O’Hara pounds Roman, advances to Catholic League final

Cardinal O’Hara is going to the Catholic League championship game.

The Lions produced 14 hits en route to a 12-1 shellacking of Roman Catholic in the semifinal round Wednesday at La Salle University.

O’Hara and La Salle will meet for the Catholic League title Saturday at noon at Widener University.

Joey Sperone pitched 3.2 innings to earn the win and was one of four O’Hara players to bang out at least two hits off Roman Catholic pitcher Alex Singer. Sperone went 2-for-4 with a double and four RBIs.

Sperone, Jim White, Joe Kelly, Bryan Pazulski, Bobby Castaldi and Dan Hopkins each doubled for the Lions, who scored four runs in the third and busted the game wide open with a five-spot in the fifth.

White and Hopkins (two RBIs) collected three hits apiece. Kelly had two base knocks, Pazulski drove in a pair of runs, and Castaldi came through with a pinch-hit RBI hit to trigger the 10-run rule in the sixth.

“It’s been a fun year,” said first-year Lions coach Rob Benedict. “As a first-year coach, you can’t ask for a better group of kids.”

Benedict son’s, Shane, is a member of the Marple Newtown baseball team that advanced to the quarterfinal round of the District 1 Class 5A tournament Wednesday with a 4-1 victory over Pottsgrove. Shane pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the Tigers to earn the save.

O’Hara’s only three losses this season were against Bonner & Prendergast, Roman Catholic and La Salle. The Lions defeated Bonner & Prendie in the quarterfinal round and 10-run-ruled Roman Catholic in the semifinals. They’ll have a chance for revenge against La Salle Saturday afternoon.