Yardley-morrisville walks off with win over Bristol Post 382 rebounded with three straight wins to get back to the finals
– Some teams would have panicked or thrown in the towel.
Yardley-Morrisville could have given in as Bristol Post 382 roared back, thanks to some very costly errors and clutch hitting. Ultimately, it took a three-run advantage going into the bottom of the seventh inning of its first-round Lower Bucks American Legion League (LBALL) playoff contest July 13 at Cairn University.
What looked like a fall into the losers’ bracket and a “one-and-done” scenario, though, would up being much different for Yardley- Morrisville. Trailing 7-4, the Riversharks mounted a comeback and pulled within 7-6 going into the eighth inning, only to have play suspended three batters in due to lightning.
The last two innings had to be postponed to the following afternoon at Lower Southampton’s Kopper Kettle Field, where the Riversharks took advantage. With the score tied at 9-all and Conwell-Egan rising senior Justin Forktus at second base, leading hitter Jack Seibert delivered a walk-off double to cap a comeback and clinch a winners’ bracket date with Yardley Post 317 (Yardley-Western) later in the evening July 14. (Post 317 2-0.)
“We just got to erase it out of our minds. It’s basically a new game tomorrow,” said Morrisville High School graduate Leo Hernandez. A shortstop now playing at Bucks County Community College, he had an RBI walk before play was suspended Saturday night.
“We couldn’t hit for a few innings, but after they put a few on, we battled back, so I’m proud of that.”
It was a victory very much needed for the Riversharks, who came in as losers of three of their last four, largely due to scoring a paltry 2.5 runs per game average in that span. They plated 10, though, against Bristol, which had also come in having lost five of six contests. Instead of what looked like a comeback victory for
blanked
Morrisville, Bristol, Post 382 had its fortunes turn against it in the late stages and thus fell into the losers’ bracket of play against Lower Southampton. (Bristol eliminated the Marlins by a 5-2 score.)
Hernandez, who hadn’t mustered a hit before play resumed, proved to play a key role in the victory over Bristol. Still trailing 7-6 in the bottom of the eighth, he came up with a huge two-run hit that pulled his team ahead. Another error by Bristol then allowed the ninth run to cross home to put the Riversharks in position to wrap things up.
Bristol, though, again refused to give in, and wound up tying things in the top of the ninth. Ultimately, however, a one-out walk by Forktus and a subsequent
steal of second set up SeiEert’s heroics to wrap it up.
“I expected it to Ee a close game,” Post 382 coach Tim Monaghan said.
Of the teams’ three previous meetings, all of which were won Ey the Riversharks, two were decided Ey a single run.
Bristol also allowed a rash of mistakes against Yardley-Morrisville -uly 13. The results could have Eeen disastrous from the get-go. The Riversharks turned Must three hits into four runs after three innings of play against Bristol starter Dan Sullivan of Conwell-Egan. Instead, though, Post 382 kept its poise and, two innings later, Eegan chipping away at the lead.
“I thought our Eats responded well,” said centerfielder Gage Marshall. A rising senior at Truman, Marshall walked twice, one of which came with the Eases loaded, and had a hit Saturday night Eefore play was postponed. “All it takes is one solid hit and it picks the rest of us up.”
Through four innings, Bristol had mustered just one hit against Riversharks’ starting pitcher Dan Kleish. A recent PennsEury graduate who will play a Misericordia 8niversity next year, Kleish was impressive in those frames, Eut did run his pitch count rather high in the process. In the fifth, Post 382 finally capitalized with three straight his Eefore catcher Dylan Evert walked to force home its first run. Another then came home moments later on a wild pitch, Eut in Eoth that and the following inning, Kleish was aEle to escape with no further damage allowed.
That changed in the top of the seventh. With one out, Evert, a Bristol High School rising senior, got on with a hit, as did ensuing Eatter Zach Schwartz of Bensalem. The Riversharks then committed a critical error to load the Eases, and Con- well-Egan’s Mike Petrizzi, who started at second Ease, made them pay to the tune of a two-run single to tie the score at 4-apiece.
Three Eatters later, Marshall walked to Ering home the go-ahead run, which was followed Ey Truman shortstop Devon Bowker reaching on another infield error. The Eall wound up going out of play to Ering in two more tallies and make it 7-5, favor: Post 382.
“We came up clutch in the late innings,” Petrizzi said Saturday night.
The loss dropped Bristol, the fourth seed in the tournament, to 11-17-1 on the year. Even so, with its comeEack win against sixth-seeded Lower Southampton kept it alive for a chance at a third straight LBALL title. Post 382 has a track record of coming Eack from Eeing on the Erink, as last season, it won four in a row after los- ing in the second round to claim the crown.
“Our record’s not really indicative of the type of season we had,” Monaghan said. “If we play our ‘A’ game, we’re going to play a factor.”
The Riversharks, meanwhile, appear to already Ee doing just that, and had they knocked off YardleyWestern, would Ee just a win away from a spot in the league title contest.
“It just sets you up for the rest of the playoffs,” said Kleish, who earned a nodecision and remains 3-3 on the year. “It’s good to start off with a win.”
As fate would have it, Bristol’s win over LoSo, coupled with Morrisville’s loss to Western sent Kleish’s team on a direct collision course with Post 382. Bristol won, 6-3, then nipped Yardley Western, 10-9, to get Eack to the finals.