By Peter DiGiovanni
pdgiovanni07@gmail.com
@PeteDLNontwitter
WESTTOWN >> Even though the West Chester Rustin baseball team had not played a game in over a week due to last week’s heavy rains, the host Golden Knights showed no sign of rust as they blasted a young Kennett squad, 15-3, in a five inning game Tuesday afternoon in a key Ches-Mont American Division game.
Rustin (2-1 Ches-Mont, 2-1 overall) broke open a two run game in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Golden Knights sent 14 men to the plate and scored 10 runs on five hits in the inning.
Kennett (0-3, 1-3) pitchers had trouble throwing strikes as the Blue Demons two hurlers walked 11 Rustin batters on the day.
“I thought we showed a lot of good plate discipline today,” Rustin coach Brad Harkins said. “We have not played in a long time and we had some good at bats. We are a team where all the guys are going to have to count on one another. And I thought our pitcher, Brody Bump, did a nice job putting the ball over the plate today.”
Kennett scored a run off Bump in the top of the first inning when David Lillis got plunked by a Bump pitch. Bump balked Lillis to second base and after moving to third base on a groundout, Lillis scored on a wild pitch to give Kennett a 1-0 lead.
But Rustin came right back against Blue Demons freshman starter Conor Larkin. The Golden Knights plated three runs in the first inning and two more in the bottom of the second inning to take a 5-1 lead. Larkin walked seven batters in his three innings of work and the Golden Knights ran wild on the base paths, stealing seven bases. Scott Ely stole three bases and scored three runs.
“We have really been working on base running every practice we have,” Ely said. “We like to get in the pitchers head and disrupt his timing and get going on the bases and that is what we did today.”
Kennett showed some life in the top of the fourth inning. Down by a score of 5-1, the Blue Demons got a leadoff walk by Rex Bright. Up stepped Ryan Ciccioni, who drilled a two run home run to left field to close the gap to 5-3 in favor of Rustin.
Then, the Golden Knights broke the game wide open. The Golden Knights sent 14 men to the plate against Larkin and reliever Mac Larkin. Rustin got an RBI double from Dan Giordano and an RBI single from Bill Kraft to fuel the uprising. Ryan Brown added an RBI double for Rustin.
The Golden Knights scored five runs on Kennett wild pitches for the game and after four innings it was a 15-3 Rustin lead. Harkins went to his bullpen for AJ Calio to finish off the Blue Demons. Bump went four innings and allowed three runs and gave the Blue Demons just two hits.
Calio struck out the first two Kennett batters he faced before giving up a two-out double to Lillis. Calio then got Cole Doherty to ground out to end the game via the mercy rule.
“I try to approach every hitter the same way if we are up in the game by a lot of runs or if it is close,” Bump said. “I just try to throw strikes and pitch my game. today, my fastball was very lively and the change up was working too. it felt good to get back out there.”
WC Rustin 15, Kennett 3, five innings
Kennett 100 20-3
WC Rustin 320 10-x-15
2B-Lillis, Brown, Giordano, Reaney. HR-Ciccioni.
WP-Bump. LP- C.Larkin
