Klepchick strikes out 9, Central Bucks South stuns North Penn

TOWAMENCIN >> Throwing three different pitches for strikes, including an affective slider, Dan Klepchick went the distance and led his Central Bucks South team to an impressive 4-2 win over North Penn Thursday afternoon.

“Coming out against the state champs from last year,” Klepchick said, “this is pretty big.”

The Titans’ right-hander struck out nine, walked none, and allowed two runs off of six hits. He spoke with a raspy voice afterwards, a result of Wednesday night’s Flyers victory in a shootout. On Thursday he locked things down for the Titans, retiring the final six batters he faced.

“The sixth and seventh innings,” he said, “were when I started to feel it.”

With South ahead 3-2, North Penn’s Mason Nadeau led off the sixth with a single, but then Klepchick struck out the next two batters and got Grant Silhanek to fly out to left.

The Titans’ hard-throwing right hander retired the side in the seventh, striking out the final two batters in this Suburban One League Continental Conference opener.

“He’s probably one of the best pitchers in the league,” said Knights coach Kevin Manero, who guided NP to its second state title in three seasons last spring. “And I thought he got a lot better as the game went on.”

North Penn (3-2, 0-1 conference) had gotten off to a strong start in this one. The defending conference champs bunched together singles by Nate O’Donnell, Nadeau, Alex Peterson and Andrew Kirsch to take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first.

“We came out swinging the bats real well in the first inning,” Manero said. “We were aggressive, we squared up, we used our speed by putting the ball on the ground a little bit. I thought our approach in the first inning was outstanding.”

South cut it to 2-1 in the second on an RBI single by Andrew Dietz, but North Penn starter Matt Stevenson blanked the visitors in the next three innings.

“Stevenson came out firing strikes early on — low pitch counts,” Manero said.

The score remained 2-1 until the sixth, when a double to the gap in right center by Kyle Rossi scored Tyler Rossi to even things at two apiece, and then designated hitter Casey Sloms got one to fall in right center, scoring Kyle Rossi to put South ahead for the first time, 3-2.

A towering RBI double to left by Tyler Rossi plated another run in the seventh for the Titans, who — coming off a 6-8 finish in the Continental in 2015 — earned quite a momentum-building victory in a season they hope — ultimately — will carry them to states.

The defending AAAA champs are gaining steam in the early weeks of spring.

“I think we have a good team that’s gonna continue to get better,” Manero said. “We have a lot of first-year guys. Our pitchers are all first-year guys.

“They have good stuff, they’re strong, and as their command gets better and their pitch location gets a little bit better, we’re gonna take some big strides after the first couple weeks.”

North Penn is at Central Bucks East Wednesday and the Titans have a non-league battle at Lansdale Catholic Friday.