Perkiomen Valley breaks out in 9-2 win over Spring-Ford
ROYERSFORD – Perkiomen Valley’s bats were pretty quiet in the Vikings’ 3-2 win over Pope John Paul II Wednesday.
So that inspired an idea heading into PV’s Thursday showdown with defending PAC-10 champ Spring-Ford: be more aggressive at the plate.
Bingo. The Vikings cracked 17 hits at Ram Stadium, jumping on Spring-Ford early for a big cushion that held up in a 9-2 victory.
“Coming off the win over PJP, we kind of felt offensively we weren’t doing what we were supposed to do,” said PV leadoff man Sean Moriarity, one of six Vikings to record a multi-hit day against Spring-Ford. “I think we’re one of the best-hitting teams around the PAC, and today we showed what we can do.”
Indeed they did. PV scored four in the first inning and five in the third. The Vikings got flawless defense as well as strong pitching from starter DJ Jampo and freshman reliever Tyler Strechay (four innings). Mark Ott came on for a scoreless ninth.
Spring-Ford reliever Patrick McMahon pitched four scoreless innings but the damage had already been done against lefty Jake Zoller.
PV catcher Matt Szczesny went 4-for-4. Joe Gorla had three hits.
“We let a lot of counts go deep (against PJP),” Moriarity said. “Today we really came out swinging and hitting line drives.”
“Swinging at the right pitches was key for us today,” added Gorla. “Against PJP we didn’t swing at the right pitches. We were out in front. Today we stayed back, getting line drives.”
Moriarity led off the game with a single to right. Adam Gaines followed with a double. Nate Yoder made it three hits in succession and drove in the first run. It snowballed. Szczesny lifted a sacrifice fly, Trent Tyson singled, Zach Alcott was hit by a pitch, Gorla lashed a run-scoring single and Ryan McCourt followed with another RBI.
Jampo walked the first two batters he faced but got out of the first-inning jam with a grounder to third and two strikeouts. He fanned five in less than three innings of work. Strechay was solid, throwing strikes and inducing numerous ground-ball outs.
“A shout-out to him,” Moriarity said of the freshman pitcher. “Many wins to come for him.”
Zoller escaped a jam in the second, but the third inning was the game-ender. Gorla led off with a double, and then a big two-out outburst ensued. The top of the order again came through – Moriarity, Gaines, Yoder and Szczesny all getting basehits and scoring.
PV flirted with the 10-run rule but to Spring-Ford’s and McMahon’s credit the Vikings couldn’t end it after five innings.
Bruce Abrams scored Spring-Ford’s first run, in the second, having advanced to third on Sam Barletta’s textbook drag bunt, and scoring on Drew Skrocki’s groundball. Barletta scored the other Ram run in the sixth after notching his second single and crossing the plate on Sean McHugh’s groundout.
The Vikings are now 3-0 overall, 2-0 in the PAC-10, and this victory gave them a boost of confidence.
“We put it all together today,” Szczesny said. “Hopefully we can use this as a blueprint this season.”
