Hatboro-Horsham comes roaring back, beats rival Upper Dublin

PLYMOUTH TWP. >> In a 3-0 hole against one of its fiercest rivals, Hatboro-Horsham swung its way out of trouble.

“One through nine, we all contribute,” said the Hatters’ cleanup man, Will Bruner. “We all can hit for power, we can all hit for contact. I feel like there’s no one that can beat us when we’re doing everything correctly. And we did that the last couple innings.”

Hatboro-Horsham plated three runs in the sixth and four more in the seventh to pull away to a 7-3 victory over the Cardinals in a Suburban One League Liberty Division clash at Villanova Field.

Bruner delivered not once but twice in those two key innings.

“I always go up there with confidence,” he said. “I always feel I can hit anyone – it doesn’t matter who’s throwing. And I always feel like in the end, putting hard contact on the ball, making sure you’re getting good swings, good results are gonna happen from that.”

Added Bruner: “This is massive. We just swept the division the first run through, and it feels great.”

The Hatters completed a perfect 5-0 run through its first set of division games. The Cardinals are now 4-2 in the Liberty.

Cole Fisher got the Hatters started by belting a towering double to the center-field wall to lead off the sixth. Bruner knocked him in seconds later with a double to deep left, making it 3-1.

Ryan Toporowski’s bunt single helped keep the rally going. Logan Fischer’s ground ball scored another run and Noah Schlosser’s sac fly to left deadlocked things at three apiece.

“When we tied it up, we were feeling it,” Bruner said. “And then we got a shutdown inning and got right back to it. We just kept the sticks on fire. It was working for us and it was great to see.”

Right hander Trey Porter, who pitched six and two thirds innings in getting the win, retired the Cards in four batters in the bottom half.

The Hatters broke it open in the seventh.

Jack Elwell smacked a one-out, line-drive single to get things going. With one out and two on, Bruner ripped a single up the middle to plate two runs and push the Hatters into the lead for good, 5-3.

“It’s just exciting with this group because you never feel like you’re out of it,” said Hatboro-Horsham coach Pete Moore. “Down 3-0, and (Upper Dublin’s Tristan) Cairnes is one of the best pitchers in the league. And he really dominated the first five innings. Our guys made some nice adjustments in the last couple of innings and stayed within themselves.”

The Hatters padded their lead with RBI singles by Nick Katherine and Toporowski.

Porter notched the first two outs of the seventh and then Toporowski came on to finish it off. Porter limited the Cards to five hits while striking out seven with just one walk.

“Trey Porter was just outstanding,” Moore said. “We had three games in three days this week and we gave up four runs. Only one of them was earned. And it speaks to the work that those guys are doing with our pitching coach, Jason Mills. And Trey just went out there today and commanded the zone with three pitches and was really impressive.

“(Going 5-0 is) a great start, but it’s not even close to being done. We’ve got a target on our back now – we know that. There are a lot of really good baseball teams that are gonna be getting better throughout the year so we have to continue to get better so we can have success in the second half.”

Ethan Madnick tripled and scored on a fielder’s choice to make it 1-0 Upper Dublin in the second. Nick Harley, David Sharp and Leo Soriano all had singles in the fourth to help UD extend to a 3-0 advantage.

“We got a little quiet there and missed a couple of opportunities,” Cardinals coach Ed Wall said. “Whenever you’re playing Hatboro-Horsham, you gotta stay on them. You let up a little bit and they’re gonna take advantage of it. They’re a good baseball team, well-coached, and they showed it today.”

Hatboro-Horsham 7, Upper Dublin 3
Hatboro-Horsham 000 003 4 – 7 9 2
Upper Dublin 010 200 0 – 3 5 2
WP: Trey Porter (62/3IP, 3R, 1ER, 5H, 7K, 1BB).
LP: Tristan Cairnes (61/3IP, 6R, 6ER, 7H, 8K, 1BB).
3B: UD-Ethan Madnick. 2B: HH-Cole Fisher, Will Bruner.
Multiple hits: HH-Bruner 2-for-4, 2R, 3 RBIs; Ryan Toporowski 3-for-4, RBI.