Versaw-Barnes pitches, hits Cheltenham past Wissahickon
LOWER GWYNEDD >> Cheltenham’s Kieran Versaw-Barnes feels he’s a better hitter when it’s his turn on the mound.
“Honestly, when I’m pitching I don’t really focus on the hitting as much because I feel like I’m out there to pitch, so I feel that actually helps the hitting,” he said. “Because sometimes I get in my head, focusing on mechanics and stuff. So, it just keeps it simple up there, just bat on the ball.”
Versaw-Barnes’ bat helped stake the visiting Panthers to a quick 2-0 lead over Wissahickon in the top of the first inning Tuesday afternoon belting a RBI triple deep center field then scoring on Alex Bugg’s RBI sacrifice fly the next at-bat.
The Lackawanna College commit’s arm made the early advantage hold up, the right-hander allowing four hits and striking out eight in a complete-game effort as Cheltenham held on to edge the Trojans 4-2 for a Suburban One League American Conference win.
“This league, up and down, is full of good teams. We’re trying to take advantage early,” Panthers coach Tory Wergelis said. “I think, honestly I’m a little biased but I feel like we have a very good team and we’re out here to make an impression and I think that’s what we’re doing. Every game is just as important as the next, especially in league play so I think for us with Kiernan pitching it’s great, obviously, to have a workhorse like that, that we can rely on.
“But we have a lot of great pitching and this win doesn’t happen without our offense — up and down — there’s a lot of things but it’s obviously nice to have somebody who is going to keep us in ballgames.”
Versaw-Barnes added a double in the third and finished 2-for-3 at the plate, Ben Kaplan went 2-for-4 with two run scored while Bugg gave Cheltenham (3-2, 3-1 conference) and insurance run in the top of the seventh with a two-out RBI single in a heavy rain.
When the weather cleared up in the bottom of the seventh, the Trojans (2-4, 1-3) put a pair of baserunners on with one out after Joe Liotta’s infield single. Andrew Booth sent a ball deep to left center but it was tracked down by left fielder Adam Turk-Karen. A double steal put runners on second and third but Versaw-Barnes got the next batter to strike out swinging.
“It seemed like we were barreling our baseballs but they were right at guys,” Wissahickon coach Andy Noga said. “We had a couple hard-hit fly balls that were just turned into routine outs for us. It seems like our swings are getting better and better, they’re just not dropping in for us right now. So, I’m just confident we’ll figure that out.”
After giving up the two runs in the first, Trojans starter Mike Gorman settled in and despite taking the loss had a solid outing. The righty gave up four runs — three earned — on four hits in 6 2/3 innings, walked two and struck out eight.
“Michael has pitched great,” Noga said. “He pitched well in his Hatboro-Horsham start, same thing we booted the ball a little bit and couldn’t get a W for him. Same thing in this start. He got a lot better as the game went on and again, we just didn’t pick him up from a defensive or offensive standpoint.”
Cheltenham had a 2-0 lead after just three batters in the top of the first. Kaplan led off the contest with a single to center, stole second then scored when Versaw-Barnes connected on a triple to deep center. Bugg’s RBI sac fly plated Versaw-Barnes to double the advantage.
In the top of the fourth, the Panthers took advantage of two Wissahickon erros to go up 3-0. Lukas Nakkula led off reaching on an error on his ground ball to the left side while Garrett Schmidt drew a walk to put two on with no out. Gorman struck out the next two batters and looked to get out of the jam on a Riese Weir slow grounder to first, but an error allow Weir to make it first and Nakkula home for the Panthers’ third run.
“It can happen either way, right?” Wergelis said. “And nothing can happen on a strikeout, so you put the ball in play and good things tend to happen. And if we put the ball in play enough, eventually something will break.”
After Versaw-Barnes threw three perfect innings, the Trojans finally got to the righty in the bottom of the fourth. Back-to-back singles from Brian Hynes and Brian Menhardt put runners on the corners with no outs for Joe Hornig, who brought in Hynes with an RBI ground out. Bobby McFarland’s RBI ground out on the next at-bat made it 3-2.
“That’s a good hitting team over there, I was just throwing a little too many strikes,” Versaw-Barnes said. “I had to mix it up a little more.”
Eddie Fortescue hit a two-out single to left but Versaw-Barnes ended the inning with a strike out and proceeded to put Wissahickon down in order in both the fifth and sixth.
“I didn’t feel like I had my fastball today,” Versaw-Barnes said. “So I had to figure out how to pitch with the off-speed, learn to locate a little bit today, which not as used to that.”
With two outs in the seventh, Kaplan singled while a Versaw-Barnes walk ended was the end of Gorman’s afternoon. Bugg singled off reliever Gio D’Amore to plate Kaplan for a 4-2 Panthers lead. A Nakkula walked loaded the bases but D’Amore got Schmidt to fly out to right.
McFarland began the Trojans half of the seventh reaching on an error but was forced out at second on a Fortescue fielder’s choice. Liotta followed with an infield single to bring the winning run to the plate, but Booth’s deep fly out to left center and Versaw-Barnes’ ninth strikeout denied the Wissahickon rally.
