Spring-Ford baseball survives six-run rally from Pope John Paul II to claim wild 11-10 victory
ROYERSFORD >> For six innings on Wednesday, Spring-Ford was gliding along at cruising altitude.
Then came the turbulence — sudden, bumpy and frightening, with the Rams rapidly losing control of their baseball bearings.
Then, just in the nick of time, with the tying run now somehow standing just 90 feet away, Spring-Ford landed safely in one piece, rattled but managing to escape Pope John Paul II’s campus with a breathless, white-knuckler of an 11-10 victory.
Where to even begin?
“Scary,” Rams right fielder Brennan McVey exhaled afterward. “We started off hot, and a win’s a win. Now we’ve just got to keep it going.”
The scare came via Pope John Paul II’s six-run bottom of the seventh that evaporated an 11-4 lead to begin the inning.
The Rams quickly led 4-0 in the top of the first, jumping on PJP starter Aidan Sgarra, who recorded just one out as Spring-Ford greeted him with four walks in the first five hitters to score the first run. Then came a two-run single off the bat of Logan Babore and another run-scoring single from Brett Wescott.
The Golden Panthers got runs back in both the first and second innings on a sacrifice fly and RBI grounder to slice the deficit in half, only for Spring-Ford to answer with two more in the top of the third on a two-run single from Ryan Fields for a 6-2 lead.
The game appeared to be on the fast track to a Spring-Ford blowout after the team plated three more in the fifth. David Ruckman brought a run home with a sacrifice fly to make it 7-2, and then Jake Witmer walked. Witmer came around to score on a single by Ryan Cecconi, who advanced to second on the throw to the plate that failed to cut down Witmer. PJP catcher Dylan Simeone then fired to second to try to nab Cecconi, but his errant throw landed in the outfield, allowing Cecconi to race all the way home in a chaotic sequence that Golden Panthers head coach Charles Deluzio later quipped was like “Bad News Bears baseball.”
“I love our lineup,” said McVey, who went 2-for-3 with two RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base. “If I get on, I know the next guy is going to hit me in. We just keep it rolling and never stop.”
With Spring-Ford now leading 9-2, Dom Ruggiero, the team’s starting pitcher, had settled in. The junior righty allowed traffic on the base paths in the form of seven hits and five walks but mostly danced around the danger. He struck out six and yielded two earned runs in 4.2 innings, keeping hitters off balance with a mix of mostly fastballs and curveballs, with some changeups sprinkled in for good measure.
“Having that lead definitely helps,” Ruggiero said. “It lets me mix my pitches up more and I was attacking with my fastball and curveball. I was able to throw whatever I wanted to, I felt like. This team fights. We get in bad situations, but we usually end up on top.”
PJP got within 9-3 on a Simeone RBI double in the fifth, but the Rams immediately responded with two in the sixth, including a run-scoring single from McVey.
The Golden Panthers seemed down for the count, even after a Luke Terlesky RBI single in the sixth made the score 11-4. As it turns out, they were just getting started.
Luca Dimaio brought the first run of the seventh home on an infield hit off Rams reliever Jackson Wowak with runners on the corners. Tyler Tindall popped out for the first out, and Carson Glose reached on an error by second baseman Aidan Dunleavy to bring home another run. A Chase Frantz sac fly brought PJP to within 11-7.
With two outs, AJ Diaddezio blasted a home run to left center, and suddenly the scoreboard read 11-9. Terlesky doubled, followed by a TJ Boccella walk that chased Wowak from the game in favor of reliever Jayson Ehrhart, whom McVey said hadn’t pitched all season.
Ehrhart walked Sgarra and Simeone, bringing home another run. But finally, with the bases loaded, Ehrhart got Dimaio to ground out to second to end the threat and deliver Spring-Ford (11-5 overall, 9-4 Pioneer Athletic Conference) a teeth-gnashing, heart-palpitating win.
“I’m glad we came back, we showed some fight,” Deluzio said. “I’m proud of my guys for coming back, but we’ve got to play better baseball. For the first five or six innings, we played some embarrassing baseball. All four walks in the first inning scored. We had runners in scoring position but couldn’t get the key hit. Then we start throwing the ball around (in the field). We just have to play better baseball.”
There were some conflicting feelings from the Rams after the game, only because they nearly let a sure thing slip away. Head coach Rick Harrison breathed some fire in the postgame huddle for the sake of accountability, but as McVey said, a win is a win.
It was Spring-Ford’s fourth consecutive win, and all four of its PAC losses have been by two runs or fewer. Wednesday’s scary ending aside, the Rams appear to be rolling at just the right time, figuring out ways to close out games they would have lost a few weeks ago.
“I think even at the start of the year we were kind of right there, we just weren’t always getting the job done,” Ruggiero said. “We’re starting to get that extra push and we’re winning these types of games now. I think that’s something that’s going to keep carrying over into the playoffs.”
As for PJP (13-3, 10-3), there were also confusing feelings to cope with afterward. The fight back was admirable, and the team’s lineup has proven on multiple occasions this season that it is capable of rallying in the final at bat no matter how large the deficit. At the same time, the Golden Panthers did not play great baseball for much of the game leading up to the seventh inning. For a team with very high standards and expectations, the total effort wasn’t up to par for Deluzio.
That said, the Golden Panthers still sit in favorable position at the top of the PAC Frontier Division approaching the playoffs. Even if they lost Wednesday, they still ended the game with a bang.
“Now we can flush this out and not bring it to the field tomorrow,” Deluzio said. “Get back to playing our game and take care of business against Phoenixville.”
Spring-Ford also sits in a good spot near the top of the PAC Liberty standings, along with Owen J. Roberts and Methacton. If Wednesday’s finish is any indication, it could be a frenetic finish, but the Rams showed they are up for the challenge.
“The Rams are back,” McVey said. “We’ve got our mojo back. I love all of these guys. They just know how to come together and win baseball games.”
Spring-Ford 11, Pope John Paul II 10
Spring-Ford 4 0 2 3 0 2 0 – 11
Pope John Paul II 1 1 0 0 1 1 6 – 10
WP: Dom Ruggiero 4.2 IP, 7H, 3R (2ER), 5BB, 6K
LP: Aidan Sgarra 0.1 IP, 2H, 4ER, 4BB, 0K
2B: SF- Nick Flores; PJP- Chase Frantz, Carson Glose, Dylan Simeone, Luke Terlesky
HR: PJP- AJ Diaddezio
SB: SF- Brennan McVey, Brett Wescott, David Ruckman, Logan Babore, Nick Flores, Ryan Fields; PJP- AJ Diaddezio, Chase Frantz
