Tulpehocken one-hits Columbia in 13-0 rout

BERNVILLE >> Tulpehocken may not be ready to contend for a Berks League Section 3 title just yet, but the young Trojans may be figuring some things out. One of those things is taking care of the teams you should beat.

Coming off a narrow loss to Berks 2 power Hamburg on Thursday, the host Trojans rebounded quickly and made short order of the Columbia Crimson Tide Saturday afternoon with a five-inning, 13-0 win in a non-league contest. With the victory, Tulpehocken improved to 7-4 overall. The Trojans remain tucked behind Brandywine Heights and Kutztown in the Berks 3 race with a 3-2 league mark, unmoved by Saturday’s non-league result.

Columbia remains winless on  the season, at 0-9.

“It was a good day for everybody to get a good workout in and get the bats going again,” veteran Tulpy head coach John Gilmer said. ”

When Tulpy’s pitching is on, the Trojans have been a tough out this spring. Saturday’s starter Maddie Schies no-hit Conrad Weiser back on April 6; against the Tide she threw four innings of no-hit ball before giving way to Kristen Quillman for the top of the fifth. Quillman got two outs and came within a final out of notching a combined, abbreviated no-hitter with Schies until a ground ball found its way through the right side infield hole to spoil it.

Schies struck out four and didn’t walk a batter in her four innings of work.

“Maddie’s been pitching every game and has been doing a superb job for us,’ Gilmer said. “And, we get these bats going, we could be a force to be reckoned with. … She’s been extremely strong. Our pitching is our strong suit. And our hitting is starting to come around the way we’d like to see it.

“Most of our girls only really play ball from March to May. So until we get them up and going, it takes a little until they buy into everything and understand the game the way we want it to be played.”

The Trojans iced the verdict with a 10-run third inning in which they sent 14 batters to the plate. Brooke Scheider clubbed a two-run triple late in the frame; Olivia Bachman delivered an RBI double earlier.

The entire at-bat was a bit of a mess for the Tide, who gave up those 10 runs on just five hits. Three errors, including two on one play, helped contribute to the proceedings. It ballooned a 3-0 advantage for the hosts to 13-0.

“We had some key hits, along with a couple of their mistakes,” Gilmer said. “When the game gets into that type of situation, we try  to make sure we play with good sportsmanship.”

Tulpy loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fourth with a chance to end the ballgame, but came up empty with a strikeout and pair of infield force outs.

Momentarily spelled from the mercy rule, that gave Columbia a final chance to avoid being no-hit — which they did when Kenzi Misel’s grounder in hole between first and second leaked through, with the Tide down to their final out.

 

Tulpehocken 13, Columbia 0 (5 inn.)

 

Columbia – 0  0  0   0  0 — 0  1  4

Tulpehocken – 2  1  10   0  x — 13  8  2

WP: Maddie Schies  LP: Tiffany Hoffmaster

2B: T, Olivia Bachman

3B; T, Brooke Scheider