Five-run 7th lifts Upper Dublin to key SOL American win over Upper Moreland

UPPER DUBLIN >> JT Breslin struck out to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning and Upper Dublin trailed by four runs. Twenty minutes, nine batters and a pitching change later, Breslin was surrounded by his teammates after hitting a walk-off single.

The Cardinals scored five runs in their final at bat to top Upper Moreland, 6-5, in a key Suburban One League American Conference game Monday at Upper Dublin High School.

“Last inning we just didn’t want to lose,” Breslin said. “All the guys on our team are fighters. No one wanted to lose that game and we just came out swinging the bats.”

Upper Dublin strung together five straight hits after Breslin’s strikeout in the seventh. Thomas Juelke doubled and scored when Jason O’Gara followed with a double of his own. Max Weinberg singled to knock out Upper Moreland starter Joe Bates and Jason Greene welcomed the new pitcher with an RBI single. Justin Horn singled to load the bases and Matt Hebling grounded into a fielder’s choice to score a run and cut the deficit to one, 5-4, with two outs.

Cole Swiger was intentionally walked with the tying run on third, winning run on second and two outs. Conor McFadden followed with a walk of his own, forcing home the tying run and bringing Breslin back to the plate.

Breslin ripped a line drive up the middle to end the game and sent the Upper Dublin bench into a frenzy.

“It got back around to me and I got my pitch,” Breslin said. “I sat back on it and hit it well.”

“In the end we kept fighting,” Upper Dublin coach Ed Wall said. “Our bats came alive and we had some huge hits out of almost the entire order there to bring the comeback on.”

The win keeps Upper Dublin in the driver’s seat for the SOL American title. It entered the game with a perfect 8-0 mark in league play, but only a half game ahead of Upper Moreland who entered at 8-1.

“It’s a nice, huge, enormous win for us and our program,” Wall said. “It speaks well to the mental toughness we have here, being so down for so long throughout the game and still being able to come back to get this win.

“We’re not done. The next game is the most important. We want to come ready to play Upper Merion (Tuesday).”

The teams will face against next Monday at Upper Moreland, but the Bears will need another team to knock off Upper Dublin.

“We have to take care of our own games now,” Upper Moreland coach Ken Irwin said about scoreboard watching. “If we lose again, we’re in trouble. We’ve got to win first.”

The Bears jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first and made it 5-0 in the fourth.

Jon Searles grounded into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the first to score one run and a wild throw to try to turn a double play brought home the second.

In the fourth, Brandon Kohn was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score a run and, two batters later, Connor Casey hit a bases loaded single to bring home two more runs.

Upper Dublin’s first run didn’t come until the sixth inning, when Swiger doubled home Thomas Reilly.

Both starting pitchers went deep into the game and neither was the pitcher of record.

Upper Moreland’s Bates went 6 1/3 innings, striking out eight batters and walking two. He gave up four runs.

Upper Dublin’s Swiger allowed five runs on five hits in five innings. He hit two batters, walked three and struck out two.

Jason Greene earned the win for the Cardinals, throwing two shutout innings. He gave up one hit and struck out a pair.

Tom Jacob was charged with the loss for the Bears. He allowed two runs in 1/3 innings.

Irwin said normally losing a game after leading by four runs in the seventh inning could snowball into another loss, but the schedule helps the Bears out.

“The great thing is Senior Night (against Cheltenham). That helps. A night game, I think our guys are looking forward to it. We have a great senior class, so I don’t foresee our seniors allowing it to happen.”