PIAA 4A Baseball: Potent Friars roll into state semifinals

MECHANICSBURG — Not even a team whose pitching coach is a Baseball Hall of Famer could slow down Bonner-Prendergast’s potent lineup.

The District 12 champion Friars mercy-ruled Montoursville in five innings, 13-0, Friday at Cumberland Valley High School.

The Warriors (18-5) and pitching legend Mike Mussina, a five-time All-Star, Yankee great, Hall-of-Famer and Mountoursville grad, had no answer for a Bonner-Prendie offense that has produced 21 runs in 12 innings in two games in the state playoffs.

Friday’s trouncing gives the nationally ranked Friars four PIAA tournament victories since last year. They look to avenge 2021’s state semifinal loss when they meet District 1 champion Holy Ghost Prep at Villanova Ballpark Monday. B-P defeated Ghost in the state quarterfinals last year, 9-6.

The Friars’ top four hitters – Jaxon Kehoe, Kevin McGonigle, Joey DeMucci and Michael Anderson – were on-base machines against the overmatched Warriors. The hot-hitting quartet went 9-for-11 with a home run, two doubles, seven RBIs and 12 runs scored.

AJ Llorente got the starting nod for the Warriors, but recorded only five outs. Bonner scored two runs in the top of the first as Joey DeMucci slugged an RBI double and Austin Cannon smacked a run-scoring single.

Llorente exited after McGonigle ripped an RBI double to left field and Joey DeMucci rapped a run-single to make it 5-0.

“We had a couple of scouting reports coming in. And obviously (Mussina) is an MLB Hall of Famer,” coach Steve DeBarberie said. “We knew they liked to pitch backwards a lot, so they would throw breaking balls first pitch, 1-0 breaking balls and 2-0 breaking balls. Fastballs on 0-1 counts. So they like to pitch backwards and they did that today. But our guys were up for it.”

The next guy up for the Warriors didn’t fare any better. For the second time in two innings the Friars sent eight batters to the plate in the fourth and sored four runs. Anderson delivered a two-run knock to drive home Kehoe and McGonigle, who began the frame with singles.

“We’ve been up in a lot of ballgames this year,” DeBarberie said. “And the great thing about them is that they don’t give away any at bat. Even if we’re up 8-0, 9-0. They’re still grinding out at bats and working to get on base for the next guy. The top of the order today, one-through-four, were incredible.”

The early runs certainly helped starting pitcher Kevin Henrich take a deep breath and relax. But the right hander battled through adversity in his first inning of work. Henrich allowed the first two hitters to reach base, but came back to strike out 3-4-5 hitters Mario Pulizzi, Llorente and Cole Remsnyder.

Henrich rolled a 4-6-3 double play to escape a bases-loaded jam in the second. In the third he snared a line drive back to the mound and threw to Anderson at first for the Friars’ second twin killing.

Henrich allowed four hits and three walks in while striking out six in four innings. Kehoe closed the door with a scoreless fifth.

“I know that I have the best defense behind me on every play and today I didn’t have my best stuff,” Henrich said. “My location wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, but I battled and I know that whatever count it is I can throw it and let them hit it because my teammates are going to make the plays.

“My fastball was working today, but my offspeed was not as good as it usually is and has been, but I was definitely just working on keeping them off balance and mixing it up. Just doing whatever I could to keep then guessing.”

Anderson crushed a three-run dinger over the fence in left field in the fifth inning to put the exclamation point on another lopsided win for the Friars (25-1).. The senior first baseman accumulated five ribbies on the afternoon .

“I didn’t know it was gone right off the bat, but I thought maybe I got enough of it, so I didn’t go in a full sprint,” Anderson said. “I was just so excited to get back to my teammates after that, it was just so awesome.”

Kehoe was 2-for-3 with a walk and three runs scored. McGonigle was 3-for-3 with four runs scored and DeMucci was 2-for-2 with a pair of walks and three runs. Irv Fisher added a single and a stolen base.