Souderton punches ticket to states with dominant win over Garnet Valley

WHITEMARSH >> In a win-or-go-home situation for fifth place and the final state playoff berth in District 1 Class-6A, Souderton played one of its best games of the season.

Pitcher Luke Taylor threw a complete game, all nine spots in the batting order scored and eight different players knocked in runs.

Add all that together and the No. 3 seeded Indians punched their ticket to states for the first time since 2007 with a 15-1 win in five innings over No. 2 Garnet Valley Friday afternoon at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.

“They’re tough kids,” Souderton coach Mike Childs said. “They’re battlers one through 21. You look at the lineup, you see the bench. The bench is into the whole thing. They’re ready. We’re going to take it one game at a time, but they’re ready.”

Taylor allowed one run on six hits over five innings while striking out two batters to two walks. He had a shutout with two outs in the bottom of the fifth but a pair of hits and a walk put the Jaguars on the board.

The right-hander’s biggest tests came early while the game was still in doubt.

The first three Garnet Valley batters reached base in the bottom of the second with the teams tied, 0-0. Taylor sandwiched two strikeouts around a pop-up to get out of the jam unscathed.

“That was big getting out of that,” Taylor said. “I was just trying to pound the strike zone there. I didn’t want to walk in any runs there, just hope they put it in play. I think I had two strikeouts that inning, so that was big. It was big to get out of that. It definitely gave me momentum throughout the rest of the game.”

“That’s happened a couple times to us,” GV coach Rudy Shiller said. “One little thing happens and then we have one little mistake and they capitalize on the mistake. They had a mistake where they didn’t get our bunt out and they shut us down. That’s really the difference because then everyone builds off that.”

Taylor did it again in the third. With Souderton ahead 1-0, GV put runners on first and second with no outs. Taylor got a flyout to left field and a grounder to shortstop that Conlan Wall turned into an inning-ending double play.

“That was huge,” Childs said. “That could’ve been a big game-turn momentum wise and attitude wise. To get out of it and take that momentum on our side — prevent them from scoring runs and come back and score some runs.”

And the Indians did score some runs.

After taking a 1-0 lead on a Wall double in the third, they pushed five runs across the plate in the fourth. Billy Norbeck worked a bases-loaded walk, Hogan Despain ripped a two-run single, courtesy runner Brian Reiner scored on a wild pitch and Taylor’s RBI single made it 6-0.

“We just kept putting up hits,” Taylor said. “That was crazy. I think in the playoffs we only put up six runs in our three games, so to do that — that was huge. (Hitting) was definitely contagious.”

It was more of the same in the fifth inning. Dylan Kummery had an RBI single and scored on a wild pitch, Wall brought home two with a base hit, Taylor, Jacob Horton and Joey Santone each had RBI singles and Danny Pineda made it 15-0 with a two-run single.

“(Hitting) is something we needed,” Childs said. “We definitely needed a spark. We’ve been focusing in practice on hitting more than anything. We know we have a pitching staff. We know we have defense. The one-run games, two-run games we’ve been fortunate with, but we needed to send a message and spark up the bats and today was a good time to spark them up right before we head into states.”

“(Souderton) hit the ball,” Shiller said. “I can’t take anything away from them. They came out and did everything right. They hit the ball, threw strikes, made the plays. That’s what you have to do in baseball.”

Garnet Valley scored in the bottom of the fifth inning when Reece Malek hit a two-out double and took third on a defensive indifference. Cole Palis walked and took a free second base before Alex Mackinnon delivered an RBI infield single.

Souderton will face District 12 champion La Salle in the first round of the PIAA Class-6A state playoffs Monday at Archbishop Wood High School at 4 p.m.

Garnet Valley’s season ends with the loss.

“We ran out of gas there,” Shiller said. “They did everything right. We didn’t do anything right today. It happens. Great kids. I love this team, love these guys, They worked hard all year. They stuck together even through something like this, which isn’t easy to do. I’m proud of them for that, played hard until the very end. It just wasn’t our day today.”