Council Rock South and Central Bucks South advanced to Thursday’s District One AAAA final. To view action photos of the CR South/Upper Dublin game, please visit the Photo Gallery.
By Scott Huff
Ambler – The game came down to the final pitchas Upper Dublin pinch hitter Jake Blank smoked a line drive back to the box with the tying run on third base that was stabbed by Council Rock South pitcher/closer Brian Donnelly for the final out. It allowed Rock South to snatch a breathtaking 6-5 victory over the rallying Cardinals.
Council Rock South will now advance to PIAA Quad-A District One championship game against Central Bucks South in a 4 pm start at Immaculata University on Thursday. Upper Dublin will face Hatboro-Horsham on Thursday to determine the No. 3 and No. 4 seed from District One – site to be determined. CB South defeated Hatboro-Horsham 6-5 in its semifinal contest.
“I knew I had it all the way, for the whole one-tenth of a second I had to react,” winked Donnelly who closed out the win for Ryan Fleming who threw two effective middle relief innings. “But the really big defensive play was the catch that Kane Price made earlier in the inning. He made two great plays today – one in leftfield and one in centerfield.”
Price was moved to centerfield when Donnelly came on to close the game in the seventh inning with the Hawks holding a tentative 6-4 lead. With one out, Upper Dublin received a clutch single by Luke Felix and a sizzling double by Jesse Kohler. With the tying run on second base, Andrew Carber scorched a line drive to center that was brilliantly tracked down by Price to limit the damage to a sacrifice fly RBI.
“All I was doing was looking to catch the ball,” understated Kane. “Sometimes the balls hit in center field are difficult coming right at you, but I saw the ball right off the bat and got after it.”
Seventh inning defensive gems and aggressive base running throughout the game was the winning formula for Council Rock South. The starting pitching and timely hitting were not quite up to the blue-chip standards of the Hawks, but the bottom line was another key victory.
“I am proud of the way that we battled today,” said Council Rock head coach Greg Young. “The trademark of this team is to be aggressive on the bases – force the action. We preach it every day in practice, and the players have bought into it.”
Council Rock South has not had to fashion too many comeback wins this season, but the Hawks were forced to do just that against an excellent Upper Dublin squad.
The first three hitters in the Cardinal lineup in the first inning –Jared Zarwin, Andrew Yekel, and Luke Felix - showed patience at the plate and worked walks to load the bases. Kohler followed with a two-run single to plate Zarwin and Yekel, and Felix scored moments later on an RBI ground out by Dan Brown to generate a 3-0 Cardinal lead.
Upper Dublin stretched its lead to 4-0 in the fourth inning. With one out, Eric Goldstein singled, and with two outs, Zarwin torched an RBI double.
“Even when we down 4-0, we had a positive feel in the dugout,” said Council Rock South third baseman Mike Chaykin. “We knew that we could manufacture some runs.”
The Hawks did just that in the bottom of the fourth inning. A pair of costly UD errors - four singles – and a stolen base produced the four runs and knotted the score at 4-4. Zak Gross had an RBI single, Price hit a sacrifice fly, and Chaykin had an RBI single. The fourth run came on a Cardinal throwing error.
“That inning was a tough one for us,” said Upper Dublin head coach Ed Wall. “They got some infield singles, we made some mistakes, and you can’t expect to beat the top seeded team in the district. But at the end, we still were in a spot to win the game. We were right there.”
Council Rock South took its first lead in the last of the sixth inning. An error – a sacrifice bunt – and a pair of singles produced what proved to be the game winning runs. Chaykin scored on a
n RBI single by Zach Fitzgerald and Fitzgerald scored what proved to be the game winner on a throwing error.
“We beat a very good baseball team today,” said Donnelly. “They are a team that is going to make some noise in the state playoffs.”
That will have to be the consolation prize for Upper Dublin.
The CR South Golden Hawks still have an eagle (golden hawk?) eye on the PIAA Quad-A District One championship.
Upper Dublin Flying Cardinals 300 100 1 -5 6 4
Council Rock South Golden Hawks 000 402 x -6 7 3
Titans Win Instant Classic Over Hatters
Central Bucks South [N-12] overcame relentless [N-2] Hatboro-Horsham in nine innings as the Titans captured a 6-5 PIAA District One Quad-A semifinal victory over the Hatters.
“I get out of breath just talking about the game,” said Central Bucks South head coach Mike Schaefer. “There was so much excitement the whole game, and it was just a great high school baseball game between two good teams.”
Hatboro-Horsham took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but CB South rallied for three runs in the third inning to take a 3-1 lead. The Titans took advantage of three Hatter errors in the inning, mixed in an intentional walk, and collected crucial hits from Will Sasser (double/run) and Dylan Glassmire (single/two RBI).
CB South received a masterful performance from senior Paul Zakrzewski who held the Hatters in check and carried the 3-1 lead into the last of the seventh inning. With one out, Connor Crookham walked to bring to the plate Chris Hens. Hens – who had been intentionally walked three times prior to this at bat – blasted a 2-0 pitch over the fence for a game tying two-run homerun.
“I told myself the whole day that I wasn’t going to let Hens beat us,” said Schaefer. “And then with the 2-0 count I go out and tell Paul to get a strike and we’ll go from there. Well he got a strike – and he flat out crushed the ball to tie the game. That’s my fault.”
After a scoreless eighth inning, CB South regained the lead with a three run ninth inning. Sophomore Matt Radwanski opened the inning with a homerun, and Brian Happ capped the inning with a two-run homerun. However, no lead is safe against Hatboro-Horsham.
In addition to the two run seventh inning to force extra innings with CB South, the Hatters scored four runs in their last at-bat to defeat West Chester Rustin (5-4) and scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to edge Downingtown West (8-7).
“We knew that they weren’t just going to go away,” said Schaefer. “And they didn’t.”
Tyler Zingle opened the ninth inning with a double and moved to third on an error. An intentional walk to Hens loaded the bases. A fielder’s choice scored one run and Schaefer replaced the gutsy Zakrzewski with Ricky Dennis. A sacrifice fly scored the second run - and with the tying run on base, right fielder Sasser made a diving catch of a hard hit ball to finally put the stake in the heart of the Hatters.
Central Bucks South will play for the district title on Thursday as the Titans trek to Chester County and the campus of Immaculata University to play [N-1] Council Rock South. Hatboro-Horsham will face Upper Dublin in a game to determine the # 3 and # 4 seeds from District One.
Central Bucks South Titans 003 000 003 -6 6 2
Hatboro-Horsham Hatters 100 000 202 -5 7 3
The Buck Doesn’t Stop Here
Central Bucks West [N-9] survived to play again as the Bucks edged [N-7] Methacton 9-8 in nine innings to end the Warrior season in a PIAA District One Quad-A Playback game played at Methacton. CB West will meet [S-12] Coatesville on Thursday at Villanova (Plymouth Meeting) with the fifth and final state playoff position on the line. The Red Raiders ended the season for [S-4] Downingtown West with a 14-7 slugfest victory.
“At this point, we just play the games and see what happens,” said Central Bucks West head coach Jim Ertel. “This game with Methacton was a little ridiculous at times, but we were able to come back from some mistakes and get a win.”
The winning pitcher was Marty Martens – no surprise there – but Martens was the fourth hurler for the Bucks and threw the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth to secure the win.
“We wanted Marty to be able to close out the game,” said Ertel. “He can still come back and throw a full seven innings if he can on Thursday. I really don’t know if he can – he pitched a lot on pure guts today.”
The game was on the roller coaster with CB West holding a 5-2 lead only to see the Warriors knot the score at 5-5 after seven innings. West regained the lead with a run in the eighth inning only to see Methacton reknot the score with a solo run in the bottom of the eighth inning.
“We had our chances to win the game,” said Ertel. “And when Eugene Alpin doubled home three runs in the top of the ninth inning, I thought we were good.”
However, Methacton rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to close to within a run. The Warriors would get no closer.
The CB West offense featured four hits by Alpin and a four hit day by Jake Poeske – both Alpin and Poeske collected three RBIs for the game. Mike Bamford – who threw a runner out at the plate – walked five times.
Central Bucks West Bucks 301 010 013 -9 12 2
Methacton Warriors 020 012 012 -8 11 1
Coatesville had a spectacular outing from catcher Jake Kennedy who blasted three homeruns and a double and collected seven RBIs to fuel the Red Raider offense in the 14-7 victory. Coatesville led 10-0 at one point and pounded out 15 hits, while the Whippets avoided a mercy-rule setback by scoring six runs in the bottom of the fifth. Brian Brown threw six innings and had nine strikeouts for the Red Raiders.
Coatesville Red Raiders 254 012 0 -14 15 0
Downingtown West Whippets 000 060 1 - 7 13 1
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