The Hatters won their SOL American Conference opener by a score of 5-3 on Monday at Hatboro-Horsham. Sophomore first baseman Anthony Bruno led the Hatters going 1-3 with 3 RBI.

Springfield struck first scoring two runs in the top of the second inning. Springfield started the inning by reaching on a walk and a hit by pitch. After a Hatters error on a Spartan bunt, one run was in and the Spartans had first and 3rd with nobody out. Springfield’s catcher, Murphy, hit a fly ball to centerfield that turned into two outs when Hatters senior CF Jake Mayson threw out McCaffery out at the plate. McCann followed with a single to score Welsh and give the Spartans a 2-0 lead.

The Hatters answered back with a big inning in the bottom of the second inning. Sophomore SS Jake Bianchini led off the inning with a walk and after a strikeout, he moved up to second on a walk to senior RF Shane Carpenter. A line drive single by Mayson loaded the bases with one out for junior DH Drew Margerum. Margerum hit an RBI groundout to second to score Bianchini. That brought up Bruno who laced a two out two strike single into centerfield to score Carpenter and Mayson. Bruno’s single gave the Hatters a 3-2 lead.

Senior RHP Alex Crim put up a couple more zeros in the 3rd and 4th innings before allowing another unearned run in the 5th inning. After getting two outs on the first two pitches of the 5th inning, Springfield scored an unearned run on a walk and two errors. Crim went 5 innings and allowed 3 runs, all unearned, on 1 hit and 3 walks while striking out 4. Crim was relieved by sophomore Eric Thron in the 6th inning.

After a 1-2-3 inning by Thron in the top of the 6th, the Hatters used some great situational hitting to regain the lead. Mayson led off the bottom half of the inning with a walk. Drew Margerum was up next and reached when he was hit by a pitch. That brought Bruno back up in another key spot. After Mayson and Margerum moved up a base on a passed ball Bruno gave the Hatters the lead with a sac fly that scored Mayson and advanced Margerum to third base. Sophomore LF Benny Wilson followed with an RBI groundout that scored Margerum and gave the Hatters the 5-3 lead.

Thron would make that stand putting up another zero on the scoreboard in the top of the 7th inning to earn his first career win and to lift the Hatters to 1-2 overall and 1-0 in the SOL American. The Hatters will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Quakertown Memorial Stadium to take on the Panthers.

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