McCausland strikes out 12, Souderton shuts out North Penn for 8th straight win
LOWER SALFORD >> Will McCausland quickly found himself in a tight spot in the top of the second inning.
A Brian Neal infield single, Ben Farley getting hit by a pitch and Jacob Martinell’s bunt single gave North Penn the bases loaded with no outs and a prime opportunity to take an early lead in the SOL Colonial Division baseball contest Tuesday afternoon.
But panic never set in for the Souderton right-hander as he proceeded to strike out the next three batters to work out of the jam without allowing a run.
“I just go back to my roots, stay calm and collected,” McCausland said. “And just do what I needed to do.”
The Saint Joseph’s commit and Knights left-hander Dylan Brown traded scoreless frames for four innings before the Indians took advantage of errors to plate a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth and held on to shut out North Penn 2-0 at Vic Alderfer Memorial Ball Park.
“That second inning was huge,” Souderton coach Mike Childs said. “Bases loaded, nobody out and we got out of that I think it was three strikeouts on that. For him to step up and do that is absolutely huge in a situation like that against a team like North Penn which is always going to fight, always going to battle.”
McCausland struck out 12 and gave up five hits, walked one and hit two batters in 6 2/3 innings, the senior lifted after reaching the 100-pitch limit following Ryan Sullivan getting to second base on a two-out error in the top of the seventh.
“Honestly I didn’t think I was going to make it into the fifth inning with the way I was pitching in the beginning,” McCausland said.
Jackson Morrissette came in and got the next batter to ground out to third to pick up the save and secure an eighth straight victory for Souderton (13-3, 11-2 division).
“There’s things that we’ve missed – execution of bunts, errors at the end,” Childs said. “We can’t just close the door totally and in playoff time if we don’t do that, we might be the ones going home with a loss. And unfortunately in playoffs the loss is you’re done.
“So we got to keep working, got to keep fielding ground balls, got to keep making plays, got to keep doing bunt coverages and we have to execute our bunts which I’ve been talking about all season. A game like today shows that execution is key.”
The win combined with Central Bucks East’s 6-3 loss to Central Bucks South in nine innings clinched at least a share of the SOL Colonial title for the Indians, who can earn the outright crown with a win in one of its three remaining division games.
Souderton visits Pennridge 5:45 p.m. Thursday at James Memorial Park then hosts Upper Dublin for a nondivision game 3:45 p.m. Friday.
“Never nervous in the field when Will’s pitching,” Indians third baseman Luke Pollock said. “We have so much confidence in him cause we know how he can pitch and he knows it and it’s just a great feeling, hitting when you know when you have a pitcher like that.”
Brown took the loss but gave North Penn a strong complete-game effort, the Old Dominion commit allowing two runs – both unearned – on four hits, walked three and struck out four.
“He was just as good as he’s ever been his last outing out, he was still really good today,” said Knights coach Kevin Manero of Brown. “Not his best stuff but he competed with maybe a shred less of his best stuff. He competed, he got big outs when he had to. He was just chomping at the bit to go out there again if we tied the game. He’s a big workhorse and he is a bona fide number one pitcher and he did everything we could ask for.”
North Penn (8-8, 6-7), which after the loss sit sits just outside of the 20-team District 1-6A playoff field at 21st in the power rankings, opened the week Monday by blanking Pennridge 3-0 for the Knights’ first shutout win of the year then followed that by being shut out for the first time in 2022 a day later.
North Penn visits CB South 3:45 p.m. Thursday then host Hatboro-Horsham 1 p.m. Saturday at Lansdale Memorial Park in an SOL nondivision game.
“This is every game, it’s one really good pitcher versus another – there is no break,” Manero said. “Whoever wins this conference and gets in the playoffs is going to be a heck of a tough team in the postseason because we are tested day-in and day-out. And we knew we were in for it today, he (McCausland) is a very good pitcher and we knew that we needed our guy (Brown) to be almost perfect and he was, he was outstanding and the closer the game is, the more magnified any little mistakes can be but we battled.”
Souderton, fourth in the 1-6A rankings, brought in Tuesday’s lone two runs with two outs in the bottom of the fifth.
Chris McKenna kept the inning alive with a single through the left side of the infield. The next at-bat, Pollock chopped a grounder to third with an errant throw to first allowing McKenna to score and Pollock to reach third. Pollock was then given home to make it 2-0 as a throw towards the plate went out of play.
“I’m making it as far as I can and then I went far enough to where you get the free bag,” Pollock said.
After coming up empty in the top of the second with the bases loaded and no outs due to McCausland’s three consecutive strikeouts, North Penn put two on in the third after a Sullivan leadoff bunt single and a Pat Breen one-out walk. But a strikeout then a fly out to left kept things 0-0.
“I was starting to throw more off-speed later in the game which was really keeping them off stride I thought and that’s kind of what helped me,” McCausland said.
The Knights got a two-out bunt single by Quinn Marett in the fourth and a two-out Breen infield single in the fifth but did not have another runner in scoring position until Sullivan reached second after a two-out error in the top of the seventh.
“We strike out too much,” Manero said. “We look at our stats over the years and it’s the biggest number that we talk about offensively is strikeouts. In high school baseball, you have to put the ball in play. In big league ball they talk a lot about ‘Oh strikeouts they don’t matter’ or they’re the same as an out – not in high school.
“You got to put the ball in play, making adjustments from pitch to pitch, just putting the barrel on the ball, forcing defenses to make plays. We just have to do a better job of that.”
Souderton had two runners on in the bottom of the third after a Kaden Pasternak leadoff single and a Pollock two-out walk but the next batter popped out to third. Big Red got a runner to third with two outs in the fourth only for Brown to end the inning with a strikeout.
Souderton 2, North Penn 0
North Penn 000 000 0 – 0 5 2
Souderton 000 020 x – 2 4 1
WP: Will McCausland 6.2 IP 5 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 12 SO 2 HB.
LP: Dylan Brown 6 IP 4 H 2 R 0 ER 3 BB 4 SO.
S: Jackson Morrissette 0.1 IP 0 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 0 SO.
2B: S-Hunter Weitzel.
