Miller strikes up bandbox, Fords march past Tigers

HAVERFORD >> As a senior, Cameron Miller has gotten used to the fluctuation in emotions on a day he gets to pitch at home.

First, there’s the joy of getting the ball in front of the Haverford School faithful. Then once he ascends the mound, there’s that pang of dread as he surveys the outfield and the claustrophobic confines seem to contract around him.

“It’s different because you wake up and you’re excited to play at home,” Miller said Thursday. “And then you get here and you’re like, this kind of just stinks because every ball hit hard has a chance to get out.”

Those emotions have cultivated a certain resilience in the lanky right-hander. On a day when he’s tagged for a five-spot on two Marple Newtown home runs in the fourth inning, for instance, there’s nothing to do but get back out there and move on.

Miller did an excellent job of that, stitching together six scoreless innings surrounding that devilish fourth in an 8-5 nonleague win Thursday.

The fourth inning was pockmarked by a pair of blasts — a three-run shot by Bobby Steven, then a two-run dinger by nine-hitter Reilly Fillman that just kept carrying over the shallow centerfield fence. But beyond that stretch of five hits in six batters, Miller allowed just three total safeties in his other six innings on the hill, striking out seven against one walk to improve his record on the season to 2-1.

“They were two bad pitches, and you’re got to move on from it,” Miller said. “The second one, especially, it’s just part of the game. Going back out, you’ve got to be confident in your pitches.”

The flip side of the double-edged sword that is the Haverford School short fences is how quickly the Fords (5-1) can blast their way back into games. They jumped out to an early lead behind David Hogarth’s no-doubt homer to left-center field in the third inning that made it 3-0.

In the fifth, the Fords mounted a two-out rally after chasing Marple starter Ricky Collings. With two on, Brian Hyland lifted a fly ball to right field that just kept carrying over the short porch for a dimensions-aided homer that nudged the Fords ahead, 6-5.

“The first two at-bats, I didn’t get the barrel of the bat on the ball,” the lefty Hyland said. “I just tried to barrel one up, and sometimes they go out.”

The temptation to transform a pitchers’ duel into a home run derby is something opponents must resist, even when the wind is blowing out. Marple (0-1) did a fairly good job of that, even if that didn’t induce more contact against Miller.

“You just try to hit the ball hard,” Steven said. “On this field, the ball is going to skip through. You’ve got to play the best you can, not try to hit home runs, just singles.”

The field shouldn’t color the view of HS’s strengths, either. The Fords generated offense with the top the lineup thanks to Tommy Toal (three runs scored) and Hogarth (two hits, two runs, two RBIs). Those two forced the issue in the first inning, benefitting from two errors to plate a run after Toal’s leadoff single.

Toal walked before being driven home by Hogarth’s blast, and a leadoff walk by eight-hitter Drew Sterman in the fifth hastened Collings’ departure from the mound despite allowing just two hits and three runs (two earned) with seven strikeouts in 79 pitches.

In the sixth, the Fords added insurance with a pair of bunt singles from James McConnon and Isaiah Winikur to start the frame. A wild pitch by reliever Scott Hahn moved them over for RBI groundouts by Frank Zepka and Sterman to provide the additional cushion.

“Everyone thinks we just hit homers because of the short porches,” Hyland said. “But we do the small things right — working walks, laying down bunts, taking extra bases on passed balls. We earn a lot of the runs we score on the home runs by doing the little things to capitalize on the short porches.”

The details extended beyond adeptly alternating between small ball and the long ball. Haverford School stranded just one runner on base. Except for a Hogarth error to exacerbate the fourth-inning mess, the Fords infield flawlessly handled 10 balls hit on the ground. Once Miller settled in, started locating his curveball and keeping the ball down so as not to bring the fences into play, the spread was evident.

Miller’s trepidation returned in the seventh as Hahn skied a popup to right field with one on — “I thought that was going,” he admitted — that the hurler gratefully witnessed tail toward the foul line, where the fence is deeper. But even as his pitch count crept up to 93, Miller closed down the game without incident, aided by his confidence in what the home field has instilled in him.

“Today, it was just the two bad pitches,” he said. “You try to keep everything down.”

In other nonleague action:

Penncrest 7, Chichester 1 >> Sam Freedman drove in three runs, including a two-run double in the third inning, and scored twice to power the Lions in the opener.

Max King collected two hits and two runs scored, and Colin Birzes chipped in a pair of base knocks as Penncrest led 7-0 after three innings. Shane Breckenridge, who also doubled, was the beneficiary on the mound, starting and lasting four scoreless innings.

Haverford 5, Kennett 3 >> Nine-hitter Brendan Boas rapped a bases-clearing double to cap a five-run fourth that helped the Fords win their opener.

Kenny Kissinger drove in two runs with one of his doubles, and Nolan Buszka and Cole Humes allowed just one hit over the final two innings to economically notch the win and the save, respectively.