BASEBALL: Clark lifts Methacton past Spring-Ford

FAIRVIEW VILLAGE — It’s one thing to be selective. But there’s also such a thing as being too patient.

Ben Clark, Methacton’s designated hitter in the No. 4 hole, had this fact in mind when he strode to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning, with the bases loaded and the game tied against the rival Spring-Ford Rams.

“I’m just looking for a fastball, first pitch,” Clark said. “I feel like, during the season I’ve been too tentative, so I was just going to go out and be aggressive. I put a nice swing on it, and it did the job.”

Clark drilled a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield to score Bryce Lohsen, who had led off with a base hit and advanced, to lift the Warriors over Spring-Ford 4-3 on a windy afternoon Friday.

“After some tough losses earlier, we’re right where we want to be,” Clark said. “It’s been a great bounce back for us. We’ve put ourselves in a great position in the district and for the PAC playoffs. We just have to keep it going.”

With the victory, Methacton (14-4, 11-3) swept the season series against the Rams (11-6, 9-5) and earned its eighth win in nine games while snapping Spring-Ford’s four-game road winning streak.

The Warriors are two games up on S-F in a highly competitive Pioneer Athletic Conference.

Methacton pitcher Will Christian, 42, throws a pitch against Spring-Ford during their game on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Mike Cabrey/MediaNews Group)

Humes drove in Methacton’s first runs with a two-run double to center in the third, after Spring-Ford had gone up 2-0. Ayden Fitch added an RBI single to right in the fourth shortly after Casey Behan had reached on a hot shot to third base that was ruled a hit.

Spring-Ford’s Nick Flores finished 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles — including a two-run liner to right-center in the third — and a run. An RBI groundout in the fifth by Brennan McVey accounted for the Rams’ other run.

“We didn’t play great defensively to start the game, and certainly it was deflating,” said Methacton coach Paul Spiewak, who has been at the helm for 21 years. “They had all the momentum, but credit to (Warriors pitcher) Will Christian, who, for a sophomore — the wheels could have come off very quickly there, especially the way we were playing defensively — he battled.”

Christian turned in 6 2/3 stellar innings, navigating through trouble — first from behind, and then with little to no cushion — in a ballgame that saw three combined errors and a couple more plays that could have been called errors.

“Credit to Spring-Ford’s nine hitter (Tyler Collons),” Spiewak said. “That was a big walk (in the third) that set up the Nick Flores two-RBI double. And their pitcher (Andrew Wible) was dominating early, so we had to make sure we stayed focused and waited for our moment.

“Casey Humes’s two-out, two-strike double in the gap to score two helped put us back in the game, not just with the score, but momentum-wise. And later, Aydan Fitch came through with a big hit — with two outs as well. Often you’re defined by your ability to get big two-out hits.”

Wible gave the Rams five strong frames before Methacton got to their bullpen late.

Spring-Ford’s Tyler Collons, 12, heads to home plate to score on Nick Flores’ two-RBI double in the top of the second inning against Methacton during their game on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Mike Cabrey/MediaNews Group)

“Andrew Wible pitched a great game,” Spring-Ford coach Rick Harrison said. “He’s come a long way from the beginning of the season to now, and we have confidence in all our arms. We took two out of three this week against some really good teams. This game was a tough one, so hopefully it continues to bring our team together and we progress.

“I’ll tell you what, I liked how our guys competed today,” he said. “I liked how they had each other’s backs. I liked how they picked each other up. … I’m seeing a lot of growth. I’m seeing a lot of maturity from guys. And that’s what we need.

“That being said, we left some base runners in scoring position that I think we could have cashed in on,” Harrison said. “It think that maybe would have taken some pressure off our pitchers. It helps everyone play a little looser. But we’re still working. I loved the guys’ attitude. I loved how they’re focused right now.”

After Lohsen’s leadoff single with the game knotted 3-3 in the Methacton seventh, Tommy Kratz was hit by a pitch, Humes laid down a sac bunt, and Nick Remish was intentionally walked. But the Warriors had a chance to go ahead the previous inning. They led off the sixth with a pair of walks, but were caught stealing at third on a wild pitch that bounced back to the catcher off the brick wall behind home plate, and later had a runner picked off at first on a similar pitch.

They eventually went down on a strikeout in an inning that saw four walks.

“The ball didn’t roll our way, and their catcher (Ryan Cecconi) was phenomenal, but there are cardinal sins of baseball that you don’t make on the bases,” Spiewak said. “We pride ourselves on our baserunning, and I don’t think that inning was reflective of it, so there are a lot of things we need to work on there.

“With nobody out, you don’t make outs on the bases. With the go-ahead run as the leading runner, you don’t make outs at first. And our guys know that. On top of that, there was a passed ball to their dugout that we didn’t move up on.

“We’re going to be in close games moving forward, and we cannot perform like that on the bases,” he said. “I take responsibility. Base-running is on coaching. … But our guys didn’t sulk — if anyone was sulking, it was me — they battled through it and can learn from it.”

——

Methacton 4, Spring-Ford 3

Spring-Ford     0          2          0          0          1          0          0          —            3          6          0Methacton       0          0          2          1          0          0          1          —            4          5          2

WP: Austin Frank

LP: Austin Ludwig

Spring-Ford hitting: Nick Flores 2-4, 2 doubles, 2 RBI, run; Logan Babore 1-3, double, run; Tyler Collons 1-2, BB, run; Ryan Cecconi 1-3; Brennan McVey 1-4, RBI, SB; David Ruckman 0-3, sac bunt, SB.

Methacton hitting: Casey Humes 1-3, double, sac bunt, 2 RBI; Ben Clark 1-3, sac fly, RBI; Ayden Fitch 1-2, BB, RBI, run; Bryce Lohsen 1-2, BB, run; Casey Behan 1-2, run, SB; Chase McNally 0-2, BB, SB.

——

Follow Christiaan DeFranco on X at @the_defranc.

Spring-Ford’s Nick Flores, 7, hits a two-RBI double in the top of the second inning against Methacton during their game on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Mike Cabrey/MediaNews Group)