Late offense lifts Plymouth Whitemarsh over Souderton in District 1-6A quarterfinals

LOWER SALFORD >> Plymouth Whitemarsh didn’t have any hits heading into the sixth inning against Souderton Friday afternoon and finished the game with just three, but the Colonials made the most of them.

PW’s Drew Kliesh broke up the no-hitter with an RBI double in the top of the sixth and Kevin Reilly followed with a two-run home run to tie the game at three. In the seventh, Kliesh ripped a two-run double to spark No. 6 Plymouth Whitemarsh to a 6-3 win over No. 3 Souderton in the District 1 Class-6A quarterfinals at Vic Alderfer Memorial Ball Park at the Harleysville Community Center.

“We were hitting a lot of fly balls,” PW coach Chris Manero said. “We work on this no fly ball drill. We work on putting the ball in play. Guys either needed to see (Souderton pitcher Luke Taylor) again or they started thinking about those approaches that we work on. Something clicked and sometimes it just takes one hit to get everything going and that’s what happened.”

The Suburban One League American Conference champions only managed two base runners in the first five innings against Taylor — a Reilly walk in the first inning and a Jesse Jaconski hit by pitch in the fifth.

Trailing 3-0, Joe Jaconski worked a one-out walk in the top of the sixth. Kliesh followed with an RBI double to breakup the no-hitter and get PW on the board.

“It was starting to get a little frustrating,” Kliesh said, “because when a pitcher like that is out there it’s just hard to do anything. It was starting to get really frustrating, but thankfully I got a fastball, a little low in my hot zone and I put it into left-center.”

Reilly stepped to the plate next and quickly fell behind 0-2. He battled to a full count before crushing a home run over the left-center field fence to tie the game at three and knock Taylor from the game.

“I was just trying to drive the middle there, work the count,” Reilly said. “I ended up getting a fastball down the middle, turned on it and it went out.”

In the seventh, Michael Orensky worked a one-out walk and Richie Werner hit into a potential double play, but an error led to runners on the corners. Joe Jaconski was intentionally walked to load the bases for Kliesh, who delivered with a two-run double to right-center to give PW its first lead, 5-3.

“(The intentional walk to Jaconski) gives me an opportunity to have the bases loaded,” Kliesh said. “When I have bases loaded, who knows what can happen? Especially with only one out. Anything can happen. All I have to do it put the ball in play. Even though (the infield) is up, just put the ball in play and let it play out and see what happens. Thankfully I put it into right field.”

Two-run double for Kliesh. 5-3 PW top 7 pic.twitter.com/UkUyxCF7F5

— Ed Morlock (@emor09) May 24, 2019

Reilly was intentionally walked to load the bases and Ben Mascio walked to bring home the final run of the game.

“(Taylor’s) pitch count was decent,” Souderton coach Mike Childs said. “He felt his velocity was dropping a little bit, he said his curveball wasn’t breaking so we felt it was time to pull him and go with the lefty (Erik Ritchie), especially with the lefties coming up. (Taylor) hung one a little bit and (Reilly) put it out of the park. It happens. It’s high school baseball. We just have to grind. It’s something that happens that we’re not happy about, but it teaches us a lesson. We’ve had a fortunate road. These guys have worked hard for where they’re at, but in the playoffs anything can happen. You start off 0-0. When I saw 3-3 we can’t hang our heads, we have to battle back. I don’t think we hung our heads, but it was a shocker to us because, like I said, a lot of things have gone our way this year. This is going to put some skin on us — toughen up our skin a little bit and be ready to go try for that fifth spot.”

PW pitcher Brett Bottinger retired Souderton in order in the bottom of the seventh to finish his complete game. He struck out four batters to no walks and allowed six hits. Two of the three runs he allowed were unearned.

“It’s a playoff game against arguably the best team in Suburban One,” Bottinger said. “I’m ready to go from the start. I knew (the offense was) going to come around. They’ve done it all year. They did it against Springfield when I pitched. I knew if I gave them time they were going to come up big and they did.”

“(Bottinger’s) a captain,” Manero added. “He’s a senior. He’s kind of had to live as the No. 2 pitcher this year a lot of times, but he was a No. 1 today. There was an inning there where things got a little shaky, but he looked inside of himself and bared down and kept it where it was and enabled us to do everything we did later.”

The Indians took a 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth. Jacob Horton reached on an error and a miscommunication on a Frank Pollock bunt put runners on first and second with no outs. After a strikeout, Andrew Curran lined an RBI single to left field to give Souderton the lead.

The Suburban One League Continental champs added two more runs in the fifth. Taylor hit a two-out double — his second double of the day — and courtesy runner Dean Shaw advanced to third on a wild pitch. The attempt to get him at third base sailed into left field and Shaw raced home, doubling the lead. Later in the same at-bat, Horton hit a home run down the left-field line to make it 3-0.

Souderton had other opportunities to score, but couldn’t come through, leaving four runners on base over the first four innings — three of which were in scoring position.

“Some things that have gone our way did not go our way today,” Childs said. “(Bottinger) kept us off-balance. He did a very nice job. Not really overly powerful, but kept us off-balance. We knew what was coming, but we didn’t make our adjustments early enough. We put balls in play, but they made plays also. It happens.”

Over 5 1/3 innings, Taylor struck out five batters to two walks. He allowed three runs on two hits. Erik Ritchie came on in relief and took the loss. In one inning he struck out one batter to four walks — two intentional — and allowed three runs on one hit.

Plymouth Whitemarsh clinches a spot in the state playoffs with the win and advances to the District 1 semifinals, where it will host No. 7 Neshaminy Tuesday afternoon.

“We know that the deeper you get the tougher it gets,” Manero said. “Not that it’s been easy up to this point, obviously, but every matchup is going to be tight. It’s going to be tough and everyone has to play their best. It’s exciting to know we checked off another box and get to play more baseball for a couple more weeks. This is something that these guys really seem to be enjoying and I’m happy for them.”

The loss drops Souderton into the fifth-place bracket, where it will need to win two games to earn the final District 1 spot in the state tournament.