Coatesville edges Downingtown East to stay in National race

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UWCHLAN >> Baseball teams that are a tight knit group on-and-off the diamond are usually the teams that win close games. Monday afternoon at Downingtown East High School, the host Cougars battled with visiting Coatesville for nine tough innings.

But, for the fourth time this season, the Red Raiders came through when they had to and earned a 2-1 victory in a tense nine-inning Ches-Mont League National Division game.

Coatesville (11-4 Ches-Mont National, 12-4 overall) got a big RBI single from senior catcher Joey Mozzone in the top of the ninth inning off reliever Mike Devenney to score pinch-runner Nuge Williard, as the Red Raiders stayed one game behind division leading Avon Grove in the tight National Division race.

“We sure make things interesting,” Coatesville coach Hal Ziegler said. “We like to grind and the kids are a bunch of grinders. We got good pitching from Ben Jones and then Connor (Monaghan) came in and kept the ball down and if he does that, he is very good. We started Ben and he was on four days rest. We were looking to get 80 pitches out of him. He felt strong, so he went a little longer and he did a great job for us.”

The game was a pitching duel between Jones and the Cougars’ Kyle Mandirola. The two hurlers were both very effective. Downingtown East (9-7, 10-8) took a 1-0 lead when Nick Mullen roped an RBI double in the third inning.

Coatesville waited until the top of the fifth to dent Mandirola, bunching up three hits to plate a single run and it was a 1-1 game after five innings. Shane Monagahn delivered an RBI double to left field to knot the game.

The Red Raiders had the best chance to break the deadlock. They loaded the bases with one out in the top of the eighth against Mulllen, who relived Mandirola in the sixth.

But, Mullen got Spencer Ferguson to hit a soft liner to second base, They completed the double play by getting the runner wandering past third base to get out of the inning.

With Connor Monagahn keeping East at bay, the game went to the ninth still tied. Jack Francis led off the Coatesville ninth with a double to the fence in right-center.

Jake Martin attempted to bunt the runner over, but he popped it up and catcher Jack Reichlin caught it for the first out. Shane Monaghan lined to third base for the second out. Mozzone took a pitch right up the middle to score Willard for a 2-1 lead.

The Cougars did put the tying run on first in their half of the ninth when Sam Bates singled with two out. Connor Monaghan induced Conor Kelly to ground out to end the game and give the Red Raiders their fourth extra inning win of the season.

“I hit a slider on the outside corner of the plate,” Mozzone said. “I just tried to barrel something up and get the run in. This was a real big win for us. Ben had great velocity on the mound today and Connor kept guys off balance and had them swinging out in front of the pitch.

“It seems like we like extra innings. We are a very close knit team. We have a good time with each other and we hang out together on the weekend and we do a lot of things together and I think that helps us in tight games. This is a real close bunch of guys.”

Coatesville 2, Downingtown East 1, 9 innings
Coatesville        000 010 001-2
Downingtown East   001 000 000-1
WP-C. Monaghan. LP-Devenney.
2B-Mullen, Mozzone, S. Monaghan.