ASTON – They’d never heard of a place called Jim Buggy Memorial Field nestled in the small Delaware County town called Aston.
But after Wednesday’s electrifying 7-5 win over Kennett to capture the District One AAA crown, that field became the Upper Merion baseball team’s very own ‘field of dreams.’
The Vikings were the seventh seed in the eight-team tournament and no one’s choice – except perhaps their own – to win a district crown, but that’s the beauty of sports. Anything can happen, and sometimes it does.
The Vikings’ unlikely trip to the program’s first district crown in over a decade began with a 6-4 upset of second-seeded Strath Haven in the opening round. They followed that by rallying from a 4-0 deficit to defeat Upper Perkiomen 5-4 in eighth innings in a semifinal contest.
What could they possibly do for an encore?
Try rallying from the ashes yet again – this time from a 5-1 deficit after four innings – to earn the big win.
“After the first playoff game where we beat Strath Haven, the guys started believing in themselves,” coach Jason Darnell said. “When we got down 4-0 against Upper Perk (and came back), they started believing in themselves.
“This is the (loosest) bunch of guys I’ve ever met and not in a detrimental way but in a good way. They have fun playing the game. They respect the game, and they love coming out here and playing. They also have a work ethic to back that up.”
Everyone has been contributing to the magic carpet ride that has been the post-season, so Darnell was hardly surprised to see his number nine hitter – Matt Shannon – delivered two hits and four RBIs in Wednesday’s title-clinching win.“I know up and down our lineup – my seven, eight and nine guys are going to get it done,” the Vikings’ coach said. “(Ryan) Dolga draws an unbelievable walk again and gets me to Shannon, who clears the bases and we’re running away with the title.
“It’s unreal.”
Ask the players when they started to believe, and they point to the Strath Haven win.
“Joel (Paradis) hit that grand slam, and we felt if we beat the number two seed we had a good chance of beating out the rest of the teams,” Viking mound ace Chris Baker said. “It shows. We did well.”
In truth, the magic may have actually started before the playoffs.
The Vikings - who found themselves on the bubble - needed a win over Wissahickon in their regular season finale to put themselves in good stead with the district seeding committee.They went out and humbled a very good Wissahickon team 14-3.
“We knew we needed to beat Wissahickon in our last league game, and even then, there was a little bit of uncertainty,” Darnell said. “That helped us immensely coming into the playoffs, knowing we could take a team like Wissahickon.
“We’ve been on a roll since then.”
The players admit they knew they had nothing to lose when their second season got underway.
“We just came into the playoffs – a lower seed, and we’re coming out and having fun,” Ben Dworecki said. “We’ve shown we have heart. We battled.
“Today we did the same thing – down 4-0. We just have heart.”
Paradis, whose solo home run ignited a five-run fifth in Wednesday’s win, echoed that sentiment.
“We barely got into the playoffs obviously as the seventh seed,” he said. “Coming in, we had nothing to lose – upset after upset.
“Coming into this game, we knew we could hit. We’ve proved ourselves in the playoffs, so after the nerves, we settled down, put the ball in play.”
Darnell never doubted that his team could make waves in the post-season.
“We knew we had a shot at playoffs – we’ve got depth, we’ve got heart, and we have talent on this team, and here we are,” he said.
The Vikings return to action on Monday when the state tournament gets underway, but no matter what the outcome, they have already firmly etched their names in the history books. It’s a place no one except perhaps the players and coaches believed they would be.
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