2011 District Baseball Preview (Round 1)

By Scott Huff 

The paperwork is complete.
 
The brackets are drawn.
 
May Madness can now begin for PIAA District One baseball.
 
The Suburban One League was awarded the three coveted first round byes in the Quad-A brackets. Council Rock North – the SOL National Conference champion – was slotted as the No. 1 seed in the ‘North’ half of the district. Pennridge – the SOL Continental Conference champion – was slotted as the No. 2 seed in the ‘North’. And Council Rock South – the runner up in the SOL National Conference – was slotted as the No. 4 seed.
 
Spring-Ford – the Pioneer Athletic Conference champion – was awarded the No. 3 seed.
 
The ‘South’ bracket first round byes were presented to Marple Newtown – No.1 from the Central League; West Chester East – No. 2 from the Ches-Mont League; Conestoga – No. 3 from the Central League; and West Chester Henderson – No. 4 from the Ches-Mont League.
 
The teams awarded the first round byes will all begin play on Wednesday – May 25,2011 – with home games. All games will begin at 4 pm.
 
There will be five Quad-A teams that will advance to the state tournament from District One.
 
Both Upper Moreland – the SOL American Conference champion – and Upper Merion – the SOL American Conference runner-up – will square off with each other in a first round district playoff game to be played on Tuesday – May 24, 2011.
 
There will be one Class AAA team from the eight team District One field that will advance to the state tournament.
 
PIAA District One Quad-A First Round Games
Monday – May 23,2011
All games begin at 4 pm
 
 
[N-9] Central Bucks East Patriots @ [S-8] West Chester Rustin Golden Knights
 
How they got there.
              Central Bucks East finished third in the Suburban One League Continental Conference.
              West Chester Rustin finished fourth in the Ches-Mont League.
 
Who’s hot?
              Central Bucks East won four of its last five conference games,
              West Chester Rustin won three of its last five conference games.
 
Name game.
              Key players for CB East include Kris Davis, Ryan Pater, Sean Trymbiski, Tyler Zeleny, Evan Wessel, Ben Hauser, Clay Sebesky, and Ryan Clow.
              Key players for WCR include Danny Myers, Nick Miller, Joe Palladino, Matt Gosik, Alec O’Dell, Kevin Jewitt, and Dylan Jenkins.
 
Central Bucks East head coach Kyle Dennis says:
              “This team really believed in itself after our horrible (0-3) start,” said Dennis. “We fought through adversity and didn’t give up on ourselves. These players deserve to play in a playoff game.”
 
Winner gets –
              The winner of the CB East versus West Chester Rustin game will move on to a second round game @ [N-1] Council Rock Northon 5/25/11.
 
 
[S-10] Garnet Valley Jaguars @ [N-7] Truman Tigers
 
How they got there.
              Garnet Valley finished in fourth place in the Central League.
              Truman finished third in the Suburban One League National Conference.
 
Who’s Hot?
              Garnet Valley won two of its last five conference games.
              Truman won two of its last five conference games.
 
Name Game.
              Key players for Garnet Valley include Daulton Mayberry, Tom Ciccione, Chris Lansberry, Scott Scherer, Joe DeCarlo, Justin Pyle, and Ryan Dorosh.
              Key players for Truman include Brian Beyer, Zach Philippi, Ryan Field, Ryan Hires, Kyle Tepper, James Wallace, and Brandon Tepper.
 
Truman head coach Jeff Vitale says:
              “I knew we weren’t as good a team as we were the first half of the season (7-0), and I know we are not as bad as we were the second half of the season (2-5),” said Vitale. “I thought we would be around 10 wins at the beginning of the season, and at 9-7 I wasn’t too far off.”
 
Winner gets –
              The winner of the Garnet Valley versus Truman game will move on to a second round game @ [S-2] West Chester East on 5/25/11.
 
 
[N-11] Plymouth Whitemarsh Colonials @ [S-6] Interboro Bucs
 
How they got there.
              Plymouth Whitemarsh finished the season in second place in the Suburban One American Conference.
              Interboro was the Delaware Valley Conference champion.
 
Who’s Hot?
              Plymouth Whitemarsh won two of its last five conference games.
              Interboro won five of its last five conference games.
 
Name Game.
              Key players for Plymouth Whitemarsh include Bobby Slagle, Jake Mascio, Jason Cho, Matt Minetola, Steve Wallace, Austin DiBonaventure, and Jon Staats.
              Key players for Interboro include Bob Barnett, Ryan Bailey, Mitch Hellmandollar, Zack Davidson, Gabe Encarnacion, Mark Whitham, and Chris Long.
 
Plymouth Whitemarsh head coach Robert Slagle says:
              “I think I had a case of angina the last couple of weeks,” said Slagle. “We let some big leads slip away, and we surely didn’t make things easy on ourselves. We’re just glad to be in the playoffs.”
 
Winner gets –
              The winner of the Plymouth Whitemarsh versus Interboro game will move on to the second round @ [N-3] Spring-Ford on 5/25/11.
 
 
[S-9] Kennett Blue Demons @ [N-8] North Penn Knights
 
How they got there.
              Kennett finished the season in fifth place in the Ches-Mont League
              North Penn finished the season in second place in the Suburban One League Continental Conference.
 
Who’s hot?
              Kennett won four of its last five conference games.
              North Penn won three of its last five conference games.
 
Name Game.
              Key players for Kennett include Luke Alicknovitch, Brandon Liddick, Stephen Valentine, Jay Singer, Tyler Hall, Daniel Phillips, and Brian Pennock.
              Key players for North Penn include Craig Lepre, Alec Lashkevic, Bob Reddick, Austin Tarpey, Chris Edgar, Bryce Mengel, and Ed Posavec.
 
North Penn head coach Bob McCreary says:
              “We had three must wins at the end of the season in our conference, and we were able to win them all,” said McCreary. “We are going into the playoffs playing our best baseball of the season.”
 
Winner gets –
              The winner of the Kennett versus North Penn game will move on to the second round @ [S-1] Marple-Newtown on 5/11/25.
 
 
[N-12] Central Bucks South Titans @ [S-5] Downingtown East Whippets
 
How they got there.
              Central Bucks South finished the season in fourth place in the Suburban One League Continental Conference.
              Downingtown East finished the season in third place in the Ches-Mont League.
 
Who’s Hot?
              Central Bucks South won two of its last five conference games.
              Downingtown East won three of its last five conference games.
 
Name Game.
              Key players for Central Bucks South include Dylan Glassmire, Patrick Dundon, Ben Moller, Chris Veal, Chris Coia, Ben Arnold, Brian Happ, and Ricky Dennis.
              Key players for Downingtown East include Matt Ternowchek, Pat Pitman, Scott Jackman, Mike Listmeier, Jeff Boorman, Chris Ward, and Alex Koualczyk.
 
Central Bucks South head coach Mike Schaefer says:
              “There is no doubt that we haven’t been playing our best baseball right now,” said Schaefer. “But everyone begins the playoffs 0-0 and we have as good a chance as anyone.”
 
Winner gets –
              The winner of the Central Bucks South versus Downingtown East game will move on to the second round @ [N-4] Council Rock Southon 5/25/11.
 
 
[N-2] Pennridge will host the winner of the first round game between [S-7] Strath Haven and [N-10] Methacton on 5/25/11.
 
 
PIAA District One Class AAA First Round Games
Tuesday – May 24, 2011
All games at 4 pm
 
[No. - 7] Upper Merion Vikings @ [No. - 2] Upper Moreland Golden Bears
 
How they got there.
              Upper Merion finished the season in second place in the Suburban One League American Conference.
              Upper Moreland finished the season as the champions of the Suburban One League American Conference.
 
Who’s Hot?
              Upper Merion won four of its last five conference games.
              Upper Moreland won four of its last five conference games.
 
Name Game.
              Key players for Upper Merion include Ray Gambone, Justin Cunnane, Peter Lopez, Kyle Gaffney, Mike Popowicz, Brian Desch, and Alex Clark.
              Key players for Upper Moreland include Dave McInerney, Mike Janas, Kyle Walder, Robert Knox, Matt Kohn, Kyle Lockhard, and Dan Cripps.
 
SOL American Conference Notes;
              Upper Moreland and Upper Merion played three times during the regular season – with Upper Moreland winning three one-run games (2-1, 5-4, & 4-3).
 
Winner gets –
              The winner of the Upper Merion versus Upper Moreland game will advance to the district semifinal game against the winner of the [No. – 3] Chichester versus [No. – 6] Octorara game. That semifinal game will be played on 5/26/11 @ Glen Mills.
 
 
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