CB West follows Gilvary’s lead to top Pennridge

DOYLESTOWN >> It didn’t take Brian Gilvary long to realize he was in a zone.

The Central Bucks West senior right-hander sat down the first nine Pennridge batters he faced Thursday afternoon and retired the Rams in order four out of the first five innings. He helped his own cause at the plate too as the Bucks got off to exactly the kind of start they wanted.

It got interesting at the finish, but CB West made Gilvary’s six innings of work hold up for a 5-3 win over the Rams in West’s annual Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer game.

“I was just pounding the strike zone,” Gilvary said. “We were repeatedly pounding the zone and hitting spots was really key.”

Gilvary struck out six against three walks and got plenty of stellar defense behind him. Shortstop Rhy Nicholas had four of the first nine outs come his way, while freshman Aidan Quinn answered his first test at third base with a confident play and throw on a ground ball.

Quinn, starting in place of the injured Matt Cooper, also made a terrific play in the fourth inning when he leaped in the air to snare a liner off the bat of Hayden Maltby. The play of the day however, belonged to centerfielder Jack Filleppo.

In the third inning, Filleppo tracked down a rocket off Ray Knight’s bat that seemed like it had a chance to get over the fence. Filleppo made the grab on the run before his momentum carried him over the collapsible fence at the deepest part of the field.

It was just the right amount of support for Gilvary, who held Pennridge off the board until the fourth inning.

“Brian is like conducting the world’s greatest orchestra in that you call a pitch and he hits it,” CB West coach Brian Weaver said. “He can dance all over. Today, there were several innings where he was between eight to 12 pitches and if you can rely on that, good things happen.”

For Pennridge, Thursday’s game was a familiar story to most of the Rams’ games so far this spring. While Gilvary was quick and efficient, the Rams dug themselves into an early hole by compounding mistakes.

Whether it was walks or errors, Pennridge missed chances to get early outs and instead found itself down 3-0 after one frame and 5-0 after two.

“We’ve been struggling getting out of that first inning without allowing any runs on the board,” Rams coach Tom Nuneviller said. “We made some mistakes, didn’t field a couple balls we should have, lost a pop-up in the air on one we have to catch. We’re making mistakes but we’ve shown a lot of fight.”

Just when it seemed like CB West was poised to break the game open, Rams relief pitcher John Nase shut those plans down. Nase, who took over to start the home half of the third inning, pitched almost spotlessly and faced just one more than the minimum in his four innings.

The righty’s outing allowed Pennridge to chip its way back into the game and threaten in the top half of the seventh.

“Johnny pitched tremendous,” Nuneviller said. “He had six strikeouts, so he went out and battled and had a really good command of his pitches.”

Gilvary didn’t allow any runners until the fourth when he issued two walks. With two out, Nick Christ looped a single to right, plating Paul Croyle to put the Rams on the board but Gilvary came back to get a groundball to second and end the threat.

A couple errors by the Bucks helped Pennridge get another run on the board in the sixth but Gilvary again eluded more trouble by inducing a grounder to Nicholas at short with the bases loaded.

“Getting out of those innings is always big and it helps get everyone hyped up,” Gilvary said. “I was in a grind, but I felt comfortable. I felt good the whole game.”

Pennridge saw the first three batters up in the seventh reach base, with Croyle battling out of an 0-2 count for an RBI single off West reliever Julian Murray. But Murray, who had two strikes on all three of those batters, buckled down and struck out the next three men to pick up the save.

“We’d had five games in five school days so yesterday was a good day to fundamentally work on the things we needed to work on,” Weaver said. “The combination of being able to zero in again and the fact we had the fundraiser today, whenever Ciarlo is here, the guys get really amped up and it showed the first couple of innings.”

SPECIAL DAY

Thursday was more than just a league game for the Bucks.

In 2016, the Bucks brought Dominic Liples, a young Doylestown resident battling brain cancer, into the program. Liples threw out the first pitch of their final home game that season before passing away in December the same year.

Still, his impact resonated plenty within the program and every year since, the Bucks have hosted the Liples family and Dominic’s younger brother Ciarlo during the Lace Up 4 Cancer game. On top of that, the team established the Dominic Liples Scholarship Fund, which awards $500 to the senior who best embodies Dominic’s consistent positive attitude and ability.

Thursday, Ciarlo threw out the first pitch and posed with the entire team for a post-game victory photo.

“It’s really special for us, it’s been special for West baseball the past couple years,” Gilvary said. “We really look forward to having Ciarlo and his family out here. Us having him out here is a tradition and we love him and any time he comes by, we’re a little more hyped up.”

Weaver wasn’t surprised his team had one of its best starts to the still young season with one of the program’s biggest supporters out to back the players.

“Any time you have a really good cause and a team full of good kids, good things happen,” Weaver said. “I’m coaching a bunch of guys I would want my own son playing with and the kind of guys I want back here with Ciarlo throwing out the first pitch. I think he feeds them as much as they feed him.”

CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 5, PENNRIDGE 3
PENNRIDGE 000 101 1 – 3 3 2
CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 320 000 x – 5 5 3
WP: Brian Gilvary. LP: Jimmy Petrik. SV: Julian Murray. SO-BB: CBW – Gilvary 6-3, Murray 3-0; P – Petrik 2-2, John Nase 6-0.