Four-run 7th sends Plymouth Whitemarsh past Liberty, into PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals
UPPER SAUCON >> Plymouth Whitemarsh has done it all season.
The Suburban One League American Conference champions have a pair of starting pitchers that shut opposing offenses down and their own offense has a big inning to pick up the win.
They did it in league wins against Springfield and Cheltenham and they did it in District 1 postseason wins against Souderton and Downingtown East.
The Colonials did it again in the first round of the PIAA Class 6A state playoffs, scoring four runs to break a tie in the top of the seventh inning and held on for a 6-4 win over Liberty Monday afternoon at Weiland Park on the campus of DeSales University.
“We’ve been doing it the whole season,” PW outfielder Drew Kliesh said. “It’s nothing new to us. To me, I knew it was coming. We were down 2-0 the whole game, got it back and in the dugout everyone said, ‘We’re not losing this. We need to have a big inning.’ And of course it happened.”
The big inning started with two outs, nobody on base and the top of the order up. Joe Jaconski worked a walk and Ben Mascio singled. Kevin Reilly followed with an RBI single to break the 2-2 tie and put (1-3) Plymouth Whitemarsh ahead for good. Kliesh followed with a two-run double and Jacob Nunez added an RBI single to make it 6-2.
“We can create momentum like that,” Mascio said. “It’s nothing to us. We can swing the game like it’s a snap of the fingers.”
“We’ve been flipping the switch like that the whole year,” Kliesh added. “You can go back to the Souderton game when that happened. Once things start to settle in for us, we turn it.”
In the bottom half of the seventh, Mascio put (11-1) Liberty’s first two batters on and Jaconski came on in relief. The Hurricanes cut their deficit in half with a two-out, two-run single, but Jaconski forced a flyball to left field for the final out.
“He wants the ball all the time,” PW coach Chris Manero said of Jaconski shutting the door. “To have a kid who’s obviously got a bright future and plays shortstop and throws a lot, sometimes those kind of guys don’t want the ball. They don’t want to do all the things the team needs, but Joe’s not that kind of player. Joe does what the team needs.”
Mascio got the win, allowing three runs over six innings. He struck out five batters to three walks and allowed three hits.
Two hits, two runs and two walks came in the first inning, when Liberty took a 2-0 lead on a wild pitch and a bases loaded walk. After that, Mascio settled down. The first two batters of the second inning reached base and then the left-hander retired 15 straight batters until the seventh inning.
“I think my rhythm was just all out of whack,” Mascio said. “I didn’t really have my best stuff the first two innings, then I made an adjustment and locked in the rest of the game.
“I just slowed everything down. I was just rushing everything going way too fast with my windup. I slowed it all down, made it simple.”
“We talk to our guys about believing in themselves and trusting themselves,” Manero said. “If they don’t have a good first at-bat, they have a chance to have a good second at-bat, have a good third at-bat. When you stay confident in yourselves, you do things late. Even when things don’t work in the beginning. You can say that about Ben coming back after the first inning. You can say that about Kevin Reilly, Drew. All these guys that had big hits. We obviously didn’t have very many hits early on. They all had a chance to redeem themselves and they welcome that opportunity.”
The Colonials cut their deficit in half in the third inning. Mike Orensky reached on an infield single, advanced to second on an error and third on a walk. He scored when a pickoff attempt at second base soared into center field.
They tied the game in the top of the sixth. Mascio led off with a double and courtesy runner Tyler Willans advanced to third after two walks. Willans scored on a Jesse Jaconski sacrifice fly to right field.
The Colonials will face Souderton in the quarterfinals Thursday at a site and time to be determined. The expected pitching matchup is PW’s Brett Bottinger against Souderton’s Luke Taylor. Those two faced off when the teams met in the District 1 quarterfinals and PW won, 6-3.
