La Salle holds off Archbishop Wood in battle of PCL unbeatens

WARMINSTER >> La Salle’s pitchers struggled with control Friday afternoon. Kevin Kell, Cole Kochanowicz and Connor Bogansky totaled 11 walks and two hit batters across seven innings against Archbishop Wood.

The trio of right-handers came through when it mattered most. They held the Vikings to one hit and left the bases loaded three times, including the sixth and seventh innings, during the Explorers 3-2 Philadelphia Catholic League win at Archbishop Wood High School.

“Our guys were around the zone and sometimes not getting the breaks you want,” La Salle coach Kyle Werman said. “You find yourself in those situations and you have to make pitches. You have to challenge the opponent. Our guys did a good job. This was a tough environment – a lot of fun with both sides having a ton of fans. There’s a lot of buildup to a game like this. For our guys to be in that environment – it’s a fun situation.”

Bogansky picked up the save by recording the final two outs. He entered the game with a 3-1 lead, a runner on first and one out after left fielder Justin Machita made a diving catch to save an extra-base hit. He struck out the first batter he faced – Wood cleanup hitter Luke Cantwell, who doubled earlier in the game – before walking back-to-back batters to load the bases.

Aidan Meyers scored from third on a wild pitch and the other two runners advanced to put the tying run on third and the winning run on second. An intentional walk loaded the bases before Bogansky struck out Patrick McKinney to end the game.

“You bring a senior into that environment,” Werman said. “It’s not an easy situation for (Bogansky), but he’s been our other starter. He started early in the week and was available today. I felt like if we were going to come down to the wire at the end of the game, I wanted a senior with the ball in his hands to handle that. Tip your cap – struggling to find the zone for various reasons and he just kept grinding. He did what he had to do.”

Kochanowicz faced a similar situation in the sixth inning. The freshman struck out the first two batters of the inning before three straight walks loaded the bases. He fell behind 3-0 on Wood leadoff man Ryan Albin before throwing back-to-back strikes. He got out of the inning with a fly ball to right field.

Kell’s bases-loaded jam came in the first inning. He hit Myers, intentionally walked Cantwell and walked Joey Gale to load the bases with two outs. He ended the threat by striking out Kevin Cute.

“We didn’t capitalize on some opportunities we had,” Wood coach Jim DiGuiseppe Jr. said. “In those situations where you have runners in scoring position we’re looking for a guy to come up and get a key hit for us and pick up a run or two. Unfortunately we just didn’t get that today. We had really been doing a great job of that all year, but we just didn’t take advantage of some situations and get some key hits. Credit La Salle for making some good pitches.”

La Salle (10-0 PCL) did all of its scoring in the top of the third. Jake Whitlinger got hit by a pitch and Danny Wagner walked to start the inning. They executed a double steal to put runners on second and third with no outs. After a strikeout, Joe Cattie walked to load the bases.

Eric Shandler made it 1-0 when he hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Whitlinger. Wagner and Cattie made heads up plays to advance to second and third on the throw home and both scored on Machita’s two-out single to put La Salle ahead, 3-0.

“You talk about 90 feet,” Werman said. “In games like this, every 90 feet matters. Really, really fantastic read by our trail runner to take that extra base. Those are the details that most people in the scorebook ignore, but that was huge. That allowed the two-out knock to be two more runs and that was the difference. I’m proud of the details our guys do in practice to be able to transition that into the games.”

“I used to hate the two-out situations,” Machita said. “I thought there was a lot of pressure. This year, I’ve been a lot more confident at the plate and I know all I can do is put a barrel on it. That’s going to give my team the best chance to win and that’s what happened.”

Wood (8-1 PCL) got one run back in the bottom of the third. Michael Trommer worked a one-out walk and moved to third on Cantwell’s double, the Vikings only hit of the game. Gale hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Trommer and make it 3-1.

Wood’s pitching kept them in the game by holding La Salle to four hits. Albin started and allowed three runs over five innings while striking out seven batters to five walks. John Gori threw the final two innings, blanking La Salle while allowing one hit to two strikeouts and two walks.

“Our pitchers have really been solid all year,” DiGuiseppe Jr. said. “Ryan was a little off in the mid inning there that one inning, but he did a good job at settling back down and I thought John Gori came in and did a super job for us keeping it where it was.”

La Salle is now the only unbeaten team in the PCL and is in the driver’s seat for the No. 1 seed in the league playoffs, which begin in less than two weeks.

“To come in here and face another unbeaten and come away with a win on the road,” Werman said, “I’m proud of these guys.”

“We’ve got quite a few top-notch teams in the league,”DiGuiseppe Jr. said. “I have no doubt whoever is there at the end it’s going to be a real competitive game. Our goal is to be one of those teams and come out and compete.”

La Salle 3, Archbishop Wood 2
La Salle 003 000 0 – 3
Archbishop Wood 001 000 1 – 2
WP: Kevin Kell 4 IP 6 K 3 BB 1 H 1 R
LP: Ryan Albi 5 IP 7 K 5 BB 3 H 3 R
S: Connor Bogansky 0.2 IP 2 K 3 BB 0 H 0 R
2B: AW: Luke Cantwell.