Shanahan’s belief leads to upset of Marple Newtown

NEWTOWN SQUARE — Members of the Bishop Shanahan baseball team had heard they had no shot in their District 1 Class 5A semifinal Friday.

Haters will hate, right?

“No one thought we could do it,” second baseman Justin Samson said. “Our coaches were telling us that all the other coaches were basically saying, ‘We’ll be rooting for you,’ but no one actually believed in us.”

Well, except for themselves.

Facing the No. 2 seed in the tourney, the reigning PIAA Class 5A champion, the Eagles were inspired to pull out a major upset against Marple Newtown.

Anthony Bertolami delivered a complete-game gem to lead the 11th-seeded Eagles to a 2-1 victory.

Shanahan (12-10) defeated two Delco teams — MN and Chichester — the last two rounds on the way to Tuesday’s final at Widener University against top-seeded Holy Ghost Prep.

“We’re all coming together and we all believe that we can win,” Samson said. “No matter what.”

Oh, and that Bertolami kid is a big reason for Shanahan’s success against the Central League co-champion Tigers (18-5). The senior right-hander did a good job of changing speeds and location, limiting the Tigers to three singles. The lone run allowed was unearned after shortstop Kevin Merrone reached on a three-base error, knocking home MN starter Andrew Cantwell in the process.

“Coach (Ed Walls) always says to me before the game, ‘Just compete and you’ll be fine,'” said Bertolami, who struck out three and worked around a walk and three hit batsmen. “They’re a great team, and going into the game we knew what we were facing. I was just trying to hit my spots, mix them up and keep them off-balance, and I knew my defense would make the plays behind me. We trust each other.

“I leaned on my fastball a lot. Inside, outside and up. I wasn’t trying to leave it over the plate. The curveball sometimes got away from me … so most of the time it was the fastball and I was just trying to hit my spots.”

Bertolami credited his defense for helping him in key spots, none bigger than the 4-3 double play to end the fifth inning. With runners on the corners and one out, Joey Pettinelli hit a laser to Samson at second base. He caught the ball in the air and doubled off courtesy runner Brian Joslin retreating to first. That was the same inning that started with a single and a three-base error. Erik Molinaro popped out to Samson for the first out and Owen Mathes worked a walk before the twin killing.

“It was a little low, so I had to pick it,” Samson said. “As the ball was hit to me I peaked over to first and saw him coming on, so I tried to turn it as quick as I could. That was big.”

Bertolami celebrated with Samson on the way to the bench.

“Oh, they’ve been awesome all year long,” Bertolami said. “Like I said, I trust them behind me. I know they’re going to make the plays. It’s all about trust with us and that’s why we won.”

Bertolami showed plenty of guts when he faced Alden Mathes in the fifth inning. Mathes, who was recently named the Delco Athletes Hall of Fame Male Athlete of the Year, is arguably the best all-around player in the county, bound for University of Richmond in the fall. Mathes was 0-for-4 and popped out on a 3-1 count with a runner on second base and two gone in the fifth inning.

“I knew the worst thing that could happen there would be to walk him, so I threw the ball up and away,” he said. “He’s aggressive, so I thought, let’s see if I can get him to swing, and I got him.”

Shanahan scored a pair of unearned runs off Cantwell, who threw 108 pitches over six innings. Matt Bertolami singled and scored on a ground ball off the bat of catcher Kurt Pollard in the first inning. In the third, Derek Gibbs reached on an error and scored on a fielder’s choice by Will Ciarlone.

“Coming in the game my arm hurt a little bit, so I knew I had to keep my pitch count low, which really didn’t work out,” said Cantwell, who scattered five hits and three walks while striking out three. “I threw a lot more fastballs than I normally do, because I wanted to get it over and start off in a better count. They were just fouling off a lot of pitches and working deep counts, getting a lot of balls to fall through.”

While Cantwell was able to work out of several jams, Shanahan put together long at-bats against the left-hander. Shanahan worked six three-ball count off Cantwell and had the leadoff hitter aboard in six of  seven innings.

“We’re all about shortening up when we’re down in the count, choking up and just battle, and his pitch count goes up” said Samson, who hit a couple of balls hard but had no hits to show for it. “Coach told us before the game, to get his pitch count up. He had a real good curveball and could locate pretty well. He was a real good pitcher.”

Shanahan is on a course to shock the District 1 baseball world. They bowed in the first round of the district tourney in each of the last three years, but are now a win away from winning it all.
Not bad for the underdog, huh?

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Bertolami said. “We were out in the first round last year, a 2-1 loss, so to come back this year … it’s great. I’m so happy for my coach, he’s been coaching a long time. We want to do this for him.”
As for the Tigers, they’ve already qualified for states, so they are guaranteed at least two more games. Last season they fell in the district final before running the table in the state tourney. They’ll play West Chester Rustin at home in the district third-place game Tuesday.