Gulibon delivers for Souderton in win over North Penn
LOWER SALFORD >> Aaron Gulibon had his fastball working, was mixing a variety of pitches, and — when he needed it most — had something special for the seventh.
“He pumped it up a notch,” Souderton coach Mike Childs said of the left-hander’s two clutch strikeouts to end the game on Tuesday. “He gets the adrenaline going. And when he’s throwing well, you look at the guys behind them and you can tell it’s a confident team.”
Gulibon’s 1-2-3 seventh inning capped his complete-game, 13-strikeout effort, as the senior locked down a 3-1 Big Red win over rival North Penn on a windy afternoon at Vic Alderfer Memorial Ball Park.
“I just try to come out, throw strikes, and put my team in a position to win,” Gulibon said.
And the Indians did just that in the bottom of the sixth.
Behind 1-0, Big Red (5-3, 4-2 Suburban One League Continental Conference) got a leadoff single from Brendan Kreag and a towering triple to right center by No. 9 hitter Matt Reinert, tying up the contest at one apiece.
Reinert raced home on a hard-hit grounder by leadoff Kyle Lennon, putting the Indians in front for the first time against Knights right hander Matt Stevenson.
Gulibon, stepping to the plate with one out and with Lennon at third, made contact and smacked a chopper to the right side of the infield, enabling the insurance run to reach home.
“All across the board,” Gulibon said, “Kreag’s hit to start off the inning, Reinert’s triple, extremely smart base running on Kyle’s part, the bunts — it was just a team win.”
Onto the seventh, where Gulibon — with an extra zip or two on his fastball — got Zack Miles to ground out, then struck out Matt Marino and Grant Silhanek to end it.
“One thing we talked about was energy,” Childs said, of which his team had plenty of. “We lost to Hatboro-Horsham earlier in the season by one run at the end — Aaron pitched a good game and we lost by one. We didn’t want to do that again.”
North Penn (6-4, 3-3 conference) had taken a 1-0 lead in the third when Miles belted a leadoff triple to right center then scored on an error by Souderton.
Stevenson was hard to conquer, shutting out Big Red for five plus innings until Kreag and Reinert got it going in the sixth.
“He was outstanding today,” Knights coach Kevin Manero said of his right-hander. “He did a great job of controlling the running game, working at a good pace, really taking it over out there.
“I thought we ran the bases very well, I thought we pitched very well, and I thought we worked up (Gulibon’s) pitch count and put together some really good at-bats. However, there were a couple key spots where we had men in scoring position and didn’t put the ball in play.”
The Continental standings resembled a mosh pit going into Tuesday, four teams bustling for position and bunched together at 3-2. Souderton improved to 4-2, moving closer to leading Central Bucks South.
“In this conference, everybody beats up on everybody,” Gulibon said, “and it’s really important to get as many wins as you can, especially against a good team like North Penn.”
North Penn hosts Hatboro Thursday while Big Red travels to Central Bucks East.
