Council Rock North baseball nips CR South in extras
NEWTOWN – Over 10 innings and two-and-a-half hours’ time, 75 batters came to the plate for both teams combined. In the end, in a May 10 matchup it was a shame either team had to lose, Council Rock North nipped CR South, 2-1, for its 16th win of the season.
With the sides deadlocked at one run apiece, Indians sophomore outfielder Matt Shenot slapped a fly ball to left field, bringing home Cavan Tully with the winning run. Senior righthander C.J. Kilgariff, a recent transfer from South, registered the win on the hill for Rock North after pitching the last three innings in scoreless fashion.
The Indians’ efforts in recording their 10th Suburban One National League (SONL) win of the season soured a superb effort by Golden Hawks’ junior lefthander Zach Mayer, who limited the Indians to a lone run on two hits in nine innings of work.
“It’s horrible,” said Mayer. “It’s not just me; it’s also the rest of the team. We all feel like we really should have won this game.
“For it to come down to the wire against a rival like North – it’s unreal.
“It’s tough to put into words.”
“More so than any other game I’ve ever been a part of, it was intense,” added Shenot, from the winners’ circle. “It was crazy. We were battling the entire time. (Mayer) kept us off balance but we fought in every at-bat, came back and I’m glad we got the win.”
“He was controlling us the entire game, he kept his pitch count low early in the game and he really got after us later in the game.
“But we stuck around and got him out of there and got the win.”
Just like it scored its first run in the game in the top of the seventh inning to tie the score and send the game to extras, North recorded the winning run on nary a hit.
After drawing a one-out walk in the 10th, Tully reached second and then third base on a pair of wild pitches by South relief pitcher Noah Davidson, before scoring on Shenot’s sac-fly to left.
“The bats weren’t there today,” said Shenot. “We weren’t really getting hits, we were leaving balls in the air and hitting it right at them on the ground.
“We pride ourselves on the ability to play small-ball and I think today we kind of showed that. We moved runners around and caused havoc.
“We didn’t really get the hits but we found other ways to get it done.”
Trailing 1-0 in the top of the seventh, the Indians tied the score when Leuz walked to lead off, went to second on a grounder back to the mound by Tyler Nowmos, went to third on Chase D’Arcangelo’s grounder and scored on a wild pitch.
North blew an opportunity to score more in the frame when a pinch-runner for Juliano Kovalcik was caught between first and second base on a pickoff move by Mayer that, if it hasn’t reached legendary status yet, it will someday soon.
“I really worked on it this offseason,” said Mayer, of his pickoff move. “I knew I didn’t have such a great move coming into my junior year and I knew I had to change that at the varsity level.”
North might have sent the runner home from third base had South taken a little longer to nail the man between first and second base.
“We practice that play non-stop; we know teams are going to run it against us,” said Mayer. “I know it’s harder because I’m a lefty and I can’t really see what the guy’s doing on third but we executed that play perfectly.”
The Hawks had three runners picked off the basepaths including Ryan Vetter caught rounding past third base in the fourth, Evan Fisher, who was doubled off first base in the ninth and Sean Stackhouse, who was caught stealing second base in the 10th.
“I just think we were a little nervous out there,” said Mayer. “We’re usually confident on the bases and I was a little surprised by the number of people that got picked off.
“We were just trying to be aggressive and get the upper hand early.”
South leftfielder Nick Gallo was the only player in the game with multiple hits, going 2-for-4. He also pushed home the Hawks’ only run with a two-out single to left field in the fourth inning that scored rightfielder Cody Kutler.
Shortstop Josh Kim had the only extra-base hit in the game with a two-out double to deep left field in the fifth inning. South could not get Kim home however, with Leuz striking out Vetter swinging to end the Hawks’ rally.
South falls to 2-8 in the SOL, 4-11 overall while North pushes to 10-1 in league play and 16-1, overall.
For Mayer, the loss was literally a crying shame. The first-year varsity pitcher tossed nine innings, giving up just one run on two hits – a one-out single by Jared Schram in the fourth and a leadoff single by Cavan Tully in the sixth.
“I felt real confident on the mound; I knew the guys were making plays behind me today and I knew I could take on North,” said Mayer, who never pitched nine innings of baseball in his life before this – at any level. “It’s one of my first couple starts of the year and my first year on varsity but I knew I could take on North.”
Mayer retired the side in order in the first two frames and faced just 22 batters in the first six innings.
“I wasn’t looking for strikeouts,” said Zach. “I was just looking to get outs as easy as I could in the least amount of pitches that I could.”
UPDATE: North fell to 10-3 in the SONL after dropping a league matchup with Harry S Truman by a 5-2 score on May 11 and losing to Abington 4-3 on May 12.
Contact Steve Sherman at ssherman@21st-Centurymedia.com or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter
Council Rock North 2, CR South 1
(May 10 at CR South)
CR NORTH 000 000 100 1 – 2 2 1
CR SOUTH 000 100 000 0 – 1 6 2
WP — C.J. Kilgariff; LP — Noah Davidson
MULTIPLE HITS: CRS — Nick Gallo 2-for-4; CRN — none.
EXTRA-BASE HITS: CRS — Josh Kim 2B; CRN — none.
RBI: CRS — Gallo; CRN — Shenot.
