Upper Moreland scores six in 6th, tops Norristown
WILLOW GROVE >> It has been a problem for the Norristown baseball team all season. When it plays a Suburban One League American Conference power, it plays great for all but one inning and that inning eventually costs it the game.
It happened in a one-run loss to Upper Dublin in the first week of the season and in a six-run defeat to Wissahickon last week.
Once again, it happened Tuesday afternoon against Upper Moreland. The Eagles surrendered six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning of a scoreless game and lost, 6-1, at Upper Moreland High School.
The Bears loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth inning by reaching on an error, earning a walk and laying down a sacrifice bunt that wasn’t thrown.
“In the sixth inning, we unraveled basically,” Norristown coach Rich Campbell said. “It was my call – I made a bad judgement. The ball that was bunted down the third base line, I told the pitcher to go to third. It appeared the runner on second got a late jump … but he closed the distance and basically got there and by that time we couldn’t get the guy at first … That kind of led to the wheels coming off.”
Norristown then pulled its starting pitcher, freshman Dom Proietto, and brought in Terell Dale.
Upper Moreland’s Christian Leighton and Brandon Kohn each had one RBI in the inning and other runs scored on a balk, poor decisions on fielder’s choices and an error.
“At that point it gets contagious,” Upper Moreland coach Ken Irwin said of taking advantage of his opponent’s mistakes. “For every team, it kind of snowballs and everybody starts having trouble. At that point we want to run, make them think and just see if we can scrap out one or two (runs) … You want to deflate them thinking they can have a chance.”
The Eagles got one back in the top of the seventh, but that’s all they could get for the entire game against Kohn. The right-hander allowed just one run and five hits over seven innings. He struck out seven batters and walked two.
“He’s very smooth,” Irwin said of Kohn. “It’s effortless. He throws hard. He’s not the biggest guy, but he gets a lot out of his body. He’s got good length with his arm … If you can throw a breaking ball for a strike at any level, you’re going to be successful.”
Proietto pitched well despite Norristown coming out on the wrong end. He gave up just one hit in five-plus innings of work. He struck out and walked three batters and allowed three runs.
“A one-hitter through five innings – he was dominant,” Campbell said of his pitcher. “His strike-to-ball ratio was 2-to-1 … I can’t ask anything more of him. He did everything I would expect. He’s done it all year and we just let him down.”
“Our league’s got pitching,” Irwin added. “There is no doubt about it. It’s just a matter of what pitchers don’t give it away or what defenses don’t give it away. Today we were lucky it wasn’t our defense.”
The victory keeps Upper Moreland right near the top of the SOL American standings with a 4-1 record. Norristown falls to 2-3 in the league.
