Daniel Boone knocks off Norristown, ready for bounce-back year

BIRDSBORO >> The 2018 season wasn’t the follow up the Daniel Boone baseball team wanted after its first state playoff appearance in two decades.

Even with a major roster overhaul, the Blazers had high expectations which were not met, finishing 3-7 in the Berks County League and 7-11 overall.

“It wasn’t a very good season last year. It wasn’t what we expected,” senior catcher Tim Richard said after Monday’s 15-0 win over Norristown. “We expected to go far again, have a good year.”

“There were just a lot of little things last year that didn’t go our way,” added head coach Jason McCord. “I think we lost some of that gritty attitude that we had the year before.”

Boone is off to a 2-1 after Monday’s non-league win over the Eagles. The team’s only loss so far was a 10-9 defeat to Twin Valley last Thursday in a game that the Blazers led by as many as eight runs.

This year’s lineup returns five starters and three others who saw varsity action. McCord kept 26 players on the team this season, the largest roster he said he’s ever had in his nine seasons. The result is a squad that carriers 10 seniors, a group that has played together for the most part since Little League.

“It makes it a lot easier,” said senior outfielder Matt Stevens. “I’ve been playing with these kids my whole life. We all know what we’re capable of, and we all know what we can do.”

The Blazers’ strength this season appears to be their hitting. Daniel Boone has scored 42 runs through its first three games. McCord’s team plated 11 runs in the first inning Monday. The Blazers finished with 15 runs on 13 hits, ending the contest with a four-run bottom of the fourth due to the Mercy Rule.

Ten different Boone players collected hits against Norristown. Richard went 3-for-3 with two RBI, two runs scored and two doubles. Stevens walked once and drove in two runs with hit and scored twice himself. Senior second baseman Chase Lacey went 2-for-2 with a double, driving in two runs and scoring two more.

“I think if the pitching steps up, we’ll be right there with everybody else,” Stevens said. “We scored 42 runs in three games now, so we showed that we can swing. Once the pitching gets there, we’re going to be good to go.”

Boone got a strong outing from junior righthander Jeb Kurtz on Monday. Kurtz allowed two hits and struck out four batters in three shutout innings. Jake Kassekert followed with one inning of shutout relief. Tyler Gorman, Ryan Rushik and Patrick O’Brien tallied Norristown’s only hits.

McCord said the reason his roster is so big this year is that six players are primarily just pitchers. He plans on using a lot of different arms out of the bullpen in different situations this year, including Kurtz, Tanner Vanderslice, Justin Peifer and Michael Bishop.

“The big thing for us is understanding what our role is,” McCord said. “Whether we’re on the mound or not on the mound, just being ready. We believe we need to use a lot of arms. We don’t necessarily feel like we can go out there and throw a top of the line starter at people. We feel like we’ve got some guys who can really do good things in that particular capacity. Bottom line is we feel our depth of arms is what’s going to have to carry us.”

Norristown is off to an 0-3 start after tallying just one win last season. Head coach Jack Sturgeon has a group of seniors made mostly of three-year starters. However, the Eagles have yet to string together hits at the plate, scoring just one run in their first three games, including losses to Perkiomen Valley and Spring-Ford.

“We have to get some timely hits,” Sturgeon said. “We’re getting a couple guys on base here and there. We’re just not getting the hits when we need them.”

“I think if the kids relax up there and enjoy themselves, they would probably find a little bit more success,” he added.

“That’s what we keep drubbing into them, but so far it hasn’t worked too much.”

Sturgeon said some defensive woes behind his starters have hurt some pretty solid outings on the mound so far. Norristown committed four errors Monday, resulting in five unearned runs.

Senior Matt Hahn couldn’t make it out of the first inning before O’Brien came in relief. O’Brien got through 2.1 innings unscathed before giving up four unearned runs in the fourth inning. He allowed six hits and didn’t walk a batter.

“Our top two guys have thrown pretty well early on,” Sturgeon said. “We had a third pitcher who got hurt on Friday, so we’re trying to find candidates for that third slot because you need three pitchers in the PAC, understanding that you play three times a week. We came in here looking for a third pitcher candidate, saw some things we liked, obviously not enough of what we liked.”