By Scott Huff
Council Rock South was the lone Suburban One League team to advance to the second round of the Quad-A PIAA State Baseball Tournament with an 8-3 victory over District 12 champion Monsignor Bonner. The game was played at Richie Ashburn Field inside FDR Park in South Philadelphia.
And the Golden Hawks – making their first ever trip to the state tournament - reached that lofty plateau behind the timely hitting of senior Billy Fleming and the talented left arm of junior Bret DeStefano. Fleming collected three hits, while DeStefano threw a complete game for the winners.
“Billy has come up with huge hits for this team all season,” said Council Rock head coach Greg Young. “And Bret has also come up huge in some of our biggest games of the year. We have worked hard all season by concentrating on the game we are playing and not looking ahead.”
Directly ahead for the Golden Hawks is powerful Pioneer Athletic Conference champion Spring-Ford. The District One champion Rams opened its PIAA Quad-A playoffs with a 15-1 mercy rule rout of Spring Grove. The game will be played on Thursday – site to be determined.
Rock South jetted to an 8-0 lead and flew to the easy victory. The Hawks led 1-0 after three innings, but blew the game out of the water with a four-run fourth inning and a three-run fifth inning. The key hit in the fourth frame was a blistering triple by Brian Donnelly with the bases loaded that cleared the bases.
Fleming – who will attend West Virginia University next fall – had a double and a triple among his three hits.
“Bret has pitched a lot to contact all season,” said Young. “He doesn’t walk people (zero walks) and we played very good defense behind him (no errors).”
Council Rock South Golden Hawks 1 0 0 4 3 0 0 - 8 9 0
Monsignor Bonner Friars 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 - 3 8 1
CR North Shown the Exit Door
Council Rock North was shown an abrupt exit from the Quad-A PIAA State Baseball Tournament with a 6-2 loss against Nazareth. The contest was played at Parkland High School in the Lehigh Valley.
The Indians held a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning. Bang, bang, bang – and Nazareth smoked three hits on successive pitches to transform the 2-1 lead into a 6-2 deficit.
“It all happened so quickly,” said Council Rock North head coach Matt Schram. “They were jumping on the first pitch, and it seemed like all the key hits came so fast. They scored those five runs before you knew it.
“Nazareth had a great pitcher (Karl Kegovitis) who threw the ball consistently in the 90’s,” added Schram. “He was 6-foot, 5-inches and threw extremely hard. We don’t see that type of pitching every day.
“We had our opportunities, but we didn’t capitalize on enough of them,” continued Schram. “We were hoping – with our pitching staff – that we could make a much deeper run in the playoffs. We gave everything we had, but it just wasn’t enough.”
Council Rock North Indians 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 2 7 2
Nazareth 0 1 0 0 5 0 x - 6 8 1
Upper Moreland Shown the Exit Door
Upper Moreland was shown an abrupt exit from the Class AAA PIAA State Baseball Tournament with a 5-3 loss against Blue Mountain. The contest was played at Spring-Ford High School.
The Golden Bears – the District One champions - had played their best baseball in a 9-2 win over Pope John Paul II in the district final, but failed to match that superb play in the early innings despite a 3-0 lead.
“If we could have executed a little better early in the game, we could have been up 5-1 at the very least,” said Upper Moreland head coach Ernie Rehr. “But we made some mistakes in the field, and that really changed the complexion of the game. Plus we must have left at least 10 runners on base.”
Senior catcher David McInerney – who will attend the University of Cincinnati – ended his brilliant scholastic career. McInerney cranked a home run in the first inning to give the Bears a lead.
“David is the type of player that you root for,” said Rehr. “He is a classy kid, and only good things are going to happen to him in the future.”
The future is bright for the Upper Moreland baseball program next season. Seven of the nine starters – minus McInerney and Kyle Lockhard – will be back for the Golden Bears next season.
Blue Mountain 0 0 2 0 0 3 0 - 5 4 3
Upper Moreland 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 9 1
- Log in to post comments
0
