Upper Perkiomen runs past Upper Merion
UPPER MERION >> Upper Perkiomen didn’t have the best day at the plate against Upper Merion, totaling nine hits over six innings.
It was the Indians aggressiveness that led to a big offensive output. They went 8-for-8 stealing bases, advanced on seven wild pitches and tug up to advance three times in a 12-1 Pioneer Athletic Conference Frontier Division win over the Vikings Friday afternoon at Heuser Park.
“We’re usually pretty aggressive running the bases,” Upper Perk sophomore Ian Ferrero said. “The catcher wasn’t an all-star, so we just took advantage of that.”
“For us to win we have to do the little things,” Upper Perk coach Frank Mercon said. “We have to execute bunts, we have to move runners over, we have to advance, we have to steal when we can steal. That’s how we play – then you get that big hit.”
Jake Ankele scored the first run of the game. He entered as a courtesy runner for pitcher Braden Rieg, who worked a walk with no outs in the top of the third inning. He stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Mike Sheradin’s sacrifice fly to centerfield.
Two more runs crossed the plate in the top of the fourth. Ferraro started the rally with a two-out single, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Catcher Dalton Dunlap walked and courtesy runner Ryan Peterson stole second. Rieg delivered with a two-run single, extending the lead to 3-0.
The Indians (3-3, 3-1 PAC Frontier) took full control in the top of the fifth. Malachi Duka singled and Evan Shade doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs. Ankele entered for an injured Duka and scored on a wild pitch while Shade moved up to third. Nate Reinhart hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield, scoring Shade. Wes Barker singled, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Connor Martin single before pitcher Blake Gehman singled in Ferraro, making it 7-0.
“It took a little bit to get our feet going,” Mercon said, noting it was a tough week after losing to Spring-Ford Monday and Pottsgrove Tuesday. “Then we got rolling. It was a good win for us. We needed to rebound today.”
“We’ve had situations like this throughout the season,” Upper Merion coach Matt Mitchell said, “where we’ll play relatively solid baseball for several innings and then, unfortunately, we haven’t had the poise when something doesn’t go our way to step up and make the play to get the stop. It was a situation where that happened again today. Unfortunately until we can change that and have a guy step up and make the play when we need to, unfortunately we’re going to continue to see the same thing, I think.”
The runs kept coming in the sixth inning, this time aided by three Upper Merion errors. Sheradin reached on an error, moved to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third by tagging up on a foul pop up to first base and scored on a Shade grounder. Reinhart and Barker reached on errors and Peterson reached on a fielder’s choice to load the bases. Ferraro followed with the highlight of the day – a three-run triple to right centerfield.
“I just saw an outside pitch,” Ferraro, who scored on a wild pitch to make it 12-0, said, “and thought I’d drive it to the other side of the field and just found a gap. It just kept going with the wind.”
While the offense was running around the bases, the Indians pitchers were keeping Upper Merion scoreless. Rieg threw 3.1 scoreless innings while Gehman allowed one run in 2.2 innings of work. They combined for four strikeouts to three walks while allowing six hits.
“I thought they did great,” Mercon said. “(Rieg’s) a freshman and (Gehman’s) a sophomore. Very promising.”
The Vikings (1-6, 1-4 PAC Frontier) scored their only run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Nick Hutchinon led off with a triple and scored on a two-out single by Mike Loschiavo.
Brandon Colon started for Upper Merion and allowed three runs on three hits in four innings while striking out four batters to three walks. Ben Eyer threw two innings in relief, allowing eight runs on six hits with one strikeout to no walks.
Upper Perkiomen 12, Upper Merion 1
Upper Perkiomen 001 245 – 12
Upper Merion 000 001 – 1
WP: Braden Rieg 3.1 IP 2 K 2 BB 4 H 0 R
LP: Brandon Colon 4 IP 4 K 3 BB 3 H 3 R
2B: UP: Evan Shade. UM: Oscar Brenes, Gus Costello.
3B: UP: Ian Ferraro. UM: Nick Hutchinson.
