North Penn scores 7 in 3rd, rolls past Lansdale Catholic in 5 innings
UPPER GWYNEDD — Heading into the final week of the regular season, the North Penn baseball team’s offense seems to have found its groove.
The Knights wasted little time blowing open their non-league contest with Lansdale Catholic Friday night at Hostelley Field. North Penn batted around and scored seven runs in the top of the third inning — four coming on two-RBI triples by Zach Zeigler and Mike Christy — and rolled from there to an 11-0 five-inning win over the Crusaders.
“We’re swinging the bat real well right now.” Christy said. “We got rhythm. We’re just doing the same thing, keeping it simple every game, every at-bat. So, it’s just good that everything is clicking on all cylinders right now — defense, offense, everything. It’s just good to be staying hot.”
Christy finished 2-for-3 and scored twice, while Alex Peterson, Douglas Apple and Greg Kerr also collected 2 RBIs as the Knights earned their fourth-straight victory, the last two coming by 10-run mercy rule. North Penn has posted at least seven runs in each game of the win streak.
“We put together some good innings offensively,” Knights coach Kevin Manero said. “I think our quality at-bats have been better, we’re not chasing pitches out of the zone and we’re squaring the ball up to the middle part of the field better, which is what we want.
“But every game we play, there’s still things we need to keep working on. And our goal is to be playing our very best baseball at the very end of the season,whenever that may be. So, we’ll just try to keep getting better every day.”
North Penn (13-3, 10-2 Suburban One League Continental) did all their damage in the odd innings, starting with two runs in the first. After scoring seven in the third, the Knights put up their last two in the fifth before ending the game in the bottom of the frame with a 4-6-3 double play.
“That was cool. Anytime you can save legs, save arms, it’s a great advantage for your team,” Christy said.
Lansdale Catholic only registered two hits — a Kyle Diseroad double in the first and a Ryan Logan single in the fourth — and committed four errors, including two in the third.
“We made a couple of errors and you can’t make mistakes against a team like this,” LC assistant coach Jim Ottomano said. “I mean, they’re a good quality team, they put the ball consistently all the time. You know, if you make mistakes they make you play.”
Collin Healey earned the win with his two innings of relief. He gave up one hit and no walks. North Penn starting pitcher Paul Haynie allowed one hits, walked two and struck out one in working the first two innings.
