Council Rock North saw its season end in Thursday’s PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinal round when the Indians fell to Marple Newtown 3-1. To view Keith Clemens’ photos of the game, please visit the Photo Gallery.
#1-5 MARPLE NEWTOWN 3, #1-2 COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 1
Matt Schram stood outside his team’s deserted dugout at Immaculata University and tried to find the words to describe his emotions after saying his final farewells to a special senior class.
“I have been with those guys a ton,” said the Indians’ coach of a group that included his son Jared. “We spent a lot of time together.
“Baseball is not just three months out of the year. It’s seven, eight, nine, 10 months. You can count the wins and losses, but if you count the hours, it’s years. I love those kids, I love them all like they’re my sons. This is one group of kids you don’t want to see leave.
“As long as I’ve been doing this –kids come and go every year. This is one group you just want them to keep on going.”
The Tigers were the hot team entering Thursday’s game. They not only won a pair of playback games to earn the fifth and final state berth after falling to Pennridge 13-9 in the District One AAAA quarterfinals but also sent District 3 champion Ephrata home in an opening round state game.
It didn’t bode well for the Indians when - after seeing a runner gunned down at home for the inning’s final out in the bottom of the first – they spotted the Tigers a 3-0 lead in the top of the second.
A two-run single by Brian Reynolds was the big blow, and a textbook suicide squeeze by Corey Woodcock allowed the Tigers to tack on a third run.
“It’s so tough,” coach Schram said of playing from behind. “A two-run lead is one thing. When they put that squeeze in there and got that third run, that was tough because it’s really tough to come back from three runs, especially in a playoff game like this with the caliber you’re playing.
“Two runs – you can do things, but three runs became real tough. That was tough. From the reverse side, if I’m up 3-0, I’m feeling pretty good. You can now pitch to contact and get some fly ball outs like he was doing. He wasn’t looking to strike us out.”
Life became a whole lot easier for Marple Newtown pitcher Ricky Collings, who allowed just three singles the rest of the way, and it became a whole lot harder for the Indians.
“Their pitcher – hats off to him, he was throwing strikes and just doing a great job,” senior CJ Kilgariff said. “In these baseball games, once you get ahead, you can play much looser, you have so much more leeway.
“Once you get behind, the innings keep creeping up. You start getting tighter, you start to feel the pressure, and you start to think about what could happen.”
Kilgariff entered the game in relief of starter Gavin Ferrandino in the fourth inning and did not allow a run the rest of the way, but the Indians struggled to find their offense.
James Closser hit a two-out single in the second, and Matt Hand led off the fourth with a single to left. Collings retired the next three batters he faced. After a one-two-three fifth, the Indians looked as though they were in business in the sixth.
Leadoff batter Caven Tully opened the inning with a single to left, and the Indians had a pair on board after Jackson Parker drew a fullcount walk. A sacrifice bunt by Hand put a pair of runners in scoring position, and Tully raced home on Jared Schram’s grounder to second as the Tigers - armed with a three-run lead - were happy to trade a run for an out. Collings escaped further damage by coaxing a fly ball to left for the inning’s final out.
“Playoff baseball is really about getting those big hits – who’s going to get the big hit,” coach Schram said. “Maybe a little luck here and there.
“We didn’t get any luck. I just said – if we didn’t have bad luck, we’d have no luck. We didn’t get the big hit when we had opportunities. Every time you don’t get that big hit you give them momentum.”
In the seventh, the Indians managed a two-out base runner when Juliano Kovalcik reached second on a two-base error. A grounder to third brought a disappointing end to the game.
“Down three runs, you just have to chip away,” Jared Schram said. “We started to chip away a little too late.
“(Collings) was just working inside out, using all of his pitches. He was really effective today. They’re a good team, they deserved to win today.”
“This is a group of kids that never quit,” Kilgariff added. “We’ve come back in games before. All it takes is one error or one base hit to spark us.
“They just did a great job of keeping us down.”
Emotions ran high when it was over, and in a poignant scene, Jared Schram led a long line of players exchanging tearful hugs with coach Matt Schram.
“It was really tough,” the Indians’ senior catcher said. “I can’t thank him enough for all he’s done for me.
“Your main goal is to get to Penn State and win the whole thing. To come up two wins short again at the same place, it hurts. We wanted to get past this stage, but we couldn’t do it this year. You run into some good pitching at the end of the year, and we didn’t have enough offense to win the game.”
Council Rock North (11-3 SOL) closed out another successful season with a SOL National Conference title, a district runner-up finish and a trip to the state’s elite eight.
“The goal coming into the year was to repeat as district champions, win the league and be a state champion,” Kilgariff said. “We won the league, which is awesome, and playing in the district championship game again, even though we didn’t win, it was a great experience.
“Winning a game in states and coming this far, you never forget this, but it is disappointing. We were having so much fun the entire year and especially the playoffs. We were waking up every day looking forward to playing.”
“It was unbelievably special,” Jared Schram said. “I’ve never had a better group of guys I’ll probably ever play with. These guys were fun to be around every day.”
Marple Newtown 030 000 0 3-8-2
Council Rock North 000 001 0 1-4-0
Marple Newtown – Alden Mathes 4-0-1-0, Bobby Steven 3-0-0-0, Ricky Collings 2-0-1-0, Scott Hahn 4-0-0-0, Luke Cantwel 4-1-1-0, Cameron Mathes 3-1-1-0, Nick Molinaro 1-1-1-0, Brian Reynolds 3-0-2-2, Corey Woodcock 3-0-1-1, TOTALS 27-3-8.
Council Rock North – Caven Tulley 3-1-1-0, Jackson Parker 2-0-1-0, Matt Hand 2-0-1-0, Jared Schram 3-0-0-1, Seth Leuz 3-0-0-0, Chase D’Arcangelo 3-0-0-0, James Closser 3-0-1-0, Juliano Kovalcik 3-0-0-0, Kellen Pecuch 2-0-0-0, Matt Shenot 1-0-0-0, CJ Kilgariff 0 0-0 0; Gavin Ferrandino 0 0-0 0, TOTALS 25-1-4-1.
2B-Alden Mathes. LOB-Marple Newtown 8, CR North 4.
Council Rock North IP H R ER BB SO
Gavin Ferrandino (L) 3.0 4 3 3 2 1
CJ Kilgariff 4.0 4 0 0 2 2
Marple Newtown
Ricky Collings (W) 7.0 4 1 1 3 1
- Log in to post comments
