Lennon pitches North Penn past CR South as Knights return to field

TOWAMENCIN >> Mike Lennon admitted he was a little anxious to take the mound on Monday.

The North Penn lefty knew the ball was in his hands to set the tone as the Knights returned from a 10-day layoff due to Covid-19 protocols. Once he got going, any lingering nerves went away quickly as Lennon started to mow through Council Rock South hitters.

A complete-game shutout gem from Lennon powered the Knights to a 6-0 win over the Golden Hawks in their unofficial restart to the season.

“I’d say that we were very anxious coming into this game, we were eager to play,” Lennon said. “We were looking to get a ‘dub’ early in the week and start off strong.”

North Penn’s last outing came on April 16 in a 4-2 extra inning loss to Central Bucks East. With Monday’s SOL crossover game counting toward the District 1 playoff rankings, there was extra onus on North Penn to get things going back the right direction.

“Having a week off is the worst thing ever, next to having an entire year off,” Knights coach Kevin Manero said. “We came out today and no question rode the arm of Mike Lennon. He set the tone and the six run inning was huge for us but for him to put up a zero the next inning against a good part of their order I thought was just as big.”

The Knights would have to do it shorthanded, with two lineup regulars still out due to protocols. Third baseman Justin Egner was part of the next group up, getting his first varsity start in place of RJ Agriss and coming through with two hits and a couple solid defensive plays.

Egner, who batted eighth, put a spark in a lethargic Knights offense with his single in the third inning for the team’s first hit of the day, then came up with an RBI single during North Penn’s six-run fourth.

“I was just staying within myself, doing my job and not trying to make it too big of a deal,” Egner said of his varsity debut. “The first couple of pitches, I was a little anxious but once I dug into the box and got settled, I felt pretty good from there.”

Hawks starting pitcher Joey Purcell led off the game with a single but Lennon got the next three batters out in quick succession. An inning later, CR South put runners at the corners with two outs but a diving catch by Ryan Sullivan in right saved any runs from crossing and from there, the lefty starter was on a roll.

Lennon was very efficient Monday, throwing 94 pitches and getting 20 first-pitch strikes to the 26 batters he faced. The southpaw allowed just three hits, walked one batter and struck out eight while holding CR South to just three runners over the final five innings.

“Today, I just got into a groove,” Lennon said. “I felt good. My off-speed was working well all day and once you have that secondary pitch, you can always work from there. I had both pitches working today and it just felt good to go between them.”

After five of the first seven North Penn batters struck out against Purcell, Egner laced a one-out single off the mound and into center field in the bottom of the third. Evin Sullivan worked a walk two batters later and while the Knights stranded both of them, they saw their adjustments start to pay off.

Manero, who was frustrated with some of his team’s at-bats the first time through the order, brought the players in for a talk before the bottom half of the fourth. Scoring runs was something the Knights at times struggled with prior to their shutdown, so they wanted to reset starting Monday.

“We made a couple minor adjustments that needed to happen and started to chip away at them,” Manero said. “Jack Picozzi’s bunt kind of changed the complexion of the inning and those are the little things we have to be able to do when we’re facing a pitcher that’s giving us trouble.”

Ethan Cohen led off with a walk then scored on a booming double to deep center by Sam Cohen that got North Penn on the board. With Sam Cohen, who had advanced to third as the Hawks attempted to relay the ball home, Picozzi put down a bunt that ended with an errant throw, him safe at first and Sam Cohen walking to the dugout with North Penn up 2-0.

Ryan Sullivan singled and Pat Breen walked to load the bases for Egner, who put a ball into the air in right field that avoided the Hawks’ outfielder for an RBI single. Evin Sullivan added a one-out RBI single and Ethan Cohen got an RBI from his second plate appearance of the frame with a sac fly to center.

In total, North Penn sent 11 batters to the plate, collected five hits and put six runs on the board.

“We just had to get on the plate, do the job and hit the ball,” Egner said. “You have to go after the pitcher, stay within yourself and just do your job depend what your team needs.”

Lennon was on lockdown mode from there looking to close out the win. The lefty said he got up and kept moving during the long bottom of the fourth, which he felt helped keep his rhythm when he got back on the mound.

The pitcher wanted to finish the game strong for his teammates and did just that.

“The way we came into this game, we thought of it as a new opening day,” Lennon said. “We feel like we can carry this the rest of the way and we’re going to keep on winning.”

Egner had the final out, handling a hard-hit ball to third and throwing the runner out at first, which led to a very animated Lennon hopping off the mound in celebration toward his coach.

“I told Mike Lennon if he could throw a complete game shutout, he could drive my Jeep,” Manero said. “Now, I’ve got a problem because I have it on a lease, so I’m not sure what I’m going to do about that.”

NORTH PENN 6, COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 0
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 000 000 0 – 0 3 1
NORTH PENN 000 600 x – 6 5 1