Bifolco gives Pennridge walk-off win over Upper Moreland in 8

PERKASIE >> It was a fastball hugging the outer edge of the plate, and Chase Bifolco belted it far and away, to the gap in right center.

“Right away, I was thinking ‘I’m gonna try to get three on this,’” Pennridge’s No. 9 hitter said. “And as I was heading to second, I turned my head and the ball was still at the fence.

“Once I was at third, I couldn’t see the ball anymore. I didn’t take as big a run around third as I would have liked, but once they waved me on, I started haulin’ it.’”

Bifolco raced home to bring a climactic and sudden finish to Pennridge’s 3-2 victory over Upper Moreland on Friday, as the Rams won in eight innings — in walk-off fashion — for the second straight day.

“I said before the game, ‘it’s been a good week. Let’s have a great week,’” said Rams coach Tom Nuneviller, whose team went a perfect 3-0 this week to improve to 8-4. “We played Upper Moreland last year (a 6-4 win) and we saw a lot of these guys in summer baseball. We came out and battled today.”

The battle would be fought by many Rams, including Bifolco, whose heroics were a perfect way to cap things off. The Pennridge reserve came to the plate with two outs and no one on, and he delivered a towering triple to the spacious outfield at Second Street Park, scoring on a throwing error by the Golden Bears.

“We have a good team. Everybody’s scoring. We had a lot of our starters on the bench today and they were awesome supporters,” Bifolco said. Everybody’s doing something.

“Our guys on the bench are always keeping track of what our guys in the field are doing and are always on top of everything. Our guys in the field are getting things done, helping out our pitchers and putting the bat on the ball.”

Bifolco, who went 1-for-3 with a walk and a run scored, also played a solid game at shortstop. The Rams sent five different pitchers to the mound in the non-league contest, with Andrew Horne throwing two shutout innings to get the win.

“It’s not one guy that’s the hero every game,” Nuneviller said. “A lot of guys are contributing. We’ve had some really good team wins, and if you want to be successful, that’s what you have to have.”

Things started off well for Upper Moreland ( (8-2, 5-1 SOL American) when Nick DeLucas doubled to drive in a run then scored on a groundout, giving the Golden Bears a 2-0 lead in the fourth.

Also, freshman Dawson Ruggles cruised through the first three innings of his first varsity start.
“He’s been a little unhealthy this year but we expect big things from him,” coach Ken Irwin said.
Upper Moreland does want to eliminate the errors, three on Friday, with the most costly in the eighth. The Golden Bears also left eight runners stranded.

“We have to execute better,” Irwin said. “We’ve been winning, but taking advantage of other teams’ mistakes. When you play a good team that doesn’t give it away, it’s a little harder to score runs.”

In the fourth, Pennridge tied the game at two. Riley Hager led off the inning with a single, Brendan Knouse and Bifolco drew walks, and Jason Souder’s single to right — coupled with an error by the Golden Bears — scored two to even things up.

No one else would reach home until Bifolco stepped to the plate against Tom Jacob in the eighth. Pennridge’s 5-foot-5, 140-pound reserve shortstop came through in a big way.

“He’s a good kid. He’s playing behind Dan Long so he knew he wasn’t gonna get a lot of playing time,” Nuneviller said. “We thought of having him play J.V., but he had an opportunity to come up here, you practice with the varsity guys, you see varsity baseball, and you play behind a really good team leader.

“Chase got a chance to play today and we’re gonna remember this one, aren’t we? I’m gonna remember this one. He’s gonna remember this one…”

Pennridge is in action again Monday, hosting Southern Lehigh, and Upper Moreland heads to Plymouth Whitemarsh on Tuesday.