Abington takes advantage of PW’s miscues
ABINGTON >> It was a true pitchers duel Tuesday afternoon when Plymouth Whitemarsh and Abington got together for a non-league matchup at Abington High School.
The teams combined for just five hits, but it was the Ghosts who turned a couple of PW mistakes into runs and won, 2-0.
All of the scoring came in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Abington’s Dave Kretschman led off the inning with a groundball to shortstop. The ball was thrown over the first baseman’s head and Kretschman was safe at first and awarded second. Zach Nikander followed with a walk and Aidan Coyle was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs in a scoreless game.
PW’s Dillon Famous, who made his first varsity start, had been in tough positions like this all game. He stranded runners on second and third in the first inning and left two more in scoring position in the second and fourth innings.
Famous fanned Matt Close for the first out and forced Jack Larini to hit a groundball to third. The ball was thrown home for a force out, but the slightly low throw bounced out of the catcher’s glove and Kretschman slid in safe to break the scoreless tie.
Abington’s Chris Clewell followed with a sacrifice fly to plate Nikander for a 2-0 Ghost lead and Famous got the next batter out to end the inning and leave runners on first and second.
“That’s what you’re supposed to do,” Abington coach Dave Torresani said. “Early in the game we were hoping our middle of the order hitters would come through and do their job, but give credit to (PW’s) pitcher and defense – they did a good job. We kept staying at it. I knew eventually we’d get runners on and be able to do something and to our credit we did. We took advantage of a mistake. That’s what you have to do – you take advantage of their mistakes.”
Famous, a junior right-hander, threw all six innings for the Colonials. He struck out six batters, walked two, hit one and surrendered three hits.
“He pounded the strike zone, he was a strike-thrower today,” PW coach Chris Manero said. “That’s what we want. He gave us every chance to win and got out of some tough jams, should’ve gotten out of another one. He did everything and more that we hoped he would do today.”
Abington’s Paul Poppert was just as impressive on the bump. He allowed one hit over five innings, struck out five and walked four.
“That’s him,” Torresani said of his starter. “He can be overpowering at times. He moves the ball around home plate, which is what he has to do. He locates really well with his pitches. When you do that, you’re going to have success.”
Matt Horn came on in relief to record a two-inning save. He gave up one hit while striking out two and walking none.
PW had a few chances, but was never able to get the big hit when it needed to. In the second inning the Colonials had the bases loaded with one out, but Poppert got back-to-back strikeouts. In the fourth and fifth innings, PW’s leadoff batters reached base while the game was 0-0, but they weren’t able to get bunts down to move them into scoring position.
“We’ve worked a lot on our approaches and on our situational hitting,” Manero said. “We struggled today. I told the guys there is going to be good days and there is going to be tough days. A lot of credit to (Abington’s) pitchers, who also threw strikes, threw well. There will be a chance to reevaluate what we did today – reevaluate our at bats and get better.
“That’s frustrating because that’s something we work on a lot,” Manero added about the failed bunts. “We work on it in the offseason, we work on it during the season. I think those guys know what to do, they just need to be confident and comfortable to do it when they get up there. That changes games if we get those bunts down.”
The win gives Abington, a Suburban One League National Conference team, its second win of the season over an SOL American opponent after beating Wissahickon, 2-1, in its only other game.
