Baseball Roundup: Phoenixville, Perk School earn wins
Great Valley 3, Phoenixville 2 >> For opening day with a very young team, new Phoenixville High School head baseball coach Neil Herman was quite encouraged.
Despite a 3-2 non-league setback to host Great Valley Thursday morning, Herman saw plenty of bright spots from his youthful Phantoms, who only return one fulltime starting player from a year ago in Kyle Bennick.
Fittingly, Bennick had a big day in the Phantoms’ opener against the Patriots. He had three hits, including a double, and also had one run batted in and one run scored.
“Kyle had a great day,” said Herman. “He stayed back and went to right field. “All of his hits were to right field.”
Matt Osisek-Byrne pitched five very strong innings to start the game on the mound for Phoenixville. He allowed four hits and three runs (one earned) with four strikeouts and one walk. Zack Masalski threw an inning of relief, giving up one hit with one walk.
Osisek-Byrne also had a hit to knock in Bennick with the second Phoenixville run to make the game tight.
Nasir Green (run scored), Jared Carboy, Nick Opalkowski and Colin Hook also had hits for the Phantoms.
“Obviously, it was a very tight game,” said Herman. “Matt Osisek-Byrne pitched a great game for us and we made the plays in the field. He kept them off balance. We just couldn’t get a key hit in run-scoring situations.
“Most of the guys were a little nervous. For most of them, it was their first varsity game and their first varsity experience.”
Perkiomen School 2, Germantown Ac. 1 >> Levi Stoudt and Christian Del Toro combined on a three-hit pitching effort that helped the Panthers edge Germantown Academy in non-league play.
Stoudt had seven strikeouts and two walks in six frames on the mound, with Del Toro getting two strikeouts in the seventh. After GA scored in the first on a walk, wild pitch and a double by Bill Brittingham, Perkiomen answered by loading the bases and getting a sacrifice fly from Saul DeLeon to score Josh Cruz.
In the fifth, Cruz led off the inning with a single, stole second, moved to third on a ground ball by Stoudt and scored on a wild pitch.
