Council Rock North baseball returns to District 1 championship with win over Whippets (VIDEO)

EAGLEVILLE – Facing Council Rock North closer C.J. Kilgariff with two outs, Downingtown West catcher Nick Campana watched as three balls went by him to get ahead of the senior righthander headed to Philadelphia University.

Then, he fouled a ball off and swung on and missed to draw the count full. Then, the unthinkable happened, at least for the batter – he stood there as the home plate umpire rung him up for the third and final out in a 2-1 District 1 Class AAAA semifinal loss to the Rock Tuesday afternoon, May 31 at Methacton High’s Robert Morris Childress Field.

For the second year in a row, the defending D-1 champion and sixth-seeded Indians (20-3) are going to the District 1 Class AAAA championship at 4 p.m. Thursday when they will face 17th-seeded Pennridge, a 3-0 winner over No. 5 Boyertown, back at Methacton.

The No. 2-seeded Whippets (19-3) saw a 16-game win streak come to an end and will face the Bears in a third place game at 4 p.m. Thursday on their home field.

CR North pushed both its runs across the plate with two outs and sophomore Cavan Tully (2-for-3, RBI), who came off the bench to play shortstop in the second inning and finished the game at second, scored senior DH James Closser from second base with an RBI single for the winning run in the fifth inning.

“You gotta get the job done no matter how many outs there are; one out, two outs, you gotta get the job done,” said Tully. “I knew what I was doing. I knew I had to get him in somehow and I just got it done.”

In the second inning with the Rock trailing 1-0, Closser (2-for-2, RBI) tied it with the third of three consecutive singles for the Indians.

“We’re definitely a team that will stick around,” said Tully. “We’re not gonna give up. We build off of momentum. One or two outs, someone gets a hit, we’re going to keep going with it.”

We try to keep the same approach no matter how many outs there are,” added starting pitcher Matt Hand. ‘It’s important for us because sometimes pitchers are successful against us with those first two outs.

“It seems like we’ve been able to do that all season.”

Defensively, Hand limited Downingtown West to a lone run on six hits in five innings of work. A senior righthander who is headed to Lehigh, Hand didn’t allow more than two hits in a single inning. He walked only two batters and struck out three.

“You know what you’re getting into when he’s pitching,” said Tully, of Hand. “You know you’re going to have a good game. You know he’s going to throw strikes and if they hit the ball, it’ll be right there.”

Hand was especially good with runners on base. He forced the Whippets to strand eight runners including men in scoring position in each of the second, third, fourth and fifth innings. He struck out the last two Downingtown batters after a one-out double by Reyce Curnane (2-for-3) to end a second inning rally and fanned infielder Eric Grintz to end a threat with runners at the corners in the third.

Matt made only one mistake and that was leaving a fastball hanging out over the plate on a full count facing senior John Paul Bell with one out in the first inning. The center fielder for the Whippets laced the ball clear over the scoreboard for a quick 1-0 Downingtown West lead.

“We emphasize no walks, especially it being the first inning, so I just grooved a fastball and I left it up and in and he was sitting on it all the way,” said Hand, of his one bad pitch.

D-West sophomore Drew Britt did a yeoman’s work on the hill for the Whippets, scattering eight hits in six innings of work, striking out four batters while walking only one.

“He was pretty good today especially with men on base,” said Hand. “He was locating his fastballs and he had great off-speed pitches so he was pitching well today.”

The pitching the Indians faced in this one was a far cry from what they saw in the quarterfinals when they put six runs up in the first two frames on their way to a mercy-ruled win over 3rd-seeded Upper Dublin.

“This is the best competition that we’ve faced all year,” added Hand. “You’re playing teams that are at least as good as you so you just try to stick together.

“We knew they were going to come out and hit the ball and I think our defense played pretty well, so that was big.”

Britt, a 6-4, 230-pound 10th-grader, breezed through the first five North batters before first baseman Chase D’Arcangelo slapped a single to right field, third baseman Tyler Nowmos grounded a ball between first and second base and Closser pushed the tying run across with a ground ball up the middle.

“He’s been huge for us – his batting average shows that,” said Hand. Especially against right-handed pitching. He seems to be able to sit on that fastball – he loves that inside fastball nad he got towo of them today and they proved to be huge for us in a 2-1 game.

“He pretty much carried us today.”

Closser got things started in the decisive fifth inning, slapping a leadoff single past first base, reaching second on a sac-bunt by center fielder Ben Parker and scoring on Tully’s hit up the middle.

Council Rock North 2, Downingtown West 1

(May 31 at Methacton)

CR NORTH 010 010 0 – 2 8 1

D-WEST      100 000 0 – 1 6 0

WP — Matt Hand 5IP, 1R, 6H, 2BB. 3SO; LP — Drew Britt 6IP, 2R, 8H, 1BB, 4SO.

MULTIPLE HITS: CRN — Cavan Tully 2-for-3, James Closser 2-for-2; DW — J.P. Bell 2-for-4, Reyce Curnane 2-for-3.

EXTRA-BASE HITS: CRN — none; DW — Bell HR, Curnane 2B.

RBI: CRN — Closser, Tully; DW — Bell.