Agriss’ hit, Corrado’s catch send North Penn past Souderton for 6th straight win

TOWAMENCIN >> RJ Agriss did not have a good feeling when Souderton’s Jacob Horton belted a ball out towards Steve Corrado in right field with the tying run at first base in the top of the seventh inning.

“I thought it was over his head and that we were going to set up a cut to home,” the North Penn first baseman said.

Corrado was not feeling great about his chances either.

“At first, getting back I was like there’s no way I was getting this,” he said.

The senior, however, exceeded his own expectation with a stellar catch – tracking back before reaching up while still on the run to snag the ball then throwing it in to Agriss to double up the runner at first.

“As I started to get there, cause we do a lot of work getting behind the ball I felt like I got under that perfectly,” Corrado said. “Feel like all the work that we’ve done at practice definitely helped on that cause that ball was very well hit. So I just needed to make sure to get behind it.”

A groundout on the next at-bat secured the Knights baseball team’s sixth consecutive win. North Penn erased a 4-3 deficit by scoring a run in fifth and six and edged the visiting Indians 5-4 for a SOL Colonial Division victory Wednesday afternoon.

“We’ve been in this position before, we’ve been down in games and we trust our pitching staff that if we get down, they’re going to hold them there and we’re going to find holes eventually,” Agriss said. “We were barreling baseball all day and they weren’t finding holes at first but we keep putting good swings on the baseball, they’re going to fall.”

Souderton struck for two runs to take the lead in the top of the fifth but Evin Sullivan pulled North Penn (11-4, 5-3 division, 9-4 District 1-6A) even 4-4 with a solo home run to left center. Agriss delivered the go-ahead run with a two-out, RBI single to right center in the sixth.

“It was a weird game because they hit a couple bloop hits that we couldn’t do much about and then the ball that they squared up maybe the best we made an amazing play on,” North Penn coach Kevin Manero said. “It’s just a very, very strange game baseball some days. But we squared a lot of balls up today that didn’t go anywhere, I mean they went right at guys and they could of easily been (hits), we could have had three or four more hits.

“We battled, we stayed tough to the end and it was just one of those wins you had to really work hard for.”

Sullivan reached base on all three of his plate appearances, the Binghamton commit going 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. Colin Orndorff was 2-for-3 with a two-RBI double for the Knights while Sam Cohen went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Orndorff led off the bottom of the sixth with a single but was forced at second on Jack Picozzi’s fielder’s choice. Cohen followed with a single through the right side, putting two one with one out. After a foul-bunt strikeout, Agriss – who was 0-for-3 in his previous three at-bats – came through by sending a single to right center, scoring Picozzi from second for a 5-4 lead.

“He was working away all game so we were talking about in the dugout just getting on the plate and looking right field,” Agriss said. “And got a fastball where I like it, drove it to right field. But that doesn’t happen without our guys getting on base before me, so that was huge.”

Luke Pollock started the top of the seventh with a single down the third-base line but Corrado’s catch resulted in a 9-3 double play. NP sealed the comeback win when the next batter grounded out to the shortstop.

Ethan Warner went 2-for-3 with a solo home run in the fourth, Alex Morales was 2-for-3 with an RBI and run while Shanley Wall was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI for Souderton (7-10, 3-5 SOL Colonial, 5-9 District 1-6A) , which could not claim a third straight win. The loss likely ends any chance the Indians had at making the district postseason. Souderton came in 31st in the 6A rankings with 20 making the postseason. North Penn began the day 12th.

“As I told these guys this is not a game to be upset by,” Souderton coach Mike Childs said. “And at the end, I could of bunted him but I got a senior out there, we got a 5-8 record, let’s let the senior swing and see what he can do. And he hit a laser shot, the kid made a great play. That gets over his head, Pollock’s scoring, we got a tie game.

“I am not upset about this game at all. The first time we played them, very upset. This time, we battled.”

Eric Hamilton pitched the final 2 1/3 innings to pick up the win for the Knights. The right-hander came in with runners on the corners and two outs in the top of the fifth and got the first batter he faced to fly out to foul territory in right, keeping North Penn down just one. Hamilton allowed one hit and did give up a walk.

“He’s come in and really thrown a lot of strikes and he’s come into some tough sports in some really close games,” said Manero of Hamilton. “Just we know that we can really rely on him to come out of the bullpen and fill up the zone.”

Knights starting pitcher Dylan Brown’s first nine outs came via strikeout as the left-handed Notre Dame commit finished with 12 strikeouts in his 4 2/3 innings. He gave up four runs – two earned – on seven hits, no walks and one hit batter.

Will McCausland took the loss in a complete-game effort for Souderton, allowing five runs – four earned – on 10 hits, no walks and struck out eight.

North Penn hosts SOL Colonial leader Central Bucks South 4 p.m. Friday while Souderton has two home games remaining this week – taking on Pennridge 4:15 p.m. Friday then Lansdale Catholic 11 a.m. Saturday.

The Indians trailed 3-1 after three innings but cut their deficit to one when Warner connected on a solo homer to left with one out in the top of the fourth.

In Big Red’s half of the fifth, Pollock advanced all the way to third after an error on his one-out grounder. Brown struck out the next batter but Dante Bruno followed by dropping a single into right, plating Pollock to tie the game 3-3.

An error on Justin Dicesare’s grounder put two on for Morales, who knocked a single to right that scored Bruno for a 4-3 Souderton lead.

Sullivan, however, knotted things 4-4 by lining a solo home run over the fence in left center with one out in the bottom of the fifth.

“I was like ‘Is that leaving?’” Sullivan said. “And then I just kind of kept running cause all right if it’s off the fence I’ll get a double out of this. And then just kind of went right over. I was like ‘Oh that’s nice.’”

Souderton took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second as Wall lofted a single into shallow center that brought home Morales from second. The Knights tied things in its half of the inning, an error as Ryan Sullivan stole second allowing Cohen to score.

In the bottom of the third, Evin Sullivan singled with one out then went to third on Corrado’s two-out single through the left side. Orndorff followed with a double to right, scoring both runners to put North Penn up 3-1.