Archbishop Wood routs Franklin Towne Charter for 3rd straight District 12-AAA title
SPRINGFIELD >> Through three innings of Thursday’s District 12-AAA title game, the story line looked like it was going to be the excellent pitching performance of Archbishop Wood righty Sean Hughes.
But even a one-hit shutout performance — narrowly missing a no-hitter/perfect game — in a district playoff game takes a back seat to what transpired in the top of the fourth inning offensively for Wood.
The Vikings put together an epic inning. One that saw them score 14 runs on seven hits and sent 20 hitters to the plate. The offensive outburst helped Wood make short work of the District 12 championship rematch against Franklin Towne Charter as the Vikings claimed their third straight district championship and fourth in seven years with a 16-0 win.
“Its always a good thing for our program when you come out and capture a district championship,” Wood coach Jim DiGuiseppe said. “I’m proud of our guys. We got after it there and I thought our pitching and defense was really good all day.”
In the Vikings’ big inning, they batted around their order twice, batting around once without recording an out. All nine starters sent to plate scored at least one run — except catcher Sean Kelly, who was courtesy ran for — with three players scoring two runs — Logan Ryan would have been for but was pinch ran for. There were also 10 different RBI-scoring plays, including a stretch of six-straight RBI singles.
“That may have been a first,” DiGuiseppe said of sending 20 hitters to the plate in an inning. “That inning was a real solid inning for us. It was kind of nice to break it open there.”
“It was starting to get a little crazy,” Wood third baseman Sam Reynolds said. “I don’t even know how to explain it. I was just real surprised at it.”
There will not be any Vikings hitters catching slack for the inning it put together, but there had to be a few rib shots from guys in the dugout toward Matt Cummiskey, who committed two of the three outs in the inning.
“We were (getting on him),” Reynolds said of Cummiskey. “He’s a good kid and its good that he’s able to shake things off like that too.”
After getting eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Philadelphia Catholic League playoffs, Wood was unsure if its season would continue. Now making use of their second life, the Vikings head into the PIAA tournament as a dangerous looking team for several reasons.
Wood boasts an extremely potent pitching staff with three superb arms in Joey Lancellotti, Ryan and Hughes. The Vikings also tend to play very good defensively behind their good hurlers. If Wood can stay hot with the bats it’s going to be a very tough team to take down.
“I think if we can just focus on getting the quality pitching that we have and playing solid defense, moving runners around and getting some key hits, if we can continue to do some of the little things I think we’re going to be a pretty tough group to knock out,” DiGuiseppe said.
