Kacergis carries Pennridge past Boyertown, into District 1-AAAA final
EAST WHITELAND >> Boyertown head coach Todd Moyer referred to him as “their guy.”
There’s no question Ian Kacergis has been at the forefront of Pennridge’s pitching staff this spring. And he reprised that role Tuesday when the Rams faced the Bears at Great Valley, a berth in the District 1 Class AAAA championship game at stake.
Kacergis threw four-hit ball at Boyertown, and his Pennridge mates provided enough offense for a 3-0 victory. With that, the 17th-seeded Rams will play for the 1-AAAA title Thursday against sixth-seeded Council Rock North, a 2-1 winner over Downingtown West in the other semifinal pairing.
“He’s pitched well down the stretch,” Pennridge head coach Tom Nuneviller said of his junior ace. “We had a game with Quakertown when one of our other guys was struggling, he came in and pitched 7-2/3 innings of no-hit relief. He also pitched a nice (second-round) game against Interboro.”
Boyertown, in the meantime, will be at Downingtown West Thursday playing in the district’s third-place game. The fifth-seeded Bears and second-seeded Whippets have, like Pennridge and C.R. North, already clinched four of District 1’s five state-playoff berths by virtue of quarterfinal-round wins last week.
But on this day, Moyer was more concerned about how his players performed in their championship-game qualifier.
“We could have won the game,” he said. “But they (Pennridge) were solid and didn’t make any mistakes.
“We weren’t very disciplined. We had chances to score, and we let them off the hook.”
Three third-inning runs proved enough to secure the win for Pennridge … that, and Kacergis’ complete-game mound mastery.
Kacergis yielded just one walk alongside the four hits, with six strikeouts to his credit. He closed down Boyertown over its last two at-bats, with three of his whiffs in that span.
“He pitched well, changing his speeds and throwing strikes,” Nuneviller said.
Boyertown got solid pitching efforts from three hurlers.
Starter Grant Fronheiser was touched for all Pennridge’s hits and runs, and two walks, through 4-1/3 innings’ work. He was replaced by Andrew Bauer, who went 1-2/3 innings before Nate Kline finished off the seventh.
Bauer and Kline each provided no-hit relief with one strikeout apiece.
“Our guys did a good job, too,” Moyer said.
Tyler Kreitz, Cory Melchior, Seth Endy and Michael Raineri contributed hits for Boyertown, which left seven runners stranded on base to Pennridge’s six.
“We should have scored the second inning,” Moyer said. “But we weren’t committed and disciplined at the plate.”
To be sure, the overachieving Rams figured they would get a challenge from Boyertown.
“We had to be heads up on things,” Nuneviller said. “When you play Boyertown, you have to be tough. We were able to capitalize on a couple things.”
Even with Kacergis unavailable for mound duty, Nuneviller feels good about the degree of pitching he has available against Rock North.
“We have Andrew Mahew and Danny Long, who’s our closer,” he said. “Not having to use him (Long) today gives him another day or two’s rest.”
NOTES >> Boyertown catcher Ryan Weller required medical attention after passing out during the game. … Moyer’s response about playing for third place: “Unfortunately.”
