Gable gets Phoenixville off to hot start in marquee Frontier win over Upper Perk
PENNSBURG >> It was, in several aspects, a good start for Phoenixville Tuesday.
A less tense finish obviously would have been more desired. But the overall outcome suited the Phantoms just fine.
Phoenixville kicked off a five-games-in-seven-days run by visiting Upper Perkiomen. This pairing of top teams from the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s Frontier Division went the Phantoms’ way, by a 7-3 count … and they owed the good start to Courtney Gable’s bat.
Gable got things going for the visitors — and the game, as a whole — by sending a full-count offering from the Indians’ Taylor Croak over the left-field fence. The blow touched off a three-run at-bat for Phoenixville (8-1 division, 10-2 overall, which added another three-spot in the third. That proved sufficient to give the Phantoms their first win over UP for the current crop of players, who see it as a much-desired momentum boost for the remainder of the regular season and start of the upcoming District 1 playoffs.
“A win is a win,” Phantom head coach Claire Emplit declared after seeing her club pull into a tie atop the Frontier ranks with the Indians (8-1, 10-3). “This and Perkiomen Valley (April 28, 12-1 victory) were two big wins for us.”
And Gable was quite happy to set the stage for the game. The senior outfielder went on to have a 2-for-4 day at the plate, adding seventh-inning insurance off a Hayden Perrone single and Aryana Ashlie’s grounder to third.
And it was the second time this spring she started a game by going “yard.”
“The first game of the season against Pope John Paul,” Gable recalled. “That was a good start for the season.”
It was the prelude to a timely at-bat that included a single by Perrone (2-for-3) and doubles by Aubrie Breisblatt (2-for-4) and Kendall Brown (2-for-3). It put Upper Perk in the position of playing catch-up the entire game — a less than enviable situation, given how Ashlie and the Phoenixville defense kept UP in check through the first five innings.
“It definitely helps a lot to get momentum going,” Gable added. “Big innings get everyone going.”
After being held to a pair of hits in the early going, UP figured out Ashlie enough to make a run at the visitors. The Indians got a run in the sixth, Danielle Freer singling home Jenna Sullivan (single) to end the shutout, then got a couple in the seventh with Sierra Fretz poling a homer to straightaway center and Elyssa Sledgen — courtesy runner for Taylor Croak, who got a double — scoring off a defensive miscue.
“I think a change of pitchers threw them off,” Upper Perk head coach Dean Sullivan said. “We went against Paige Deal (Methacton), a hard thrower, Monday. Then the pitcher today threw softer.”
Lily Dibble (2-for-3), who took the mound in relief of Croak with a runner on board in the fifth, followed with a double before Phoenixville closed out the game by getting the next two batters out.
“It was too late for everything,” Dean Sullivan noted. “We should have been on her (Ashlie) the second time around.”
Phoenixville put up another three-spot in the third, keyed by Breisblatt hitting a run-scoring single and Chloe Johns’ two-run single. It totalled 11 hits for the day, all but one coming from the first six batters in its order.
“Our intent was to focus on certain things,” Emplit said. “We lucked out having our Monday game with Owen J. Roberts postponed. It gave us time to focus on what we have to do to get the job done as a team.”
Ashlie’s line showed her walking none and striking out two, touched for eight hits along the way. Croak’s day on the mound included five strikeouts against one walk, but giving up nine of the Phantoms’ hits. In her relief stint, Dibble yielded three hits and a run alongside one strikeout.
“Sometimes losses are good,” Dean Sullivan said. “They give you an idea of what you have to work on.”
Phoenixville’s regular-season stretch run continued with Wednesday’s home game against Boyertown. It remains home Thursday for Methacton, then goes on the road against Pottstown Friday and Owen J. next Monday.
“This was our eighth win in a row,” Gable said. “If we keep the momentum going, we should be good for the playoffs.”
NOTES >> Sullivan on Fretz’s round-tripper: “She broke out of a slump with that. We hope she can carry that to the finish.” … The Indians turned a pair of double plays to Phoenixville’s one.
