Upper Moreland defeated Bishop Shanahan and advanced to Wednesday’s District One AAA title game against Radnor.
#2 UPPER MORELAND 2, #3 BISHOP SHANAHAN 0
Good pitching and good defense can make up for a lot of shortcomings. Upper Moreland has displayed plenty of both in this week's District One AAA contest. For the second time in as many games, the Golden Bears received a glittering pitching performance – this time from Brandon Kohn, and their defense was golden, more than making up for the fact that they managed just four hits.
Kohn allowed just four hits in the complete game shutout, fanning four and walking two.
"He was phenomenal," coach Ken Irwin said. "The thing we keep working with Brandon is to make kids beat him because he has such good stuff.
"Sometimes he gets himself in trouble by putting guys on, but when he got the guys on, he made great pitches.""
Exhibit A came in the second inning when the Eagles loaded the bases with one out.
"He threw a perfectly placed pitch down and low outside, and the kid rolled over and hit a ground ball double play," Irwin said. "That was huge at that point."
The Golden Bears scored both of their runs in the sixth inning. With one out, John Searles – who accounted for two of the Bears' four hits – delivered a double. Connor Casey followed with a hard ground single in the hole, and the Bears had runners on the corners with one out. When Casey stole second, the Panthers had a pair of runners in scoring position, forcing the Eagles to play their infield up to prevent a run.
It didn't work.
"Brandon Kohn came up and hit a hard ground ball off the pitcher's glove that proceeded to jump over the shortstop's glove," Irwin said of a sequence that plated the game's first run.
Paul Campoli was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and it looked as though the Bears might only get one out of it, Ryan Lowry drew a bases-loaded walk to push a second run across.
"The kid just finds a way to get on," Irwin said of Lowry. "It was his second walk of the game."
On a day when Kohn was in control on the mound and the Bears' defense was on point, two runs were more than enough.
"Our defense has been phenomenal," Irwin said. "We had one bad game in our second game against Upper Dublin where we gave up six unearned runs, but our pitching has been great.
"For (Kohn) to strike out four, that's 17 outs we're making in the field. Our outfield runs down everything. Our infield is playing phenomenal. Everybody is playing really well. We were on fire hitting – scoring eight, nine runs a game and then we had that week of rain.”
Things have never been quite the same.
"We've changed our approach,” Irwin said. “Guys are trying to do too much.
"That was the great thing about the sixth inning. Guys settled down. We took pitches until we got a good pitch. Jon (Searles) had a great at-bat and hit the double. Connor (Casey) took a couple of pitches and then got a pitch that he could hit. Lately, we've been swinging at pitcher's pitch instead of a hitter's pitch. That inning we put it together. It was great."
Kohn's shutout came on the heels of a shutout by Joe Bates in Tuesday's 1-0 win over Phoenixville.
"To play two playoff games and not give up a run says a lot," Irwin said. "Our two pitchers both going seven innings and dominating the way they're doing right now is phenomenal."
Upper Moreland will not have its expected date with top-seeded Holy Ghost Prep in next Wednesday’s District One AAA title game. Instead, the Golden Bears will face fifth-seeded Radnor, which upset Holy Ghost 11-9 in Thursday's other semifinal.
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