SOS.com will be at Friday's title game. Check back for a game story as well as action photos.
It’s been a storybook season for the North Penn Knights.
The final chapter of an unforgettable season will be written on Friday at Blair County Park in Altoona when the Knights will face Parkland in the state title game.
The two teams have done battle in non-league games the last two years with Parkland winning both – 10-4 in 2007 and 1-0 in 2008. In the most recent, now LaSalle University teammates Cody Weiss and Kevin Christy squared off in a classic pitcher’s duel.
This year, the two teams never played due to a rainy spring.
Until, as destiny would have it, Friday’s state title game.
“We tried to reschedule a couple of times,” North Penn coach Bob McCreary said. “They’re a very good program. They’re well-coached. We’re going to have our hands full.”
The Trojans bring a 21-6 record into the game, and they boast some heavy artillery.
Leadoff batter Andy Brandstetter (.375, eight doubles, five stolen bases) and M.J. Miorelli (.407, nine doubles, 23 RBIs, seven stolen bases) set the table for the heart of Parkland’s lineup.
Catcher Jon Gabriel, the team’s top hitter with a .451 average, is followed by cleanup batter Dan Klem (.361, 27 RBIs, 11 stolen bases) and Joe Abeln (.341, 16 RBIs, 29 runs scored). All but two of Parkland’s projected starters boast batting averages of .300 or better.
Assigned the task of containing the Trojans’ high-powered offense will be Winthrop-bound Eric Ruth, who brings some impressive credentials of his own into the game. The Knights’ senior mound ace is 11-1 overall (4-0 in the post-season) with an ERA of 1.26. Ruth has fanned 126 in 78 1/3 innings – 42 in 27 innings during the playoffs.
In the Knights’ 6-0 opening round win over District Three champion Chambersburg, Ruth struck out 16, and after the Knights’ state quarterfinal game was pushed back two days because of rain, Ruth was given the starting nod against Council Rock North last Saturday. He allowed four hits and fanned seven in North Penn’s 2-1 win over the Indians.
That allowed Mike Bradstreet to work on 10 days rest when he took the mound in Monday’s state semifinal showdown against North Allegheny, and if it seems as though Bradstreet might have been upset that he was bumped out of his scheduled start against Rock North, guess again.
“He’s been our ace all year,” Bradstreet said of Ruth. “He’s been throwing well, and in the first state game, he blew away the other team, so you want to keep him going.
“He pitched well. Everything worked out in the end.”
Did it ever!
Bradstreet scattered six hits in North Penn’s 12-1 rout of the Tigers. That win came on the heels of the two-hitter he threw in the Knights’ 10-0 rout over Great Valley in an abbreviated five-inning game for fifth place in the district.
Not a bad one-two punch for the Knights, who will start Ruth with Bradstreet ready in the bullpen.
The Knights hope Monday’s offensive explosion against North Allegheny is a preview of things to come. Justin Davey (10 RBIs) and Scott Christy (seven RBIs) have been the most productive hitters in the post-season for the Knights. Christy is the Knights’ RBI leader with 24 for the season.
Christy was the Knights’ top hitter during the regular season with a .438 average while lead-off batter Robbie Zinsmeister (.407) wasn’t too far behind. Davey is hitting .329 for the season with 20 RBIs and a team-high 15 stolen bases.
Catcher Matt Albaugh, after batting .340 in the regular season, has been hitting at a .478 clip in the post-season, and Christian Radick, who hit .216 during the regular season, is batting .462 in the post-season (12-for-26).
The bottom of the Knights’ order has been nothing short of sensational. Its two hottest hitters in the post season have batted seventh and eighth respectively.
Jimmy Smith hit .244 in the regular season but developed a hot bat at just the right time. The junior third baseman is hitting at a torrid .500 clip (10-for-20, seven RBIs). Jake Dunn, who hit .333 out of the eight hole during the regular season, is tearing it up in the post-season. The junior leftfielder is 12-for-21 for a .571 average.
Mark Grassie, who bats ninth, has come out of nowhere to go 7-for-16 (.438) while Craig Lepre is the team’s designated hitter.
“We knew we had a good team,” Zinsmeister said. “Our team chemistry is great.
“Even our summer teams – we play together all the time, hang out 24/7.”
Trying to derail the Knights will be Parkland’s number two pitcher Casey Cooperman, who has also been on some kind of roll. He is 6-3 on the season with a 2.46 ERA. Cooperman tossed a two-hit shutout and struck out 12 in Parkland’s 3-0 win over Emmaus in the District 11 title game.
In Parkland’s 7-1 win over Wyoming Valley West in a state quarterfinal game, Cooperman allowed five hits while notching his fifth complete-game victory in a row. In that span he has allowed just five runs and 15 hits in 35 innings.
He will face Knight squad that has won five in a row and 13 of their last 14 games.
“Everyone had the same goal,” Albaugh said. “We wanted to make it to the state championship. We came out and worked hard every day in practice. It’s just whoever gets hot at the end of the year.”
The Knights hope they can stay hot for one more game and take home their school’s first ever state baseball title.
“This is what every high school kid dreams about,” McCreary said. “When you think about all the Quad A teams in Pennsylvania – there’s only two left, and we’re one of them. That’s quite an honor. We’re very fortunate to be in that position.”
North Penn’s squad was already in Altoona when Parkland held a sendoff for its teams on Thursday night. Parkland’s softball team will be playing for a state title at noon on Friday when the Trojans face Shaler at Shippensburg University. Four-and-a-half hours later, the baseball team will take the diamond against North Penn in the state championship game. It is the Trojans first ever trip to the state final.
It promises to be an interesting day.
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