Bristol baseball wins third straight in romp at Morrisville

MORRISVILLE – Bristol senior Connor Dugan is one of the hottest hitters in the Bicentennial Athletic League, batting well over .500 for the season thus far. Connor went 2-for-5 with an RBI in Wednesday’s win over Morrisville.

But it wasn’t the designated hitter for the Warriors that keyed a 15-2 win over the Bulldogs May 4 at Williamson Park. That distinction belonged to freshman George Delgado and senior Ryder Rigby.

With Bristol leading Morrisville 3-0 in the top of the third inning, the sacks were jammed but there were two outs. That’s when Delgado slapped a 2-run single to right-centerfield that extended the Warriors’ edge to 5-0.

“Every hit helps; it doesn’t matter what the score is, in my opinion,” said Dugan. “You go up and you hit the ball, whatever happens, happens. You get runs and runs are always good.

“Everyone’s hits were spectacular. We hit the ball well today.”

In the sixth inning, Rigby slapped a 2-run single up the middle with two outs that put Bristol on top, 8-1. Rigby also slapped an RBI single in the seventh inning, a frame in which the Warriors tacked on seven more runs.

“Both Ryder and Georgie have been working extra hard on their hitting,” explained Bristol head coach Lou Persichetti III. “George’s hit was clutch because he’s a (number) nine hitter. Anything we get out of him is a plus and he came up and got that hit and got two runs in.

“Ryder came in and he hit the ball hard in all of his at-bats but that one hit up the middle got us two more runs and some breathing room.”

Defensively, Warriors senior lefthander Danny Padilla tossed a complete game no-hitter, striking out 10 batters. Morrisville scored a run in the fourth inning when shortstop Jordan Sesar led off with a walk, stole second and scored on a pair of wild pitches. The ‘Dawgs added another run in the seventh when Colt Bower walked and scored on a double-play ball that was dropped at first base.

With the bat, Padilla hit 2-for-4 with a walk and a pair of RBI. His sac-fly in the top pf the first with Devon Gonzalez waiting on third base plated the Bristol shortstop with the first run in the game. He slapped a pair of singles to left field, the second of which scored Delgado in the seventh and put the Warriors on top, 9-1.

“Danny’s always a threat at the plate,” added Persichetti. “He can hit the ball hard; he can hit the ball long. He can hit for power and he hits for average, too.

“Whenever he’s up with men on (base), we feel good.”

“Today, he did some damage early; he gave us the lead and he took care of everything on the mound.”

For his part, Dugan started out the season at catcher but a shoulder injury has relegated the 12th-grader to the designated hitter’s role. He doing well there, now batting in the cleanup position, after starting out in the number seven spot.

“If you look at the league leaders in the BAL, he’s up there in the top three the last I checked,” added Persichetti.

“It seems he has two or three hits every game.

“We can’t take him out of the lineup; he’s just hitting the ball too well.”

As a team, this was Bristol’s third straight win against a BAL opponent. For his part, Padilla has pitched the team to a pair of those victories, the previous coming in a 4-1 triumph over Valley Forge Military Academy. The senior lefty tossed another complete game and also struck out 10 Trojans in a battle that took place April 26 at home.

Morrisville, meanwhile, falls to 5-10 overall, 1-8 in league play. Junior righthander Colt Bower sustained the loss for the Bulldogs after giving up eight runs on just five hits. Nine walks drawn by the Warriors hurt the home team’s cause. Well, that and three errors in the seventh inning that helped the visitors pile on seven more runs in the final frame.

“We’ve been two teams all year – one that plays fundamental baseball and we’re in games and team two is we kick it around and don’t make any plays,” said Morrisville head coach Steve Cavan.

A young team, the Bulldogs have seven freshmen playing varsity, five of which are starters. Morrisville also ran into a pair of outs in the game, with a runner picked off second base to end a potential rally in the second inning and another caught in a rundown in the fifth.

“We’re still working on our baseball instincts,” explained Cavan.

Bristol, meanwhile, has managed to turn its fortunes around. After suffering an 8-7 loss to MaST Charter on April 22, the Warriors fell to 2-5 in the BAL, leaving their postseason hopes hanging by a thread. This win evens their BAL mark at 5-5.

“After we lost the MaST Charter game by one (run), I told the guys, ‘we gotta go one at a time to get into the playoffs’ and they bought in,” explained Persichetti. “Since then, we’ve been on a three game (win) streak.”

“Right now, we’re just focusing on playing Bristol baseball, which is the only way we know how to play,” added Dugan. “That means getting out of innings scot free and attacking the ball at the plate.”

The Warriors certainly adhered to that mantra against Morrisville.

NOTES: Freshman outfielder Chris Paci took a hit away from Bulldogs leadoff hitter Braedon Alward in the sixth when he fielded a ball slapped to right field by Alward on one hop and threw to first base before the centerfielder arrived at the bag.

Contact Steve Sherman at ssherman@21st-Centurymedia.com or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter

Bristol 15, Morrisville 2

(May 4 at Williamson Park)

BRISTOL               113 003 7 – 15 12 1

MORRISVILLE  000 100 1 – 2 0 5

WP — Danny Padilla 7IP, 2R, 0H, 5BB, 10SO, 0HB; LP — Colt Bower 5.2IP, 8R, 5H, 9BB, 2SO, 1HB.

DOUBLES: B — Padilla, Connor Dugan, Xavier Corbin.

RBIs: B — Padilla 2, Dugan, Ryder Rigby 3, George Delgado 2, Devon Gonzalez, Corbin, Frank Vickers, Matt Pirollo

MULTIPLE HITS: B — Rigby 2-for-3, Corbin 2-for-4, Dugan 2-for-5, Padilla 2-for-4

RECORDS: Bristol (5-6, 5-5 BAL); Morrisville (5-10, 1-8 BAL)

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