Pennridge defeats Council Rock North to claim District 1-AAAA championship
WORCESTER >> In the championship round of a 26-team tournament, it is expected that the pitching will be strong and runs will be hard to come by. That proved to be true when Pennridge and Council Rock North got together for the District 1 Class AAAA crown.
The No. 17 seeded Rams came out on top, 3-1, Thursday afternoon on Robert Morris Childress Memorial Field at Methacton High School.
“It feels pretty good,” Pennridge senior Dan Long said. “It’s special. They can never take this away from you. We’re definitely going to enjoy this, but we’re not done yet. We definitely want more.”
The pitching started with Andrew Mayhew, who tallied the win after throwing 5 1/3 innings of one-hit baseball. He struck out and walked four batters and allowed one unearned run.
Long came on in relief and recorded the save after pitching the final 1 2/3 innings. He surrendered two hits and struck out two batters.
“We’ve got good pitchers,” coach Tom Nuneviller, who was a senior on the team when Pennridge won its last title in 1987, said. “Andrew Mayhew pitched extremely well out there.
“Mayhew went out and pitched his tail off against the reigning District 1 (champions).”
“We threw really well,” Long added. “Just attacking the zone, throwing strikes. That’s what’s worked for us all year. It’s won us a lot of games. We just stuck to the game plan and it worked for us.”
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The bottom of the seventh inning started with Long allowing a line drive single to James Closser. Jackson Parker, the tying run, then reached on an error and turned the lineup over to the top.
Cavan Tully laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt with two strikes, but Pennridge catcher Joe Robinson pounced on it and threw the lead runner out at third base.
“That’s not like us,” Long said of the error. “We’re usually pretty sound defensively in the field.
“Joe made a great play on that bunt — threw him out at third. I thought that was a huge play for us.”
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Long struck out Matthew Shenot for the second out and Jared Schram, North’s best hitter, came up to the plate.
Long and Schram battled to a full count and the game ended with a pop up to shortstop.
“I kind of thought about that right before the at bat,” Long said. “I was like — here it goes. Two guys on and their best hitter up. It was fun.”
Gavin Ferrandino started on the mound for the No. 6 seeded Indians. He struck out three batters in four innings while allowing two runs on four hits. He walked one batter.
CJ Kilgarriff came on in relief and allowed one unearned run in three innings. He allowed three hits and walked one.
Pennridge did all of its offensive damage with two outs.
In the top of the second inning, the Rams had two outs with nobody on base. Riley Hager singled and Jason Souder brought him home with a double to the rightfield corner. Luke Nuneviller followed by plating Souder with a single up the middle to give the Rams an early 2-0 edge.
“I think that’s huge — throwing the first punch,” Long said. “Jason smoked that ball into the corner and Riley turned his wheels on. It’s good to get on the board, takes a little pressure off the pitcher and he (Mayhew) was great all day. It worked out for us.”
They added another run in the top of the fifth when Andrew Fantaskey hit a two-out single to score Mitch McLeod.
North’s lone run came in the bottom of the sixth inning. Matthew Hand, the last batter Pennridge’s Mayhew faced, worked a one-out walk. Seth Leuz greeted Long with an infield single to put runners on first and second. Chase D’Arcangelo followed with a grounder up the middle. Second baseman Fantaskey grabbed the ball, stepped on second and threw wide to first base trying to turn a double play. Hand rounded third and raced home on the errant throw to make it a 3-1 game.
Both teams earned trips to the PIAA Class AAAA state playoffs that begin next week.
