West is the best; Whippets win Ches-Mont National for 2nd straight year
DOWNINGTOWN >> Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Downingtown West clinched its second consecutive Ches-Mont National Division title Monday afternoon as the Whippets defeated Bishop Shanahan, 4-1, setting off a wild Whippet celebration at the pitchers mound.
Despite losing 15 seniors from last season’s title squad, Downingtown West (16-2 Ches-Mont National, 16-2 overall) finished off the tough task of repeating in a league as tough as the Ches-Mont National. And Monday’s win was vintage Whippet baseball.
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West got good starting pitching from freshman Adam Grintz, timely hitting and a superb two-inning relief job from staff ace Joey Zettlemoyer to seal the deal.
“It feels real great to win the league as tough as it is two years in a row and to do it with these guys,” Zettlemoyer said. “We worked really hard and everybody contributed and we are not done yet. We feel we have the team to make the state playoffs for the first time in school history.”
The Whippets took an early 1-0 lead off Eagles (11-8, 11-8) starter Drew Dolan, who pitched a great game, in the second inning. Mike Mollenhauer led off with a sharp single to right field. Dolan then had the Whippet junior picked off, but Mollenauheur kicked the ball out of the Shanahan infielder’s glove on the tag and was safe at second. Mollenhauer advanced to third base on a long fly to center by Eric Grintz and scored when J.J. Freeman lofted a sacrifice fly to righ to make it a 1-0 game.
Shanahan had its chances against Adam Grintz but the Eagles left runners on base in both the second and third innings. In the Fourth, the Eagles tied the game when Dolan, who led off the inning with a single, scored on a Dan DiBenedetto grounder to short and it was a 1-1 game after four innings.
But Downingtown West came right back in the top of the fifth to seize control of the contest. After Dolan got the first out on a comebacker to the mound, Josh Willenbrock stroked a single to left field. Ryan Giordoni hit a chopper to third base that was booted and the Whippets had men on first and second with one out.
J.P. Bell hit a grounder to short, on which Shanahan got the out at second. But Bell beat the throw to first and the Whippets were still in business with men on first and third with two out and hot-hitting Nick Campana coming up. Campana hit a hard, high chopper in the hole between third and short and he beat the throw to first, scoring Willenbrock and Bell, who had stolen second on the previous pitch to make it a 3-1 game. Mollenhauer then laced an RBI double off Dolan to make it a 4-1 game and the Whippets could smell their second title in a row.
“We lost 15 seniors from last year and not a lot of people expected us to repeat,” Freeman said. “This is just a great feeling and everybody on this team, the players and coaches worked really hard to make this happen.”
With a 4-1 lead heading into the sixth inning, Downingtown West coach Dave Oleszek elected to bring in his ace Zettlemoyer to nail down the crown and put the Eagles to rest. But Shanahan did not go away easily.
Gibbs led off the sixth by drawing a walk. After DiBenedetto flied out to center, Dave Angelo reached on an error by Whippet first baseman Reyce Curnane, putting two men on with just one out and the tying run coming to the plate. But, Zettlemoyer reared back and got Dan Browne to pop out to second base, and got Joe Hurley on a ground ball to Curnane to end the threat.
With one out in the seventh, Matt Sampson singled for the Eagles, and that was followed by a sharp single by P.J. Heintz. Zettlemoyer again came up big, getting Dolan to fly out to left and ended things in style by fanning Gibbs, sending the Whippet celebration into full flight.
“Those kids deserve this title,” Oleszek said. “They worked since January for this and they worked hard. We got good pitching this season and we hit the ball better than we did last heart. Our run production was good and not a lot of people expected us to repeat because we lost so many seniors so this feels real good right now.”
Downingtown West 4, Bishop Shanahan 1
D-West Shanahan
ab r h b ab r h b
Giordani ss 4 0 0 0 O’Day cf 4 0 0 0
Bell cf 3 1 1 0 Sampsn rf 4 0 2 0
Campana c 3 0 1 1 Heintz c 4 0 2 0
Note pr 0 1 0 0 Dolan p 3 0 2 0
Mollnhur rf 4 1 2 1 McGinly pr 0 1 0 0
E. Grintz 3b 3 0 0 0 Ziegler 3b 0 0 0 0
Freeman 2b 2 0 0 1 Gibbs dh 1 0 0 0
Curnane 1b 2 0 0 0 DiBndtto lf 3 0 0 1
A. Grintz p 0 0 0 0 Angelo 2b 3 0 1 0
Britt dh 3 0 1 0 Adell 1b 2 0 0 0
Willnbrck lf 3 1 1 0 Browne p 1 0 0 0
Hurley ss 3 0 2 0
Totals 27 4 6 3 Totals 27 1 9 1
D-West 010 030 0 — 4
Shanahan 000 100 0 — 1
2B: Willenbrock.
IP R H BB SO
D-West
A. Grintz, W 5 1 7 0 4
Zetlemoyer 2 0 2 1 1
Shanahan
Dolan,L 5 4 4 1 1
Browne 2 0 2 0 0
