Harry S Truman & Neshaminy were winners in SOL baseball action Monday. Check the recaps.
SOL National Conference
NESHAMINY 12, COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 2 (5 innings)
The Redskins had just one hit – a double by Gus Natelli – but scored a pair of runs in the first inning. They went on to score runs in all five innings of the abbreviated contest.
The top of the Redskins’ batting order did most of the damage with their top four hitters going a collective 6-for-13 with three RBIs and nine runs scored. Natelli was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs, and Cory Joyce was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs. Matt Yauger was 1-for-3 with two runs, and Joe Kaleck was 1-for-2 with an RBI and three runs scored.
Tommy Pease was 1-for-3 with a double and two RBIs. Dalton Turner, RJ Christie and Tyler Jones each had an RBI.
Neshaminy (3-0, 2-0 SOL) will host Harry S Truman on Thursday, and Council Rock South (1-1, 0-1) is off until next Monday when the Golden Hawks will travel to Central Bucks East for a non-league contest.
Neshaminy 212 34 12-9-0
Council Rock South 000 20 2-3-2
Non-league
HARRY S TRUMAN 4, COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 3
Wins over Council Rock North have been few and far between for the Tigers, who had just three wins over the Indians in the last 20 regular season meetings. On Monday, they earned their first win over the Indians since May 11, 2016.
“Council Rock North is a team we haven’t had a lot of success against in recent history,” Truman coach Tim Monaghan said. “They’re obviously very well coached. They were a state semifinalist last year, and they’re always in the playoff mix.
“Any win in our league is very tough to come by. If you can get a win against Council Rock North – I don’t care that they lost a lot of guys to graduation. I’m sure that their sophomores that maybe nobody knows of yet at some point are going to be guys we’re talking about all the time because that’s their MO.
“We don’t overlook them because of who graduated and who isn’t there because they’re still Council Rock North, and we know what kind of effort Matt (Schram) is going to put into his guys to get them ready to play. They may be on the young side, and we had young guys in the lineup today too – fortunately for us, we were able to be on the winning side.”
Monday’s win was the first game of the season for the Tigers, who had several scrimmages during their spring training trip to ESPN’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Fla.
“Any time you can get away from the northeast and get a couple of competitive games in under ideal conditions – that benefits your team,” Mongahan said. “We’re in a situation where we don’t have a home field, so we’ve relocated to several different community local fields for practice.
“Getting down to Florida gave us a real good opportunity to get out on pristine fields with optimal conditions to really work on our game. Through that experience not only baseball-wise but I think it helps the boys kind of come together as a group. You get away from some of the distractions, and the biggest benefit I’ve found over the last couple of years from that trip is the camaraderie the boys get spending, in this case, six days together in a dorm kind of feel where they’re together 24 hours.
“We have a group that I think benefitted from that time together, and today they all celebrated each other’s success. Everybody was picking each other up. Even guys that were not in the lineup or active were into every pitch, and everybody seemed to pull for each other in a positive direction.”
The Tigers put a pair on the board in the top of the third. Dane Carpenter drew a leadoff walk and stole second. He moved up to third on Christian Culver’s sacrifice bunt. Evan Profy reached base on another walk and immediately took second. Chris Haer’s single to left plated a pair.
In the third, the Tigers staged a two-out rally. Joey Wright singled and stole second. He scored when Carpenter followed with a single. An RBI single by Culver brought Carpenter home, and the Tigers led 4-0.
The Indians cut that lead in half with two runs in the fifth. An RBI single by Kyle Dearie plated the first run, and an error on Nick D’Apolito’s hard grounder allowed a second run to cross the plate.
Andrew Mancini led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, and the Indians had a pair on board when Ryan Stalker was safe on an error. Both runners advanced on Dearie’s sacrifice bunt. Reliever Mike Finsel coaxed groundouts out of the next two batters he faced. Mancini scored on D’Apolito’s groundout and the final out of the game was recorded on the second.
“The biggest thing is we were able to get out to an early lead, and we were able to play through a little adversity where we had a couple of tough ground balls that we struggled to field and make the right decisions and throw to the right bases,” Monaghan said. “In the end, we executed late in the game, especially defensively with Mike Finsel basically in the same role he was in last year – coming in to a close game.
“Mike didn’t give them anything. He made them put the ball in play. Those are the kind of things you want your relief pitcher to do.”
Carpenter led the Tigers with a 2-for-2 effort at the plate. For the Indians, Mancini was 2-for-3.
Tyler Chew earned the win in the circle with Finsel recording the save.
Harry S Truman (1-0 SOL) will travel to Coatesville for a non-league game Tuesday, and Council Rock North (1-2, 0-2) – off for its senior trip this week – will travel to Neshaminy next Tuesday.
Harry S Truman 002 200 0 4-5-2
Council Rock North 000 020 1 3-5-0
PERKIOMEN VALLEY 13, CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 4
The visiting Vikings erupted for seven runs in the top of the first and added a single run in the fourth to go on top 8-0 before the Bucks put a run on the scoreboard. They made it an 8-3 game after five innings, but the Vikings tacked on five runs over the final two frames.
Jack Fileppo’s two-run double in the fourth made it an 8-2 game, and in the fifth, Rhys Nicholas delivered a two-out triple to plate the Bucks’ final run.
Central Bucks West (2-1, 1-0 SOL) will travel to Souderton on Tuesday.
Perkiomen Valley 700 102 3 13-11-0
Central Bucks West 000 210 1 4-3-6
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