Dan Dunkin takes a look at the SOL teams advancing to the District One Tournament this week.
By DAN DUNKIN
Maybe they should rename this year’s District One Class AAAA baseball tournament the Suburban One League Classic or SOL Invitational. The SOL batted nearly .400 in terms of the number of its teams represented as a ratio of the entire district field. Ten SOL squads are in the 26-team tourney, which begins Monday.
And four of the 10 SOL invitees will get to put their feet up or get in extra batting practice Monday, because those teams are among the top six seeds, all of which receive first-round byes. Wissahickon, which shared the SOL American title with Upper Dublin, got the No. 2 overall seed; Pennsbury, the National Conference champion, is No. 3; Continental champ North Penn is No. 4; and Upper Dublin is No. 6. (Interboro is the top seed and Boyertown is No. 5).
In all, six SOL teams are slated to host a first- or second-round game.
It all speaks well of the upper tiers of the SOL’s three conferences, especially the Continental and National as those two groups each saw four teams advance to the district dance.
But, cautions Pennsbury coach Joe Pesci, “Throw seedings out the window.”
In 2013, for example, District One’s No. 12 seed, North Penn, stormed all the way to the state championship. So much depends first on pitching matchups, secondly on solid fielding. Not much separates a lot of these teams.
District One, in comparison to the rest of Pennsylvania, is relatively the size of China. The top five finishers qualify for the state tournament.
The other SOL District One qualifiers are Central Bucks East (9), Hatboro-Horsham (13) and Pennridge (25) from the Continental; from the National also comes red-hot Council Rock North (15), Abington (21) and Council Rock South (22).
NATIONAL LOOK – PENNSBURY SETS THE PACE, BUT DON’T FORGET THE REST!
Hats off to Abington, which made the district field for the first time since 1988. The Ghosts will travel to Perkiomen Valley (12) for the first round Monday. Win that and the Ghosts would go to Boyertown on Wednesday.
Abington coach Dave Toressani, in his ninth season leading the Ghosts, says last year’s Abington seniors helped set the table for this breakthrough season.
“I expected (this team) to be better than Abington teams of the past; a lot of them played last year,” Toressani said. “Really what happened was, we had a bunch of seniors last year; they were smart kids and awesome leaders. They saw the future and set the tone for us. These kids picked up on it and we haven’t skipped a beat.”
Council Rock North’s late-season momentum makes the Indians dangerous. The Indians host Avon Grove. A win would give the Indians a shot at No. 2 seed Wissahickon.
“We always seem to find it somewhere. It seems like it’s always this time of the year,” CR North coach Matt Schram said. “I told them, ‘You’ve found it.’ “
Pennsbury was an almost-not-quite team the past couple of years. This spring they’ve been hitting on all cylinders. Coach Joe Pesci’s team will face either always-tough Spring-Ford or Marple Newtown on Wednesday, with a possibility of playing Council Rock South (which handed Pennsbury one of its two league losses) in the quarterfinals.
“I think it was a matter of 13 seniors who got tired of knocking on the door,” Pesci said. “We knew we had a special group when they were freshmen. They had a taste of the playoffs last year. The kids bought into what we were doing since August. They took it upon themselves. You had so many different heroes during the year. So many contributed.”
Pesci has a very deep and determined team. In league games, sophomore Billy Bethel leads the Falcons in hitting (.400) and on-base percentage (.538). D.J. Endler hit .343 with a team-high 18 RBIs. Pat Lawrence and Brody McFadden drove in 17 and 16 runs, respectively. On the mound, Pennsbury’s built a good staff. Logan Buell had a 0.41 ERA, Zach Conley went 5-0 with a 1.21, and Andrew Gilbert’s ERA in 26.2 innings was 1.05.
While non-league district foes can be a mystery to prepare for, playing in a competitive conference during the regular season, with a few tough non-league games thrown in, can get a team ready for the pressure format.
Take Pennsbury. In league and non-league games, the Falcons ended up facing seven teams that went to the playoffs, a total of 10 games, going 8-2.
“You look at it, and we’ve got four teams from our league in the playoffs, and we went 5-1 against them,” Pesci notes. “Two really close games against (Council Rock) North, a tight one (loss) and a big win over CR South, a 14-inning game (a win) against the No. 1 (Class AAA seed) Holy Ghost Prep, three walk-off wins.
“We had a lot of playoff-like atmospheres during the regular season, which is a positive. Plus we played Wissahickon (a 5-2 Pennsbury loss) and Hatboro-Horsham (a 10-1 Pennsbury win) … Hopefully we’re prepared.”
CONTINENTAL LOOK – BALANCED AND BATTLE-TESTED
Dropping the North-South split bracket format brings the possibility of compelling rivalry matchups as early as the second round. North Penn awaits a Wednesday matchup with the winner of Monday’s Hatboro-Horsham vs. Haverford clash.
Wouldn’t it be fascinating to see Continental rivals North Penn and the Hatters meet that early? They split during the regular season, with the Knights taking a 2-1 decision in a showdown last week.
The Hatters have exceptional pitching depth and posted a ridiculous 1.75 ERA in league games.
“So we know we’re going to be in every game,” Hatboro-Horsham coach Pete Moore said. “If things go well, you’re going to have three games in the first week, so we’re very lucky to have the arms and depth that we have.”
Moore and his senior-led group – 15 seniors! – come in confident and ready to roll coming off that tough loss to North Penn.
“I’m just happy for this group to have this opportunity,” Moore said. “I’ve never had this number of seniors. A lot of guys who have come up the ranks together, improving each year, and we’re peaking at the right time. It’s a new season right now.
“We feel very battle-tested by playing in the league we’re in. I can’t imagine playing in a league where the competition prepares you any better than what the Suburban One Continental does. We’ve found ways to win games in a lot of different ways, which adds to the confidence we have.”
Another Continental rematch awaits in the second round if Pennridge and Central Bucks East take care of business. The Rams, who travel to No. 8 seed West Chester Rustin, are not your typical 25 seed.
“You get in the playoffs, anything can happen – like a couple years ago,” Pennridge coach Tom Nuneviller said.
Nuneviller is referring to 2013, when the Rams and North Penn made surprising runs in the state tournament. North Penn, despite having internal issues, righted itself and went all the way to the championship. The Knights beat the Rams in the state semifinals – despite Pennridge’s having beaten them three times previously.
AMERICAN LOOK – TROJANS, CARDINALS COULD MAKE A RUN
Wissahickon stumbled in the regular season finale, falling to Cheltenham and costing itself the outright American title two days after beating Upper Dublin in a showdown.
Still, the Trojans earned their highest district baseball seed in school history, besting the No. 4 Wissahickon garnered in 2010. Coach Shannon Gunby says the team has a great sense of pride in sharing the conference crown, and it has plenty of confidence entering districts “because the momentum has been there all year long for us. We’re playing very good baseball.”
American co-champ Upper Dublin will play the winner of Council Rock South-Owen J. Roberts. Any team that beat Pennsbury, as Ted Kirner’s Hawks did, is capable of a big run. So is Upper Dublin and Wissahickon.
Gunby thinks it’s great that 10 SOL teams made the district field.
“The Suburban One all season long was very competitive,” he said. “Obviously, we’re very proud what the SOL was able to do getting four top seeds. But this time of year everyone’s dangerous, everyone’s good or they wouldn’t be here.
“I think this year it makes it very interesting that we no longer have the north and south. You look at that North Penn bye and they could run right into Hatboro-Horsham. Very interesting. Now you can play a team in your own conference right off the bat. Everybody has a chance to beat everybody. You love having a bye, having that Monday off to watch another team play and getting your team ready, but they better be ready to play, because all 26 teams are here for a reason.”
A big reason Wissahickon is here is its depth in hitting and pitching.
The Trojans have several players hitting over .400 – Ryan Becker, Nick Falso, Alexander Tappen, Matt Shilling and Julian Osterneck.
The team ERA is an outrageous 1.40. Sophomore Logan Willans has led the charge, Gunby said, with Tappen and Shilling also throwing extremely well. Shilling has been a reliever-closer. Senior Jake Segal has also given the Trojans a lot of good innings.
“Honestly, it’s been a complete team effort,” Gunby says. “We’ve scored 120 runs, played well defensively and fundamentally good baseball, which is why we are where we are.”
2A AND 3A TEAMS IN THE HUNT
In District One Class AAA, everyone will be gunning for top seed Holy Ghost Prep, a loaded outfit seeking to make a big run in states. To get there they’ll have to win district – only one team advances from District One AAA.
The Firebirds have a bye when the eight-team tourney starts Tuesday. The SOL American Conference’s Upper Moreland, a 4 seed, will host No. 5 Bishop Shanahan. The winner gets a shot at Holy Ghost Prep on Thursday.
In Class AA, the District One four-team field on Friday has top seed Devon Prep hosting traditionally tough Bristol, while New Hope-Solebury, the 2 seed, hosts Springfield-Montco from the American.
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