Conwell-Egan Catholic baseball upended by Saint Joseph’s Prep
FAIRLESS HILLS – The starting pitcher for the visiting St. Joe Hawks surrendered two earned runs in five innings and the starter for the home team Conwell-Egan Catholic (CEC) – junior righthander Shane Souchuck – gave up a lone earned run in the same number of frames.
Yet somehow, SJP junior lefty Colin Scanlon emerged with the win, and convincingly so, over the Eagles Wednesday, April 20 at Vincent B. Carosella field.
That’s because five errors committed by Egan including three in the first two innings handed the Hawks an early 4-0 edge.
“That seems like it’s been par for the course for us,” said CEC first-year head coach Scott Hawes. “We can’t field right and we’re making way too many errors.”
And while the Eagles rebounded with three runs of their own in the fifth, a trio of CEC relief pitchers allowed eight runs in the last two frames to send St. Joe’s home with their fifth win of the season.
“Shane’s a good pitcher; whenever Shane’s on the hill, he’s going to keep us in the game,” said Hawes. “As with a small program and a lot of new kids, it’s always a learning process with us.
“It seems like we’re learning everything every game.”
The Hawks posted two runs in the initial frame on just one hit, a single through short by first baseman John Copolla (3-for-5, 3 RBI), of Newtown. Third baseman Keith Flaherty pushed the first run across the plate on an error at short and Bristol’s own Jeff Manto got the next one home on a sac-fly to centerfield.
After opening the second with back-to-back singles by Billy Matz and Logan Kellerman, St. Joe’s on an error at second and a single by Copolla.
Scanlon, meanwhile, mowed down five of the first six Eagle batters with strikeouts. From Fairless Hills, Scanlon struck out seven in the first three innings.
“That gave us all a lot of motivation and a lot of momentum,” said Scanlon. “We were all pumped up after the first inning – a 1-2-3 quick inning and we kind of jumped on them after that.”
“He really set the tone. We were just trying to get ahead and get a nice team win,” added Manto. “It’s great that he threw a lot of first-pitch strikes and got the job done early.”
Still, it was a 4-3 game when the starters left the action in the fifth inning. And while Egan sophomore relief pitcher Ryan Crowell surrendered five runs in the sixth, only one of them was earned when Phil O’Connor – on board with a leadoff triple – raced home on Luke Donophan’s RBI single to left field.
“We lost all our momentum after those first few runs we had – the only runs we had, and errors just piled on top of errors,” said CEC outfielder Bryce Trimble. “They shouldn’t have score that many runs in this game.”
After an error at third base handed the Hawks another out, St. Joe’s made the home team pay with two-run singles by Flaherty and DH Joe DiProsperous that pushed the score to 9-3.
In the final frame, an RBI single by Hawks pinch-hitter Greg Martin and a 2-run single by Copolla pushed the score to its 12-3 final.
“It’s been a lot of small, mental mistakes that turn into fielding issues,” added Trimble, “like missing cuts and overthinking plays and stressing too much.”
Six games into the season, the Eagles fall to 1-5, their lone win over Lansdale Catholic. In that game, the Crusaders very nearly came all the way back when Souchuck left the game with a 6-0 lead. Reliever Ameir Uzzell surrendered a grand slam and Lansdale loaded the sacks again before Crowell recorded the final out to help his team escape with its only win of the season.
“With anybody else but Shane on the mound, we’re pitching from behind, giving (opponents) something to hit,” said Hawes. “We just don’t have the ability the ability to shut down somebody with another pitcher besides Shane.”
In for departed 2015 head coach Mike Gossner is a new coach in Hawes – who comes to CEC from the Philly Bandits.
The team has also undergone a major transition on the personnel front. In addition to Manto, who jumped from Egan to St. Joe’s and all the players that graduated, the Eagles had several players transfer to other schools including infielder/pitcher Billy Meyer (Neshaminy), second baseman Ryan Nichols (Neshaminy) and Nate Earhardt (Truman).
“We’re starting back over from the basics, trying to team them the right thing to do from hustling on and off the field, lining up for cutoffs – just, basic baseball knowledge,” said Hawes. “We’re starting from ground zero and building up from that.”
Coming through for the Hawks in this one was Scanlon, who struck out 10 batters in five innings and limited Egan to just two hits, a ball slapped through the middle of the infield by Souchuck in the second inning and another slapped to left field by CEC second baseman Jim Stockdale in the fifth that pushed the Eagles first run across the plate.
“We let our guard down a little in the fifth inning but we pumped it back up after that when we woke up a little,” said Scanlon. “I think I let my focus down a little after the first few innings. I made some mental mistakes; I got out of it, though.”
Trimble pushed the second run in on a fielder’s choice and Egan’s last run scored when an attempted pickoff move at second base squirted into the outfield allowed Jarrett Patman to race home from third base.
Saint Joe’s pushes its way to 5-6 overall, 3-2 in the Philadelphia Catholic League. The Hawks have recorded wins over Monsignor Bonner/Prendergast and Bishop McDevitt while losing to Cardinal O’Hara and Archbishop Wood.
NOTES: Manto, Souchuck and Scanlon are all members of the Philly Bandits.
Contact Steve Sherman at ssherman@21st-Centurymedia.com or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter
Saint Joseph Prep 12, Conwell-Egan Catholic 3
(April 20 at Conwell-Egan)
SAINT JOSEPH (5-6) 220 005 3 – 12 11 1
CONWELL-EGAN (1-5) 000 030 0 – 3 4 5
WP – Colin Scanlon 5IP, 3R, 2H, 3BB, 10SO, 1 HB.
LP – Shane Souchuck 5IP, 4R, 5H, 3BB, 7SO, 0HB.
MULTIPLE HITS: SJP – Phil O’Connor 2-for-4, John Copolla 3-for-5; CE – none.
EXTRA-BASE HITS: SJP – O’Connor 3B; CE – Jarrett Pattman 2B.
RBI: SJP – Keith Flaherty 2, Joe DiProsperous 2, Copolla 3, Luke Donophan, Greg Martin, Jeff Manto; CE – Jim Stockdale, Bryce Trimble.
