CB South and Upper Dublin were winners in Monday’s opening round of the District One 6A Tournament. UD/Wissahickon photos provided courtesy of Kim Supko Photography. CB East photos courtesy of Tracy Valko Check back for photo galleries of both games
Class 6A
#19 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 4, #14 PERKIOMEN VALLEY 1
Robby Porco turned in another superb outing on the mound, the Titans received some timely hits, and it all added up to an impressive opening round win.
“We were happy the way our kids responded coming up against a team we haven’t seen before,” South coach Kevin Bray said. “The energy was high. We knew it was a business trip – we weren’t just there to have fun. We were there to win a baseball game.
“Our guys did what we needed to do to survive and move on. Our keys are always the same – we want to play really good defense, we want to have good quality at-bats, and we want to be throwing strikes on the mound, and we did that today.”
The game started out on a bit of a rocky note for Porco and the Titans as the Vikings put their first two runners on board in the bottom of the first, thanks to an error and a walk. They had runners on first and third with one out, but Porco came up with a huge strikeout and then a groundout to escape unscathed.
“He got in a little bit of trouble in the first inning but was able to work his way out of that and then was really efficient the rest of the way into the seventh inning,” Bray said. “After that first inning, I wasn’t sure how many more we were going to get out of him. We were thinking we’d probably have to make a change for pitch count around the fifth inning, but he was really efficient the rest of the way. He pitched to contact, which helped, and he racked up (seven) strikeouts along the way.”
Porco threw 6 2/3 innings, allowing just five hits and one run while striking out seven and walking one. Noah Collier collected the game’s final out to notch the save.
The Titan scored a pair of runs in the second. With one out, Dakota Beck singled, and Colin Mitchell followed with a double to center. Beck scored on an error, and Eric Damico’s sacrifice fly brought Mitchell home, giving the Titans an early 2-0 lead.
That 2-0 score stood until the top of the seventh when the Titans tacked on a pair of insurance runs. Beck and Mitchell opened the inning with back-to-back singles. Both runners moved up on a groundout, but it looked as though they might be stranded when the Vikings collected the second out on a popup to second, but Jimmy Kelly stepped to the plate and jumped on the first pitch, ripping a double to center field that plated a pair and gave the Titans a 4-0 lead.
“Jimmy came up in a big spot with two guys on and two outs,” Bray said. “He’s delivered all year for us. I wasn’t surprised he was able to put the ball in the gap and score us two big runs, especially with letting up one in the bottom of the seventh.”
Beck’s 3-for-3 effort with a run scored led the Titans. Mitchell was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Carter Hinds was 2-for-4.
“Dakota was on base all three times, provided some offense that we needed by just getting on base,” Bray said. “Our top of the order has really carried us.
“Carter (Hinds) had a couple of hits in the two spot. We were putting the bat on the ball It just wasn’t dropping in for us, but the bottom of our order really turned it up with generating some hits, getting on base, and Jimmy cashed in for us at the end.
“We were just really pleased with our guys today. They stayed focused throughout the whole game and we got out of there with a win.”
Central Bucks South (12-8, 8-8 SOL) will travel to #2 Bensalem for a second round game Wednesday.
Central Bucks South 020 000 2 4-8-1
Perkiomen Valley 000 000 1 1-5-1
#18 GARNET VALLEY 3, #15 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 0
Jake Potts, a Seton Hall commit, stole the spotlight in Monday’s district opener at East. The Jaguars ace allowed just two singles – the first by Joey Wilga with two outs in the sixth and the other by Tony Rossi with one out in the seventh.
Potts struck out 13 and walked three – two of those walks came in the first inning.
Max McGrady absorbed the loss, allowing five hits and three runs in five innings, striking out eight and walking two. Jack Hamilton allowed one hit in two shutout innings in relief, fanning five and walking none.
Central Bucks East closed out its season with a 12-9 record over all (9-7 SOL).
Garnet Valley 000 030 0 3-6-1
Central Bucks East 000 000 0 0-2-0
CLASS 5A
#6 UPPER DUBLIN 2, #11 WISSAHICKON 1
The day belonged to Tristan Cairnes.
The UD junior not only tossed a complete game two-hitter, he also delivered a clutch two-out single to plate the tying run in the fifth.
The Trojans scored their only run off Cairnes in the top of the first when Ben Junker, who led off the game with a triple, scored on a wild pitch.
“It was a fantastic outing by Tristan,” UD coach Ed Wall said. “The one triple was honestly our fault for not having our center fielder in the right position. If we have him back where he should be – I’m not saying he would have caught it or the ball wouldn’t have gone over his head, but I know he would have been in a better position to make a play.
“Junker crushed that thing. It was a rocket. The ball wasn’t really carrying as well as it has been in these cooler temps, and that one seemed to be the lone shot that was hit that hard by pretty much anybody today, but then he shut them down.”
The Trojans managed just one hit the rest of the way. Cairnes struck out three and did not walk a batter.
“He really settled in and got so many ground ball outs – it was fantastic,” Wall said. “And our defense played great defense, which was the other key half of that.
“Nick Lombardo – I don’t know how many assists he had, but I know he got the side out on three in a row ground ball outs. He was really efficient in getting in and out of innings.”
While Cairnes settled into a groove after allowing a first inning run, Junker was doing the same on the mound for the Trojans. In the bottom of the fifth, Kyle Rizzo was hit by a pitch with one out and then stole second. He was still on second when Ethan Madnick drew a two-out walk, and that set the stage for Cairnes, who delivered the big hit.
“Tristan had a clutch hit with an RBI to kind of break things open a little bit and try to get some of the offensive juices flowing,” Wall said. “It was definitely a total team effort.
“Junker is a good pitcher, and he battled. I’m not sure if he had his best stuff. He came in relief against us in our second game against them during the season. He was really tough there. His curveball was on, his fastball had better velocity and it was more downhill, but he still found a way to keep us at bay. We had a bunch of fly ball outs that he induced.”
Junker – who had thrown 99 pitches – was lifted with two outs in the sixth after walking leadoff batter Leo Soriano and then retiring the next two batters he faced. Jared Levis drew a walk, and the bases were loaded after Rizzo was hit by a pitch. A walk to Lombardo pushed the go-ahead run across.
Cairnes retired the Trojans in the seventh, and the hard fought win was in the books. The win was the 13th in 14 games for the Cardinals after dropping their regular season finale to Hatboro-Horsham (9-0).
“We had a stinker against Hatboro, but that’s to be expected – we were due,” Wall said. “We had a really good game defensively today.
“We did put the ball in play. It was a lot right at them and balls in the air that were easy outs for their outfielders. I was really pleased.”
The UD coach pointed to an important defensive play in the first inning.
“Kyle Rizzo had a huge caught stealing to kind of put the brakes on that rally that Junker started with that triple, which was enormous to take a base runner off the bases in a little bit of a rally,” Wall said. “Our goal is to try and get out of the first inning unscathed. With pitchers the way they are, you never know what you’re going to get. It might not be pretty, but let’s just get out of it without giving up any runs. We try to keep it as simple as possible and hopefully we execute.
“We have a tough opponent in Oxford coming up on Wednesday. We’re looking forward to it.”
Upper Dublin (13-8, 10-6 SOL) will travel to No. 3 Oxford on Wednesday.
Wissahickon 100 000 0 1-2-0
Upper Dublin 000 011 x 2-5-2
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