Upper Dublin advanced to the District One 5A title game with a come-from-behind win over Marple-Newtown. Photos provided courtesy of Kim Supko. Check back for a gallery of photos. All SOS photo galleries for BASEBALL can be viewed by clicking HERE.
District One 5A semifinal
#2 Upper Dublin 4, #3 Marple-Newtown 3
To most pitchers, it would have been an undesirable situation to walk into.
To Justin Richman, it was a chance to do a job.
The Upper Dublin right-hander inherited a true jam in the top of the third inning against Marple-Newtown in Saturday’s District 1 5A semifinal at Villanova Ballpark. Marple-Newtown, the third seed and a team with plenty of postseason experience, already led 3-0 and had the bases loaded with no outs when Richman relieved Cardinals starter David Sharp.
With the Tigers a swing away from breaking things open, Richman instead sent them back to their cage without further damage, getting a comebacker to the mound for a forceout at home, a strikeout looking and a towering pop-up that catcher Kyle Rizzo adeptly handled behind the plate.
He was only just getting started.
"I have all the confidence in the world in my team," Richman said. "All I had to do was go do my job and I knew they'd do their job."
Richman worked five innings on the mound, didn't allow a hit, and of the three runners who did reach against him, none got past first base. His effort in turn allowed the Cardinals bats to stage a sixth-inning rally and culminated in a walk-off hit by Ethan Madnick that propels UD into the District 1 5A title game Tuesday at Neumann University.
"I was trying to make them hit the ball, basically," Richman said. "I knew our fielders, they don't make errors, so I was trying to put it in a spot where they could make plays, roll some ground balls or fly balls and let them do their thing."
Marple-Newtown struck first, using a one-out triple from Dillon Can and sac fly by Owen Mathes to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, then scored on a wild pitch in the top of the second to make it 2-0. While he didn't have his best stuff, Cardinals starter David Sharp did a nice job limiting the damage in the second and stranded two runners.
Sharp's pitching outing would end early, but the left-hander stayed in the game to play right field and his bat would come up clutch later in the game.
In the meantime, Richman was there to have his teammate's back like he knew they would have his in the field. The righty only struck out one batter and wasn't overpowering, but he didn't shy away from going after the Tigers' hitters.
"We were able to use both sides of the plate with Richman," UD coach Ed Wall said. "We had more of a consistent command, his curve ball was enough to keep them off balance and when we were able to work both sides, it started to make hitting more difficult for them."
The righty felt like the fourth inning was the turning point, at least defensively. After escaping the jam in the prior inning, Richman hit the first batter he faced in the fourth to flip the lineup over but got rid of that threat with a ground ball that led to a double play and another ground ball to retire the side in three hitters.
Another quick fifth inning, which was helped out by Rizzo throwing out a base stealer for the final out, and a 1-2-3 sixth by Richman gave the bats the confidence they needed to finally get going.
"I felt like my two-seamer was working for the most part,’ Richman said. “Every time I threw it, it seemed like they were rolling over so I was trying to attack with the two-seamer inside and jam them up. The top of their order can hit really well, so I was trying to make them give us some ground balls."
It wasn't like the Cardinals were totally shut down offensively before their sixth-inning rally and seventh-inning heroics, but they were just limited against Marple-Newtown lefty and Monmouth recruit Jimmy Wigo. A runner thrown out trying to steal in the first, two men left on in the fourth and three strikeouts in the fifth only helped the Tigers maintain their lead even as their own offense fell silent.
A one-out single by Cardinals No. 9 hitter Brendan O'Brien in the third helped get UD on the board. O'Brien moved up on a wild pitch and got to third on a single by Rizzo, allowing him to come in on Nick Lombardo's RBI groundout.
"We were going to fight to the bitter end," Madnick said. "Even if we put hard-hit balls in play and they didn't drop, we were going to be fine with the fact we at least fought it to the last. But we went up there, hit balls hard, they ended up dropping and we got the job done."
Wigo got into a groove in the fourth, using back-to-back strikeouts to leave two UD runners on the bases, then mowed down the three Cardinals who went to the plate in the fifth. Leo Soriano broke up the strikeout streak with a leadoff walk in the sixth, but Wigo bounced back to get another punchout despite Soriano stealing second.
Jared Levis, who had struck out and reached on a bunt single, stepped in and delivered with a ball down the right field line, finding the right side of the paint to the corner for an RBI double.
"We talked about going to a more simple approach and just getting the barrel down like it was a two-strike approach," Wall said. "Wigo, I mean, he showed how good a pitcher he is with the velocity and the curve ball and slider off of it. I felt like if we simplified and barrelled up, then we're letting him do all the work for us, but it took us a little while before we started making contact."
Up came Sharp. In his first two plate appearances, the pitcher-turned-outfielder had put two balls in play, but they led to outs on fielder's choice opportunities. The third time would be different as Sharp flared a ball to left, giving Levis the chance to come home and tie the score.
"That's the type of kid he is," Wall said. "Despite what happened at the beginning, he stepped up and did his job and it's what he's been doing all season."
Richman shut the door again in the seventh, getting two grounders to Lombardo at short and another to Soriano at third for a 1-2-3 frame.
After Rizzo flew out to left to start the bottom of the inning, Lombardo was hit by a pitch and the senior shortstop would steal second before Tigers reliever Justin Brennan struck out Soriano to set the stage for the finale.
"I was just making sure I gave us a chance to win the game," Madnick said.
Madnick had put together a decent day to that point, with a single in the second and an infield hit in the fourth, but he had also been one of Wigo's strikeout victims in the sixth inning. If the senior outfielder was feeling any pressure, he didn't show it at any point during his battle with Brennan.
Just before his winning hit, Madnick fouled off a couple pitches to stay alive and continued to keep his approach simple and focused.
"I was just trying to put a ball in play and not strike out," Madnick said. "Anything could happen, even a ground ball or an error, anything can happen so I went up, stayed back and got the winning run home."
Madnick looped the ball to right field and Lombardo was off on contact, hustling around the bags as his teammates started to pour out of the dugout. Lombardo dove into home emphatically as Madnick rounded first, pumping his fist in jubilation the entire way before joining the celebration on the infield.
"It was middle of the plate, I decided to take it the other way, waited back and put a rope on it," Madnick said. "It was awesome, but we know we're not done yet."
Upper Dublin will play for the district title on Tuesday in a 4pm start at Neumann University. The Cardinals' opponent is still to be determined as West Chester East and Strath Haven's semifinal game was postponed to Sunday due to heavy rains on Saturday afternoon.
"It's immense," Wall said of his team's title opportunity. "The 2012 group that we had was a really special group and this one's a lot like it. I'm excited about what we have coming but we're not done yet."
MARPLE-NEWTOWN 111 000 0 - 3 3 1
UPPER DUBLIN 001 002 1 - 4
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