Brace homers as North Penn builds early lead, holds off Pennsbury for 3rd straight win

TOWAMENCIN >> Kevin Brace’s first varsity home run came when he was not looking for it.

“I wasn’t even trying to hit a home run, I was trying to hit a single up the middle, trying to just move the runner,” North Penn’s sophomore shortstop said. “And I just caught one inside and I turned on it.”

Brace followed a two-out walk by Justin Egner in the bottom of the second inning by belting a pitch over the left-field fence for a two-run shot, extending the Knights’ lead over visiting Pennsbury to 4-1 in Wednesday afternoon’s SOL baseball crossover contest.

“It feels really good but I still got a lot of work,” Brace said. “I’m only a sophomore, I still got two more years.”

North Penn kept the offensive momentum going in the third, scoring five times to build an early eight-run lead then held off the Falcon’s rally attempt to come away with a 9-6 victory.

“I feel like we got a lot of confidence in our swings,” NP senior designated hitter Jack Picozzi said. “And I still think we have room to grow because we started off the game on fire but then we kind of started to cool off later in the game. And some of those runs could come back to bite us in other games so feeling great but definitely got to improve, tack on late in those games to seal the victory every time.”

Picozzi was 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and two RBIs while Ben Farley finished 3-for-4 with a run scored for the Knights (7-1, 5-1 SOL Colonial), who won their third in a row.

“We talked about a lot what our approach was going to be and the guys, they were really locked in,” North Penn coach Kevin Manero said. “They came up ready to swing the bat, we really hit some balls hard, we managed to stay in the strike zone, not chase anything out of it. I think we made it tough for ‘em today and getting out to a lead against a good team is super important.”

Brady Dolder went 2-for-3 with an RBI and run scored with Brace going 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. The Knights’ 12 hits matched their total from Monday’s 13-3 five-inning victory at Central Bucks East that saw North Penn put up 10 runs in the top of the fifth.

“Honestly we’ve just been executing plays, lot of hit-and-runs, lot of staying inside the baseball, adjusting to the pitching,” Brace said. “Watching a lot of off-speed in the dirt, I feel like we’ve been swinging the ball really well this week.”

Ryan Zuckerman was 2-for-4 with a double, triple, two RBIs and a run scored for Pennsbury (7-2, 4-2 SOL Patriot), which had a two-game win streak snapped. Joe Tiroly went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

Farley and Dolder started the bottom of the third with back-to-back singles. Wetzel dropped down a bunt and the Falcons tried to force out Farley at third but he was safe to load the bases with no outs.

James Mangine knocked a single through the infield’s left side for a single, bringing in two runs for a 6-1 advantage. After a Mario Sgro sacrifice bunt, Egner dropped an RBI single into right to make it 7-1.

Two batters later, Picozzi connected on his second double to drive in a pair of two-out runs to put the Knights up eight.

“Both my doubles were to the opposite field and that’s really been my focus this whole week in BP is just don’t try to do too much and just hit it where it’s pitched,” Picozzi said. And I got some good pitches to hit on the outside part of the plate and I didn’t do too much, didn’t come out of my swing, just drove ‘em for doubles and got the job done.”

The Falcons cut NP’s lead to 9-3 with two runs in the fifth as Zuckerman hit an RBI triple to right center then scored when Tiroly singled the next at-bat.

Pennsbury pulled to within 9-6 with three in the sixth – the first two coming in after a two-out error on Zuckerman’s fly ball to left. Tiroly followed with an RBI double to left center.

North Penn blew a 6-0 lead in a 9-8 eight-inning home loss to Souderton April 11 but Trevor Lugara extinguished Pennsbury’s comeback bid, pitching a 1-2-3 top of the seventh to seal the win and pick up a save.

“In the Soudy game our energy definitely decreased after we scored all the runs and then a gap opened and they took it,” Brace said. “And the same thing was happening here, we were just lucky that we could understand that, pick the energy back up and cut down mistakes.”

North Penn starting pitcher Nolan Walker got the win, the left-hander going four-plus innings, allowing three runs – two earned – on three hits, walked four and struck out four.

“Nolan’s got really electric stuff,” Manero said. “He’s going to be a really big asset for us and beyond here I think. But I think the more he goes out there, the more he gets in a rhythm the better.

Kayden Faulcon took the loss, Pennsbury’s starting pitcher giving up eight runs – six earned – on seven hits in two-plus innings. The right-hander walked three and struck out five.

Both teams have SOL crossover games 4 p.m. Friday, North Penn visiting Neshaminy while Pennsbury hosts Pennridge.

“We have a chance to have a big week here and we got to finish the week, just like we have to finish games we have to finish the week,” Manero said. “I told the guys that we’re kind of in the fifth, sixth inning of a game right now as far as the week goes and we have to finish the week, we can’t just sit and then you set yourself up for a letdown.”

In the bottom of the first after Egner led off reaching on a dropped third strike, Brace collected the Knights’ first hit, lining a single to left. A Picozzi walk loaded the bases with Chase Jones drawing another walk to bring in Egner. Brace scored on Dolder’s one-out RBI sacrifice fly to left to make it 2-0.

North Penn left a pair of baserunners stranded in the first and Pennsbury got a run in the top of the second as Jordan Czerniak scored when Charlie Cordisco reached on a two-out error.

But the Knights answered in the bottom of the inning – Egner’s two-out walk bringing up Brace for his two-run blast and a 4-1 lead.

“That was huge,” Manero said. We left some runners on in the first inning and if you’re the other side, you’re probably like all right, that was an ugly inning but we got out of it with only letting off two.

“But coming back and tacking those other ones on and Kevin Brace who actually in his first at-bat smoked the ball too so he was really, he was on the fastball, his swing was compact, it was good.”

North Penn 9, Pennsbury 6

Pennsbury 010 0023 0 – 6 6 0

North Penn 225 000 x – 9 12 2

WP: Nolan Walker 4 IP 3 H 3 R 2 ER 4 BB 4 SO.

LP: Kayden Faulcon 2 IP 7 H 8 R 6 ER 3 BB 5 SO.

S: Trevor Lugara 1 IP 0 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 1 SO.

2B: P-Joe Tiroly, Ryan Zuckerman; 3B: P-Zuckerman; NP-Jack Picozzi 2; HR: NP-Kevin Brace.

Pennsbury: Tiroly 2-4, 2 RBI; Zuckerman 2-4, RBI, 2 R;

North Penn: Brace 2-4, 2 RBI, 2 R; Picozzi 2-3, 2 RBI; Brady Dolder 2-3, RBI, R; Ben Farley 3-4, R; James Mangine 2 RBI.