Cheltenham gets first win in impressive performance over Norristown
CHELTENHAM >> For a team that entered Friday’s Suburban One League American Conference game with Norristown, Cheltenham did not have the look of a team searching for its first win of the season.
“The effort all year has been there,” Cheltenham coach Craig Stein said. “I haven’t been disappointed with their work ethic it just hasn’t translated on to the field.”
The Panthers wasted no time jumping on the Eagles early, scoring three runs in the bottom the first inning sending all nine hitters to the plate. The inning was highlighted by a RBI single from Joel White that was compounded by a Norristown error that put him on third base. White would later score on an error.
The runner that scored on White’s single was freshman pitcher Kieran Versaw-Barnes. The righty made his first start of the season Friday afternoon and dominated the Norristown lineup.
Versaw-Barnes finished the day with a complete game (five innings), allowing only two hits, one walk and struck out seven as he helped guide the Panthers to a 11-0 five-inning victory.
“He’s thrown a couple innings and he’s thrown well,” Stein said of Versaw-Barnes. “We had some rain outs and that pushed things back a little bit so this was the first chance to give him a good start and he definitely showed us what he’s capable of.”
Throughout Cheltenham’s slow start, it struggled with offensive consistency, but Friday the Panthers got production from top to bottom in the lineup. Cheltenham had three players register multiple hits and six players reach base safely multiple time excluding errors — including errors every player reached safely at least once.
“We definitely haven’t been hitting the way that I know we’re capable of hitting and we’ve struggled to get some things done,” Stein said.
While a playoff appearance is likely out of the question for the Panthers it will certainly have a busy schedule from now until the end of the season. Because of postponements due to weather Cheltenham will basically have four games a week until the end of the season.
The Panthers still have some very winnable games left on the schedule including matchups with Harry S Truman, Upper Merion and Springfield and a non-league matchup with Jenkintown. Cheltenham hopes getting off the snide with its first win will help it heading into the gauntlet that awaits in the back half of the schedule.
“It helps them relax,” Stein said of the offense producing on Friday. “That’s the key to hitting is to not go up there tight. I’m thinking today they know they can do it and they don’t feel like they have to do it that they can just be themselves swing the bat and it will work out.”
