Spring-Ford capitalizes on miscues, rolls into quarters

WARRINGTON >> Conor Larkin and the rest of the Spring-Ford Rams baseball are moving on in the District 1-AAAA playoffs.

Larkin pitched six innings of six-hit baseball and combined it with 10 strikeouts and no walks Wednesday afternoon as the visiting Rams knocked off No. 7 seed Central Bucks South, 10-2, on the Titans’ home field.

Spring-Ford, the No. 10 seed, advanced to visit No. 2 Downingtown West in the quarterfinal round Friday afternoon. The Whippets defeated Neshaminy in their second-round contest.

Larkin permitted just two second-inning runs, one earned, to earn the mound win. He got an inning of relief help from Ryne Moore, who struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Spring-Ford (18-5) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning. The Rams then added three in the fourth, two in the fifth and one in the sixth to stay on top. The Rams received a lot of help from the Central Bucks South defense, which committed five costly, uncharacteristic errors that led to seven unearned runs.

The Titans, who were champions of the Suburban One League Continental Division, saw their season come to a close with a 14-5 overall mark.

“It felt good,” said Larkin, a junior right-hander who is headed to Penn State University. “It felt really good. I like it out there in the heat. I get loose really early. It really was a nice day to play some baseball.”

Larkin helped himself at the plate in a balanced assault, according to Spring-Ford coach Bruce Brobst.

“We got some lucky breaks today,” said Larkin. “We all hit. It was a great team win. We played the seventh seed at their home field and put up a win. That’s encouraging.”

Larkin had also played a big role in Monday’s first-round home victory over Haverford. In that one, the Rams erased an early 6-0 deficit and won, 7-6, in eight innings.

“That’s it,” said Brobst. “We live to play another day. We were great offensively at the start to go up 4-0.”

Brobst realized the Rams received numerous breaks due to the Titans’ fielding miscues. But he also said Spring-Ford helped force some of those mistakes by making contact and putting the ball in play against Central Bucks South pitchers Alex Bendzlowicz, the starter; and relievers Dan McCartin and Chris Palkovics. Bendzlowicz pitched the first 3 1/3 innings, McCartin 2 2/3 plus one batter and Palkovics one inning to close out the effort.

“I was surprised at how hard they were hitting Conor in the second inning,” said Brobst. “We made the adjustments, and he made the adjustments, and it worked out great.”

He thought the Rams kept adding to lead with hits and runs throughout the game. He thought that type of production helped wear down the Titans’ pitchers.

Central Bucks South coach Brian Klumpp said his Titans have played consistently well with pitching and defense throughout the year, but the Titans came up short on an important day in these single-elimination playoffs.

“Our strength through the year was our pitching and defense,” said Klumpp. “Today, it wasn’t there for us. It now comes down to the team that throws strikes and makes the plays, and today that was Spring-Ford.”

Quinn McKenna and Ethan Hellberg each doubled for the Rams. Tommy Dugan doubled for the Titans.