Upper Dublin, Upper Moreland will face twice for SOL American supremacy
Early season rainouts and the luck of scheduling have given area high school baseball fans a treat this week — two games between Upper Dublin and Upper Moreland.
Upper Dublin sits atop the Suburban One League American Conference standings with a perfect 7-0 record and Upper Moreland is right there with a 7-1 mark.
Both games are set for 3:30 p.m. starts. Tuesday’s game will be at Upper Dublin and Friday’s at Upper Moreland.
Each team is sure to throw its top two pitchers in the key games, which means the Cardinals will use Cole Swiger and Conor McFadden and the Bears will trot out Joe Bates and Brandon Kohn.
“I know (Upper Moreland coach) Ken (Irwin) is going to have that team ready,” Upper Dublin coach Ed Wall said. “They are a good squad, well-coached and they’re a hungry bunch … They’ve got some tough, hard-nosed kids that get after it and that’s what we expect to see.
“We just can’t give teams extra outs. For the most part, I think that’s high school ball in general, but especially against (Upper Moreland). They are an aggressive team, they always are. They want to bunt, they want to steal, they want to be aggressive on everything. So, we want to just play our game and if we play our game we should be in a good spot to win.”
Upper Moreland is coming off a week with two very impressive wins — an 8-4 handling of Plymouth Whitemarsh and an 8-0 domination of Wissahickon. Against the Trojans, the Bears faced one of the best pitchers in the area in Logan Willans and were able to score four runs and knock him out of the game in two innings.
Upper Dublin is coming off a week where it beat Norristown, 12-1, and suffered two non-league losses to Avon Grove, 6-5, and Abington, 11-5.
Aside from the games against each other, here is each team’s remaining SOL American schedule: Upper Dublin faces Cheltenham, Plymouth Whitemarsh, Upper Merion, Wissahickon and Springfield-Montco. Upper Moreland faces Springfield-Montco, Cheltenham, Norristown and Upper Merion.
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There is a big difference between the first half of La Salle’s 12-game Philadelphia Catholic League schedule this season and the second half.
The Explorers started 6-0 against league competition, but all of the games were against the bottom six teams in the PCL. They beat Bishop McDevitt 14-0, Conwell-Egan 12-1, Archbishop Carroll 10-2, Neumann-Goretti 5-0, Archbishop Ryan 8-0 and Lansdale Catholic 10-1.
In the second half of the schedule against the rest of the Catholic League elite, La Salle is off to an 0-2 start. It lost to Archbishop Wood, 9-2, last week and dropped another to rival St. Joe Prep, 5-2, Monday afternoon.
“You don’t want to fool yourself and think you’re the best team in the league when you’re 6-0 and you look at who you beat,” La Salle coach Kyle Werman said after the loss to Wood. “Not saying those teams aren’t solid teams, but as the standings stand they’re the bottom six. We’ve got our work cut out for us. Obviously Wood is at the top of the league and a team that got us twice a year ago, so this was a game on our schedule that if we want to do some things this year, we have to beat these teams.”
The Explorers still have games against Father Judge, Cardinal O’Hara, Bonner-Prendie and Roman Catholic remaining on the schedule.
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The first District 1 Power Rankings were released Sunday, May 1.
One ranking that catches the eye is North Penn. The defending state champs entered this season with high hopes for another title run and, as of now, are not in the district playoffs.
North Penn is ranked No. 30 in the AAAA standings, where the top 26 teams qualify for postseason play.
The final playoff team is Downingtown East, which has a 7-6 league record and 5.129 points. North Penn is 4-4 in league play with 4.793 points.
Games of the Week
Tuesday >> Upper Moreland at Upper Dublin
Thursday >> Pennridge at Souderton
Friday >> Upper Dublin at Upper Moreland
