Walkoff win returns Suburban One League National/Bicentennial to Carpenter Cup semis

PHILADELPHIA – Billy Bethel, Justin Massielo, Tyrone Hodges Jr., Cavan Tully and Ryan McCarty (2-for-2, RBI) may not have started the Phillies Carpenter Cup Classic quarterfinal duel for Suburban One League National/Bicentennial but the five players sure finished the game off in dramatic fashion.

With the SOL National team trailing Olympic Colonial 2-1 entering the bottom of the ninth inning, all five reached base in succession, scoring a pair of runs for a 3-2 walkoff victory that sends the Bucks-Mont team to its third consecutive tournament semifinal and seventh semifinal appearance in the past 10 years.

“You play every out; it doesn’t matter what the score is,” said SOLN/Bicentennial co-coach Dave Torresani. “And that’s what our guys did; they played ‘til the end.”

Bethel (single), Massielo (error) and Hodges (walk) set the table by loading the sacks with no outs. Tully and McCarty cleaned things up with Tully drawing a walk with the sacks jammed and McCarty laying down a perfect squeeze bunt for the walkoff Friday morning at Urban Youth Academy (UYA) Field at FDR Park.

“You just never know in this tournament and that’s what we were hoping for,” added Torresani. “The second group did their jobs.

“The biggest thing was they got the at-bats deep in the count and they walked.

“That was great discipline and of course, McCarty’s bunt was just tremendous.

“It’s a suicide squeeze and it’s do or die.”

The second tournament win this week, it sends defending Carpenter Cup champion SOL National/Bicentennial to Citizens Banks Park where it will face Philadelphia Catholic League, a 5-2 winner over Delaware South. The semifinal is slated for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Trailing 1-0 after an RBI triple by Nick Decker (2-for-2, RBI) put Olympic Colonial up 1-0 in the top of the first, SOLN/Bicentennial scored a run in the second when Aidan Coyle (Abington) drew a walk with the sacks jammed.

Tied at one, Eric Ainsley’s RBI double to left field in the fourth inning gave the New Jersey team a 2-1 lead while three Olympic Colonial pitchers tossed six straight innings of shutout baseball.

Indeed, between the third and seventh innings, the Suburban One team managed to get just three men on base – Tony Gallo (Devon Prep) in the third, Owen Foraker (Holy Ghost) in the sixth and Cory Joyce (Neshaminy) in the seventh. However, Gallo was erased on a doubleplay, Foraker never got past first base and Joyce was out attempting to steal second.

“The bats were quiet but the interesting thing about this tournament is you bring in a whole new set of kids. So you don’t know how they’re going to react or how they’re going to hit.”

“Yesterday, the Suburban One American/Continental, their first group didn’t do anything but the second group came in and scored a bunch of runs.”

In the end, it was mostly Pennsbury players coming through for the Suburban One National in the quarterfinal.

“The Pennsbury kids there at the end are baseball players. That’s what I’ve noticed coaching against them this year,” said Torresani. “They’re young kids but they know the game really well.

“I had a lot of confidence that they would get the job done and they did so it’s a credit to them.”

A pair of Abington pitchers – senior Greg Troyer and junior Paul Poppert – also came through for SOLN/Bicentennial with the duo combining on three scoreless innings through the sixth, seventh and eighth.

“Pitching and defense has always been the most important thing in this game and they pitched great for us,” said Torresani. “I’m happy for them; they’ve earned it.”

Of course, you’re not even having this conversation if Coyle – another Galloping Ghost – doesn’t draw a walk with the bases loaded in the second inning. Coyle fell behind in the count but worked OC Southpaw Drew Wilden for a walk that drew things even with one out in the second inning.

“Aidan Coyle, for me all year long, his on-base percentage was through the roof because of getting deep counts. And then they’d walk him or hit him,” explained Torresani. “It happened a ton of times this year; his plate discipline is tremendous.”

Each with singles, Tim DiLoreto (Christopher Dock), Greg Delgado (William Tennent) and Shaun Stackhouse (Council Rock South) loaded the bases before the walk drawn by Coyle.

Those three hits would be all for the SOL National until the eighth when McCarty and Rashid Saint-Fleur (Christopher Dock) led off with successive singles.

With two on and no outs, OC lefthander Nick Snyder, a lanky 6-6 Cherokee High senior, came on and extinguished the rally with a strikeout, a force at second and a ground ball to first base.

Little did anyone know at the time, it was the last out the lefty would get.

NOTES: CR North senior righthander C.J. Kilgariff recorded the win after tossing a scoreless ninth inning … With a man on third base in the first inning, classmate Seth Leuz threw a perfect strike to DiLoreto to nail Decker at home plate … Olympic Colonial had runners at first and second with one out in the seventh when Troyer trapped the lead runner between second and third and the trailing runner was picked off first base for a doubleplay on the pickoff … SOLN/Bicentennial defeated Berks County/Lancaster-Lebanon 6-5 in the semifinals last year and lost by the same score to Burlington County in 2014.

Contact Steve Sherman at ssherman@21st-Centurymedia.com or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter

Phillies Carpenter Cup Classic (quarterfinal)

Suburban One League National/Bicentennial 3, Olympic Colonial 2

OLYMPIC COLONIAL  100 100 000 – 2 5 0
SOL NATIONAL/BAL   010 000 002 – 3 7 1

(June 17 at UYA Field)

WP: C.J. Kilgariff 1IP, 0R, 0H, 0BB, 0SO; LP — Nick Snyder 1IP, 2R, 2H, 2BB, 1SO.

MULTIPLE HITS: OC — Nick Decker 2-for-2; SOLN/B — Ryan McCarty 2-for-2.

EXTRA-BASE HITS: OC —Decker 3B, Davis Schneider 2B, Eric Ainsley 2B; SOLN/B — none.

RBI: OC — Nick Decker, Ainsley; SOLN/B — Aidan Coyle, Cavan Tully, McCarty.

RUNS SCORED: OC — Jack Herman, Jack Goan; SOLN/B — Tim DiLoreto, Billy Bethel, Justin Massielo.