Plymouth Whitemarsh, Nesahminy & CB South were winners in Friday’s District 1 6A quarterfinal action. Souderton/PW photos provided courtesy of Cindy Manero.
#1-6 Plymouth Whitemarsh 6, #1-3 Souderton 3
Chris Manero acknowledged that he and his coaching staff weren’t quite sure how good this year’s squad
could be. Sure, the Colonials aspired to win a conference title and had the usual goals, but the PW coach admits that a trip to the district final wasn’t necessarily on the team’s radar.
“It was hard for us to look too far ahead in the beginning, but now – we’re going to states,” Manero said. “We’re going to states, and that’s a huge, huge jump from just making the playoffs a year ago.”
Things certainly didn’t look promising for the Colonials, who trailed 3-0 heading into the sixth inning. As a matter of fact, they looked downright bleak. Souderton ace Luke Taylor had not allowed a hit through five innings, and the Colonials had just two base runners– the first on a two-out walk in the first and the second a hit batsman in the fifth. The Indians – who boast a wealth of pitching – had spent the season winning games like this.
But the tide turned in the sixth inning. After Joe Jaconski drew a one-out walk, Drew Kliesh collected the Colonials’ first hit – an RBI double. Kevin Reilly followed and smacked a two-run home run to left, knotting the score 3-3.
“We hit a lot of fly balls, we didn’t hit hard contact,” Manero said. “I thought our timing was okay, I thought our guys looked fairly comfortable, but we just weren’t getting good results.
“I think when Drew got that hit – it just woke everybody up. In our Hatboro-Horsham game, Jacob Nunez had a 10-pitch at-bat that really changed the pace of the game, and today Kevin Reilly came up with an incredible at-bat where he was fighting off pitches and taking pitches – he just kept fighting and fighting and fighting. He hasn’t hit a home run all year – he’s more of a doubles guy, a gaps guy, but that was a shot. He crushed the ball.”
The Colonials were just getting started. In the top of the seventh, a pair of walks sandwiched around an error loaded the bases, and Kliesh once again was clutch, delivering a double that plated a pair.
“Drew started off the season red hot, cooled down for much of the season, still served a nice role for us, but he hadn’t had a really big game in a while until today,” Manero said. “He broke up the no-hitter, and then he gave us the lead.”
Two more walks – the second with the bases loaded, and the Colonials – despite collecting just three hits – led 6-3. Brett Bottinger threw a one-two-three seventh to notch the complete game win.
“Mike Orensky made an incredible diving catch in left field to make the last out of the game,” Manero said. “To see all those guys contribute in different ways defensively, offensively and on the mound, it’s why we say this group of seniors but really this group in general is a special group. They really enjoy being around each other, they’re up for each other all the time – guys that play, guys that don’t play. It doesn’t matter. They all want the same thing, and that’s the best part.”
With the win, the Colonials not only earned a spot in the district semis but also clinched a state berth with their win over the third-seeded Indians.
“Souderton’s good,” Manero said. “Their pitching is excellent. They held us down for (five) innings.
“We just tried to keep our guys even keeled, we tried to keep them calm, we tried to keep them focused. 
They picked each other up, and boom.”
Bottinger earned the complete game win, allowing seven hits and three runs (two earned) while striking out four and walking none.
“Brett is our senior, he’s a captain,” Manero said. “He pitched some really, really great games down the stretch towards the end of the season.
“He mixes his pitches up, he keeps guys off balance, and he knows what he’s doing out there. He’s a professional. He went out there today, and he did what he wanted to do and he took control. There were times when the game got a little tight, obviously when Souderton took the lead. Things could have very easily gone out of control for us, but he really bared down and kept it within reach.
“He didn’t walk anyone, and when you can go out there and pitch seven innings and you issue no walks, it’s great. We know we have Ben Mascio who is our number one and is outstanding, but I’ll stack Brett up there with a lot of number ones around this league any day. I think he just showed today his veteran presence and his confidence in himself.”
The season is a far cry from last year when the Colonials finished fourth in conference play and fell to Avon Grove in an opening round district game.
“We had a few years where we struggled, and even while we were struggling, we had confidence we were building something,” Manero said. “Getting back to the playoffs last year was a big step.
“Coming into the season, we said, ‘We got into the playoffs last year. We’ve got to take another step.’ It just seemed as every week went by, as every game’s gone by, we just keep raising the bar for ourselves, and I think our players – they just keep believing in each other more.
“We have boxes we want to check off, and every time we check one of those boxes we move on to the next. We try to do everything one step at a time.”
The Indians held a 7-3 advantage in hits. Taylor was 2-for-3 with two doubles and a run scored. Jake Horton was 1-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. Andrew Curran was 1-for-2 with an RBI.
Eric Ritchie absorbed the loss for the Indians.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (14-7, 11-3 SOL) will host seventh-seeded Neshaminy in a district semifinal on Tuesday. Souderton (18-4, 12-0) is one of four teams vying for one remaining state berth. The Indians will try and keep their season alive when they travel to Garnet Valley on Tuesday.
“Souderton is a very, very good baseball team, and they’re not done yet either,” Manero said. “They’re going to make some noise as well, no doubt about that.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh 000 003 3 6-3-1
Souderton 000 120 0 3-7-1
#1-7 Neshaminy 8, #1-2 Garnet Valley 1
It won’t show up in the box score, but it was a play that forever turned the momentum in the Redskins’ favor. It happened in the bottom of the fourth inning after the Redskins had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the frame.
“We were hitting their pitcher – we were starting to get to him,” Neshaminy coach Dan Toner said. “They got a couple of hits off of us, and they tied it up in that inning. To end that inning, they had a guy that was about (to score) to take the lead and our right fielder, Tommy Peace, came up with the ball and threw an absolute line shot home, and we got the player out at the plate, and that’s how the inning ended. Tommy Peace – and I told him – that was the momentum shift moment that we needed.
“From there, we came out the next inning, and we put up all the numbers, and we felt we were in control after that. When that happened, they were probably all pumped up – they were going to take the lead and this kid (Peace) throws an absolute laser from right field and ends the inning and shifts the momentum back to us all in that 10-second play.”
Andrew Mays led off the fifth inning with a single. The Redskins collected just one more hit in the frame – that came late in the inning on an RBI single by Tyler Jones. Dalton Turner had a sacrifice fly in the inning, and the Redskins received a major assist from the Jaguars, who committed a pair of costly errors in the frame. The ‘Skins were also on the receiving end of three walks and a hit batter. By the time the inning was over, the Redskins led 6-1.
“We had a string of hits, moving guys over and we caused a lot of havoc on the bases,” Toner said. “We’re a very fast team, so we’re able to do that as well. Playing complete team baseball is why we were so successful early on and why we picked it up again.”
The Redskins are back on track after dropping five of six games late in the season. Friday’s win was their fourth win in their last five games.
“We went 9-0 (to open the season), we were ranked number one in the state, ranked number one in the district.” Toner said. “We played Souderton and then we played Pennsbury, and it was such an emotional two games back-to-back Wednesday and Thursday of the three undefeated teams in the area and we won them both. It was kind of like – we didn’t win anything yet. We’re just halfway. We had to build back off of that.
“Three of the five games we lost by one run, and it was us making mistakes. We had opportunities. Toward the end of the season, we played Souderton again (and won), and we still lost to Pennsbury by one run, and we made some mistakes there too. We felt good going into the playoffs. Right when the playoffs started, we kind of kicked back into early form.”
With the win, the Redskins punched their ticket to the state tournament, and they also earned a spot in the district semifinals where they will face Plymouth Whitemarsh.
“Last year our goal was to make the playoffs, and that was a big one,” Toner said. “This year we had all those goals set out in front just like every team. You want to win the league. We weren’t able to do that – Pennsbury had a fantastic season – and then we wanted to compete in districts and have a chance to play for the district championship and at least solidify (a spot) in the state tournament and then work from there. We’re very happy with where we are right now knowing we have at least three more games left to play at the minimum.
“You hear all the coaches say you don’t want the season to end especially when you have a special group and a fun group to be around, and that’s kind of what we have right now. We don’t want it to end and you can see that from our seniors and from our captains who have just completely stepped up.”
Joyce was 1-for-3 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Tyler Jones was 2-for-2 with two RBIs and a run scored, and Chris James was 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
Max Temple earned the win, allowing nine hits and one run in six innings. He was relieved by Jake Fehrle, who threw a scoreless seventh.
The Redskins (14-6, 7-5 SOL) will be on the road at sixth-seeded Plymouth Whitemarsh for Tuesday’s district semifinal. It will be their third game on turf this season – they played their season opener on Penn Charter’s new turf field, and Friday’s game against Garnet Valley was played at MSI.
Neshaminy 000 151 1. 8-7-0
Garnet Valley 000 100 0. 1-10-3
#1-17 Central Bucks South 7, #1-9 Bensalem 2
Central Bucks South is getting used to going on the road.
In three District One Class 6A playoff games this week, the 17th-seeded Titans have traveled from one end of the district to the other – from Coatesvilles to Pennsbury and Friday afternoon Bensalem. Every time, they have been the lower seed.
After beating No. 9 Bensalem 7-2 on Friday, CB South finds itself in the district semifinals at No. 5 Downingtown East on Tuesday and guaranteed a spot in the PIAA Class 6A state playoffs in two weeks.
The Titans (15-6, 7-5 SOL) started quickly against Bensalem, which entered with an eight-game winning streak, scoring six runs in the top of the first. Brock Veit led off with a single, Jake McKeown drew a walk, and shortstop Joey Loynd put the first run on the board with an RBI single. One batter later, Jake Trachtenberg drove in another with a sacrifice fly to right field.
Connor McKeown and Ryan Rieber added RBIs in the inning, while two runs scored thanks to a wild pitch and an error, and by the time the inning was over it was 6-0.
Bensalem brought right-hander Ryan McLaughlin out of the bullpen in the first, and he gave his team 6 2/3 innings on the mound, allowing only one earned run the rest of the way, but that deficit proved too much to overcome, especially with the way CB South left-hander Ryan Rieber was pitching.
“It was a great job by us by jumping on them early,” said CB South coach Brian Klumpp. “Ryan (Rieber) just threw strikes and we played a ton of defense behind him.”
Rieber, now 6-2 on the season, allowed only one earned run in picking up the complete-game victory, allowing seven hits, while striking out one and walking none.
Bensalem did manage single runs in the second and fourth innings. Dom Grady singled and scored on an error in the second, and then he led off the fourth and scored to make it 6-2, but the Owls could get no closer.
CB South added an insurance run in the seventh, as Mike Marino led off with a single and would come around to score on a sac fly by Jake McKeown.
In the bottom of the seventh, Rieber allowed a lead-off single to Bensalem’s Keith Rooney, but erased that with a double-play grounder back to the mound and then retired the final batter with a lineout to second baseman Bryan Rossi to end the game.
“I think (Rieber) has started half of our games and add the two playoff games that he’s pitched,” Klumpp said. “We had it set up perfectly the way we wanted. He wanted the ball. That comes from trust. We do a ton of defensive work starting in September and all the way through. These guys have played great defense all year and they trust each other.”
Offensively, Loynd’s 2-for-4 effort with a double, RBI and run scored led the Titans at the plate. For the Owls, Grady was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored. Rooney was 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.
Bensalem (16-4) falls into the playback round of the tournament as it still has a chance to secure the fifth and final spot into the state tournament. It will play at No. 2 Garnet Valley on Tuesday.
“Those guys are good,” Bensalem coach Harry Daut said about CB South. “They’ve got a lot of seniors, they’re well-coached. (Klumpp) is a good coach; he does a great job.
“I’m proud of my kids. They stuck around the whole game and made things interesting a little bit.”
CB South 600 000 1-7 5 2
Bensalem 010 100 0-2 7 4
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