Souderton shifts momentum in fourth, tops Pennridge

PERKASIE >> It only took one inning to change Souderton’s fortunes.

The Indians, playing a conference game for the third straight day, were dragging a little bit going into the fourth inning against host Pennridge. Then, they rallied to tie the game in the top of the frame and starting pitcher Luke Taylor left the bases open to end the bottom half of the inning, switching momentum back to Souderton’s side.

From there, the Indians plated six runs in the fifth and carried them to a 9-3 win at Kulp Field on Thursday afternoon to continue their unbeaten start to SOL Continental play.

“After we came back, I told the guys now was the time to get them,” Souderton coach Mike Childs said. “They were up high, we battled back so let’s go get it. We played good defense, left the bases loaded and when we come up (Jacob) Horton comes through again with a double and right then you could see their balloon pop and we kept going on top of that.”

Taylor wasn’t at his strongest on Thursday but found a way to battle through a slow start and negate Pennridge’s (1-5, 0-4 SOL Continental) strong opening stanza. The Souderton (7-1, 5-0 SOL Continental) senior right-hander ensured he would at least take the mound with a lead after his RBI single in the top of the first drove in Conlan Wall, who had sent the first pitch of the afternoon off for a leadoff double.

But the Rams, who have struggled with slow starts this season, came back firing. After Taylor retired the first two Pennridge batters, the Rams tagged him for four straight two-out hits with Paul Croyle’s single tying the game and a two-run knock for Jack Goddess staking the host team to a 3-1 edge.

“It hasn’t been an easy season thus far but I liked the energy we had coming out and jumping on an undefeated team,” Rams coach Tom Nuneviller said. “We go down 1-0 but come back and score a couple runs and it would have been big if we could have gotten a hit or something with the bases loaded and one out (in the fourth) but we don’t get any runs there.”

Taylor, who pitched five innings, got a strikeout to end the first and didn’t allow another run in his five innings of work. The righty also managed 11 strikeouts, none bigger than his punchout to end the fourth with three Rams on base in a tie game.

While Taylor didn’t have his strongest stuff, Childs noted the senior was really good at hitting spots on Thursday.

“I had a pretty bad start, I was leaving pitches up in the zone so I really worked on that over the course of the game and brought the ball down,” Taylor said. “I was using more off-speed but the main thing was I left the ball up and they were hitting it so I had to adjust.”

There are a lot of seniors in Souderton’s lineup but No. 3 hitter Horton is just a sophomore. Childs noted it’s a tough spot to hit because he’s not going to see a lot of good pitches to hit but he likes the patience and composure Horton brings to the field.

That composure got tested to start off the fourth inning. Horton got hit by a pitch, but the home plate umpire ruled he didn’t do enough to get out of the way and called the third baseman back to the box. After calming himself down, Horton stepped back in and drew a ball on the next pitch, giving him a walk as a leadoff runner.

After moving up on a grounder, Horton then came home on Frank Pollock’s two-out single to cut the lead to a run before Pollock scored on an outfield error following a Dylan Kummery single.

“I just told myself to stay calm and just look for the ball I wanted,” Horton said. “It didn’t come so I was fine taking the walk.”

Pennridge starter Jon Nase, who pitched a strong outing for the Rams, limited the damage there and ended the top of the inning.

Taylor got into some trouble in the bottom half of the frame, with an error, a walk and a hit batsman loading the bases with one out. He got the next batter on a fly ball to center that was too shallow for any runners to tag up before getting a Rams hitter to chase for the inning-ending strikeout.

“We felt a lot of momentum after that, it was big not giving up any runs there,” Taylor said. “Horton follows that with a bases-loaded double, so it was a big momentum boost right there.”

Hogan DeSpain led off the fifth with a single, which Wall followed up with a last-second bunt up the third base line for a hit. Taylor came up and said he noticed the third baseman still playing back, so he also dropped down a bunt for a hit to load the bags.

It was a prime spot for Horton, who had been in a bit of a slump, to come through. The sophomore worked a 3-1 count and knew he was most likely going to get something to hit or a chance to walk in a run.

He got the former and made the most of it, ripping a shot to left-center that cleared the bases for a 6-3 Indians lead.

“I was looking for the one pitch and got it, I kept my regular swing and took it out to left center,” Horton said. “I’ve had a lot of struggles lately, but I just had to keep calm and I’ve worked on my swing a lot the last couple weeks to groove it in and it’s finally paying off.

“I thought it was going a little further actually, but it felt really good.”

The Indians tacked on three more runs that inning before Taylor closed down the Rams in the fifth and Horton threw scoreless sixth and seventh innings. With the win, the Indians head into a weekend off with a lot of good things going their way.

Pennridge is back in action Friday when it hosts Abington at 3:30 p.m. The Rams have experienced some hard-luck so far, but they seem close to a breakout.

“We’ve been close in a number of our games,” Nuneviller said. “We need one more big hit, something to maybe give us a little more confidence and get things rolling a little bit here.”

SOUDERTON 9, PENNRIDGE 3
SOUDERTON 100 260 0 – 9 12 1
PENNRIDGE 300 000 0 – 3 8 2
WP: Luke Taylor. LP: Alex Podraza. 2B: S – Jacob Horton, Conlan Wall; P – Ray Knight.