Moretski, Lawn help La Salle edge Father Judge

SPRINGFIELD >> Owen Lawn knew right away he had to put everything he could in making the 90-foot sprint to first base.

“Soon as I hit it, I saw him make the lay out and saw the ball in his glove,” the La Salle baseball senior said. “So I know I was going to I have to bust down the line as hard as I could. I knew I could get there, too.”

With two outs, the bases loaded and the Explorers and visiting Father Judge locked in a scoreless standstill in the bottom of the fifth inning, Lawn’s rip down the first-base line was snared by Judge’s Colin Kelly. But in the race to the bag, Lawn just beat out Kelly’s dive to tag the base, allowing Daniel Choate to score.

“Just happy,” said Lawn of the infield single. “Happy I came through for the team.”

The run was the only one for the Explorers in Wednesday afternoon’s Philadelphia Catholic League contest, but right-hander Gavin Moretski made sure that was enough for La Salle to picked up the win at Ward Field. Moretski tossed 6 2/3 shutout innings before David Kratz collected the final out as the Explorers edged the Crusaders 1-0 for their ninth straight PCL victory.

“In that inning we kind of found three seeing-eye singles and then an infield single and that’s how we got the run,” La Salle coach Kyle Werman said. “You hope you can open it up but at the end of the day we got one run and it held up because Gavin threw very well. That’s one of his better games. They got a couple leadoff guys on, we collected the sac bunt and then he found a way to battle with runners in scoring position, I think that was really big.”

Moretski allowed just three hits — all singles — walked two and struck out seven before being pulled due to hitting the 100-pitch count limit after getting a strikeout for the second out of the seventh.

“Right off the bat I had my curveball and changeup, they were working pretty well,” Moretski said. “My past couple games I’ve only had my fastball and then one off-speed but today I had both off speed so that was working pretty well.”

Kratz took over on the mound and after Matt Konen reached on an error the left-hander got the next batter to fly out to left to pick up the save as the Explorers (10-4, 9-1 league) won their fourth in a row to take over sole possession of first place in the PCL with Cardinal O’Hara falling 5-1 to Roman Catholic.

“We’ve been playing really well so we kind of have that confidence in our back pocket that we’re going to win that game,” Lawn said. “It’s easier when we’re on a row cause we have confidence in the guys next to us. Everyone’s been playing well lately, we’re swinging the bats really well, every single one of us. So just that confidence factor that we have right now let us win that game.”

Judge (9-4-1, 7-3-0) entered Wednesday in a three-way tie for third with Roman and Archbishop Wood and had a few chances to break the tie, but stranded six baserunners — including two in both the second and four innings — and were shutout for the second time this season.

“We had some opportunities,” Judge coach Mike Metzger said. “We got second and third (in the fourth), didn’t get the big hit today. Hat’s off to them.”

Crusaders starting pitcher Lenny Gipson took the loss despite a solid five-inning outing, giving up one earned run on five hits — four in the decisive fifth. He did not give up a walk and struck out two. Gipson also went 2-for-2 with a walk at the plate.

Both teams have non-league contest for the next games. La Salle heads to New Jersey to face St. Augustine Prep 1 p.m. Saturday while Father Judge hosts Germantown Academy 2 p.m. Sunday.

With one out in the fifth, Choate dropped a single into center field while on the next at-bat Andrew Miles singled through the left side of the infield. Jake Whitlinger followed with a infield single to left side to load the bases. Jack Heineman’s fly out to center couldn’t bring in a run, but Lawn’s dash to first for a single plated Choate for the 1-0 edge.

“Outside pitch, I made good contact with it,” Lawn said. “I saw him lay out for it, so I knew I had a chance and I just busted my hardest down the line and got there.”

In the top of the second, Gipson led off with single with his courtesy runner Tom Radtke going to second on a sacrifice bunt. Kelly’s one-out walk put a pair of runners on but Moretski worked out of the jam with a strikeout swinging and a force out at second on a fielder’s choice.

Father Judge threatened again in the fourth after Andrew Sicinski and Gipson started the inning with back-to-back singles to center. A sacrifice bunt put the runners on second and third but Moretski again found a way to keep things knotted 0-0 with a strikeout looking and a fly out to center.

La Salle 1, Father Judge 0
Father Judge      000 000 0 — 0 3 2
La Salle 000 010 x — 1 5 1
WP: Gavin Moretski 6.2 IP 3 H 0 R 0 ER 2 BB 7 SO.
LP: Lenny Gipson 5 IP 5 H 1 R 1 ER 0 BB 2 SO.
Father Judge: Gipson 2-2.
La Salle: Owen Lawn RBI; Daniel Choate R.