By Scott Huff
The road to the PIAA Quad-A state playoffs continues to take its winds and turns for both Pennridge and North Penn.
Pennridge already has its ticket punched for the state tournament, but the Rams were jettisoned from the District One championship game as PHS dropped a 6-2 contest to West Chester East.
“We set a goal to get to the district final, and we came up a little short,” said Pennridge coach Tom Nuneviller. “But this next game is very important to us. We want to go into the state playoffs with a win.”
Pennridge will meet Garnet Valley tomorrow (5/28) at Spring-Ford High School to determine the number three seed from District One. Garnet Valley lost a 3-2 contest to Council Rock North on Tuesday.
“If we can beat Garnet Valley, we can play much closer to home,” said Nuneviller. “We battled against West Chester East, but they jumped on us early and got us on our heels.”
West Chester East scored five runs in the first three innings and led 6-2 going into the seventh inning. Pennridge had scored both of its runs on RBIs by clean-up hitter Eric Kammler.
Kammler hit a sacrifice fly in the second inning and blasted a solo homerun in the fourth. And the LaSalle University bound shortstop came up with the bases loaded in the seventh inning with two outs. Kammler grounded out to end the game.
“You have to give West Chester East credit,” said Nuneviller. “Their pitcher (Neal Herring) threw a nice game, and they swung the bats early.
“Our season isn’t over,” added Nuneviller. “We have to see how well we respond to this loss.”
North Penn survived in the ‘playback’ tournament to determine the number five seed from District One. The Knights defeated Owen J Roberts 5-1, and if North Penn can beat Great Valley tomorrow, the Knights will gain the fifth seed.
North Penn scored three runs in the fifth inning to break open a 2-1 contest. The Knights out hit OJR by an 11-4 margin.
North Penn third baseman Jimmy Smith had two hits and three RBI for the winners, while Christian Radick had three hits. The lone extra base hit for the Knights was a triple off the bat of Matt Albaugh.
Eric Ruth – the ace of the North Penn pitching staff – threw a complete game. The talented right-hander yielded just four hits and struck out 12 hitters.
Council Rock North will play in the District One title game tomorrow @ Boyertown against West Chester East. The winner becomes the number one seed in states, while the loser becomes the number two seed.
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