Media’s Edwards helps himself recover from early struggles
ASTON » The first inning did not go as smoothly for Jack Edwards as he had hoped. The sweltering heat, coupled with giving up a leadoff single followed by a wild pitch seemed to frustrate the Media starting pitcher before he even recorded an out.
While he was able to get out of the inning with three straight outs, Edwards felt a greater sense to make up for some of his early struggles, though South Marple was unable to capitalize. He saw his first opportunity with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first inning and gave his team an early lead by blasting a grand slam. Edwards knew the key was to relax and just “attack.”
“I took a deep breath and looked for the first pitch to hit. The first pitch I saw I attacked it because my first instinct is, ‘attack the ball.’ That’s what I tried to do,” Edwards said.
Edwards’ grand slam was the inception of an eightrun first inning for Media as it downed South Marple, 14-1 in a District 19 Little League Majors winnersbracket game. His shot to right-centerfield was followed by RBI singles from right fielder Jack Bateman and catcher Sean O’Donnell as well as a RBI groundout by shortstop Alex Pak.
In the second inning, Edwards took the momentum he built at the plate to the mound by forcing two South Marple hitters into groundouts before exiting after tallying 51 pitches. Edwards felt like he was able to get into a nice rhythm despite his high pitch count.
“I didn’t throw that many strikes and got off my groove by throwing some balls,” he said. “Then, I took a deep breath and did my thing.”
Matt Hamilton, who started at third base, relieved Edwards and finished out the contest throwing four strikeouts while surrendering only one hit in 1 innings. Assistant head coach Randy Cropper was pleased with the way his team followed through with the mantra it has been stressing since before the tournament began.
“We basically told them relax, come out strong and don’t give extra outs. We were telling the guys make sure we punish them for the mistakes they make,” Cropper said.
South Marple (1-1) looked like it was getting to Edwards in the first inning but from there it was tough to muster much offense. Its lone run came when Paul DeFruscio forced a basesloaded walk and Paul Daly came home from third. They went an entire inning without a hit as Daly raked a single by Media second baseman Nick Corritone.
In the bottom of the third, Media (2-0) first baseman Mateo Malo joined Edwards with a grand slam of his own, which pushed the lead to 13-1. Malo, who finished 2-for-3 on the day, saw a prime opportunity to make a play and followed the relaxed teammate.
“They were throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes so I made sure to swing,” Malo said. “Coach says to stay back on the ball, so I just take a deep breath and hit it.”
Luke Coary started for South Marple and finished with 63 total pitches (36 strikes) and a strikeout. Head coach Jim Wigo pointed to Coary’s resilience, particularly in the second when he only needed eight pitches to close out the inning.
“When you’re talking a kid that young, they tend to drop their shoulders almost immediately,” Wigo said. “You have to emphasize the mantra of his positives when he’s on the mound and with Luke we were emphasizing the one down the middle hurt him. Everything else in that inning didn’t hurt him and wasn’t hit that hard.”
Media advances to play Drexel Hill, which won 5-4 over Aston-Middletown in walkoff fashion, on Thursday in the next round. South Marple will play the winner of Haverford-Ridley and try to keep its run alive.
Cropper knows his team has to be ready for Drexel Hill but feels with Edwards and Malo hitting the way they are, the team will ride their heavy hitters as far as they will take them.
“We’re still in the winners bracket, so each team is going to be tougher,” Cropper said. “Drexel Hill is going to be really tough. We can’t afford extra outs because they’ll punish us. They can’t give us extra outs because we’re going to punish them with Mateo and Jack.”