Groller waiting with a bunch of other guys on the bench that are capable too. We have eight guys that we feel confident we can pitch.”
Gulibon was 2-for-3 with a run scored to lead the Indians, who managed just five hits off of Quakertown’s Justin Guidos and Dennis Pierce. Guidos , who threw 5.2 innings, absorbed the loss.
Souderton (15-6, 8-4 SOL) – which had not won a postseason game since 2007 until Monday’s win over Neshaminy – will travel to fifth-seeded Bensalem for Friday’s quarterfinal game at 3 p.m. Quakertown (12-2 SOL) closed out it season with a 14-5 record.
Souderton 010 003 0 4-5-2
Quakertown 000 101 0 2-4-3
#1-11 COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 5, #1-6 OXFORD 1
Luke Rettig came into Wednesday’s game with the big name and the big reputation, but in Wednesday’s second round game, the 6-4 southpaw, a Lehigh recruit, was upstaged by Ryan Stalker.
The Indians’ junior hurler allowed just two hits and one run while striking out six and walking three in 5.2 strong innings on the mound to earn the win.
“He was dealing, he was dominant – he was something else,” coach Matt Schram said. “He battled – he walked a few, he hit a few, but he was virtually unhittable.”
Stalker, who had thrown 95 pitches, was lifted with two outs in the sixth, and Eric Hoefer did not allow a hit in one-and-a-third shutout innings to close out the game.
“He did a great job closing,” Schram said.
Stalker helped his own cause with an RBI single in the second, and the Indians tacked on a run to go on top 2-0 in the fourth inning. Carson Shane drew a walk, and Stalker picked up his second hit of the day, a double to center that put Indian runners on second and third. Shane raced home with the Indians’ second run on Jared Leuz’s groundout.
In the fifth, Cavan Tully, who was hit by a pitch to open the inning, scored on Jason Walter’s sacrifice fly, and the Indians led 3-1.
Oxford put a run on the board in the sixth, but Walter gave the Indians some insurance when he belted a two-run home run in the top of the seventh.
“That was the nail in the coffin,” Schram said. “Once he hit that home run, it just took all the wind out of their sails.”
Rettig was charged with the loss, allowing six hits and three runs (two earned) in six innings. He fanned 12 and walked just one.
“Their pitcher was really good,” Schram said. “We were told he’s a potential draft pick in June. He’s a big kid, and he threw in the upper 80s. He was the real deal, he was real good.
“He struck us out 12 times – he was that good of a pitcher, but we had a real good approach, a real good plan of attack.
“And our defense – we played very clean defense. Cavan Tully at shortstop made plays today that were just ridiculous. He takes away hits from people. Not only does he make the routine plays, but balls that are hit deep in the hole and should be base hits – he throws people out by two steps.”
Council Rock North (13-6, 8-4 SOL) will travel to third-seeded Downingtown West for a District One 6A quarterfinal game.
“We faced them two years ago,” said Schram, whose team edged the Whippets 2-1 in the district semifinals. “They’re very aggressive offensively, they have real good arms, they’re a quality team. Year in and year out, they have a lot of wins. We have a pretty good idea what we’re up against. Like we’re up against every game in our league. You have to bring your ‘A’ game, otherwise they’ll expose you.”
Council Rock North 010 110 2 5-9-1
Oxford 000 001 0 1-2-1
#1-16 CONESTOGA 2, #1-1 NORTH PENN 1
The ending came quickly for the top-seeded Knights as their usually potent offense was limited to just two hits by Richmond recruit Jacob Marcus and his younger brother Cameron, who threw the last two innings.
The Knights certainly had their chances and had their leadoff batter on board in the seventh when Jake Drelick was hit by a pitch. They could not find a way to get him home, and the game ended with Drelick on third base.
“We had a practice on Monday and did a live situation, and the situation we started every inning was – man on first down by a run in the seventh inning,” coach Kevin Manero said. “That’s exactly what we faced today. We didn’t have the big hit and we didn’t drive the runs in today. It wasn’t one guy, it was our offense in general.
“When you lose a game 2-1, as a head coach, I blame myself 100 percent because there has to be something we could have done differently to win that game. Though we were a number one seed and were 12-0 in the conference, I think we all knew that what we were going to see in the postseason was going to be very different from what we saw in the regular season. That team that we played today with their number one would have been a top team in our conference.”
Marcus allowed one hit and one run in five innings. He struck out eight and did not walk a batter. The Knights’ lone run in the third came when Ryan Bealer, who had walked, scored on an error.
After Marcus retired the first six batters he faced – four by strikeout, the Knights had base runners in every inning. They left the bases loaded in the third, stranded two in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
“Everybody in our starting lineup received some sort of all-league award, everybody in our starting lineup was hitting .300 or above, but we don’t have multiple guys in our lineup batting .400, and offensively, we just struggled a little bit against better pitching,” Manero said. “We saw that happen a little bit towards the end of the year with guys keeping us off balance, and we saw it happen today.”
Danny Kirwin pitched well enough to win most days, allowing just three hits and two runs in 6.1 innings. He struck out 10 and didn’t walk a batter.
“Danny Kirwin threw maybe the best game I’ve ever seen him throw,” Manero said. “He was 88-90 and had a lights-out breaking ball, he competed like crazy.
“We played good defense. You get good pitching and good defense, you’re going to always be in games in a situation to win it late.”
Manero – who in three years removed from leading the Knights to a state crown – recognized that his team’s high seed didn’t mean a whole lot when the games began.
“I know that in high school baseball you can be a number one seed and lose the first game or you can be a 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 seed, and you can win that same game,” the Knights’ coach said. “You can never go into a game thinking, ‘Oh man, we’re in for a long playoff run.’
“If you don’t just win the pitch in front of you and win the inning, then your season is going to end really fast, and that’s what happened. We’ve been on the other side of it. In 2013, we were the last seed, and we upset Conestoga in the first round, and this year we’re on the other side.”
Manero bids farewell to a large senior class.
“The tough part is – this is a group of guys that have been playing together their entire lives, and it’s one of those groups you wish you could have seen them end their high school careers together on the highest of highs, but it only happens for one team,” the Knights’ coach said. “Guys like Ryan Bealer who scored the winning run in the state final in 2015 – in my mind, I had a script played out where he drove in the winning run in the state final this year. You look at things like that, and you wish you could have given more to the kids that are leaving this year, but that’s baseball.”
North Penn (12-0 SOL) closed out its season with a Continental Conference title and a 16-4 record.
Conestoga 001 100 0 2-3-3
North Penn 001 000 0 1-2-0
CLASS 2A
#1-7 WISSAHICKON 5, #1-2 INTERBORO 2
The Trojans erupted for four runs in the second to seize early control of Wednesday’s quarterfinal game against the second-seeded Buccaneers.
“That four-run inning definitely helped,” coach Andy Noga said. “We definitely wanted to come out in the first and score, but the whole goal in general was to score first in the game.
“We put together some quality at-bats, got some guys on base, and we ran the bases well. We took bags, we were aggressive, and obviously, some timely hitting helped out too.”
In the four-run second, Brian Hynes opened the inning with a single, and Tyler Caso drew a walk. JT Culp’s sacrifice fly pushed the first run across, and then came a stretch of four straight hits – a double by Bobby McFarland (RBI), a Michael Steitz single and then RBI doubles by Steve Loden and Eddie Fortescue.
“Our guys are aggressive hitters,” Noga said. “We just found the gaps, found the holes in their defense, hit the ball hard. The balls fell our way today.”
Loden (3-for-4, 2 2B, RBI, 2 runs), Fortescue (3-for-4, 2B, RBI) and Hynes (3-for-3, run) led the Trojans’ potent offensive attack. McFarland was 2-for-3 with two doubles and one RBI. Brian Mendhart also had an RBI.
Mike Gorman earned the win, scattering nine hits and allowing two runs while striking out four and walking none in 6.1 innings. Hynes closed it out, recording the final two outs.
“They did a good job of putting the ball in play, and Michael did a good job of gutting it out,” Noga said. “He pitched out of some big jams, trusted the defense, which has been awesome all year.”
Wissahickon (14-5, 10-3, SOL) will travel to third-seeded Marple Newtown for a quarterfinal game on Friday.
“We know they’re a very talented team, so we’re up for the challenge,” Noga said. “We’re going to go in there, we know they’re good team, we give them a ton of respect, but they’re going to get our best battle to advance in the tournament.”
Wissahickon 040 100 0 5-13-0
Interboro 000 020 0 2-10-1
CLASS 4A
#1-3 NEW HOPE-SOLEBURY 4, #1-2 SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP 3
The Spartans never could find their offense in Wednesday’s opening round district game, managing just three hits. Still, they scored a pair of first-inning runs and took that 2-0 lead into the fifth inning when the Lions rallied to knot the score. They added two more runs in the sixth to go on top 4-2 before the Spartans scored a single run in the bottom of the inning.
Springfield Township (9-4 SOL) closed out its season with a 9-8 record.
New Hope-Solebury 000 022 0 4-8-2
Springfield Township 200 001 0 3-3-2
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