Perk Valley wins a wild one over Wissahickon, advances to District 1-AAAA quarters

PERKIOMEN >> You won’t find a more back-and-forth, up-and-down high school baseball game than the second-round District 1 Class AAAA playoff meeting between Wissahickon and Perk Valley Wednesday afternoon.

When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, it was the No. 4 seeded Vikings who came out on top, 6-5, over the No. 13 seeded Trojans at Perkiomen Valley High School.

This one wasn’t decided until there were two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Perk Valley stepped to the plate after allowing two runs in the top of the frame to fall behind, 5-3.

“We’ve got a really dedicated group of seniors here,” PV coach Ryan Hinkle said. “As I brought them back in (in the middle of the seventh), I don’t really talk to them too often between innings, but I felt the urge to. I told them, ‘don’t make this be your last inning here at PV. We’ve come back before. All we have to do is put three runs on the board and this is our baseball game.’ And they delivered.”

“We were able to come back in the dugout after that inning and kind of regain our momentum,” catcher Matt Szczesny said. “We got our energy back up and thankfully we took the lead and won the game.”

After a lead off pop out, Zach Alcott singled and Ryan McCourt worked a walk to set the table and get the tying run on base. Mark Ott ripped an RBI single to score Alcott, send McCourt to third and bring up the top of PV’s lineup.

Sean Moriarity doubled to tie the game and put Ott, the winning run, just 90 feet away at third base.

A fly ball to center was the second out and Nate Yoder was intentionally walked to load the bases.

Enter Szczesny. He hit a dribbler to third base, Moriarity beat the third baseman to the bag, Ott scored and the Vikings bench raced onto the field to celebrate.

“I just tried to put the ball in play,” Szczesny, who fell behind 0-2 in the final at-bat, said. “Thank God Sean (Moriarity) was hustling his butt off for us, trying to keep the season alive. I didn’t really do much. It was all Sean — credit goes to him.”

What turned out to be a tough break for Wissahickon was Suburban One League American Conference first-team shortstop Matt Shilling suffering two calf injuries. He gutted through it, getting a hit in the top of the seventh inning and taking the field for warmups in the bottom, but coach John Bernhardt took him out of the game.

“It’s tough,” the coach said. “It’s one of those things where we looked at it and I didn’t want him to get hurt. He’s got a bright future. I didn’t want him getting hurt. I don’t need him out there blowing a calf out or blowing a hamstring.”

Alcott’s single in the seventh was a slow dribbler to shortstop that Alex Tappen made a great attempt on and just missed getting the out at first. Szczesny’s game-winning hit to third went to a reserve player instead of Tappen, who was first-team all SOL American on the hot corner.

Tappen was a big part in the Trojans taking a two-run lead in the top of the final inning. He led off and drilled a solo home run over the left field fence to put his side on top.

“Tappen’s just a beast,” Bernhardt said. “He comes up in that big stop. They haven’t thrown to him all game. He’s 0-for-0 with two walks and a hit-by-pitch and then unloads on a bomb.”

Shilling followed with a single, where he fought through the calf injury for 88 feet before falling, reaching for the bag and getting pinch run for.

A few batters later, Andrew Seitz stepped in as a pinch hitter and delivered an RBI single to give the Trojans an insurance run and make the score 5-3.

Perk Valley got the scoring started in the second inning. Alcott hit a two-out double and scored when McCourt followed with a double of his own. Ott made it three straight hits for the 7-8-9 batters with a single to score McCourt and put the Vikings up 2-0.

They made it 3-0 in the top of the third when Yoder worked a leadoff walk, stole second and scored on a Szczesny single.

Wissahickon tied the game in the fifth. Blake Rapoport hit a one-out double and Tappen and Shilling both got hit by pitched to load the bases.

Mike Schoenleber hit an RBI groundout to cut the deficit to two and Jeremy Spittle was hit by a pitch to load the bases again.

Connor Freeston hit a two-out single up the middle, scoring Tappen and Shilling, to tie the game at three.

Perk Valley’s win sets up a Pioneer Athletic Conference title game rematch, where it lost to Boyertown, 5-1. The teams played twice during the regular season and split the matchups. PV will host Boyertown, the No. 5 seed in District 1, Friday in the quarterfinals.

“To say they are our rival is a little bit of an understatement right now,” Hinkle said. “Revenge is the number one thing on our mind. We want to get back for what happened in that PAC-10 title game. We want to show them that’s not the team we are.”

The loss brings Wissahickon’s season to an end. In 2016 the Trojans finished third in the SOL American Conference and the seniors won a playoff game for the first time in their high school careers.

“Unbelievable season,” Bernhardt said. “This is one of the most fun groups I’ve had coaching. They were great. It was hysterical. There was never a dull moment with these guys. It was awesome.”