Jarrad Saffren recaps Tuesday’s SOL baseball action that saw Pennsbury defeat Neshaminy to earn a spot in the District One 6A semifinals. Pennsbury/Neshaminy photos provided courtesy of Jesse Garber (http://jsgarber.zenfolio.com/p291996286)
By Jarrad Saffren
Five Suburban One League baseball teams played district playoff games on Tuesday.
Here are the developments from those games…
Pennsbury is going to the District One Class 6A baseball championship. Neshaminy will play in the District One Class 6A third place game.
Hatboro-Horsham can still earn a PIAA Class 6A Tournament spot. Council Rock South’s 2017 season is over.
Upper Moreland will be the third seed from District One in the PIAA Class 5A Tournament.
And North Penn will have to wait until Wednesday to play its District One 6A semifinal against Perkiomen Valley. Rain in Lansdale got in the way of that game on Tuesday.
Below, read about the developments from all three games that did go on as planned.
District One Class 6A Semifinal
#4 Pennsbury 2, #8 Neshaminy 0
Pennsbury’s Billy Bethel pitched a complete game shutout. He allowed three hits, walked none and threw 66 pitches. That last number is not a typo.
“In the last inning I thought it was the sixth because Billy was so quick,” Pennsbury coach Joe Pesci said. “It’s probably one of the most dominant performances I’ve seen from a high school pitcher.”
Bethel’s most effective pitches are his fastball and curveball. He relied mostly on fastballs on Tuesday, though he did finish all three of his strikeout victims with curveballs.
Bethel threw 49 of 66 pitches in the strike zone. Neshaminy hitters tried swinging early. But it didn’t work. Bethel recorded eight first-pitch outs, did not allow a runner past first and faced the minimum of three batters in five of seven innings.
“My mindset was, I’ll throw my fastball. You hit it,” Bethel said. “First-pitch strikes and let the defense do its job.”
The defense certainly did its job. In the second, Pennsbury right fielder RJ Huth dove and caught a line drive that should have been a single.
Two batters later, with a man on first, second baseman Ryan McCarty fielded the ball, spun and fired to second for the out. Shortstop Justin Massielo zipped the ball back to first for the double play.
In the third, Neshaminy’s Cory Joyce ripped the ball down the left field line. Tyrone Hodges charged, fielded the ball on a hop and launched it to second. Massielo tug Joyce out on the cleat.
Huth, who does not bat, had the best defensive game. He made five catches in right, including the diving catch and a sliding catch.
“Our defense stepped up huge. RJ stepped up huge. Ty made a nice throw,” Bethel said. “And the middle infield has been working hard all year. Turning double plays is their forte.”
“You have to have confidence when the ball’s in the air,” Huth said. “In a big game like this, you want the ball to be hit to you.”
Pennsbury supported its pitcher with two runs, one in the second, one in the fourth. Kyle Dear drove in both.
He barreled a sacrifice fly to deep right in the second. Dave Murphy raced home from third.
Dear slammed a double down the left field line in the fourth. McCarty trotted home from third.
“First at-bat he started me with two curves and I went down 0-2. Then I got a fastball I could drive,” Dear said. “The second at-bat I got a fastball and missed it. But then he left a curveball up.”
Neshaminy reliever Zach Tredway pitched 3.1 scoreless innings.
Pennsbury will play either North Penn or Perkiomen Valley in the district championship at Immaculata University on Thursday.
Neshaminy will play the loser of North Penn-Perk Valley in the third place game on the same day.
Pennsbury and Neshaminy have already qualified for the state tournament.
Neshaminy 0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Pennsbury 0-1-0-1-0-0-X 2
District One Class 6A Playback
#2 Hatboro-Horsham 3, #17 Council Rock South 1
Hatboro-Horsham has been winning the same way all season: With dominant starting pitching. The Hatters got another dominant start on Tuesday, from ace 1A Brian Edgington.
The Edge allowed two hits and no earned runs in seven sterling innings. He also struck out six.
“Edge was edge. He was outstanding all day. He was spotting up. He was throwing inside with his fastball as well as he has all year. He was keeping his splitter down and working in his curveball when he had to,” Hatters’ coach Pete Moore said. “They didn’t get a hit until the sixth. And only one ball was really hit hard before they got a hit.”
Hatboro-Horsham broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Colin Kennedy led off with a walk. Drew Passerini and Ryan O’Donnell singled to right, loading the bases.
Then Kennedy scored on a passed ball to make it 1-0.
Eric Jester followed with a hard grounder to third. Passerini was off on contact and pressured the third baseman into making an error.
In the sixth, Jester, leading off second, ran to third on a pitch in the dirt.
“It was a great dirt ball read,” Moore said. “He read it right away, took off and was safe at third.”
Jester then scored on a wild pitch.
“We put a lot of pressure on them with the way we ran the bases today,” Moore said. Hatboro-Horsham is a pitching team. But the hitters mentioned above—Kennedy, Passerini, O’Donnell and Jester—have been contributing all year, producing the few runs H-H needs to win games.
“We feel like we’re getting contributions from up and down the lineup,” Moore said. “Those guys have been in the middle of things.”
On Tuesday, Moore was encouraged by the way his players responded to their quarterfinal loss to Perk Valley last Friday.
“We had one of our best practices of the year on Saturday, and another great workout yesterday,” he said. “The guys came out loose and excited.”
CR South starter Brendon Carter did not allow an earned run in 5.2 innings. Trey Obarowski scored South’s only run, in the top of the seventh.
Golden Hawks’ coach Ted Kirner was disappointed with the loss, but happy with his team’s 2017 season.
“Us playing meaningful baseball at the end of May is always the goal. We found a way to do it. I’m extremely proud of these guys,” Kirner said. “The senior leadership is something I’ll always remember. We just came up a little short. These last two weeks have been really fun.”
South won two straight games to get in the playoffs and then two more in the playoffs, both on the road against higher seeds, No. 16 Council Rock North and No. 1 Downingtown West.
Hatboro-Horsham will play another playback game on Thursday, against either Spring-Ford or Downingtown East. Their playback game was postponed until Wednesday.
The winner of the playback final earns a state tournament bid.
Council Rock South 0-0-0-0-0-0-1 1
Hatboro-Horsham 0-0-0-2-0-1-X 3
District One Class 5A Third Place Game
#10 Upper Moreland 3, #16 Upper Merion 2
Upper Moreland trailed 2-0 going into the bottom of the first.
But in the home first, Randy Meehl singled and then stole second. Then Brandon Kohn walked. Then Kevin Walder singled Meehl home.
Upper Moreland tied the game in the third. Ryan Lowry got hit by a pitch, moved to second on a passed ball and scored on a single by Jon Searles.
The Golden Bears took a 3-2 lead in the fifth. Walder singled and stole second. Then Dawson Ruggles hit an RBI single.
“We had a lot of productive at-bats today, moving guys even when we made outs. We got contributions all throughout the lineup,” Upper Moreland coach Dan Heiland said. “Almost whenever we got someone in scoring position, we scored. Three of four times we scored in those situations.”
Heiland specifically praised Searles and Walder.
“Searles likes to work counts and get his pitch. He did a great job of that today. When he got his pitch, he’d drive it to the outfield. On the first hit, he hit a curveball to left,” Heiland said. “Kevin is the same type of batter as Jon. I put them back-to-back for that reason. They always have solid at-bats. They aren’t antsy in the box. They don’t just jump on the first fastball they see.”
Upper Moreland starter Brandon Kohn lasted four innings, fanning eight. Tommy Jacob relieved Kohn and pitched three shutout innings. He threw just 33 pitches.
“Tommy did a great job throwing his fastball, hitting spots,” Heiland said. “He threw off-speed early in the count. A lot of high school kids start throwing fastballs over and over to get that first strike. He didn’t. He also kept the ball low and away.”
In the seventh, Upper Merion had runners on second and third with one out. The batter hit a shot to right-center.
Ruggles raced over, caught the ball and whipped it to first, doubling off the runner, ending the game.
“The kid ran a little too far,” Heiland said. “Ruggles made a great play.”
It was a big win for Upper Moreland. In the state tournament, as the third seed from District One, Upper Moreland will play the No. 1 seed from District 12.
That will be either Archbishop Wood of the Philadelphia Catholic League or Franklin Towne Charter of the Philadelphia Public League. So the Golden Bears will not have to leave the Philadelphia area for their first round game.
“We get to stay close to home and reach out to other local coaches who have played those schools. That’s better than going out to the Poconos or wherever,” Heiland said. “Some of our guys have played with guys on those teams, too. And they have their own little scouting reports on those guys.”
The state tournament starts on Monday, June 1.
Upper Merion 2-0-0-0-0-0-0 2
Upper Moreland 1-0-1-0-1-0-0 3
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