Moretski, 6-run 2nd lift La Salle over Lansdale Catholic

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SPRINGFIELD >> Zach Moretski was hoping he would get to pitch against familiar faces on the Lansdale Catholic baseball team. And on a sunny Wednesday afternoon at Ward Field, the La Salle junior right-hander got his opportunity.

“Freshman up to this year, I’ve always wanted the LC game, cause it’s close to my house and most of my friends go there,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to pitch to them, cause it’s most of my friends.”

Moretski, however, did not get the start he wanted. Matt Cassee doubled to lead off the top of the first inning with a sacrifice bunt and Nick Smalley’s RBI ground giving the Crusaders a early 1-0 lead.

“It felt like they had the starting momentum,” Moretski said. “But we got it back.”

The Explorers did that by batting around the bottom of the second, scoring six times with two outs. Moretski, meanwhile, found his groove after allowing the early run and struck out 10 in five innings of work as La Salle continued to stay perfect in Philadelphia Catholic League play with a 10-1 victory over the Crusaders.

“I wasn’t upset, they just happened to hit their hardest ball to start the game,” Explorers coach Kyle Werman said. “After that, (Moretski) kind of settled in. He wasn’t as sharp, he left a lot of balls up. Fortunately, he had some deception and guys were chasing balls up. He got rewards a couple times on some pitches that normally you’re not going to get that reward.”

Langston Livingston was 2-for-3 with a run scored for La Salle (6-3, 6-0 league), which pulled away for its sixth victory in a row by scoring a run in four straight innings after taking a 6-1 lead in the second.

“(LC starting pitcher Smalley) is definitely one of the better arms in the league, but after a couple batters the first inning he got us pretty good but then we started (to) adjust and started getting on top of balls” La Salle senior first baseman Kyle Hemcher said. “We were driving balls to deep outfield and that’s pretty good for us.”

Smalley put La Salle down in order in the first — ending the frame with back-to-back strikeouts — but the Explorer bats got going after the LC righty struck out Anthony Cossetti for out No. 2 in the second. The next five La Salle batters all collected hits — with Andrew Cossetti and Hemcher capping the string with consecutive RBI triples to center field.

“First inning, was great. I mean, perfect baseball. Leadoff double, sacrifice him to third, infield ground, beautiful, playing well,” Lansdale Catholic coach Dave Scott said. “Second inning, everything kind of fell apart. They’re a very, very good hitting team. I give a lot of credit to La Salle, to Kyle (Werman). They’re a very, very good hitting team.

“And they took advantage of some bad pitches and did what they’re supposed to do with bad pitches and hit them hard. We didn’t help ourselves with five or six errors and a bunch of mental mistakes on top of that.”

After giving up the RBI ground out to Smalley, Moretski retired the next 12 Crusaders before Joe Basile dropped a two-out single into center field in the fifth. James Scarcelli had an infield single on the next at-bat, but Moretski finished the inning — and his day on the mound — with his 10th strikeout. He gave up three hits and did not allow a walk in five innings to pick up the win.

“I was elevating my fastball a bit. My off-speed pitches I was throwing for strikes, so I felt good,” Moretski said. “But I was missing with my fastball.”

Cassee was 2-for-3 while Smalley took the loss for the Crusaders (2-5, 2-4) after giving up six earned runs on six hits in two innings. Smalley walked one and struck out three.

“I thought he was a little elevated in the zone,” said Scott of Smalley. “And against a team like this, if you’re a little elevated in the strike zone, they will turn on the ball and just crush zone. He needed to work down in the strike zone just a little bit more and that’s what we talked about after he came out of the game. I thought he threw pretty well, it’s just a matter of location.”

Both teams are back in action 4 p.m. Monday for PCL contests. Lansdale Catholic visits Archbishop Ryan while La Salle hosts defending league champ Archbishop Wood.

“Wood got us twice last year. I think our guys will be hungry to get them here at home,” Werman said. “So, we’ll see how our guys respond. I think there’s a lot of parity in the league, anybody can beat anybody any given day. But I think anytime you face a rival like Wood, it gets guys blood going a little bit.”

Livingston led off the bottom of the second Wednesday with a single then went to second on an error on the play. After Jerry Mangan walked, both runners advanced on a Evan Plummer sacrifice bunt. Anthony Cossetti struck out, but Hunter McGarvey pulled La Salle even 1-1 with an RBI single. Michael Landry dropped a single into right, scoring Mangan and Eric Marasheski — McGarvey’s courtesy runner — for a 3-1 lead.

Gregg Sywulak’s single down the third base line plated Landry. Andrew Cossetti made it 5-1 as he crushed an RBI triple to center. Hemcher repeated the feat, hitting a ball to center that LC lost in the sun for an RBI triple and a 6-1 lead.

“I just trying to follow up with a single and drive him in,” Hemcher said. “It just so happened I got on top of one and hit it deep center field.”

Plummer made it 7-1 Explorers with an RBI single in the third. Anthony Cossetti scored in the fourth as Livingston was caught in the rundown after his two-out single.

In the fifth, an errant throw to third allowed Mangan to come home for La Salle’s ninth run. An RBI sacrifice fly by Ryan McTamney made it 10-1 in the sixth.

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Mike Cabrey

Mike Cabrey
Mike Cabrey is the Assistant Sports Editor for The Reporter and Montgomery News. Email him at mcabrey@thereporteronline.com.

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