Wissahickon hammers Upper Dublin
LOWER GWYNEDD >> It didn’t take long for Wissahickon to assert its dominance over Upper Dublin Tuesday afternoon.
After Quinn Rovner pitched a scoreless top of the first inning, the Trojans pushed seven runs across the plate in the bottom half and the result was never in doubt again.
Wissahickon cruised to a 13-3 Suburban One League American Conference win over Upper Dublin in five innings at Wissahickon High School.
Michael Steitz reached on an error to get Wiss’ first inning started. Steve Loden got hit by a pitch and Eddie Fortescue’s sacrifice bunt turned into a single to load the bases with no outs.
Andrew Booth knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly and — after a Brian Haynes single — Charlie Osterneck worked a walk to make it 2-0.
Fortescue scored on a wild pitch and Hynes and Osterneck scored on an Upper Dublin error to increase the lead to 5-0.
Steitz finished off the scoring in the first inning with a two-run single.
“We started out well,” Wiss coach Andy Noga said. “We put a little bit of pressure on them with a bunt and double steal. We’ve been waiting for our offense to put up 10 runs. We know we have a really good offense. We’ve just been waiting for them to explode one game and today was that day.”
Overall in the opening frame, Wissahickon had three hits, worked two walks, got hit by two pitches and benefitted from two Cardinal errors.
“We teach our guys to go up there and have quality at-bats,” Noga said. “The walks and hit by pitches are quality at-bats. Some of those walks we fouled off four or five pitches to extend the at-bat, which is exactly what we want. It wasn’t just their mistakes — we put the pressure on them in other types of ways.”
“We’re cutting down on the strikeouts,” Steitz said. “When you do that and you put the ball in play, you force the other team to make plays and really anything can happen in high school baseball when you make the other team make plays. We’re getting on a lot of the time with errors and driving the ball.”
The Trojans pushed three more runs across in the third inning and another three in the fourth.
In the third, one run scored on an error, one on a wild pitch and the other on a Steitz groundout.
JT Culp had an RBI double in the fourth before Joel Bjordammen finished off the Trojans scoring for the game with a two-run single.
“We just had a really good, aggressive approach,” Steitz said. “We were hunting fastballs. When we do that we can get solid contact and don’t have to chase any junk … A great day at the plate for everybody. Everyone contributed.”
Upper Dublin scored its runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Joey Monaghan worked a leadoff walk in the fourth and scored on a bases loaded double play. Riley Brink and Jake Womelsdorf each had RBI singles in the fifth.
Rovner dealing
Rovner threw three innings for the Trojans and left the game with a 10-0 lead. He struck out two batters to one walk and allowed two singles.
“Quinn is having a really good year,” Noga said. “We got him out of there early so we can still use him in some form on Thursday against Hatboro-Horsham. He’s been phenomenal. Whenever we give him the ball, he pounds the strike zone, he challenges guys, he doesn’t walk guys, he trusts our defense. Anything you ask him to do he does it.”
American race
Wissahickon sits in second place in the SOL American with two losses — both coming to one-loss Quakertown.
“It’s that time of year where we start to (scoreboard) watch on Gamechanger and Twitter to see what’s going on in other games,” Noga said, “but at the end of the day we control our own destiny at this point. Our goal is obviously win the league, but we’re putting ourselves in good position for our own district playoffs.”
“It’s nice to know we’re one game behind Q-Town and putting pressure on them,” Steitz said. “Any game for them matters now, too, as well as for us.”
District chances
The Trojans entered Tuesday’s game ranked fifth in the District 1 Class-5A power rankings. The top 16 teams qualify for playoffs.
The Cardinals were No. 27 in District 1 Class-6A, where the top 20 teams qualify for playoffs.
“That thought is far, far, far away from my mind right,” Upper Dublin coach Ed Wall said. “What we’re thinking about right now is PW on Thursday, getting ready for them with a good practice tomorrow and coming out ready to play.”
