SOL American/Continental Falls to Tri-Cape

The SOL American-Continental Conference fell to Tri-Cape in Carpenter Cup play on Friday. To view photos of all the action, please visit the Photo Gallery.

By Dave Conard for SOL Sports

PHILADELPHIA—It has been an “interesting” roller coaster kind of week, to say the least, for six of the “cream of the crop” that the Suburban One League has to offer.

Last Friday, after dropping a heart wrenching 2-1 defeat in their program’s first ever trip to the state championship game, the Upper Moreland trio of Matt Kohn, Robert Knox and Charlie Hooker had quite a different bus ride home than that of the squad from North Penn.

The Knights, led by the senior group of Eddie Posavec, Brady West and Brian Maher, fought off Lower Dauphin in a pressure packed nine inning thriller to win the biggest title in the land, and they have been on the upswing of the roller coaster since then.

This week, that“sensational sextet” of SOL standouts combined forces as members of the elite hand chosen Suburban One League Continental-American all stars in the 28^th annual Carpenter Cup tournament run by the Philadelphia Phillies.

“Yeah it was a long bus ride home last week, but we were proud to be there,” said Robert Knox, whose YouTube video of a called third strike that was two feet outside was posted by a Golden Bears fan and has gone viral.

“We want to get a chance to play at Citizens Bank Park if we can keep it going,’ said Knox prior to Friday’s game.

“It is just starting to sink in that we are the state champs,” said North Penn catcher Eddie Posavec before the first pitch. “To finish up our high school careers by playing at Citizen’s Bank Park would be pretty special. This is such an honor to play, and this week has been a lot of fun. ”

Unfortunately for the SOL American-Continental all stars (1-1), they had their hands full with a very strong hitting group from New Jersey contender Tri Cape in the second round on Friday.

After posting an 8-3 win over the Philadelphia Catholic League on Tuesday, the SOL Continental-American bunch, which incidentally had the chance to play at the ‘Bank’ last season, had only one thing standing in the way of a repeat.

Tri Cape (2-0) came out swinging literally as they posted 11 runs on 12 hits in the first three innings on their way to a 13-6 win.

Tri-Cape took command early on with second baseman Trevor Datz (4-for-4, two runs scored, 2 RBI), designated hitter Jordan Rizzo ( 2-for-4 with 2 runs scored and an RBI), along with right fielder Barry Buchowski (1-for-3, 2 runs, 3RBI) doing most of the damage.

The SOL squad got on the board in the fourth inning, thanks to the dynamic duo in green, a.k.a. Methacton’s Clayton Harwick, who reached base on an error then stole second, and Tyler Kirkpatrick (.400, 2-for-5, 2 RBI, for the week), who ripped a double into right field to score Harwick.

“We played this same team last year, and they were very good,” said Kirkpatrick. “It would be awesome to get to play in the big park again. This entire week and last year is something we will always remember.”

The quarterfinal tilt became more “memorable” for the SOL stars when the sun began to find its way behind the I-95 overpass that overlooks Richie Ashburn Field, as the American-Continental squad, which hit .306 as a team for the tournament got it going offensively.

Brady West (3-for-4, .750 avg, 2 runs, 2 RBI for the tourney) led off the seventh inning with a single to the left side and was promptly chased home by Souderton senior John Santoianni’s triple into the gap in right center field.

Santoianni then scampered home with the third run when the final part of the Methacton contingent, Trip Hagner, got involved by poking a sacrifice fly, cutting the lead to 12-3.

For a moment, it looked as though the SOL American-Continental all stars were poised for a dramatic comeback when Santoianni (.750, 3-for-4, 2 runs, RBI for Carpenter Cup) and Jon Mullin (CB South) led off the ninth inning with singles prior to Rafael Fernendez (Cheltenham) driving both runs in with a single up the middle.

A strikeout and a groundout later, the SOL boys were down to their final out and clinging to the hopes of keeping their collective seasons alive.

Central Bucks East’s Vince Careghini, who reached base on an error, scored the sixth run to cut the lead to seven, but that would be as close as they would draw to Tri-Cape, which advances to the semifinal against Lehigh Valley on Monday at 9:30 am.

“It has been an amazing year,” said North Penn senior Brady West. “This is a great was to close out high school ball together and win or lose today, we have had just an amazing run since the playoffs began.

“We didn’t win our league, we didn’t win districts, but did win the big one, which is pretty amazing, when you think about all of the great teams.”