By Scott Huff
PERKASIE – Scholastic baseball often presents itself with memorable opportunities, and such was the case in the bottom of the seventh inning for Pennridge senior Ray Puskar.
The Rams and visiting Hatboro-Horsham were knotted at 3-3 in a key Suburban One League Continental confrontation. The Rams loaded the bases on a single by Mike Kessler – an intentional walk to Dylan Tice – and an infield single by Ryan Metzler.
The Hatters had their ace – Nick Hinkson – on the mound. And the talented right-hander quickly got Puskar down in the count with two strikes.
“You never know if you are ever going to get another chance to win a game with a walk-off hit,” smiled Puskar. “All I was thinking with two strikes was to make contact.”
Puskar did – a sharp single through the shortstop hole on a drawn-in Hatter infield – and the Rams (7-2, 3-1) rallied for the 4-3 win over the Hatters (3-3, 2-3).
“In that situation, there is no other pitcher I would want to go to battle with,” said Hatboro-Horsham head coach Pete Moore in reference to Hinkson. “It was a good high school baseball game, and it was a hard one to lose.”
Hatboro-Horsham had tied the score in the top of the seventh on a homerun by junior catcher Eric Heaney. Heaney led off the inning with a rocket that cleared the fence in deep left center field.
“Eric has come through for us in clutch situations all year,” said Moore. “He put us back in the ballgame.”
Pennridge had put a three spot on the First Federal Field scoreboard in the first inning. Tice blasted a shot to clear the bases – it was his third homerun in as many games.
“Dylan got us going, but Hinkson shut us down until that last inning,” said Pennridge head coach Tom Nuneviller. “There is no question that he is one of the top pitchers in the league, in fact, Hatboro might have the best pitching as a team in the league.
“We made some great plays in the field today,” added Nuneviller. “We had a double play that included Pete Leatherman and Dan Wolfe that got us out of trouble.
“Plus Kyle Myers threw a strong game, and Ryan Trauger came on to get the win,” continued Nuneviller. “When you get good pitching, and play strong defense, it gives you a chance to win the game.”
And it helped to get that clutch seventh inning – bases loaded – game winning hit – from Puskar.
North Penn (5-1, 4-0) kept its grasp on first place in the SOL Continental Conference with a 2-0 victory over host Quakertown (2-2, 1-2).
Mark Grassie fired a six hit shutout to earn the win for the Knights. Grassie threw a complete game and struck out three hitters.
The only runs of the game were scored in the top of the fifth inning when the Knights staged a two-out rally. James Smith stroked an RBI single to plate Brandon Martinez with what turned out to be the game winner, and Craig Lepre followed with an RBI single that scored Grassie.
Central Bucks West (5-3, 3-2) broke open a tight game with a five-run seventh inning to defeat host Central Bucks South (4-3, 2-3) – 8-2.
Pat Furst led the hitting attack for the young Bucks with three RBI, while Buzz Lis and Dan Seitzinger each collected one RBI.
The winning pitcher for West was R.J. Grant who threw six innings and struck out eight Titan hitters.
Souderton (3-5, 1-3) won its first conference game of the season with an 11-inning victory over visiting Central Bucks East (3-4, 1-3) – 8-7.
The Big Red trailed 7-5 going into the last of the seventh inning but rallied for three runs to capture the win.
Suburban One League National Conference
Truman (3-2, 2-2) and Abington (3-4, 2-3) featured an old-fashioned pitching duel as the Tigers edged the Ghosts – 2-0.
“Steve Arthur threw a huge game for us,” said Truman head coach Jeff Vitale. “To be honest, I didn’t expect him to throw all seven innings, but he was very effective from the beginning of the game until the end of the game.”
Arthur tossed a complete game two hitter against the Ghosts. He had six strikeouts and only one base on balls.
“I told him to go out there and throw strikes, and I thought he had good velocity and hit his spots” said Vitale. “We have a pretty good defensive team, and I knew that we could make plays behind him.
“We knew we were going against a very good pitcher in (Jake) Ruch,” continued Vitale. “We took advantage of a couple of scoring chances, but usually two runs isn’t going to win you too many games in this league.”
Ruch tossed a six inning four hitter for Abington and was the tough-luck loser.
The Tigers clawed out single runs in both the fifth and sixth innings to lock up the win.
Tom Harman delivered an RBI sacrifice fly in the fifth inning, while Johnny Schoitis stroked an RBI single in the sixth. Schoitis hit scored Zach Phillippi who had tripled.
“We still haven’t hit the ball consistently,” said Vitale. “When we start hitting to our expectations, we can help out our pitching.”
Arthur will gladly accept the help.
Pennsbury (4-6, 3-2) came up with a ‘mercy rule’ victory over Council Rock South (2-3, 2-2) as the Falcons flew to a 10-0 conference victory.
Pennsbury received a complete game effort from Alec Jacobs in recording the win. Jacobs struck out five hitters and allowed just three Hawk hits.
Tim Sheaffer who went 2-for-3 with a two-run homerun and three RBI carried the offensive load for the Falcons. Tyler Tennett was a perfect 3-for-3 with three RBI, while Zach Sibel went 2-for-3 with two RBI.
Pennsbury – which has now won four of its last six games – pounded out 13 hits in five innings.
Neshaminy (5-1, 5-0) earned a 13-2 ‘mercy rule’ win over Willam Tennent (1-6, 0-5).
The Redskins had three players hit homeruns – Bryan Dean, Rick Brebner, and John Burns.
Ray Hyjurick threw four innings to pick up the win for the Skins.
Suburban One League American Conference
Upper Merion (6-1, 5-0) received a walk off three-run homerun off the bat of right fielder Joe Bry to register a six-inning ‘mercy rule’ win over Springfield (4-2, 3-2).
The game between the defending District One Class AAA champion Vikings and the Spartans was for first place in the conference standings.
Really.
“Springfield is surely not a walk-over game,” said Upper Merion head coach Jason Darnell. “We looked at won-lost records, and they beat some teams that we felt were capable of beating us.
“In past years, you might consider throwing your #4 or #5 starter against them,” added Darnell. “But we threw Ray Gambone – and we consider him our #1A along with Greg McCuch.”
Springfield actually took a 3-0 first inning lead against the host Vikings. But a four-run third inning and a five-run fourth inning blew the game open for Upper Merion.
Bry wasn’t the lone long-ball hitter for the Vikings. Matt Shannon blasted a grand slam homerun and also stroked a solo homer.
“Matt also got us a bunt single during the game,” said Darnell. “He helped us with a 30-foot hit, and a 330-foot hit.
“And Bry has been a tremendous surprise with the power that he has generated, the ball really comes off his bat,” added Darnell. “He hit two homeruns with eight RBI against Penncrest on Saturday.”
Upper Merion bested Penncrest 16-6 in another ‘mercy rule’ non-league victory.
“We’ve played a lot of baseball recently,” said Darnell. “But we haven’t cashed it in.”
Except for the victories.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (2-5, 2-2) out slugged host Norristown (1-5, 1-4) – 11-10 – in SOL American Conference action.
The winning Colonials and the Eagles combined for 26 hits and 21 runs.
Jake Mascio led the PW 17-hit assault with a pair of homeruns and four RBI. Matt Mondimore delivered what proved to be the game-winning hit with a single in the seventh inning.
Brandon Bell and Matt Dibussio each homered for the Eagles.
Wissahickon (2-5, 2-3) won its second straight game with a 12-4 American Conference win over Cheltenham (1-6, 0-5).
Joe McGinley notched the win for the Trojans with a complete game six-hitter.
Wissahickon scored at least two runs in every inning, but the second inning.
On tap Wednesday in the Suburban One League
Suburban One League National Conference
Bensalem @ Neshaminy
William Tennent @ Council Rock South
Council Rock North @ Abington
Pennsbury @ Truman
Suburban One League Continental Conference
Quakertown @ Hatboro-Horsham
Central Bucks West @ Central Bucks East
Central Bucks South @ North Penn
Pennridge @ Souderton
Suburban One League American Conference
Plymouth Whitemarsh @ Cheltenham
Norristown @ Upper Dublin
Upper Moreland @ Springfield
Upper Merion @ Wissahickon
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