North Penn scores 8 in 2nd, tops Pennridge for 5th straight win
WEST ROCKHILL >> Steve Corrado did not just want to be back with the North Penn baseball team after COVID-19 keep him from playing for over three weeks.
The senior wanted to match the pace of a Knights side that has found its stride during a string of five straight road games that concluded Monday with an SOL Colonial Division contest against Pennridge.
“I had a few practices this week, I was very limited cause they wanted me to slowly return but I did get to get some swings,” Corrado said. “I wanted to me sure I came back ready. I wanted to be at their level. I feel like today I came in playing just as well as I was when I left just cause I needed those swing last week to keep up.”
Corrado showed he had no problem with that, on his first at-bat singling to right center to lead off the top of the second inning. North Penn sent another 13 batters to the plate and by the end of its half of the frame had built an 8-0 lead.
The Knights added a pair of runs in the fifth while starting pitcher Mike Lennon allowed the host Rams just a single hit on their Senior Night as North Penn rolled 10-0 in five innings at James Memorial Park for its fifth win in a row.
“It’s not easy to go win five games on the road, especially against the teams that we’re playing in our league,” Knights coach Kevin Manero said. “If somebody would’ve told me five games ago we were going to win all five I would’ve said well that’s a pretty tall order but our guys have really beared down one game at a time.
“And I don’t know maybe in this COVID world when there’s so many things going on and regulations, maybe it’s just easier to not play at home.”
Corrado finished 2-for-3 with a walk, an RBI and scored twice. Colin Orndorff was 2-for-2 with two walks and an RBI while Evin Sullivan went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored for the Knights (10-4, 4-3 division, 8-4 District 1-6A qualifying), who have not lost since falling 9-0 at home to Bensalem April 28.
“I was able to watch some of the games and after that game I could tell there was something that needed to be done,” Corrado said. “And I heard from a few guys they stayed and they all had a discussion, make sure what we needed to do for the rest of this year. And I knew coming back I had to have that mindset with them too, so just needed to keep going out there, just fighting with them, keep at their level.”
Sam Cohen collected all three of his RBIs in the top of the third. Jack Picozzi posted two RBIs while Jeff Sabater scored twice for North Penn, which had 11 hits.
Lennon, meanwhile, struck out five – including the first two batters he faced – and walked three as the senior left-hander threw a five-inning shutout.
“My whole idea going against this lineup was to attack the zone from first pitch strikes to just no running into three-ball counts, two-ball counts, stuff like that. Just trying to keep my pitch count low and then I started (to) realize that they were late on all of my pitches so I figured that I would just keep blowing it by them.”
The only hit the West Chester Commit gave up was a two-out single by Tim Mastrogiovanni in the third but proceeded to strike out the following batter.
Lennon began the bottom of the fourth by allowing back-to-back walks then loaded the bases with two-out with another walk. However, he got out of the jam by getting the next batter to ground out to second.
“Sometimes it’s a little easy to lose your concentration when you’re pitching with a big lead,” Manero said. “When he’s in rhythm and he’s pounding the zone like he was in that first couple innings, I mean that’s the way he’s been pitching for us all year and it’s been a big boost to us for sure.”
Both teams have SOL Colonial games 3:45 p.m. Wednesday – North Penn hosts Souderton while Pennridge (4-12, 1-6 division, 2-11 District 1-6A) visits Central Bucks West.
“These last five games on the road our whole idea was to just keeping winning one game at a time, one pitch at a time and keep plugging away,” Lennon said. “And that day that we went against Bensalem, when we had our meeting we all came together and we talked as a team and we just made sure that we wouldn’t leave that ballpark until we knew what we had to do. And it resulted in five wins.
The Knights began the top of the second with consecutive singles from Corrado and Orndorff. Two batters later, Sam Cohen’s single through the right side scored both Corrado and Tyler Bohn – catcher Orndorff’s courtesy runner – for a 2-0 lead.
After a Quinn Marett bunt single, RJ Agriss doubled down the third-base line to bring home Cohen. Sabater was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Sullivan, who sent a single to right center, scoring Marett to put NP up 4-0.
Justin Egner was hit by a pitch to make it 5-0 while after an infield fly out the Knights took an 8-0 lead on three straight two-out, bases-loaded walks by Orndorff, Picozzi and Cohen.
“We know that it’s not going to be easy to put up a lot of runs a lot of pitchers in this league but I think our approach at the plate is better,” Manero said. “I think we’re more equipped right now to handle better pitching simply because we’re doing a lot of things right whether it been moving a runner over or small ball or whether it be just trying to shorten up our swings and use the middle of the field. I think we’ve fixed some things there that are going to help us down the stretch.”
In the top of the fifth, Corrado gave the Knights the 9-0 lead with his second hit of the game – a two-out RBI single up the middle. After an Orndorff walk, Picozzi doubled down the first-base line to score Corrado for North Penn’s 10th run.
