Fang, Pennsbury shut down Souderton in District 1-6A quarterfinals
LOWER SALFORD >> Three times the Souderton baseball team put a runner on third base in Friday afternoon’s District 1-6A quarterfinal.
And every time Pennsbury senior right-hander Dalton Fang ended the threat with back-to-back strikeouts.
“Each one I tried to take one moment at a time, try to stay in the moment,” Fang said. “Just put my best foot forward, compete in a given moment. So, the first one, obviously that was most important, then the second one when it came time, then third one.”
The fourth-seeded Indians could not crack Fang until the bottom of the seventh inning. But by that time the No. 5 Falcons had already put four runs on the scoreboard – the last three in their half of the seventh – and clinched their first PIAA appearance since 2017 with a 4-1 victory at Vic Alderfer Memorial Ball Park.
“He got his curveball over and when he gets his curveball over he’s tough,” said Souderton coach Mike Childs of Fang. “And that’s what the scouting report was and that’s what happened today and we didn’t hit it. There’s a lot of things we’re looking at, we just got to get aggressive at the plate.”
Fang, a Harvard commit, pitched a superb 6 2/3 innings, striking out 14 while giving up one run – earned – on six hits and no walks and also hit a two-run single in the seventh as Pennsbury (19-3) advances to the district semifinals to visit top seed West Chester Henderson Tuesday. Henderson topped No. 9 Perkiomen Valley 12-0 in five innings.
“I had good feel for all my pitches there, fastball was effective, got ahead with the fastball and then I was able to mix changeup and curveball for that,” Fang said. “I don’t think I leaned on one too heavily, I kind of mixed both which I thought definitely benefited.”
Souderton (18-4), which had a 13-game winning streak snapped, can still make states through five-place playbacks and Tuesday hosts No. 6 Garnet Valley, which fell 3-2 to No. 3 Owen J. Roberts. In 2019, the Indians finished fifth in districts and went on to win the PIAA-6A championship.
“As a coaching staff we’ve been in it and it’s our job is to guide them through that,” Childs said. “I have no stress, I know the caliber of team we have and I know what we can do, we just go to step up and play baseball and play relaxed, easy baseball just like they did all year to get to 17 wins and now it’s let’s go out and have fun.
“There’s not really any stress, we made it a little harder for ourselves but I got full confidence in these guys to battle back and see what happens.”
Ryan Hirsh was 2-for-3 with an RBI while Jackson Freeman finished 2-for-3 for Pennsbury, which won its 11th straight – its last defeat coming April 22 as it fell to Souderton 9-7 in eight innings.
The Indians’ Luke Pollock went 2-for-3 while Big Red starting pitcher Jackson Morrissette took the loss despite a solid effort, allowing three runs – two earned – on six hits, walking one and striking out three in six-plus innings.
“I have nothing bad to say about Jackson,” Child said. “He did his job, he got ground balls, we didn’t field a couple ground balls, extra pitches – that never works out well especially in situations. But I’m very happy [with] what he’s doing for us. We just got to generate runs.”
Souderton created a scoring chance in the bottom of the first as McKenna collected an infield single then went to third as Pollock dropped a single into right center. But with runners at the corners, Fang got out of the early jam striking on the next two batters.
“You definitely got to focus up,” Fang said. “I try to just be myself, I know I can work with the things I have so I don’t have to be something greater than I am. But you know, just living in the moment and taking each pitch one at a time.”
The Falcons took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. Justin Mitrovich led off by lining a single up the middle then going to third on a Joe Tiroly single. After Tiroly stole second to put runners on second and third, Hirsh singled through the right side of the infield to bring home Mitrovich. Tiroly tried to score on the play but right fielder Hunter Weitzel’s throw was on time to get the out at home.
“For me, I’d rather send ‘em and get ‘em thrown out then say I wish I would of sent ‘em later,” Pennsbury coach Joe Pesci said. “Plus early on during IO [infield-outfield warmups] it was slick the balls were sailing all over – he just made a perfect play, perfect throw.”
Fang retired eight straight batters – including striking out the side in the second – before Pollock opened Souderton’s half of the fourth with an infield single. Carter Jagiela followed by reaching on a bunt single.
Pollock went to third as Jagiela was forced out at second on a fielder’s choice. Warner stole second to put runners at second and third with one out only for Fang to post consecutive strikeouts.
“I said it to the team without him in those situations going in there as a bulldog and winning those we don’t win this game,” said Pesci of Fang. “It takes the wind out of the sails of the other team when that happened, when you have guys in scoring position and you don’t push it across. I mean, he was phenomenal today. And we let Reese call pitches, we let Callan shake off and sometimes we’ll make calls but it was those two guys the whole game.”
In the bottom of the sixth and Souderton still trailing 1-0, McKenna led off by reaching on an error. The next batter popped up a bunt for an out but an errant throw to first trying to double up McKenna allowed him to take second. And with no one covering third on the play, McKenna took the base, putting him 90 feet from tying the game with one out.
Fang, however, stranded him there by again collecting back-to-back strikeouts.
“You can’t expect to win games when you strike out 14 times,” Childs said. “No matter how good our pitchers are throwing, no batter our defense is good or bad playing, 14 strikeouts is not going to win a game.”
Pennsbury took firmer control with a three-run top of the seventh. Freeman led off with a single to center with an error on Brody Travagline’s bunt putting two on with no outs and ended Morrisssette’s day on the mound.
With one out, a wild pitch advanced both runners with pinch runner Charlie Cordisco scoring as Charlie Evans reached on an error after knocking a ball to the left side.
Evans stole second then both he and Travagline scored as Fang lined a two-RBI single into left then advanced to second on the play.
“I was looking for fastball,” Fang said. “I think I got down 0-2 and I guess just battle, just try to get the barrel on the ball. Obviously can’t strike out there, got to put the ball in play, do a job but it was good got the barrel just out of reach of the third baseman.”
Ryan Zuckerman followed with a single to put runners on the corners but Souderton kept its deficit at four with a 6-4-3 double play.
Justin DiCesare started the bottom of the seventh with a single to right. After two strikeouts, Kaden Pasternak singled up the middle to bring in DiCesare to make it 4-0. But Gavin Hawkes took over for Fang and needed just two pitches to secure the save.
District 1-6A Quarterfinals
(5) Pennsbury 4, (4) Souderton 1
Pennsbury 010 000 3 – 4 8 1
Souderton 000 000 1 – 1 6 4
WP: Callan Fang 6.2 IP 6 H 1 R 1 ER 0 BB 14 SO.
LP: Jackson Morrissette 6 IP 6 H 3 R 2 ER 1 BB 3 SO.
S: Gavin Hawkes 0.1 IP 0 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 0 SO.
Pennsbury: Jackson Freeman 2-3; Reese Hirsh 2-3.
Souderton: Luke Pollock 2-3.
