Errors hurt Lansdale Catholic in PCL 1st round loss to St. Joseph’s Prep
PHILADELPHIA >> Things were starting to look up for Lansdale Catholic midway through the fifth inning Sunday afternoon.
The Crusaders had finally cashed in on their numerous base runners and had taken a one-run lead on St. Joseph’s Prep in their Philadelphia Catholic League baseball playoff game at Father Judge’s Ramp Park. Then the Hawks came to bat and things unraveled for the upset-minded Crusaders.
Two fifth-inning errors plus a couple of other miscues throughout the game were too much for LC to overcome in a season-ending 6-3 loss to The Prep.
“It was a very frustrating game,” LC assistant Jim Ottomano said. “We talked before the game about how you can’t make errors against good teams because they’ll make you pay. We made a few errors and dug ourselves into a hole.”
LC head coach Dave Scott was at his daughter’s college graduation Sunday and unable to make the game, but his charges fought to the last out. The Crusaders needed that resiliency to even be in Sunday’s game, having to win a play-in contest against Archbishop Carroll earlier in the week for the No. 10 seed.
Prep struck first in the bottom half of the first when a throwing error on an infield hit allowed leadoff man Evan Matthews to score. Matthews had led off with a double and when John Coppola laced the first of his four hits in the first base gap, Matthews took advantage of an overthrow to first.
The Hawks added a second run in the third when Luke Donaphon hit an RBI groundout to plate courtesy runner Steve Mahoney. But they was all they could muster off LC starter Nolan Dougherty, who pitched well until errors derailed the effort in the fifth.
“He grinded all day,” Ottomano said. “We were told that you’re not allowed to wear metal cleats on this mound so Nolan was working with a pair of molded cleats and having a little traction issue. No excuses, he threw strikes, grinded and kept us in it the whole time. I also thought (reliever) Nick (Smalley) did a good job, I just wish the zone had been a little more consistent.”
Offensively, Lansdale had runners in the first three innings, but ran itself into outs in the second and third frames, stifling any momentum. In the third inning, SJP catcher Logan Kellerman made a great throw from his knees to pick off Shane McCarty trying to take third base for the final out of the frame.
Hawks starter Logan Scanlon didn’t have his best control, but came up clutch in the fourth after allowing back-to-back singles to Andrew Smith and James Scarcelli by striking out the next two men to end the frame.
However, Scanlon’s control issues caught up to him in the top half of the fifth when he walked three men in a row with two outs. In those three at-bats, he threw 12 of 16 pitches for balls, allowing Smith to make him pay with a two-out, two-run single that knotted the game and chased Scanlon. Reliever Pat Woltemate gave up an RBI single to Scarcelli but rung up Joe Gaumer to end the threat.
“That was our seniors Andrew Smith and James Scarcelli hitting back-to-back to get us right back into it,” Ottomano said. “It’s big to throw up a zero in the next inning and we just couldn’t finish it and throw up that zero.”
The Crusaders were so close, with Dougherty getting the first two outs before an error put Donaphon on base. Coppola cashed in by crushing a pitch into left, clanging it off the grate fence for a game-tying double.
Coppola, who went 4-for-4 with two RBIs, also scored after Jeff Manto drew a walk and the next ball in play was mishandled for the second error of the inning, putting The Prep back up and driving Dougherty from the game. Smalley got out of the inning, but the damage had been done. Woltemate, after giving up a single to his first batter, settled down in a hurry.
Woltemate in 2 1/3 innings, struck out four batters to pick up the win and allowed just two more baserunners, one of them off a dropped pop-up, the rest of the way. Both of those runners came in the seventh but Scarcelli, who had two hits and a walk, couldn’t slip one by Manto at second and was retired for the last out of the season.
“We’ve been in situations where we ended up coming up a little short but we’ve been playing to the last at-bat,” Ottomano said. “Every game, we beat Prep last week on a walk-off, I’ve loved the fight this team showed, the resiliency this team showed. I love the fact they played to the last pitch, we’re going to lose some contributors with our seniors but we return a bunch of juniors who are starters.”
