Check out the recaps for SOL baseball teams in action Friday. PW 30th Anniversary of 1994 State Champs photos provided courtesy of Jessica Lester – Colonial School District. (NP/Truman photos provided courtesy of Cindy Manero/NP baseball)
SOL Patriot/Colonial crossover
Central Bucks South 1, Pennsbury 0
Sophomore Luke Hillegas continues to impress for CB South, which picked up its biggest win of the season at home under the lights against Pennsbury on Friday.
Hillegas threw just 75 pitches, scattered seven hits and two walks, while striking out three against one of the SOL’s top offensive teams.
“It was a masterpiece by him,” said CB South coach Kevin Bray. “It was a really great game in general. Both pitchers were fantastic. It was a fun game to be a part of. Fun to watch.
“Luke’s been great for us. We saw a ton of potential with him as a freshman. We knew he had the makings to be something special, and he’s lived up to every bit of that with his sophomore campaign. He’s our No. 1 right now, and that’s not taking away anything from Brett Barrett. Luke’s picked up some big wins for us, and he’s not done yet. His ceiling is very high.”
Speaking of Barrett, the Titans’ first baseman hitting out of the leadoff spot Friday – he delivered at the plate, going 2-for-3 with what turned out to be the game-winning home run in the bottom of the third inning.
“We switched some things up in our lineup,” Bray said. “We moved some guys around. He had a great at-bat in the third inning, got a fastball and just crushed it to left.
“We would have liked to score a couple more runs, but one was enough to do it tonight. Luke Poley (third baseman) and Jake Yang (shortstop) did a heck of a job behind Luke (Hillegass) tonight, and Jake and our second baseman Ryan Frey turned three double plays.”
Pennsbury’s Keller Bradley had a dominant night on the mound himself, allowing just two hits and walking two, while striking out 10 over six innings.
Central Bucks South (5-6, 5-6 SOL) will travel to Souderton on Tuesday.
Pennsbury (9-4, 7-4 SOL) will travel to Neshaminy Tuesday.
Pennsbury 000 000 0 – 0 6 1
CB South 001 000 x – 1 2 0
Central Bucks East 7, Council Rock North 6
CB East cemented itself atop the SOL Colonial standings with the second half of the division schedule coming up, finishing a difficult week at 2-1 with Friday’s wild win on the road against Council Rock South.
“I’ve had this week starred on the calendar for a while,” said Patriots coach Kyle Dennis. “We knew it was going to be a tough week. All three teams (Pennsbury, Neshaminy and CR North) are always good, they’re scrappy, they’re talented. We knew it was going to be a hard week.
“But we tell the guys, if you win the week, you’re going to be in pretty good shape, and we were able to win the week. We have another big week coming up too, with Senior Night against West on Tuesday and South on Thursday.”
Dennis knew Friday’s game was going to be a challenge, and it played out against a CR North team fighting to get over .500 and stay in playoff contention, and it was back-and-forth almost from the start.
The Indians led early, CB East came back with three in the third, CR North scored three in the fifth to lead 6-5 going into the sixth, only to see the Patriots plate the two game-winning runs in the top of the sixth.
“I don’t even know how to describe this game,” Dennis said. “It was back-and-forth. A lot of this game came down to playing the game the right way and running the bases hard. If we’re dogging it, if we’re not running the bases hard, we would have been in trouble today.
“Our first run (in the second), Jack Mislan gets on, steals second, steals third and scores on a dropped third strike. Base running was just huge today.”
In the sixth, Sean Hill reached on a one-out single, Reece Moody was hit by a pitch, Nolan Behm singled home the tying run, and later, the seventh run crossed on a bases-loaded walk to Mislan.
Behm and Hill led the CB East offensive attack with two hits each. They drew four walks, four hit batters and stole seven bases.
“Nolan Behm had a great day for us,” Dennis said. “He hits (No.) 2 for us, and had two hits, a big RBI, scored two runs. He was just all over the field today.
“Sean Hill, our sophomore right fielder, is just a scrappy player. He threw a guy at home plate two days ago in a big spot. Today, he was 2-for-3 and scored a run in the 9 spot. He does a good job turning the lineup over for us. He’s just a great kid.”
Chase Fulford went five innings and picked up the win on the mound. After Sam Bliss pitched the sixth, sophomore Jason Abert picked up the save with a scoreless seventh inning.
Joe Rizzo’s 2-for-3 effort with a double led the Indians. Nick DiGiacomo was 1-for-2 with a triple and Will Seiler was 1-for-3 with a double. Both players drove in a pair of runs for the Indians.
Central Bucks East (9-3, 9-1 SOL) will host Central Bucks West on Tuesday.
Council Rock North (7-6, 4-5 SOL) will be on the road at Harry S Truman Tuesday.
CB East 013 012 0 – 7 7 3
CR North 111 030 0 – 6 6 2
North Penn 9, Harry S. Truman 0
After a rough stretch, North Penn found its footing with its second win in as many games and did so with timely hitting and excellent pitching to take care of visiting Harry S. Truman on Friday afternoon.
“We come back into the division next week and everyone has gotten better since the first time through,” said Knights coach Kevin Manero. “This is the time of the year when we have to click on all cylinders to give ourselves a shot at playing free baseball in late May.”
It starts on the mound, and North Penn turned to Nolan Walker on Friday, and he delivered with five no-hit, shutout innings. He walked five and struck out seven, before leaving after hitting the 97-pitch mark after five.
Henry Wetzel finished things off with two scoreless innings, working around one hit and one walk with four strikeouts.
“Nolan Walker gave us five strong innings today and that plus the two from Wetzel capped off a great week for our pitchers,” Manero said. “Three games without an earned run. We’ll need that down the stretch for sure.”
Offensively, the Knights started strong and kept on it. Chase Jones tripled in the first and scored on a Ben Farley single. Two innings later, both Jones and Farley had RBI doubles as part of a four-run inning that made it a 5-0 lead and sent the Knights on their way to the big win.
Jones and Farley combined to go 5-for-8 with four runs scored and three RBIs. North Penn had 11 hits and drew four walks.
“We had a lot of contributions from a lot of guys today which I know will help us in the long run,” Manero said.
North Penn (8-5, 6-5 SOL) will be on the road at Pennridge Tuesday.
Harry S. Truman (2-8, 2-7 SOL) will host Bensalem on Saturday at 11 a.m.
Truman 000 000 0 – 0 1 1
North Penn 104 031 x – 9 11 0
Neshaminy 9, Central Bucks West 7
Falling behind early – CB West scored six runs in the bottom of the first, it was a long road back for Neshaminy on Friday, but it never stopped coming forward. The Redskins quickly came back to tie it by the end of the third, and then won the game with a huge sixth inning for 9-7 victory.
The win gives Neshaminy a two-game lead in the Patriot Division standings heading in Tuesday’s showdown with rival and second place Pennsbury.
“We had the worst start to a game you could possibly have,” said Neshaminy coach Dan Toner. “Last couple of games, we have been getting creative on how we can donate runs to the other team. We started today by giving up six unearned runs. It could have been real easy for our guys to quit and feel bad for themselves, but there was no worry from the players when they came on the field.
“After an extremely hot start, we cooled off this past week, which was expected to happen, but today was a day where we were finding a lot of barrels again.”
Neshaminy pounded out nine runs on eight hits, five walks and three hit batters. They also had two extra base hits, including a three-run home run by Stone Powell in the sixth inning that broke a 6-6 tie.
Catcher Jake Plebani went 2-for-3 with three RBIs, while Anthony Trommer was 2-for-3 with a double.
“On offense, we got back to our approach that worked early on, and it got a lot of the guys back in a groove today,” Toner said. “Anthony Trommer had a couple big at bats for us, and Stone Powell hit an absolute bomb, a three-run home run to take the lead.”
CB West took advantage of two errors in that six-run first, and also got an RBI double by Sam Greer, an RBI single by Hager and a two-run single by Ernie Sanchez.
At that point, however, Neshaminy pitching settled in. Luke Schweiker came out of the bullpen and allowed just one run over four innings to pick up the win, before Steve Martin closed out the seventh inning for the save.
“Evan Krippel started the game and gave us two good innings,” Toner said. “We just had trouble making plays for him. Luke Schweiker came in and did a fantastic job, controlling the game and getting the win.
“During our last inning, we had Steve Martin to come in and close the game. Steve does fantastic in big moments and did it again for us today.”
Neshaminy (10-2, 9-2 SOL) will be on the road at Upper Dublin Monday for a non-league game.
Central Bucks West (5-7, 4-6 SOL) will travel to Central Bucks East Tuesday.
Neshaminy 042 003 0 – 9 8 4
CB West 600 000 1 – 8 5 3
Pennridge 11, Bensalem 0 (5 innings)
The Rams blew this one wide open with an eight-run third inning and were able to put away visiting Bensalem in a mercy-rule shortened five inning game to close out a busy week.
“Every game is crucial heading into the later part of the season, and it was good to finish the week with a win,” said coach Danny Long.
Pennridge did it with the bats and on the mound.
Senior Kyle Watson started and pitched two shutout innings. Ryder Olson, James Embert and Owen Dominick then each threw scoreless innings out of the bullpen to finish off the shutout.
Offensively, in the third, the Rams took advantage of four walks, RBI singles by Joey Gregiore, Tommy Ginnetti, Olson and then Matt Atchley hit a two-run home run to up the lead to 10-0.
“It was good to see Kyle Watson back on the mound for the first time this season due to injury,” Long said. “We had a few timely hits, and we are improving offensively with runners in scoring position.”
Noah Keating (2-for-2, 2R) and Joey Gregiore (2-for-3, 2B, RBI 2R) both contributed multiple hits for the Rams.
Pennridge (7-4, 4-4 SOL) will host North Penn on Tuesday.
Bensalem (2-10, 0-8 SOL) will be on the road at Harry S Truman on Saturday at 11 a.m.
Bensalem 000 00 – 0 0 2
Pennridge 028 1x – 11 9 2
SOL Liberty/Freedom crossover
Plymouth Whitemarsh 9, Upper Moreland 0
Plymouth Whitemarsh is in the middle of a dominant stretch of what could end up being a historically special season.
But Friday, the program welcomed back its most successful team, as it honored the 30th anniversary of the 1994 state championship squad.
“Today was a very special day for our program,” said current Colonials’ coach Chris Manero. “We honored the 30th anniversary of our 1994 state champions with a pregame ceremony, and it was just awesome to see all of these former players and their families reconnect at the field.”
Two of the current players are also part of the 1994 family. Pitcher Chase Fisher and shortstop Gabe Caucci both had fathers on that ‘94 team, and Friday they honored them with quality games themselves.
Caucci was 2-for-3 with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored. Fisher threw four shutout innings on the mound, and at the plate reached base all three times, with a hit and two walks.
“That’s special,” Manero said. “There’s just no other way to describe it.”
Friday’s shutout of visiting Upper Moreland was a solid effort from start to finish, as PW scored in the first inning and then got a huge cushion with a five-run third. It ended up with nine runs on nine hits, drew 11 walks and three hit batters. Eight different players had hits.
“I think we had our best week of the season this week,” Manero said. “We came out today and scored early. Every guy in our starting nine reached base, and we had two senior pitchers combine for seven shutout innings.
“Cooper (Jones) wants to pitch more. As a matter of fact, we have two or three other guys who also want to pitch more. But there are only so many innings. So, when players get opportunities like Coop did today, they need to be ready. He was outstanding out of the pen today, just as he was when he threw seven innings of relief in our 13-inning game against Quakertown. He has fun when he’s out there, and he just seems to channel that in the right direction.”
In addition to Caucci’s big day at the plate, Johnny Giordano doubled and drove in a pair of runs. Also contributing RBIs were Eagland, Gavin Moore and Kevin Hegarty.
“We are starting multiple freshmen, sophomores, and juniors on this team along with our core of senior veterans,” Manero said. “There is so much learning going on in every game, and it’s exciting to see what these guys have been able to do.
“We welcomed back nine players and four coaches from the 1994 team today. And we also got to honor the memory of Henry Demito, who was the head coach of that team and Vinnie Keaser, who was a freshman. Hank passed away in 2014 and Vinnie was only 43 when he died in 2021. Their families were here today too, and it was a very touching way to start the day.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh (12-2, 11-0 SOL) will celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day Tuesday when the Colonials host Abington.
Upper Moreland (4-7, 4-5 SOL) hosts Lower Moreland on Tuesday.
Upper Moreland 000 000 0 – 0 3 1
Plymouth Whitemarsh 105 021 x – 9 9 0
Upper Dublin 2, Lower Moreland 0
It was a masterful pitching performance no matter how you slice it. Upper Dublin rode the pitching of Billy Hart and Jack Brannigan to the shutout of Lower Moreland in a crossover game on Friday afternoon.
“Well, today came down to pitching,” said Flying Cardinals coach Ed Wall. “Our scorebook had it scored as a combined no-hitter between Billy Hart and Jack Brannigan. Lower Moreland’s pitcher did the job until the top of the seventh.”
Whether it was a no-hitter or a one-hitter depends on the scorer. The play in question came in the second when LM’s James Cronin reached on an error on a ground ball. The Lions’ scorebook, the home book, credited Cronin with a single.
Whether a hit or an error, what can’t be debated was the dominance of the Cardinals’ pitchers from start to finish.
Hart pitched three innings and worked around four walks with four strikeouts. Brannigan came out of the bullpen, pitched four innings and retired all 12 batters he faced.
Lower Moreland’s Connor Hegedus was pretty tough himself, shutting UD down through the first six innings, as the game went into the seventh in a scoreless tie.
Wesley Gill was hit by a pitch to lead off the seventh, followed by a Conner Dynan double that put runners on second and third with nobody out. Eric Berman then singled home a run, and Oliver Gill scored a run with a one-out sacrifice back to the mound.
“I love our team’s competitiveness and ability to execute in tight games,” Wall said.
Upper Dublin (10-2, 8-1 SOL) will host Neshaminy in a non-league game Monday.
Lower Moreland (6-7, 3-7 SOL) will travel to Upper Moreland Tuesday.
Upper Dublin 000 000 2 – 2 6 1
Lower Moreland 000 000 0 – 0 0 0
Hatboro-Horsham 5, Cheltenham 0
With a strong showing in crossover games, Hatboro-Horsham has itself back in position for a run to a postseason spot, and Friday finished off a 3-0 week with a shutout of Cheltenham on the back of a four-hit shutout from pitcher Jamie O’Neill.
O’Neill threw 91 pitches, didn’t walk a batter and struck out nine. He retired the final eight batters of the game to finish it off.
“He was dominant all day, with three of his pitches working well for strikes,” said Hatters’ coach Bill deBoer. “(We) played a tight, clean ‘D’ and committed no errors in the game. Cheltenham threatened a couple of times, but (our) defense was up to the task on all occasions.”
Offensively, H-H did a good job of putting the ball in play, with a season-low three strikeouts.
Dom Rapino and Chase Canney had two hits each, while Ryan Klenk drove in two runs.
“The guys came out with a good, controlled intensity and continued to have quality at-bats the entire game,” deBoer said. “I’m proud of the way these guys have been playing the game recently and it is starting to show on our record. We just keep taking one game, one inning, play and pitch at a time.”
Hatboro-Horsham (7-5, 6-5 SOL) will host Wissahickon Tuesday.
Cheltenham (3-9, 2-8 SOL) will host New Hope-Solebury Tuesday.
Cheltenham 000 000 0 – 0 4 2
Hatboro-Horsham 010 022 x – 5 5 0
Quakertown 8, New Hope-Solebury 1
Quakertown won its sixth straight league game and wrapped up crossover play with a dominant win over host New Hope on Friday afternoon.
In the win streak, the Panthers outscored their opponents by a 61-10 margin.
Friday’s game saw Quakertown pounded out nine runs on eight-hits, starting with a two-run first inning, with Gunnar Rahn driving in two with a two-out RBI single.
Later, the Panthers added two runs in the fifth and three in the seventh to put away the Lions.
Shortstop and leadoff hitter Danny Qualteria was the catalyst, as he went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI. He also stole four bases.
“Danny Qualteria set the Quakertown all-time stolen base record today,” said Panthers coach Jon Pallone. “He’s put a lot of work into running the bases well and really affects the game with it.
“He’s at 25 right now, and set the single season record last year, passing Jake Reed.”
As a team, Quakertown finished the game with 10 stolen bases.
Matt Marsten went 2-for-4 with a RBI, Rahn finished with three RBIs, and Cole Reich drove in two.
On the mound, Cooper Natisin started the game with two scoreless innings, Jackson Gilman picked up the win, allowing just one earned from over 3 1/3 innings out of the bullpen, and Anthony Pellegrini finished it off with 1 2/3 shutout innings.
“Jackson Gilman, who has been recovering from a leg injury, came out on the mound and did a great job attacking the strike zone,” Pallone said. “We’re gradually building him back up on his pitch count.
“Anthony Pellegrini did a great job earning his first varsity save. He’s a guy that loves to compete and fill up the zone.”
Quakertown (10-4, 9-2 SOL) will host Upper Dublin Tuesday.
New Hope-Solebury (2-10, 0-10 SOL) will be on the road at Faith Christian Academy for a non-league game on Saturday at 10 a.m.
Quakertown 201 020 3 – 8 9 2
New Hope 001 000 0 – 1 4 1
About the Author
