Burdette fooled once but not twice in leading Conestoga over Ridley

RIDLEY TWP. — Walker Burdette found himself in the same place four innings apart Monday afternoon.

In the third inning of Conestoga’s District 1 Class 6A playoff opener at Ridley, the shortstop flew out with the bases loaded and two out, squandering an early chance to bust the game open.

When the seventh rolled around, the score and even the hit count remained the same as it had been in the top of the third, though the pressure ratcheted up. And the senior rose to meet the moment.

Burdette split the left-center gap with a bases-clearing triple, the decisive hit in a game with just five safeties total, as No. 17 Conestoga topped No. 16 Ridley, 4-1.

“I was just trying to put the ball in play,” Burdette said. “Bases loaded, we needed a run in a big spot, and I wanted to put the ball in play. I got a strike, a fastball right over the dish, and I sent it to left center and I just kept running.”

While the two jams were identical from Burdette’s perspective, they were diametrically opposed for the Ridley hurlers. In the third, Ridley starter Mike Happersett allowed back-to-back singles by eight- and nine-men JT Zellefrow and Brad Markind, the latter an RBI knock after Zellefrow advanced on a wild pitch. A walk and a hit-by-pitch packed the sacks.

But the sophomore Happersett proceeded to strike out Conestoga’s three- and four-hitters before Burdette skied meekly to second.

Happersett flicked on cruise control after that and coasted into the seventh. It started innocently for the left-hander with a strikeout and a groundout, in trying to beat the pitch-count clock of 105. But he hit Drew Lamonica for the third time, then walked Shane McCullen, exiting with 110 pitches and the third out still in the wind.

That brought Gavin Severa to the mound. He walked pinch-hitter Alex Yucha, then with nowhere to put Burdette, fell into a hitter’s count that Burdette summarily punished.

It marked an undeserved end for Happersett, who was outstanding. He was tagged with the loss and three earned runs allowed, but he relented just the two third-inning singles, two walks and struck out nine.

“He’s a great pitcher,” Ridley third baseman Andrew Rowles said. “Still got two more years here. He’s going to be the top pitcher in the league for the next two years to come. Every time he goes out there, I feel like we have a really good chance to win.”

Happersett’s only problem was that his opposite number was every bit as good. McCullen got off to a rocky start, with a pair of walks in the first inning. Frank Gallo hit an infield single, a pop up to the right side that the Pioneers declined to catch, then moved to second on a wild pitch. He scored when Rowles went with a 3-2 offering for a single to left.

“I got into a two-strike count,” Rowles said. “I knew he was either going to go with a curveball in the dirt or a fastball away. And I got the fastball away and hit a groundball to left field.”

But like Happersett until the seventh, McCullen would allow no more. Ridley (9-8) had just four base-runners the rest of the way – two errors, one fielder’s choice and one walk. Where McCullen needed 23 pitches in the first inning, he didn’t top 15 in any of his six subsequent frames. He worked quick, pitched to contact (just three strikeouts) and steadily produced zero after zero.

“I just calmed down on the mound, took my time,” McCullen said. “I work faster than most pitchers, so I’ve got to remember to keep my breath going. I just focused on letting them hit it. I’m not a big strikeout pitcher, so letting my fielders work, and good things happened.”

“When you have a pitcher on the bump that throws a complete game and has multiple shutout innings, it’s a fantastic feeling as a fielder and as a hitter,” Burdette said. “You know no matter what you do at bat, you’re going to have a pitcher that is going to come out and is going to throw strikes and make them work for it.”

Both teams have history as a guide. The last time Conestoga (10-7) made districts was 2018. Then a 16 seed, it won a first-round Monday game then upset top-seeded North Penn on the way to states. Spring-Ford is next in their sights as a contingent of seniors who were freshmen in the program in 2018 look to finish their careers the way they started.

“That’s exactly what we’re going to try to do,” Burdette said.

Moral victories were hardly comforting for Ridley. But the Green Raiders’ last game against Conestoga was a 15-4 bludgeoning, one of two lopsided losses this season. Ridley has made two consecutive iterations of districts, around last spring’s cancelled season. And while that was hollow consolation for a group that remained in the dugout long after Conestoga’s bus had departed, it’s a reality that a young nucleus will carry into the offseason.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys that start out there” said Rowles, a junior. “We’re going to be a very good team the next couple of years.”