High School Sports |

BASEBALL: Austin Dahl pitches Upper Dublin past Plymouth Whitemarsh

UPPER DUBLIN >> Upper Dublin knows what it takes to make a deep run in the District 1-5A playoffs after winning the championship in 2022 and reaching the title game in 2023.

The 2024 district playoffs don’t start until May 20, but the Cardinals took a step towards another deep postseason run Thursday afternoon.

Upper Dublin defeated Suburban One League Liberty Division rival Plymouth Whitemarsh, 6-1, at Upper Dublin High School to strengthen its spot in the top four of the district rankings with two games remaining. The top four seeds in the district tournament earn a first-round bye and host games in the quarterfinals.

“That bye is really big for us,” Upper Dublin coach Ed Wall said. “There are a lot of good teams out there, some of the usual suspects that we’re seeing, so we need all the help that we can get and this win helps a lot.”

“This bye is really important to us,” UD junior Austin Dahl said. “The past couple games have been rough, but this was a big, big comeback and confidence going into our last two games.”

Dahl was dominant on the mound in the Cardinals (10-4 SOL Liberty) win Thursday. The right-hander, who hadn’t allowed an earned run all season, threw 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run on two hits. He struck out 11 batters and walked three.

“Fastball was really working,” Dahl, who took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, said. “I was pounding the zone, hitting my spots and my secondary pitch curveball worked at times, but could be better.”

“What I’m most impressed by is (Dahl’s) consistency,” Wall said. “Every pitcher has a great outing, but, especially against a team like that, for him to come up that big for us after a little bit of a letdown Tuesday, it’s just huge. Look at the guys – it’s huge for our morale. Any time we have Austin out there it’s an opportunity for a big game for us.”

Dahl didn’t allow a runner to reach scoring position until the sixth inning, when PW’s Chase Fisher led off with a double. Dahl hit the next batter before retiring three straight, including two strikeouts, to get out of the jam.

“Dahl’s numbers speak for themselves,” PW coach Chris Manero said. “We know he’s a very good pitcher. All you’re going to face the rest of the season – in the postseason – are good baseball players. It’s incumbent on the guys to try to find ways to make adjustments, try to stay mentally tough in those situations. You have to give credit to a guy when he just goes out and deals. He’s a great pitcher.”

Dahl walked a batter and allowed a single in the seventh inning before reaching his pitch limit with two outs. Fisher greeted the reliever with an RBI single to left field to get the Colonials (13-2 SOL Liberty) on the board.

Dahl got all the run support he needed in the bottom of the third inning. Ben Wilkins singled and scored on a two-out error before Oliver Gill hit a two-run single up the middle to make it 3-0.

“Oliver the last few weeks has been having really good at-bats,” Wall said. “He’s been getting a lot of barrels, it’s been great to see.”

Two innings later, the Cardinals added three more runs. Dahl hit a two-run single to left field and scored on a Bobby Keck sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 6-0.

“It’s really fun to be able to see us get some runners on, move them over and the get them in,” Wall said. “We’ve been struggling getting guys in all season… This is a really good feeling, really good relief. I’m so happy for our boys.”

The Colonials, who were shorthanded with a couple infielders missing, committed two errors in the game – one in each inning that Upper Dublin scored three runs.

“We haven’t made an error in probably 18, 19 innings coming into this game,” Manero said. “Very uncharacteristic of us. We have some young, first-year varsity players and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I think there was a pretty costly one that changed the trajectory of the game, but if you learn from that, if you grow from that, then you flush it. Everyone is going to have those moments.”

Upper Dublin has two games left on its schedule to cement its spot in the top four of the District 1-5A standings. The Cardinals have a two-game road trip next week, visiting William Tennent on Monday and Hatboro-Horsham on Tuesday.

The Colonials loss dropped them to a tie with Quakertown for first place in the SOL Liberty standings with one game to go. On Tuesday Plymouth Whitemarsh hosts Wissahickon while Quakertown hosts Abington.

“That’s going to feel like every bit of a playoff game,” Manero, who coached PW to league titles in 2019 and 2021, said. “I think our guys will look forward to that and they’ll be ready. That’s what we play for. Everybody plays for the same reason and all of the sudden it’s here. It should be fun.”

PW and Quakertown are also the top two teams in District 1-6A, with Quakertown being the No. 1 seed by 0.153 points in their seeding score.

Upper Dublin 6, Plymouth Whitemarsh 1

Plymouth Whitemarsh 000 000 1 – 1

Upper Dublin 003 030 x – 6

WP: Austin Dahl 6.2 IP 11 K 3 BB 2 H 1 R

LP: Johnny Giordano 4 IP 4 K 1 BB 4 H 3 R

2B: PW: Chase Fisher.