Pennsbury baseball grabs share of first place with win over Council Rock South
FALLS TWP. – The way the season started, no one thought Pennsbury would have a chance at grabbing a share of the Suburban One National League (SONL) crown, not even Falcons head coach Joe Pesci.
Now, not only does it seem possible, it looks like it’s probable.
While North lost a midseason battle to Pennsbury, coming down to the next to last week of the season, that was the only loss the Indians had suffered and even that one went 12 innings.
“The way that they played for the first half of the year, we didn’t think anybody was going to catch them,” said Pesci.
While the defending SONL champion Falcons started the season with wins in just two of their first five games while falling to CR North, Bensalem and Neshaminy, the Indians were on a roll, emerging victorious in their first 12 contests.
Guiding a squad that went to the final eight in the state last season, Pesci knew his team was underperforming and let them know it.
“We really chewed these guys out,” the coach explained. “We got on them and told them we weren’t playing as a team. We weren’t playing to our potential.
“They took it upon themselves; they could have folded but they turned it around.
Did they ever!
Thursday afternoon’s 7-1 triumph over Council Rock South, combined with North’s 4-3 loss at Abington, put the two schools in a two-way tie for first place, each at 10-3 in the SONL. The Indians also lost Wednesday, May 11 in a 5-2 defeat suffered at the hands of Harry S Truman.
Meanwhile, Pennsbury blanked the Tigers, 9-0 on Cinco de Mayo and has won this week against Bensalem (10-0), Neshaminy (7-1) and now, CR South.
Against the Golden Hawks, Falcons starter Nick Price, a first-year varsity player, struggled after loading the bases in both the first and second innings and putting a man on second and third base in the third. But, he settled down to register 5.1 innings of scoreless baseball. For the game, he was charged with limiting the Golden Hawks to just one run on six hits.
“I honestly didn’t think it was going to go that well – because he had the bases loaded in the first two innings,” said Price’s battery-mate Josh Tesarck. “But he hunkered down and he finished it off.”
“He went out there and he showed mental toughness,” added Pesci. “He wasn’t really consistently in the zone; he was walking guys and giving up some hits here and there.
“But being mentally tough, he was able to get out of those jams, and that’s what kept us in the game. They could have easily scored three or four runs that first inning but he came on and shut it down.”
Price struck out five batters and walked only three before giving way to reliever Alec Wilson with two men on in the sixth.
While Wilson surrendered a run-scoring single to South rightfielder Cody Kutler, he shut the door after that, striking out Nick Gallo and inducing a ground ball back to the mound by Evan Fisher and retiring the side in order in the seventh.
“Alec – I have to give him credit,” said Tesarck. “He always comes in in tough situations and finishes things off for us.
“He closed it out here today.”
The big hit for Pennsbury (12-5, 10-3: SOL) came with the sacks jammed and no outs in the second inning, That’s when Tesarck slammed an offering from Hawks sophomore righthander Brendon Carter into the gap in deep left centerfield for a 2-run double.
“He left the ball up,” said Tesarck, of the pitch. “I just knew if he threw me one like that, I could get my hands through it and drive it.”
The Falcons also scored two additional runs in the second inning, first on a balk and then, on a wild pitch.
Pennsbury added single runs in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings with only two more hits coming in that time span, a fourth-inning double by outfielder Tyrone Hodges with a runner on first and a fifth-inning single by first baseman Billy Bethel with a runner on second.
But it was Tesarck’s double witch the sacks jammed in the second inning that set the tone.
“That was big, especially if we shut them out,” added Tesarck. “We just kept tacking on those runs and it was great. We just kept on scoring.”
A key to the loss for CR South (2-9, 4-12: SOL) was 14 runners left on base including eight in the first three innings. The Hawks also left the sacks jammed in the sixth inning.
“It’s big to have those stranded baserunners, especially in a big game like this,” said Tesarck. “We don’t want them to score and it just kills the other team and it really helped us – that we were down and we just kept getting up.”
South got doubles from outfielder Shaun Stackhouse and infielder Trey Obarowski. Hitting his with one out in the second inning, Stackhouse was left stranded at third base. Obarowski’s double would have scored a run for the Hawks in the fourth had not third baseman Josh Kim been caught trying to steal second base in that frame.
Carter sustained the loss for CR South while Price recorded the win for Pennsbury.
The Falcons didn’t find out about the significance of the win over South until the battle ended. That’s when they discovered that Rock North lost for the second time in two days.
“It’s big – it means we’re tied for first place and it means we can sew up the league title if they lose again,” said Tesarck. “To get the league title, we just gotta keep winning – keep the train moving.”
Pennsbury will meet William Tennent on Tuesday, May 17 while the Indians face Bensalem for the last league game of the season for all sides.
Contact Steve Sherman at ssherman@21st-Centurymedia.com or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter
Pennsbury 7, Council Rock South 1
(May 11 at Pennsbury)
CR SOUTH 000 001 0 – 1 7 4
Pennsbury 041 110 – 7 3 3
WP – Nick Price 5.1IP, 1R, 6H, 3BB, 5SO, 2HB; LP – Brendon Carter 3IP, 6R, 2H, 1BB, 0SO, 4HB.
EXTRA-BASE HITS: CRS – Trey Obarowski, Shaun Stackhouse; P – Tyrone Hodges, Josh Tesarck.
RBI: P – Justin Massielo, Justin Ward, Josh Tesarck 2, Vaughn Ward; CRS – Nick Gallo.
