Council Rock North makes quick work of Upper Dublin

UPPER DUBLIN >> Council Rock North’s first two batters of the game grounded out to first base and flied out to centerfield. That was the only resistance the Indians offense faced all day.

The No. 6 seed scored in every inning and beat No. 3 Upper Dublin, 10-0 in six innings, in the District One Class AAAA quarterfinals Friday afternoon at Upper Dublin High School.

The visiting Indians scored four runs in the first inning. two in the second and one in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth to build a 10-run lead against Upper Dublin and have the game stopped after six innings.

North’s lineup totaled 13 hits and every batter either scored a run or knocked one in.

“Our lineup is deep,” North coach Matt Schram said. “Our 6-7-8-9 guys, they could be 1-2-3-4 somewhere else — they’re good. Of course our top four guys are equally as good as well. We’re tough and we’re contagious. Once it gets going — here we go. That’s how we’ve been doing things.”

“Their consistency all the way throughout the game,” Upper Dublin coach Ed Wall pointed to as the difference. “Top to bottom, one through nine, that’s the best hitting team we faced all season. I’d be surprised to see many more that are better in the state. Really impressive.”

Chase D’Arcangelo went 3-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored and Seth Leuz was 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored.

Ten runs was enough to stop the game short of seven innings because the Indians pitching blanked the Cardinals offense.

Sophomore Gavin Ferrandino started and went four innings. He surrendered two hits and four walks while striking out three batters.

“I was excited for him,” Schram said of his starting pitcher. “He and I talked earlier in the day today at school and I could just tell he had a good vision of what he was going to do. It’s kind of nice to throw for us because we have a good defense, we’ll score some runs for you — you just have to throw strikes. He did it.”

CJ Kilgarriff came on in relief and threw the final two innings. He walked and struck out two batters and didn’t give up a hit.

Upper Dublin had a few scoring chances but never capitalized. At least one runner was left on base every inning and runners were stranded in scoring position in the second, third and fourth innings.

“It felt like we were on base, if not in scoring position, every inning almost,” Wall said. “(Ferrandino) did a good job. He’s got a good fastball and he just got it by our bottom half of the order and we couldn’t keep the ball out of the air. The ground was nice and hard — it was perfect for hard ground balls, but we just couldn’t stay on top of it. We were getting underneath it and giving them easy outs. With a team like this, you have to challenge them.”

North clinched a spot in the state tournament with its win and will face No. 2 seed Downingtown West in the semifinals Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.

“They have such a great, rich tradition there in baseball,” Schram said. “Nobody is surprised that they’re not only the number two seeded team, but they’re scoring a lot of runs. Tuesday’s game is going to be interesting — it’s going to be a battle. They’re a good team.”

Upper Dublin will return to action at home Tuesday when it tries to play its way back into the state tournament.

“The only thing that’s change is we’re not top four in the district,” Wall told his team after the game. “We’re still playing for a state playoff spot. We’re still in control of our own destiny. We’re still going to be hosting next week.”