Six-run 3rd sends Upper Dublin past Plymouth Whitemarsh

UPPER DUBLIN >> The spark the Upper Dublin baseball team needed down 3-1 to Plymouth Whitemarsh began to flicker on Jared Levis’ leadoff at-bat in the bottom of the third inning.

After connecting on a single to right field, the senior shortstop stole second base while a pair of wild pitches allowed him to come home, pulling the Cardinals to within one.

“We were just trying to do anything to get on base,” Levis said. “And I was just trying to do anything to help my team win.”

Upper Dublin flipped the SOL Liberty contest in its favor with three consecutive one-out singles that drove in four runs while Billy Brightcliffe’s RBI groundout gave the host Cards a six-spot in the frame and a 7-3 advantage.

“That was a really exciting inning, how we just turned it around after being down,” Levis said. “We had a lot of hits that inning and the fans were really getting into it so that was getting us excited. And we were just putting the ball in play and hitting the ball hard so that’s all you can do.”

UD proceeded to hold the Colonials to just one hit over the final four innings while adding a run each in the fourth and sixth in earning a 9-3 victory over PW Thursday afternoon.

“We’ve been missing a little bit of juice there and I think everybody’s pressing a little bit,” Upper Dublin coach Ed Wall said. “Today, we were able to barrel up some of those balls and relieve some of that tension and get excited about playing against a really good team over there. They’ve been beating really good teams in the league and I was just proud of our guys for doing the job that they did today.”

Levis scored all three times he reached base while Chase Trimm went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored for the Cardinals (4-2, 2-1 division), who picked up its second straight win.

“In the beginning some players that we thought would do better haven’t but now it seems like everyone’s kind of getting things together, making contact,” Trimm said. “Putting balls in play is really what we want.”

Singles by Luke Gartland and Chase Olszyk with Luke Caucci getting hit by a pitch in between loaded the bases for Plymouth Whitemarsh with no outs in the top of the first but the Colonials came up empty after a fly out to right and back-to-back strikeouts.

The Cardinals grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first as Jared Levis scored on a Joe Levis RBI groundout. PW, however, broke through with three runs in the top half of the third on a Gavin Rocks RBI ground then two batters later Lincoln Sharpe belted a two-run home run to left for a 3-1 edge.

“Obviously Lincoln’s home run was huge,” Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Chris Manero said. “He needed that, it was good for him. But we squared some balls up, we just couldn’t string hits together and on the other side they really executed everything and they took advantage of every opportunity.”

But Jacob Cornbluth and Wes Gill combined to shut down the Colonials the rest of the way with the visitors’ lone hit after the Sharpe blast coming in the fourth when Gartland singled with one out.

Cornbluth collected the win, allowing no runs and one hit in three innings. He walked one, hit one batter and struck out two. Gill had a walk and strikeout in pitching the seventh.

PW starting pitcher Matt Krawitz took the loss, giving up seven runs – five earned – on six hits in three innings. He walked two and struck out two.

Gartland finished 3-for-4 while Chase Olszyk was 2-for-4 for the Colonials, who host Wissahickon Monday. Upper Dublin visits Hatboro-Horsham Monday.

In the bottom of the third, after Jared Levis scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-2, an Austin Dahl one-out walk put two on for Aidan McCarthy, who knotted things 3-3 with an RBI single.

“I think for them, it was an inning of opportunities,” Manero said. “For us it was sort of like a frustrating inning because we gave them a little bit, they took a lot. Definitely a game changer and I think we just struggled to recover after that inning.”

Chase Sunday followed with a single to left center – Dahl scoring the go-ahead run while McCarthy raced in after the throw got past the plate to make it 5-3.

“Our guys scratch and claw for that extra 90,” Wall said. “And we took a lot of pride in that today.”

The next at-bat, Trimm made it 6-3 with an RBI single to right with an error on the play allowing him to reach third. Trimm then scored to put UD up four on Brightcliffe’s RBI groundout.

“I saw it past him so I was really chugging for second but I kind of took a risk for third,” Trimm said. “I wasn’t really sure if I’d be safe but you know sometimes it has to happen.”

Upper Dublin went up 8-3 in the fourth. Jared Levis led off with a walk, stole second, went to third on Eric Berman’s bunt single then scored on a Joe Levis RBI base hit.

The Cardinals tacked on their final run in the bottom of the sixth as Berman – who drew a one-out walk – came in on Dahl RBI sacrifice fly.

UD went up 1-0 in the bottom of the fist without a hit. Jared Levis reached on an error, stole second, and advanced to third on a Berman sac bunt before coming home on Joe Levis’ RBI single.

Olszyk started the top of the third with a single then went to third on a Johnny Giordano single. Giordano stole second to put runners on second and third for Rocks, who brought in courtesy runner Ryan Moore to tie the game with a groundout.

Two batters later, Sharpe put PW up with his two-out, two-run blast to left.