Upper Moreland gets revenge against Wissahickon
UPPER MORELAND >> What a difference a few weeks can make.
Earlier this season, Wissahickon’s Logan Willans dominated Upper Moreland, throwing six innings of shutout baseball and allowing just two hits in a Trojan victory.
Wednesday, the Bears got revenge. They tagged Willans for five runs in two-plus innings and cruised to an 8-0 Suburban One League American Conference win at Upper Moreland High School.
“I think we had a little better approach against Logan (Willans),” Upper Moreland coach Ken Irwin said. “He’s such a good pitcher that you expect him to throw strikes and he’s effectively good making it look like a strike and putting yourself in a hole where our guys took that pitch a little bit today, didn’t get themselves in a hole — we were ahead most of our counts today.”
The win keeps Upper Moreland just one game behind conference-leading Upper Dublin in the loss column and the teams will play each other two times next week.
The Bears scoring started right out of the gate. Randy Meehl got hit to lead off, stole second and advanced to third on Connor Casey’s bunt single. Casey took second without a throw, then Meehl scored on a wild pitch while Casey moved to third.
After a pair of Willans’ strikeouts, Paul Ciampoli walked to set up another first-and-third situation. Ciampoli got caught between first and second base and Casey sprinted home during the run down. The throw to the plate was off-target and Casey slid in safe.
Christian Leighton hit into another error, which allowed Ciampoli to score from second and give the Bears a 3-0 lead on just one hit before Willans could get out of the inning.
“It’s a good rivalry between us two teams,” Upper Moreland pitcher Joe Bates said. “We came out all fired up. We all feed off each other’s energy and it makes for a good game.”
“We give them three runs right off the bat,” Wissahickon coach John Bernhardt said. “We boot two balls, hit the lead off guy, you can’t win the game. Hats off to Upper Moreland, they did a really nice job. They had a really good scouting report on Logan. They hit the ball all over.”
Upper Moreland added two more runs in the second inning with a sacrifice fly by Casey and an RBI single from Nick DeLucas.
The scoring was finished until the fifth inning when the Bears added three more runs to make it an 8-0 game. Ryan Lowry had an RBI single, Tom Jacob hit a sacrifice fly and another run scored when a first-and-third steal resulted in a throw into center field.
All the while, Upper Moreland’s Bates was mowing down the Trojans offense. The right-hander threw seven scoreless innings with three strikeouts while allowing just two hits and two walks.
“I was just pitching to contact,” Bates said. “My teammates made great plays in the field, always backing me up and we got a good win.”
Most impressively, Bates shut down the top of Wissahickon’s lineup. Blake Rapoport, Alex Tappen and Matt Shilling — three of the best hitters in the league — went a combined 0-for-8 with one walk.
“We got their top three out,” Irwin said. “Those guys got three runs last time and we were able to get them out. Any good team, if you get their big guys out it gives you a lift and, the other team, it makes it a little tougher for them.”
The loss puts Wissahickon two games behind Upper Moreland in the loss column and three games behind Upper Dublin in the race for the SOL American title.
“A conference title would be great in the grand scheme of things,” Bernhardt said, “but right now, I just want to get a playoff spot in districts. That’s the goal. I told the guys we have to win. It’s all about winning baseball games. Today stinks, but we have to go back to square one. We have CB West Friday and PW Tuesday, so quick turnaround.”
Scheduling Note >> Upper Moreland’s game against Plymouth Whitemarsh Tuesday was suspended due to rain. The game will be completed Friday afternoon, picking up with the Bears leading 6-3 in the bottom of the fifth inning.
