William Tennent wins crucial SOL National showdown with Abington
WARMINSTER >> With both teams entering Tuesday’s Suburban One League National Conference game with 5-5-conference records the stakes were large for Abington and William Tennent.
The winner of the game would receive a boost to keep its hopes alive for a District 1-AAAA playoff berth, while the loser would suffer a devastating blow to its chances. But if you ask Abington coach Dave Torresani it was not a quasi-elimination game.
“I think 8-6 gives us a chance, I know some people say 9-5, but I follow this it still gives us a chance, there is still a lot of baseball yet to be played,” Torresani said. “I don’t say it was necessarily an elimination game, is it going to be a lot hard harder? Yes, absolutely.”
Given the nature of the game, both teams opted to go with an ace. For Tennent, it went with its top guy in Ryan Lucas as Abington countered with Paul Poppert. Both pitchers threw like the top of the rotation arms that they are but it was Lucas’ Panthers getting the narrow 2-1 victory.
“We beat them 2-1 last time so its two 2-1 games so we’re that close between the two of us,” Torresani said. “Poppert made great pitches. You saw the two names and you know it was going to be a great pitched game.”
Abington threatened Tennent in the top of the first inning, as three-hole hitter Justin Yerkes reached on an error with two outs. A well-executed hit and run by clean up hitter Chris Clewell moved Yerkes’ courtesy runner Zach Nikander over to third base, but that was the extent of the Abington chance.
It wasn’t until the fourth that either offense broke through. In the bottom of the inning, Tennent third baseman and No. 3 hitter Greg Delgado led off with a single.
Delgado moved to second on a balk by Poppert, but two outs were recorded before he was able to advance. Lucas then hit a two-out slow, rolling infield single with the next hitter CJ Goodz hitting a little flair shot that just made it onto the outfield grass over Abington second baseman Aiden Coyle’s head to score Delgado. A pair of walks — the second of which issued with the bases loaded to Cole Browne — gave the Panthers a 2-0 lead.
Lucas was in cruise control but ran into a little trouble in the sixth as Coyle led off the inning with a walk followed by a base hit by Yerkes. The Ghosts then used Clewell to bunt and move the runners. Coyle scored as Poppert lifted a deep sacrifice fly to center.
The next hitter Josh Persing hit a low line drive to center field but Panthers center fielder Christian Mendez made a great sliding catch to end the Ghosts’ inning. The catch was the second time in the game that Mendez robbed Persing of a hit, the other coming when Persing led off the second inning.
“I had to work hard, throw a little bit harder, put a little bit more on the fastball and just try to get the out,” the senior Lucas said of getting out the late inning jams.
It wasn’t just Mendez making plays behind Lucas either as he allowed only three hits but only struck out two hitters. He let the defense work behind him made almost all the plays that came their way.
“I think it’s a lot easier to let them hit the ball and let the players make the plays,” the Philadelphia University commit said.
The Ghosts had one last rally in them as they had runners on first and second with one out in the top of the seventh but a pair of fly outs ended the game and strong outing for Lucas and the Panthers.
