Faith Christian pounds Plumstead Christian for District 1-A title

CHESTER >> Twice this year Faith Christian had played Plumstead Christian, and neither time were the Lions successful.

In fact, they were downright terrible.

So Wednesday, when the Lions met the Panthers, this time for the District One Class A Baseball title, they took a different tact.

Instead of riling themselves up, the Lions stayed calm.

Instead of wrapping themselves in worry knots, they threw caution to the wind and decided to play baseball — without all the extracurriculars.

And by game’s end, not only were the Lions not embarrassed, they were district champs.

Carter Heller hurled a four-hit complete game as the Lions drubbed the Panthers, 12-2, to claim the program’s first district title.

“Since we were little kids we played for this moment,” Heller said. “We just wanted to win the game, but we also got a little greedy.”

They got greedy after they took a 2-0 lead in the second inning.

Instead of sitting back on the stellar pitching of their senior right-hander, they kept adding to the their lead, increasing it to 3-1 after four and then breaking it open with nine runs over the final three innings.

Included in the carnage was a four-run fifth that featured Tim Nice’s bases-loaded double, two more in the sixth via Parker Curry’s two-run single and then three more in the seventh when the Panthers were reeling.

“They just outplayed us,” said Plumstead head coach Bill Weaver. “We made a couple of errors that helped them, but a couple of errors don’t turn into 12 runs.

“They did a good job hitting the ball, and deserved to win.”

Faith got going early, turning three singles and a Plumstead error into two runs.

Then after the Panthers halved the lead in the third on Ben Weaver’s RBI single, regained their two-run cushion via a run-producing wild pitch in the fourth.

Nice’s bases-loaded double keyed the four-run fifth, Curry extended the lead with a two-run single in the sixth and the second of two DJ Cesario’s doubles, a two-run, two bagger was the big hit in a three-run seventh.

“We talk about this being a new era for the program,” Heller said. “I think we’re hot right now, we’re in a groove.

“Today we had a winners’ mentality. We knew we had nothing to lose. And we want this feeling to continue around here for a while.”

FAITH CHRISTIAN 12, PLUMSTEAD CHRISTIAN 2
Faith Christian   020 142 3 — 12
Plumstead Christian        001 001 0 — 2
WP — Carter Heller
LP — Brock Hewitt
2B — DJ Cesario (FC-2); David Forscht FC); Tim Nice( FC).
3B — Ben Weaver (PC).