Plymouth Whitemarsh walks off against Cheltenham
WHITEMARSH >> Plymouth Whitemarsh scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat Cheltenham, 6-5, in Suburban One League American Conference play Monday afternoon at Colonial Field at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
The Colonials (2-2, 1-1) stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth trailing by one run. Kevin Reilly led off with a double and Brad Krenicky followed with a double of his own to tie the game and put the winning run on second base.
Ryan Kane entered as a pinch runner and Drew Kliesh came up to bat. He hit a line drive down the left field line and Kane beat the throw home to send the PW bench into celebration.
“I wasn’t really expecting a curveball,” Kliesh said of the walk-off hit. “But I just saw it and hit it. It was on the inner part of the plate and I got the hit.”
“We had these opportunities all day,” PW manager Chris Manero said. “We kept coming up small when we had a chance to knock runners in. It only takes a couple big base hits when you’re down by a run. I think we were looking for somebody to finally step up in that ninth inning and luckily three guys did.”
The Panthers (0-3, 0-1) took the lead in the top of the ninth on a Joel White RBI single. Kieran Versaw-Barnes reached base with a one-out base hit, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on White’s hit.
Both teams needed late heroics to send the game to extra innings.
PW took its first lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. Trailing 3-1, Gelfand reached on an error with one out. Kane pinch ran and stole second and scored when Dillon Famous hit a long fly ball that was dropped. Famous reached second on the error and got to third on a wild pitch. Stephen Longo walked and stole second in a first-and-third situation.
Leadoff hitter Luca Amoroso stepped to the plate and ripped a two-run single to left field to put the Colonials up, 4-3.
“We have guys that are really capable of hitting extra-base hits,” Manero said. “Then we have guys like Luca who just sort of puts the ball in play as a singles hitter. If we can mix those up correctly and minimize mistakes it’s a pretty good formula on most days.”
Cheltenham answered right back. Versaw-Barnes singled with one out in the top of the seventh and PW closer John Pecharo had some trouble finding the strike zone. He walked the next two batters and Lukas Nakkula hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game at four.
“Tough game,” Cheltenham manager Craig Stein said. “The kids battled. They got down a little bit at the end there but they didn’t give up. Came back and kept playing hard. That’s all I can ask for at this point.
“I just told them keep their heads up,” Stein said was the message going into the seventh. “Keep battling. That’s what they do. They don’t give up. I’m proud of that. That’s all you can ask for as a coach — that they’re not just going to lay down and die. They’re going to keep on fighting and hope things will happen.”
Pecharo ended up getting the win for PW. He allowed two runs in three innings. He walked two batters and gave up three hits while striking out four.
Famous started and struck out eight batters over four innings. He allowed two runs on five hits and three walks.
Brett Bottinger threw two innings of relief and gave up one run on one hit.
Alex Haasz took the loss for Cheltenham. He gave up two runs in 3.2 innings. He struck out one batter, walked one and surrendered five hits.
White started and went 5.1 innings for the Panthers. He gave up four runs on five hits. He struck out five and walked four.
The Colonials made some mistakes early in the game that Manero will want to correct. They had a base-runner picked off third with one out in the second inning and a pinch runner held at second on a blooper with two outs in the fourth. The blooper landed for a hit and the runner only got to third and didn’t end up scoring.
“I think we had runners in scoring position in the first three innings and didn’t score,” Manero said. “Made a base-running mistake at third. Our pitchers are still throwing too many pitches early in the game. We were giving away opportunities left and right. When (Cheltenham) took the lead I told our guys we’re not losing because they scored, we’re losing because we didn’t score in the first couple innings.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh 6, Cheltenham 5
Cheltenham 000 21 0 101 — 5
Plymouth Whitemarsh 000 103 002 — 6
WP: Johhn Pecharo
LP: Alez Haasz
2B: C: Joel White. PW: Drew Kliesh, Justin Gelfand, Kevin Reilly, Brad Krenicky.
TOP PHOTO: Cheltenham’s Jack McHugh reacts to being called out after being tagged Plymouth Whitemarsh’s Stephen Longo. (Gene Walsh/Digital First Media)
