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HORSHAM – Wissahickon baseball’s defense helps make Gavin Malloy a more effective pitcher.
“It makes me trust throwing strikes, staying in the zone,” he said. “I don’t have to worry cause I know my defense can make plays behind me.”
Twice in Tuesday afternoon’ SOL Liberty Division matchup with host Hatboro-Horsham, the Trojans came through for their senior right-hander with superb plays in the field – turning a double play on a bunt in the fourth then throwing out a runner at third on a relay from the outfield in the sixth.
“They’re plays you probably work on more in practice than when they actually do happen in games,” Wissahickon coach Andy Noga said. “But it was good to see.”
Josh Palutis’ two-RBI single in the top of the fifth provided enough run production for Malloy, who allowed just four hits in shutting out the Hatters as the Trojans extended their winning streak to five games with a 2-0 victory.
“I was just throwing strikes,” Malloy said. “And my teammates were making plays behind me.”
Malloy did not allow a walk and recorded three strikeouts, his last two coming back-to-back in the bottom of the seventh for the final outs of the contest.
“Gavin pitched phenomenal,” Noga said. “I think the big thing for him today was no walks. That really allowed us to just get every inning, we were able to get that first guy out. He really made things run smoothly.”
Hatboro-Horsham starting pitcher Stephen Plefka took the loss but had a strong complete-game effort on the mound. The senior left-handed gave up two runs – both earned – on three hits, walked one and struck out five.
“It’s just like his last outing, I could call any one of four pitches and it had an 85 to 90 percent chance of being a good strike,” said Hatters first-year coach Bill DeBoer of Plefka.
Kenny Lutz went 2-for-3 with a double for Hatboro-Horsham (7-6, 6-6 division), which had its three-game win streak snapped. The Hatters came into Tuesday having won six of their last seven after a 1-4 start to the season.
“That’s nice to have those little chunks where you go ‘Hey you know what, we are a good team,’” DeBoer said. “But we got to clean up a couple little things.”
Wissahickon (10-4, 7-4) got off to a 5-1 start – including a 5-2 home win over the Hatters in their first meeting March 21 – before dropping three straight games to Plymouth Whitemarsh, William Tennent and Quakertown. But the Trojans have not lost since, picking up three crossover victories over SOL Freedom sides then earning a shutout on the road over the Hatters Tuesday.
“It’s a lot of credit to our guys for just continuing to show up and work hard,” Noga said. “It’s been a lot of tight baseball games where we weren’t in our good stretch that we were on the opposite end of but we’ve just been putting in the work trying to get things back on track so it’s been good to get it back on track. But we know we have one big one ahead of us this week in Upper Dublin waiting for us on Thursday.”
Wissahickon, 13th in the District 1-6A rankings, hosts Upper Dublin 3:45 p.m. Thursday – the Cardinals beat the Trojans 3-1 March 26 – then visits Upper Moreland for an SOL crossover 11 a.m. Saturday.
Hatboro-Horsham is 13th in District 1-5A rankings, just outside of the 12-team playoff field. The Hatters finish the week with two road games – at Abington for a division game 3:45 p.m. Thursday then at Pennridge 3:45 p.m. Friday.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Hatters had a chance to break a scoreless tie when Dominic Rapino connected on a one-out triple to right field. But on a bunt by the next batter, Wissahickon got the force out at first and when Rapino tried to score, the Trojans’ throw home was in time for the tag.
With one out in the top of the fifth, Giulio Carbo drew a one-out walk. Jonnie Klinger – Wissahickon’s No. 9 hitter – followed by dropping a ball into right, Hatboro-Horsham attempted to get the force out at second but an errant throw put runners on second and third. Palutis then knocked in both when he ripped a two-RBI single past third base on the next at-bat.
“It was good to see Josh get a good hit right there,” Noga said. “We’ve been searching for that two-run single with second and third, we’ve really just pushing one across and that’s been it so it was really good to get a two in that inning there.
Lutz hit a ball out to right with one out in the bottom of the sixth and when it bounced past the right fielder, Lutz looked to get around the bases for a triple. Instead, Wissahickon relayed the ball in to get him out at third.
“We have a phenomenal outfield in Brayden Ryan, Josh Palutis and Justin Miller,” Noga said. “So when the ball gets by Bray right there when we’re not expecting it to, Josh is right there to pick him up and then execute a cut play with (shortstop) Carbo and (third baseman) Mark (Selverian). That’s why you trust your teammates right there to have your back.”
Malloy proceeded to retire the next four batters to secure the victory.
Wissahickon put a runner on base in the first and third innings due to errors but did not collect a hit until Adam Hajdak’s leadoff single in the fourth. A Jarret Federer sacrifice bunt advanced Hajdak to second but consecutive fly outs left him stranded there.
Wissahickon 2, Hatboro-Horsham 0
Wissahickon 000 020 0 – 2 3 0
Hatboro-Horsham 000 000 0 – 0 4 3
WP: Gavin Malloy 7 IP 4 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 3 SO.
LP: Stephen Plefka 7 IP 3 H 2 R 2 ER 1 BB 5 SO.
2B: HH-Kenny Lutz; 3B: HH-Dominic Rapino.
Wissahickon: Josh Palutis 2 RBI.
Hatboro-Horsham: Lutz 2-3.
