Bears overcome mistakes to edge Pennsbury
Walking from the dugout after the final out, a teammate asked Andrew Bauer how he was feeling.
“Terrible,” the Boyertown senior right-handed pitcher responded.
It wasn’t about the outcome though.
What lacked in beauty was made up for in effectiveness as Bauer grinded through five innings and the No. 5 Boyertown bats and baserunners did just enough as the Bears outlasted No. 12 Pennsbury, 4-3, in a District 1-AAAA second round game on Wednesday at Bear Stadium.
With the Pioneer Athletic Conference champion Bears making an uncharacteristic four errors, Bauer didn’t get frustrated when chaos surrounded him. He instead opted for a flashback.
“When I was younger and in Junior Legion and the field was terrible I became used to some errors honestly,” he said.
Bauer allowed five hits and three runs (two earned) over five innings and struck out two. He turned things over to Pat Hohlfeld who pitched a clean sixth and seventh to quell the Falcons, the Suburban One League National runner-up.
“That’s been our season. It’s been one-run, two-run games all season,” Bauer said. “We’ve relied on our pitching and our defense – our defense kind of let us down today, but it didn’t really matter. We have a great pitching staff. It’s always nice to throw and know I have Pat backing me up. He’s always going to get it done.”
The Pennsbury bats contributed to Bauer’s ‘terrible’ feeling – the Falcons out-hit the Bears 7-6, getting a 2-for-3 game from third baseman Bryen Kimbrough.
“The game plan was to go as long as I could go and throw strikes but they are great hitting team,” Bauer said. “I threw strikes and they just kept hitting it. I was throwing everything I had at them. My coach said I threw the kitchen sink at them and they were still hitting.”
Just not enough to beat the fortuitous Bears.
The Falcons took the lead with a two-run fourth inning thanks to back-to-back singles from Justin Massielo and Jake Martell. Massielo scored from third when Bauer’s pickoff attempt to second base went into the outfield. Pennsbury took the lead on Billy Bethel’s sacrifice fly to center, plating Martell.
The Bears (19-4) replied with their own two-run fourth fueled by singles from Tyler Kreitz (2-for3) and Ryan Weller. Jordan Shustack’s RBI single scored John DeMartino before courtesy runner Michael Raineri scored on a wild pitch for the decisive run.
“We didn’t panic. (Catcher) Ryan (Weller) was working hard back there and I kept hearing him say to the guys, ‘This is our game.’ We gave them three runs and now let’s get a few back and we got two just by rolling the ball, not giving them free outs,” Boyertown coach Todd Moyer said. “That’s big in these games.” Pennsbury ended Boyertown’s season in the District 1-AAAA fifth-place game a year ago, 5-4 on May 28.
The Bears flipped the script and eliminated the Falcons this season.
“We snuck by last year by shutting them down at the plate to go to states. They are the PAC-10 champ so they had high expectations,” Pennsbury coach Joe Pesci said.
Jordan Shustack executed a steal of home in the second inning for a 2-1 lead. Pennsbury was a caught off guard and didn’t make a play as Quinn Mason stole second base in the process.
Another Bears’ theft came from right fielder DeMartino on a long, running catch along the foul line to end the Falcons’ fifth with two runners stranded.
A senior game it was not.
With only two seniors – starting pitcher Zack Conley (4 IP, 5 hits, 4 runs) and Kimbrough – Pesci sees better times ahead.
The Bears aren’t entirely veteran either.
“It’s a young, inexperienced team out there, some guys in positions that they didn’t start the year in or didn’t know how to play,” Moyer said. “There’s a lot of pressure in these games and that was their first experience with a district game. It’s going to be like that. But hopefully we’ll get used to it, move on and play better.”