Neshaminy advanced to Thursday’s District One 6A Tournament. Neshaminy/Hatboro-Horsham photos provided courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery of photos. North Penn/Boyertown photos courtesy of Cindy Manero.
District One 6A semifinals
#11 Neshaminy 5, #7 Hatboro-Horsham 1
Neshaminy has been the reigning District One Class 6A baseball champions for a long time – nearly two years to be exact.
Tuesday, it kept hopes alive of defending that title with a 5-1 road victory over No. 7 Hatboro-Horsham.
Thursday, with an almost entirely new team from the one that won districts in 2019, No. 11 Neshaminy plays at No. 5 Boyertown in the title game.
“I felt we would have done the same thing last year had we played,” said left fielder Josh Martoccio. “I felt we would have went undefeated last year. So, I feel this just vindicated what our year would have been last year. I still think we have a lot more good baseball to play. We’re back to what we’ve been trying to do all year.”
“It all started in the winter – the weight room, winter workouts – and it’s just been like a family environment,” said Neshaminy pitcher Justus Agosto. “Everyone has been doing their job. Everyone has been putting in their work just so we can get to a place like this where we’re going to the district championship.”
Tuesday’s semifinal was a close, low-scoring pitchers’ duel, something Neshaminy has gotten quite used to this season. It played eight one-run games in the regular season and six two-run games.
“Being in those situations (helps),” said coach Dan Toner. “In the beginning of the year, we were winning all of those close games, in the middle we dropped a couple, but then we got the feel. We just had to clean some things up and any time we’re in a close game, with our pitchers on the mound, we feel very comfortable. There’s no sense of (panic). We’re not timid, we’re not scared. We know we can come back. We know that we can put teams away.”
The players are confident they know how to win games like that too.
“It makes us comfortable in these situations,” Martoccio said. “We’re never worried about it. We know we can score more runs if we have to, or we can hold the lead.”
Two of the Suburban One League’s top pitchers were on the mound in Neshaminy’s Agosto and Hatboro-Horsham left-hander Jimmy Tooley and both were very strong right from the start.
Agosto allowed just one hit through the first four innings, a second-inning single by Tooley, and ended up going the distance, allowing just one run on four hits, with one walk and nine strikeouts.
“Any time we have Justus out on the mound, we know it’s going to be a low scoring game for us,” Toner said. “Any support we can get him with one or more, we feel pretty comfortable with him on the mound.”
He had to work out of trouble a couple times, though, including in the second when an error followed Tooley’s single and a sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third for H-H with just one out.
But Agosto induced a grounder and first baseman Tyler Warr was able to throw the runner out at the plate, and then Agosto ended the inning with a strikeout.
“A lot of times, whenever somebody gets someone on base or gets a run in, I kind of bear down and get the job done, make sure that nothing else happens,” Agosto said. “I was so relieved that (Warr) made that play, especially after that error. I wanted to get out of that inning as fast as possible.”
Tooley didn’t allow a hit through the first four innings, but in the top of the fourth, Neshaminy scored a run without a hit.
Martoccio led off the inning with a walk and then after Zack Bowman walked, Brendan Ravan was hit by a pitch to load the bases. The game’s first run then scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Jake Oberholzer.
Mike Donato picked up Neshaminy’s first hit in the fifth, and then in the sixth the bats started to come alive. With runners on first and second with two outs, Oberholzer belted a triple to right-center to make it a 3-0 game.
H-H threatened in the bottom of the sixth as Trey Porter led off with a single and then a single by Cole Fisher with one out put runners on the corners. Porter scored the Hatters’ lone run on a double steal, but Agosto struck out the next two batters to end the threat and keep the lead at 3-1.
Martoccio, who was on base in all four of his plate appearances with two walks and two singles, drove in two key insurance runs in the top of the seventh.
“I figured when I got on first base with my second walk that he was having a hard time pitching with a runner on first,” Martoccio said. “When we got runners over it seemed like he felt pressure. He just put that fastball down the middle (in the seventh) and I was able to put it right over the third baseman’s head.”
Agosto then worked around a little wildness in the bottom half of the inning to finish the game off. Getting the run support was all the boost he needed.
“I have full trust in them to get the job done,” he said. “That’s how a team should work. I do my job on the mound and they do their job in the field and (with the bats).”
Neshaminy 000 102 2 – 5 5 1
Hatboro-Horsham 000 001 0 – 1 4 2
#5 Boyertown 2, #9 North Penn 1
Mike Lennon pitched well enough to win on most days, but the Knights never could find their offense, managing just one hit in a classic pitcher’s duel..jpg)
“Mike Lennon pitched his heart out, and he gave us exactly what we needed,” NP coach Kevin Manero said. “Boyertown just managed to muster one more big hit than we did. At this stage of the playoffs, you get heavyweight battles like that, so it will make us better for next week.”
Lennon allowed just four hits and two runs while fanning eight and walking four in six strong innings on the mound.
Sam Cohen’s RBI double in the fifth accounted for the Knights’ only hit and only run. The Bears answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning.
North Penn (17-6, 11-5) will travel to Hatboro-Horsham for Thursday’s game for state seeding. The winner will be the third seed, the loser the fourth.
North Penn 000 010 0 1-1-0
Boyertown 000 020 x 2-4-1
District Playback
#1 SPRING-FORD 11, #19 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 9
There are heartbreakers and then there are heartbreakers.
The Titans took a 9-5 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning when the Rams erupted for six runs, winning it in dramatic fashion when Dylan Ducharme hit a grand slam for the walk-off win.
Earlier, the Titans appeared to be in control, rallying from a 5-2 deficit with two runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth. In the four-run sixth, Colin Mitchell hit an RBI double to left, Matt Boyce had an RBI single, and Owen Petrich’s two-run double gave the Titans a 9-5 lead that was anything but secure.
Boyce’s 3-for-3 effort with three RBIs and two runs scored led the Titans’ 10-hit attack. Jimmy Kelly was 3-for-4 with a double, RBI and run scored out of the leadoff spot. Mitchell was 2-for-3 with two doubles, one RBI and a run scored, and Petrich was 2-for-3 with a double, home run and three RBIs.
Central Bucks South closed out its season with a 13-10 record (8-8 SOL).
Central Bucks South 120 024 0 9-10-0
Spring-Ford 050 000 6 11-12-1
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