Smalley pitches Lansdale Catholic past Archbishop Carroll in PCL play-in game
MARPLE >> The text came through, loud and clear.
“I was a little up in the air (Tuesday night) as to who I was gonna start,” Lansdale Catholic coach Dave Scott said of his pitching decision for Wednesday’s Philadelphia Catholic League play-in game against Archbishop Carroll. “I texted (Nick Smalley) and he said ‘coach, I want the ball.’
“Nick wanted the ball,” the coach said, “and he stood behind it. He did a fantastic job.”
Smalley went the distance, limiting the rival Patriots to just two runs on six hits as he led the way to a 3-2 victory at Cardinal O’Hara High School, advancing LC to a Saturday morning showdown with St. Joe’s Prep.
Smalley threw four shutout innings to close things out, striking out three in the win, with two walks and one hit batter.
“I was a little tight in the beginning of the game and then I started to loosen up — off-speed was working well today,” the senior said. “I was working away from most of the batters — hit one kid up inside, which was a mistake — but pretty much my off-speed was helping me out.”
Smalley also helped out the Crusaders with his bat.
The No. 3 hitter, who had an earlier double, belted a leadoff triple deep to right to start things off for the Crusaders in the fourth, beginning their climb out of a 2-0 hole.
With one out, James Scarcelli bunted Smalley home, cutting the deficit to 2-1.
“We’ve been preaching this concept of right-center field for the last half of the year and guys are buying into it,” Scott said. “Nick bought into it big-time and he’s been hitting the ball much, much better the last four or five games.”
Ryan Ungurean drew a leadoff walk to start the Crusader fifth. A bunt by Connor Thomson, coupled with a throwing error by Carroll, moved Ungurean over to the third, and he came racing home to score on a groundout by Ryan McSorley, tying the contest.
In the sixth, Scarcelli singled and later scored on a throwing error by the Patriots, putting LC in front, 3-2, and then Smalley did the rest.
“He really settled into a nice groove,” Scott said of his right-hander, who struck out Kevin Downs with one man on to end the game in the top of the seventh. “When he can throw that first-pitch breaking ball for a strike, boy, it sets up everybody nicely. He did a good job with that today.”
Right-hander James Kelly pitched a nice game for the Patriots, going the distance and allowing just one earned run off of three hits. Three costly errors made it tough for Carroll to hold onto its 2-0 lead.
“(James) pitched very well, throwing strikes,” Patriots third baseman Christian Argentieri said. “We hit the ball well but we just had some mistakes in the field.”
Argentieri, one of three freshman starters for Carroll, poked an RBI single to right to increase the Carroll lead to 2-0 in the third — Downs’ RBI single to left accounted for the other run that inning.
The Patriots go into next year with a young, promising roster.
“We’ve worked very hard this season,” Argentieri said, “so even though it didn’t come together for us, the future is going to be amazing.”
