Second lineup, defense lift SOL AC to Carpenter Cup crown

PHILADELPHIA >> Suburban One League American/Continental coach Ed Wall made the switch to his second lineup in the bottom of the fifth inning, trailing the Philadelphia Catholic League by one, Friday morning in the Carpenter Cup championship game.

The first four batters reached base — highlighted by a pair of RBI doubles — to turn the one-run deficit into a 3-2 lead, which held to be the final score at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

North Penn’s Nate O’Donnell was hit by a pitch to get the bottom of the fifth inning started and Cole Swiger ripped a double down the left field line to tie the game, 2-2.

CB East’s Cameron Komonchak followed with a single to put runners on the corners and CB West’s Thomas Philipps smash a double to score Swiger and knock Roman Catholic pitcher Aidan Welch out of the game.

“They’re fantastic baseball players and great kids,” Wall said of the second team. “They’re so calm in the moment. They were just out there, having fun, playing baseball. We’re very confident in their ability to get the job done. That’s one of the many reasons why they’re in that second lineup.”

“The second team has been in here and they just hit,” CB South’s Eric Gross, who went 2-for-2 with a pair of singles for the second team, said. “It was great to be a part of it and just an honor to be here.”

Bonner-Prendie’s Matt Scanlon came on to pitch and got three straight outs to strand Philipps and Komonchak on second and third, but the damage was done.

The Catholic League had chances in the final innings to tie the game, but were never able to get a runner past second base.

In the seventh, Archbishop Ryan’s Matt Romano led off with a walk. The promising inning quickly faded when Pennridge’s Andrew Mayhew forced Father Judge’s Tim Ulrich to ground into a 6-4-3 double play.

The following inning, Archbishop Wood’s Bobby Heck dropped down a beautiful one-out bunt single with the 3-4-5 hitters due up. He tried to steal on the next pitch, but a laser from Gross easily beat him to the bag for the out.

“The first game we were a little shaky — got off to a bad start,” Gross said of the defense. “As the tournament progressed, we just got better and better. I felt like this game we were solid. We barely made any errors and if we did they didn’t hurt us.”

The PCL’s last hope in the ninth inning got off to a good start when La Salle’s Andrew Cosetti worked an 0-2 count into a leadoff walk. Bonner Prendie’s Tim Dougherty, however, was unable to get a bunt down and was one of three straight strikeouts CB South’s Dan Klepchick recorded to end the game.

“Sometimes it’s the little things,” PCL and Archbishop Wood coach Jim DiGuiseppe Jr. said, “but, overall, the effort was there and Suburban One American/Continental is obviously a quality team.

“It was fun. It was a great experience. Really a fun group of guys to work with. They went out and battled all four games and unfortunately we came up a little short today.”

Mayhew was the winning pitcher for the SOL. He threw three scoreless innings, struck out four batters, walked two and surrendered one hit.

Klepchick earned the two-inning save. He allowed one hit, walked one batter and struck out three.

Welch takes the loss for the PCL. In one inning of work, he allowed two runs on three hits while striking out one batter and walking one.

The PCL’s two runs came in the top of the fourth inning against Hatboro-Horsham’s Brian Edgington. La Salle’s Gregg Sywulak led off the inning with a single, stole second and advanced to third on a Steve Furman (Bonner-Prendie) single. Neumann-Goretti’s Nick D’Amore hit a sacrifice fly to score Sywulak and Christian Lutz (Father Judge) hit an RBI double to plate Furman.

The SOL’s first run came right off the bat in the bottom of the first. Upper Moreland’s Randy Meehl singled to start the inning and got to second on a Matt Shilling (Wissahickon) walk. Meehl advanced to third when an infield fly pop up was not caught and scored on a Blake Gular (Souderton) sacrifice fly.