McShane throws shutout, Bensalem pulls away in 7th to beat North Penn

TOWAMENCIN >> North Penn baseball coach Kevin Manero sees the talent on his side. The problem for the Knights is they may be running out of time.

“You can’t wait around and say ‘Well, it’s early,’ the thing is it’s not early anymore,” Manero said. “We’re halfway through – we’re past halfway through the season now and it’s time to start stringing a few together. We can’t win one and then come flat the next day, you got to come to play every day.”

An opportunity for North Penn to give itself a boost in District 1-6A rankings against visiting Bensalem came and went Wednesday afternoon – mostly due to the Owls’ Matt McShane.

The senior right-hander committed to Saint Joseph’s allowed five hits in throwing a shutout while unbeaten Bensalem jumped out to an early 3-0 lead then pulled away with a six-run top of the seventh inning to hand the Knights a 9-0 loss in the Suburban One League crossover contest.

“They’re a good team but I’m kind of getting to the point where I’m sick and tired talking about how good our league is and how good everybody is because there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be either,” Manero said. “We have a lot of guys on the team that have shown in the past in front of other people’s eyes that they are next level baseball players and it’s time that we start playing like that instead of gawking at other teams and coming out here not to make a mistake.”

McShane struck out seven, did not give up a walk and kept himself out of any serious predicaments as North Penn (5-4, 2-3 SOL Colonial, 3-4 SOL district games) put just three runners in scoring position, with only one advancing to third base.

“I was locating the fastball pretty good, curveball and then went I got into trouble I just made the pitches that needed to,” McShane said. “We made a few plays in the field and got it done.”

Logan Young, Nate Rice, Jalen Soberal and Nick Nush all went 2-for-4 for Bensalem (9-0, 3-0 SOL Patriot, 7-0) while Young had an RBI and scored twice and Rice had two runs scored.

The Owls, the top team in the district 6A rankings, went up 1-0 in the top of the first after an error on a two-out grounder then added two runs in the second on Sean Nelson’s RBI sac fly and an error on the play.

“(McShane) threw a great game, so it’s kind of easy to think to put up two or three runs and we knew he was going to dominate,” Soberal said. “So that’s how we look at offense. The pitchers been carrying us the whole season, we just got to help them.”

The margin stayed three until Bensalem blew things open by batting around, recording five hits in tacking on six more runs in its half of the seventh. McShane gave up a two-out single to Joe Picozzi in the bottom of the inning before getting the next batter to fly out, giving the Owls its second straight shutout after edging Central Bucks West 1-0 Monday.

“Just throw strikes,” McShane said. “We all work together, hit the ball and then play defense and that won us the game.”

Jeff Sabater was 2-for-2 with a pair of singles for North Penn, which was shutout for the first time this season. The Knights have lost three of their last four since a 4-1 start.

“The tanks are totally full but when we get behind the wheel and put our foot on the gas, we got to trust it and fly,” Manero said. “And right now, we’re gripping the wheel and we’re looking behind us in the rearview mirrors, we just not playing aggressive and that’s what has to change.”

Both teams finish the week with SOL crossover games Friday – North Penn visits Council Rock North at 3:30 p.m. while Bensalem is home against Pennridge at 3:45 p.m.

“We just knew we lost a season and this was our season,” Soberal said. “Everybody was in the weight room, every day getting bigger, stronger and we just had to put it on the field. We just put a lot of work in the offseason and as you guys can see it’s working out real well right now. Just trying to roll with it.”

NP starting pitcher Dylan Brown took the loss, the junior left-hander allowing three runs – one earned – on five hits in 4 2/3 innings. The Notre Dame commit walked three and struck out six.

“It’s good that he settled in but he’s got to come out and he’s got to be making pitches in the early innings,” Manero said. “I mean, we saw what Mike Lennon did the other day (in a 6-0 win over Council Rock South Monday), he came out, he got a 1-2-3 inning in the first inning, he hit his spots, his pitch counts were low.

“We can’t run a lot of two-ball and three-ball counts in the first couple innings because then we know we’re not going to be out there for very long and we’re also giving teams runs early and we got to execute pitches early for sure.”

Sean Nelson led off the top of the seventh by getting hit by a pitch while McShane followed with a single. After a strikeout, Nush’s bunt single loaded the bases for Ryan Rooney, who was hit by a pitch to score Nelson and put the Owls up 4-0.

Young’s RBI single through the left side of the infield brought in McShane’s courtesy runner Evan Crowell. With the bases still loaded, Tyler Fisher laced a two-RBI single into right center with an errant throw home that went out of play resulting in another  run and Fisher reaching third. Rice made it 9-0 on the next at-bat as his single scored pinch runner Ryan McLaughlin.

“When they’re up 3-0 like that, their job is to try to score one or two more runs and extend the lead,” Manero said. “And we were putting up a lot of zeroes but we did not execute in any facet of the game in that last inning, whether it be executing pitches or making plays, I mean, we just didn’t do it and we played a bad top of the seventh inning, there’s no doubt about it.

Soberal started the top of the first with a single to right center then went to second on a Nelson’ sacrifice bunt. McShane drew a walk to put two on and two batters later an error on Nush’s two-out grounder allowed Soberal to score the game’s opening run with a head-first slide.

In the top of the second, Young led off with a single up the middle while Rice’s one-out Rice single and a Soberal walk loaded the bases.  On the next at-bat, Young’s feet-first slide just beat the throw home after Nelson’s RBI sac fly to right. NP had Soberal caught between first and second on the play but Soberal got back to first and the Knights’ errant throw to third brought home Rice for a 3-0 Bensalem lead.