PLYMOUTH >> Leo Soriano hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Austin Dahl in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift Upper Dublin over Exeter 8-7 in a PIAA Class 5A baseball opener Monday at Villanova Ballpark in Plymouth.
Dahl, a freshman, singled, stole second, moved to third on a walk and scored the winning run for the District 1 champion Cardinals (18-6), who advanced to the quarterfinals Thursday against Selinsgrove with their third consecutive walk-off victory in the postseason.
“Leo’s a new guy who stepped up at the right time in the right spot,” Upper Dublin coach Ed Wall said. “I told him to be a hitter. I told him, ‘Let’s not think. Just go up and hit.’ ”
Exeter (18-8), the fifth-place team from District 3, was looking for its first PIAA Tournament win in its third appearance. The Eagles held leads of 3-0 and 5-2 and outhit the Cardinals 11-7.
“With Dev (starter Deven Sheerin) on the mound, I felt like we were in very good position,” Eagles coach Justin Freese said. “But he struggled a little bit with his control. That’s part of baseball.”
The Cardinals took advantage of six walks and six hits batsmen by three Exeter pitchers.
“We take a lot of pride in knowing the strike zone,” Wall said. “We don’t chase. We don’t fish a lot. We know what we’re looking for and we go after it.”
Sheerin walked four and hit five batters in four innings. Reliever Mike Greenawalt also hit one, and Upper Dublin starter Tristan Cairnes beaned two.
“No,” Freese said when asked if he’s ever coached a game with eight hit batsmen. “It’s unusual. It’s not the game of baseball.”
Sheerin was better at the plate, going 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Alex Kelsey was 3-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs and Nick Sydor was 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored.
“We had a shot,” Sheerin said. “It was there for the taking. I was comfortable (with the 5-2 lead). I just didn’t get the job done. I’m going to miss the seniors. They’re lifetime friends.”
After trailing 7-5, the Eagles came back to tie it in the seventh. Luke Weller walked and Sydor singled before Kelsey popped out on a bunt try. Sheerin then lined a two-run single to right to make it 7-7.
Upper Dublin broke a 5-5 tie in the sixth by scoring two runs with just one single. The Cardinals has runners on first and second with one out when reliever Owen Wisner got Jared Levis to hit a grounder, but second baseman Brady Hannahoe booted it, allowing the go-ahead run to score.
Upper Dublin added an insurance run on Cairnes’ sacrifice fly following David Sharp’s single.
“We just didn’t capitalize on some of the little things,” Freese said.
Exeter took a 2-0 lead in the second inning with three hits. Sydor doubled and scored on Kelsey’s triple to left-center. Sheerin followed with an RBI single to right.
Kelsey picked up his second RBI after Weller and Sydor had two-out singles in the third. Kelsey sliced a single to left field to score Sydor and make it 3-0.
Upper Dublin got on the board in the third. Kyle Rizzo led off with a single and moved to second when Sheerin hit Nick Lombardo. A sacrifice moved them up before Sharp laced a two-run single through the middle to cut Exeter’s lead to 3-2.
The Eagles responded with two more runs in the fourth. Carter Cordora launched a triple to right-center to knock in Evan Franek, who had been hit by a pitch. They pushed it to 5-2 when Cardinals first baseman Aidan McCarthy threw errantly to third base on Hannahoe’s bunt.
In the end, though, Exeter made too many mistakes to pick up a win in states.
“This was my favorite team to be around in 30 years of coaching,” Freese said. “They’re an unbelievable group of young men. It was an honor to coach them.”
