The Pennridge and North Penn baseball teams both advanced to the quarterfinals of the PIAA Class AAAA Tournament with wins on Tuesday. To view photos of the Pennridge/La Salle game, please visit the Photo Gallery.
By Scott Huff
Philadelphia – The Philadelphia 76ers had a player back in a day – Allen Iverson – that refused to allow his team to lose against seemingly superior competition. He was known as ‘The Answer.’
The Pennridge Rams had their baseball version of The Answer in the sixth inning of its somewhat surprising 11-4 victory over District 12 champion La Salle. The PIAA Quad-A opening round state baseball playoff was played on a gorgeous early afternoon at Richie Ashburn Field in FDR Park. Pennridge saw a seemingly safe 7-0 lead morph into a 7-4 nail biter after five innings when the Explorers rallied back for four runs to make it a game.
But the Rams had The Answer.
Pennridge rebounded in its next at bat to score four runs of its own in the top of the sixth inning to re-break the game open at 11-4. The Rams finished the game with 19 – yes, 19 hits – all singles – yes, all singles – against the defending PIAA Quad-A state champions.
“To be able to answer what they did in the previous inning was huge,” said Pennridge head coach Tom Nuneviller. “La Salle was starting to feel real good about its chances again, and we were starting to have some doubt. Any time you have to travel to the city for a game – against the defending state champions – you have to have concerns. But it was tremendous the way that we responded to them coming back.”
Pennridge senior catcher Mike Kacergis – one of four Rams to collect three hits in the game – led off the decisive sixth inning with a walk. AJ Molettiere laid down a great sacrifice bunt, and a throwing error gave the Green and White second and third with no outs. Senior first baseman Jake Gordon followed with a clutch RBI single, and freshman DH Danny Long knocked home a second run with a fielder’s choice ground out. Senior Ben Morina sliced an RBI single to plate Long and moved to second on a throw to the plate. The Rams would score their final run of the game moments later on a ringing single by sophomore Danny Shane.
“We took some extra batting practice the last couple of days, and I guess it showed,” said the charismatic Kacergis who was terrific both behind the plate defensively blocking pitches and calling a great game and in the batter’s box offensively. “We didn’t know quite what to expect today – but getting that many hits against them was unexpected.
“All I know is that we have the type of team that is willing to compete against anyone – anywhere,” added Kacergis as the Rams will travel to Parkland High School on Thursday at 4 pm to face District 2 champion Wyoming Valley West. “We are playing with confidence.”
That confidence was on display from the first inning to the last inning both in the batter’s box, on the field defensively, and on the mound.
First, the confidence in the batter’s box…
Pennridge scored two runs in the top of the first inning when – with two outs – David Tatoian singled. Tatoian moved to second on a single by Kacergis – and both moved up to second and third on a wild pitch. Molettierre showed a burst of speed and beat out an infield hit by a whisker with Tatoian and the hustling Kacergis both scoring on the infield hit.
The Rams added two more runs in the third inning to stretch the lead to 4-0. Junior Brad Misialek singled to open the frame and moved to second on a bunt single by Tatoian. The bases became loade
d when Kacergis again laid down a super bunt for a single. Molettiere singled home Misialek and Tatoian scored on a long sacrifice fly off the bat of junior Tyler Scholutes.
“You don’t always bunt your number three and four hitters, but this is an unselfish team,” said Nuneviller. “We knew that they had a good pitcher, and we wanted to be in a position to score as many runs as we could early in the game.”
Pennridge would stretch its lead to 7-0 with a three run fourth inning. With one out, Shane singled and moved to second on a single by Misialek. Both runners moved up and Tatoian loaded the bases on a single. Kacergis singled home Shane – Molettiere drove in a run with a ground out – and Gordon singled home the final run of the inning.
And then the Rams had the answer inning in the sixth with four runs.
Second, the confidence in the field …
Pennridge did make some errors – all four of La Salle’s runs in the fifth inning were unearned – but the Rams also made some Spalding Guide plays. The author of two of those plays was center fielder Shane who made a wonderful throw from the outfield to nail an Explorer runner at the plate in the first inning. And it was Shane that made a spectacular diving catch in center field in the third inning to short circuit an Explorer comeback.
“Danny has made great throws and great catches all season for us,” said Nuneviller. “Sometimes I don’t know how he does it – all I know is that he does it.”
Third, the confidence on the mound…
Pennridge senior starter Evan Myers has been the workhorse of the staff all season, and with the exception of the fourth inning when his defense betrayed him, threw another gutsy performance. And when Myers tired in the fifth inning with two outs, diminutive junior Eric Wesolowski came on in relief and did not allow a run to the potent Explorer offense over the last two and one third innings.
“Evan has always been our ‘go-to’ guy and was very good for us again today,” said Nuneviller. “And you have to tip your hat to the job that Eric did for us to close out the game. We get to play again on Thursday, and both (pitchers) Trevor (Dalton) and David (Tatoian) will be more than ready to go. It is a good set up for us.
“Last year we were 4-10 and managed to do the little things wrong that you need to do to win games,” said Nuneviller. “We have done a lot of little things right this year.”
Right now, the Rams indeed have The Answer.
Extra Bases– In addition to Kacergis – Shane, Misialek, and Tatoian each had three hits. Molettiere – who had four RBI – had two hits along with Gordon and Morina. Although the DH combination of Schoultes and the right-handed hitting Long was hitless, both drove home key runs.
Pennridge Rams 202 304 0 - 11 19 4
La Salle Explorers 000 040 0 - 4 7 1
WP - Evan Myers
Save – Eric Weslowski
LP – Dominic Cuoci
[1-4] NORTH PENN 1, [11-1] PARKLAND 0
Brian Maher tossed a 60-pitch shutout in the Knights’ 5-0 win over previously undefeated Strath Haven in the district semifinals, and if it seemed as though he might be hard pressed to top that masterpiece, guess again.
In Tuesday’s opening round state tournament game against District 11 champion Parkland, Maher threw a three-hit shutout that might have even trumped his showing against Strath Haven.
“Against Strath Haven, he threw 60 pitches, and I thought that was one of the best games I’ve ever seen,” coach Kevin Manero said. “Today he threw 68 pitches in a game of I guess arguably higher stakes because we’re at the next level now.
“He was awesome. He pounded the zone. He used both sides of the plate. He was ahead of pretty much everybody, and the big magic number – no walks. He made them swing. They do have a few good hitters in their lineup, but if you make everybody swing, it’s going to take a heck of a lot of good swings to score a run. He went out there and got after everybody. He was just phenomenal.”
Maher allowed just three hits – all three were singles, and the senior hurler has emerged as the Knights’ undisputed ace.
“Last year he was buried behind some big-time pitchers, so his opportunity for innings just really wasn’t there,” Manero said. “He didn’t really didn’t get a chance to get a lot of work.
“He had some good stuff going for him, but he also had some mechanical things. He would land on his heel a lot, and he wouldn’t use his lower half a lot, and when he would do that, he wouldn’t get a lot of velocity. He’s still not a power pitcher – he’s a contact pitcher, but he worked on a couple of things mechanically, and he corrected some very noticeable flaws.
“On top of that, he came into this season really looking very sharp. The way he’s throwing right now is the exact same way he was throwing in our scrimmages in the beginning of the year. He had a couple of games at the beginning of the season where he really wasn’t finishing his pitches. He was leaving a lot of stuff up, and he was getting hit around. I also think he was lacking a little focus at the beginning of the year. He took it upon himself to fix that, and he approached things a lot differently after that point. He has just gone out there and throws strikes.”
North Penn scored the game’s only run in the top of the third inning. Freshman Mason Nadeau led off the inning with a double.
“He had a two-strike count,” Manero said. “The pitcher threw a fastball that he wanted to get up and in, and I guess he didn’t get it high enough. It was still high, and Nadeau just tomahawked it and knocked it into right center field for a double.”
Nadeau, who had two of North Penn’s three hits, moved up to third on Brady West’s groundout to the right side for the inning’s second out. Brad Bertucci followed with a clutch two-out single to left, and the Knights had the only run Maher would need.
“It was a big win,” Manero said. “Every win at this point is big.
“Every team is good, but when we played Parkland earlier this year, we were winning 1-0 in the fifth inning. It was a very similar game, so we knew this was a team we could match up with, but we also knew they were very good and we couldn’t afford to give them base runners or make mistakes. That’s what got us in trouble the last time we played them. We know the road ahead is very tough. Every game is going to get tougher and tougher because every team that survives deeper in states is good. There’s no way around that.
“I felt as though when we lost a couple of games at the end of the district tournament that we lost a little of our momentum. One win makes all that ancient history. Obviously, there’s no choice to win right now. To get that ‘W’ at the beginning of the state tournament and move into the next round is just great. Now we’ll go back to work, put a game plan together and hopefully get another one.”
The Knights will face District One champion Coatesville in a quarterfinal game on Thursday at Spring-Ford High School at noon.
North Penn 001 000 0 1-3-0
Parkland 000 000 0 0-3-0
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