Upper Moreland, Jimmy Torpey shut down Upper Dublin

WILLOW GROVE >> It’s typically an advantage for the batter when they see the same pitcher multiple times in a game, but that wasn’t the case when Upper Moreland hosted Upper Dublin in a Suburban One League crossover game.

After allowing four hits his first time through the Cardinals lineup, Golden Bears pitcher Jimmy Torpey allowed only three hits through the rest of his outing. The left-hander went through Upper Dublin’s lineup two full times and saw the top six spots in the batting order a third time before hitting his pitch limit in the top of the sixth inning.

Torpey struck out nine batters to two walks over 5 1/3 innings and allowed one run on seven hits in Upper Moreland’s 3-1 win Monday afternoon.

“I like to analyze their swings, analyze their at-bats,” Torpey, who’s friends with a lot of players on Upper Dublin and plays with them in the summer with Thoroughbred Baseball Academy, said. “I see what they’re looking for, what I can lean on, stuff like that. I find myself getting stronger as the game goes on.”

“(Torpey is) just an excellent high school pitcher,” Upper Moreland coach Jim Fasano said. “He throws strikes, he commands two pitches – he throws strikes with both of them. He’s going to go down as one of the best pitchers in Upper Moreland High School history – not because of his overwhelming velocity, but because of his mound presence and his competitiveness. He throws strikes. It’s just so important to throw strikes and get ahead in counts and he did.”

The only run Torpey surrendered came in the top of the first inning when Upper Dublin’s Jared Levis led off with a single, beat the throw to second after getting picked off and scored on an Aidan McCarthy double.

The senior pitched around three second-inning singles, a first-and-second-no-outs situation in the third and a leadoff single in the fifth. He finished four of his completed five innings with strikeouts.

“I put in a lot of work in the winter, my strikeout numbers are going up,” Torpey, who caught Cardinals looking on four of his nine strikeouts, said. “I think I had 10, nine and nine in my last three starts. It’s something I’ve been working on a lot.”

“Torpey’s a great pitcher,” UD coach Ed Wall said. “He’s really tough. It doesn’t matter who he’s facing, he’s going to give you a battle. He mixes three pitches for strikes and really keeps us off-balance. We got up there looking at a lot instead of being aggressive. It bit us in the end.”

Torpey also helped his cause at the plate. After Jackson Townsend’s sacrifice fly tied the game, 1-1, in the bottom of the first, Torpey had what proved to be the game-winning RBI. His two-out single knocked in Nate Kelly and put the Golden Bears (3-2, 2-1 SOL Freedom) ahead for good.

Townsend, a freshman, added his second RBI of the game in the bottom of the third. His single to right field scored Kelly and gave Upper Moreland a little breathing room with a 3-1 advantage.

“(Townsend) is a really dynamic baseball player,” Fasano said. “He has good at-bats, he flies, he’s versatile on defense. He’s got room to grow, of course, as we all do, but he has the potential to be as good as he wants to be.”

The Cardinals (2-2, 2-1 SOL Liberty) got solid pitching performances from McCarthy and Austin Dahl to keep the game tight. McCarthy started and went three innings, striking out six batters to no walks and allowed three runs on five hits. Dahl threw three scoreless innings in relief, striking out four batters to no walks and allowing one hit.

“Aidan battled,” Wall said. “He wasn’t 100%. I know where he would want himself to be, but as always he is going to grind out three, four, five innings for us. He did that today, settled down. He gave up a couple soft-contact that ended up scoring runs for them. Austin came in, blew their doors in and pretty much shut them down from then on out.”

Upper Dublin hurt itself on the bases. Three different runners got picked off. It worked to the Cardinals advantage in the first inning, but the other two times happened at second base and turned runners in scoring position into outs. Upper Moreland senior captain and catcher Paul Meyers threw both players out.

Upper Dublin managed to bring the tying run to the plate in the top of the sixth inning after Torpey hit his pitch limit, but Colin Fell came on in relief and earned the five-out save. He struck out three batters in 1 2/3 perfect innings.

Last season, Upper Moreland won one crossover game. It was the SOL Freedom’s only crossover win against the SOL Liberty. The Golden Bears hope starting 1-0  is a sign of a successful season ahead.

“It’s nice to beat bigger schools,” Fasano said. “These guys were the District 1 champs last year. They were in the state semifinal. Granted it’s a different team this year, but it shows that when we play well, we can play with anybody. I feel like this part of the season is all about building confidence and proving to ourselves that we belong on the field with these guys and we did today.”

Upper Moreland 3, Upper Dublin 1

Upper Dublin 100 000 0 – 1

Upper Moreland 201 000 x – 3

WP: Jimmy Torpey 5.1 IP 9 K 2 BB 7 H 1 R

LP: Aidan McCarthy 3 IP 6 K 0 BB 5 H 3 R

S: Colin Fell 1.2 IP 3 K 0 BB 0 H 0 R

2B: UD: Aidan McCarthy.