The Suburban One American/Continental squad advanced to Sunday’s Carpenter Cup semifinal at Citizens Bank Park while the SOL National/Bicentennial squad suffered a heartbreaking loss in Thursday’s quarterfinal game. To view photos of the SOL National/Bicentennial contest, please visit the Photo Gallery.
By Scott Huff
Philadelphia – Suburban One American/Continental is laughing all the way to the bank – Citizens Bank Park - as the SOL A/C captured a well played 2-1 victory over Tri Cape (New Jersey) in the quarterfinal round of the 27th Annual Carpenter Cup at FDR Park on Richie Ashburn Field.
The victory will propel the SOL A/C to a semifinal game against Chester County in a 9:30 am start on Father’s Day (Sunday) at Citizens Bank Park – home of the Philadelphia Phillies. Chester County won a thrilling 9-8 victory over the SOL National/Bicentennial League team in the quarterfinal game prior to the SOL A/C – Tri Cape contest.
“I kept telling the players to remember to go out and have some fun,” said SOL A/C coach Ernie Rehr (Upper Moreland). “And at the end of the game there were a lot of smiles to go around.
“Our goal all along was to win the first two games and get a chance to play at Citizens Bank Park,” added Rehr as the SOL A/C opened the tournament with a win over Delaware North. “Now that we have reached that goal, we might as well elevate the goal and win the whole thing.”
The SOL A/C played a clean game that used a meager offense, wonderful pitching, and excellent defense to move on to the Bank.
“I am extremely impressed with the quality of our pitching staff,” said Rehr. “I have a great deal of confidence in every single pitcher on our staff, and the depth that we have is amazing.
“I was able to throw them only for an inning or two,” added Rehr. “And by doing that, the hitters only got a chance to see the pitchers pitch against them once during the game.”
The SOL A/C opened the game with Marty Martens (Central Bucks West) - who permitted the only run of the game – was the winning pitcher throwing the first two innings with four strikeouts. Ricky Dennis (Central Bucks South) followed with two scoreless innings, while Blair Killough (Central Bucks East) tossed a scoreless fifth and sixth innings. Casey O’Donnell (Hatboro-Horsham) fired a scoreless seventh inning, while Bryce Mengel (North Penn) collected the save with a scoreless eighth and ninth innings.
“Bryce is the epitome of the entire pitching staff,” said Rehr. “He comes into the game – throws strikes – and pitches with confidence. I have to give our entire pitching staff a ton of credit for getting us wins in the tournament.”
The SOL A/C also backed up the fine pitching with equally fine defense.
“Luke Felix (Upper Dublin) made some dynamite plays at shortstop that saved us runs,” said Rehr. “And our entire outfield did a great job of tracking down fly balls. We gave a lot of support to the pitchers by playing good defense.”
The SOL A/C offense could only muster a pair of runs – but the pitching staff and defensive effort made those runs stand as winning runs.
The first run of the game was scored in the first inning when Zach Prendergast (Hatboro-Horsham) singled home Ryan Clow (Central Bucks East). Clow had opened the game with a base on balls.
The second run of the game was scored in the fourth inning when Grant Opalisky delivered an RBI single. Jon Mullins (Central Bucks South) had opened the inning with a walk. Mullins was pinch run for by Ben Hauser (Central Bucks East) – Hauser stole second base – and scored on the Opalisky base hit.
“If anyone wanted to bet me that the final score of this game would be 2-1, I wouldn’t have taken that bet,” said Rehr. “But we’ll take it.”
Tri-Cape 100 000 000 -1 9 2
SOL American/Continental 100 100 00x -2 6 0
SOL/Bicentennial League Suffers Excruciating Loss
Philadelphia – The Suburban One League National Conference/Bicentennial Athletic League led 8-1 going into the bottom of the fifth inning, but painfully watched the lead slip away as Chester County scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth to pilfer a 9-8 victory. The game was played Thursday morning at Richie Ashburn Field in FDR Park and denied the SOL/Bicentennial a chance to compete at Citizens Bank Park.
“Who wouldn’t want a chance to play across the street,” said SOL/BAL assistant coach Rick Lee (Bensalem). “We got the big lead, but we also had a chance to add on and score some more runs. As it turned out, we needed them.”
“This was a great group of kids, and I was really pulling for them to get the win,” said assistant coach Dave Torresani who has coached this squad for the last six years. “We put together a good team, and they really came together as a group.”
Things began well for the SOL/BAL with Paul Gosselin (Pennsbury) on the mound. Gosselin fired three effective innings – permitted just a single run – and registered three strikeouts.
And with the score 8-1 at this departure, it looked like the lanky Falcon would emerge as the winning pitcher.
“At that point I really thought we would be going to the Park,” said Gosselin. “Once you come out of the game, you simply cheer on the rest of your team mates, and support them the best you can.
“I played on this team last year as a sophomore,” added Gosselin. “And I really looked forward to playing again this year. I hope to be back next year.”
The SOL/BAL took the lead in the second inning. Cole Creighton (Neshaminy) doubled and scored on an RBI single off the bat of Harry Daut (Bensalem).
The SOL/BAL expanded the lead to 7-1 with a six run fourth inning. David Blount (Truman), Max German (Council Rock North), Creighton, and Zach Hizer (Bensalem) all scored runs for the SOL.
The final SOL/BAL run came in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Kevin Testa (Council Rock North).
Chester County scored the game-winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning on a wild pitch.
The game was the second game played in the tournament without the services of six Council Rock South players. That flock of Golden Hawks has a PIAA Quad-A championship game to play on Friday at Penn State University.
“Any time you lose a game, it is tough,” said Torresani. “This loss was tougher than most.”
SOL/BAL 010 610 000 - 8 14 5
Chester County 010 040 004 - 9 13 2
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