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By Scott Huff
RADNOR – The odds makers at Las Vegas wouldn’t have given Council Rock North much of a chance in the seventh inning of its PIAA Quad-A District One championship game with West Chester Henderson.
The Suburban One National Conference champion Indians [N-1] trailed the Warriors [S-1] by a 1-0 score going into that final inning.
But Rock North knotted the score with a clutch hit in the seventh inning and added three more runs in the eighth inning to claim the district title with a 4-1 win in a game played at Radnor High School.
Henderson lefty Kyle Hooven had spaced out five Indian hits – all singles – and did not allow a multiple hit inning over the first six innings. He issued just a single base on balls and kept Rock North off balance with eight strikeouts.
And Rock North had the bottom third of its lineup scheduled to hit – the No. 7-9 hitters - and that trio was hitless over the first six innings of the game.
Vegas may not have been taking bets on CR North, but its head coach and team insisted that they weren’t worried.
“We have guys up and down our lineup that can drive the ball,” said CR North head coach Dan Kusters. “We changed our approach during the game on how to hit (Hooven), and we had the players at the bottom of the lineup pick up the top of the lineup.”
Benn Parker led off the seventh inning for Rock North with a sharp single to center and was sacrificed over to second base nicely by Alex Sable. Parker scored the game-tying run on a clean RBI single by Ryan Henritzy.
“He (Hooven) was hitting his spots the whole game, but I knew that I was going to get something good to hit,” said Henritzy. “I just focused on the baseball – he gave me a fastball – and I put a good swing on it.”
Rock junior hurler Darren Lauer – who was magnificent with a complete game performance - continued to fire strikes in the bottom of the seventh inning to force the game into extra frames.
Rock North put the game away with a three-run eighth inning.
Senior shortstop Ryan Hartley opened the inning with a single and was sacrificed to second base by Tim Filer.
Hartley scored what proved to be the game winner on a blistering double off the bat of Indian junior catcher Dave Pine.
“I was looking for a ball to drive to the opposite field,” said the left-handed hitting Pine of his rocket that fell just inside the left field foul line. “I just wanted to be aggressive at the plate.”
Pine would later score on an RBI single by Keith Terry to give the Indians a 3-1 lead, and pinch runner Mike Festa made a remarkable slide to score on a passed ball to conclude the scoring.
“We felt that we had some unfinished business,” said Pine. “Last year we got to the district final but lost (6-2 against West Chester East). All year we wanted to get back to this game and win it.”
“Dave Pine is so competitive, so scrappy,” complimented Kusters. “He had a great at-bat to get us that lead run.
“It was frustrating the first six innings,” added Kusters. “We took some bad swings, took too many pitches, but we made the adjustments that we had to make.”
The Rock North offense may not have been around for the first six innings, but Lauer was wonderful on the hill for the entire eight innings.
“This was the longest I have pitched all season, and I’m definitely tired,” said Lauer. “But I felt good – I felt like I could still pitch for a while.
“If teams are going to let us hang around, we are going to score runs,” continued Lauer. “Even when we were down 1-0 in the seventh inning, I wasn’t worried.”
Lauer is now 3-0 in the district playoffs with one save. He is a perfect 6-0 overall.
“Darren calls his own game, and he called a good one,” said Pine. “We had an idea of what we wanted to do with certain hitters in their lineup, and we stuck to the plan.
“To get a good seed in the state playoffs by winning districts is great,” added Pine. “We worked very hard all season, and we will be ready for the playoffs.”
Don’t bet against them.
Extra Innings – Council Rock North [1-1] will open the PIAA Quad-A State Playoffs on Monday against the third place finisher from District 3 – site to be determined. West Chester Henderson will be the No. 2 seed from District One …. Owen J Roberts will be the No. 3 seed after the Wildcats clawed Great Valley, 14-0….Great Valley is the No. 4 seed …. Downingtown East will be the No. 5 seed from District One after the Cougars bested Avon Grove, 10-1….Seven of the nine players who started for CR North were juniors – the other two were seniors…Look for Jared Weed to get the ball for the Indians in their opening playoff game…Senior Nick Donofry gave a rousing speech to his teammates in the dugout before the seventh inning ….It worked.
CR North-Henderson box score
Council Rock North 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 - 4
West Chester Henderson 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1
CR North Indians – Goldberg 4 0 2 0; Tentilucci 3 0 1 0; Hartley 4 1 2 0; Filer 2 0 0 0; Pine 4 1 2 1; Festa 2 1 0 0; Terry 2 0 1 1; Parker 4 1 1 0; Sable 2 0 0 0; Henritzy 4 0 1 1. Totals 31 4 10 3.
WC Henderson Warriors – S McCormick 4 0 1 1; Hooven 3 0 2 0; C McCormick 1 0 0 0; Iezzi 4 0 0 0; Norton 2 0 0 0; Makowski 1 0 0 0; Nugent 3 0 1 0; Fenton 3 0 0 0; Hughes 2 1 1 0; Jones 3 0 1 0. Totals 26 1 6 1.
CR North Inn R ER K BB
Lauer (W) 8 1 1 7 1
WC Henderson
Hooven (L) 7.1 4 4 8 1
Bradley 0.2 0 0 0 1
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