Springfield Twp advanced to Friday’s District 1 4A title game with Tuesday’s win over Pope John Paul II.
District 1 4A semifinal
#4 Springfield Twp 12, #1 Pope John Paul II 10
For three innings, the script couldn’t have gone any better for the underdog Spartans, who opened up a 12-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth, but what looked like it was going to be a cakewalk turned into a tightly contested game instead.
It took some late-game heroics by Nolan Kidwell out of the bullpen to hold off the surging Golden Panthers. Kidwell recorded the final seven outs to earn the save, striking out all seven batters he faced.
“That’s Nolan,” Springfield Twp coach Dennis Primavera said. “I knew that would happen, but I didn’t want to get to him.
“For three innings, we played perfect baseball. We were pitching well, we executed offensive plays. It was the first time that happened in 10 years at Springfield for me. We executed hit-and-runs perfectly, hit the ball to the vacated second base area. We had first and second, no outs and executed a perfect bunt, and then we started hitting the ball. At one point, I walked over to my coach, and I said, ‘Pinch me.’”
The dream threatened to turn into a nightmare when PJP put nine runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth and then added a run in the fifth to make it a 12-10 game.
“It was 12-0, and then we started to play a different kind of baseball,” Primavera said. “There were two errors in one inning – one was a throwing, one was a fielding, and that extended Brett Smith’s pitching count, and they started to score some runs. Brett threw a couple balls that were hit.
“Pope John Paul scored 9 runs off Smith, and only five were earned, but at that point, because they were hitting him, I had to do something, so he went to center, and I brought in Max May for an inning-and-a-third. He gave up a run, but he did a good job. Then I brought in Nolan, and Nolan did the job. He shut them down, which I thought he would do. That played out well, but 12-0 and then 12-10. I never want to go through this again.”
Early in the game, everything was going the Spartans’ way. They scored a pair of runs in the top of the first when – after a two-out walk and hit batter – Brett Smith ripped a two-run triple to right field. The Spartans added a pair in the top of the second to go on top 4-0. This despite collecting just two hits in the inning – a leadoff single by Nathan Levy and an RBI single by Matthew Caruso.
A sac fly from Jon Matthews upped the Spartans’ lead to 5-0 in the third, and a seven-run fourth put the Spartans on top 12-0. Chris Cahill got the ball rolling with a leadoff single to left field, and that was followed by an Owen Hastings single – his first of two singles in the inning. Kidwell, Mike Capoferri, Levy and Jack McKittrick each contributed RBI singles in the inning, and Smith had an RBI double.
A 12-0 lead seemed insurmountable, but the nine-run fourth by the Golden Panthers suggested otherwise.
The Spartans – thanks to Kidwell’s dominating effort in relief – held on for a win that vaulted them into the District 1 4A title game for the first time since 2019.
The Spartans, who pounded out 13 hits, were led by the three-hit efforts of Hastings (3-for-4, R) and Levy (3-for-4, RBI, 2R). Also contributing a multi-hit game was Smith (2-for-4, 2B, 3B, 3 RBIs).
“This is a big turnaround from two-thirds of our season,” Primavera said. “They’re playing well most of the time. We get to the point now where we play my alma mater (Holy Ghost Prep).”
Springfield Twp (11-8, 9-7 SOL) will face the second-seeded Firebirds in Friday’s District 1 4A title game at Villanova Ballpark in Plymouth Twp at 4 pm.
Springfield Twp 221 700 0 12-13-2
Pope John Paul II 000 910 0 10-9-1
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