Endy strikes out 9 in shutdown of Shillington
BUCKTOWN » It was a pitchers’ duel Wednesday night at Owen J. Roberts High School as the Norchester Senior Legion Bulldogs defeated the Shillington Red Sox 3-1 in the opening round of the Berks County League playoffs.
The Bulldogs were led by starting pitcher Calvin Endy, who tossed a brilliant 6 1/3 innings while giving up one earned run.
“I thought I was pretty efficient today,” said Endy. “It was fun. I just tried to go out there and throw strikes.”
And throw strikes he did, as Endy struck out nine batters en route to a victory and advancing his team to the second round of the Berks County Legion playoffs. With the win, Norchester gets set to face Oley/Topton (Post 217), who defeated Daniel Boone by a score of 4-3, Thursday at home.
When asked about the upcoming game, Norchester head coach Rick Harrison explained it should be fun playing against a team he knows pretty well.
“It’s always a good rivalry,” said Harrison. “It’s going to be interesting because I have coached Oley’s high school team for 11 years now so it’ll be some of the guys I coached in high school or against from Brandywine.”
Outside of Endy’s stellar performance, the Bulldogs were led by Ethan Andresen, who delivered the game’s first two runs with a two-run single in the bottom of the second inning. Shortly after, the Bulldogs would tack on one more run in the inning from a wild pitch by Red Sox pitcher Nick Kosenke.
Besides the second inning, Kosenke pitched a fantastic game, going six innings, allowing seven hits while striking out five.
Jackson Sinnamon led Shillington in hitting as he accounted for two of the six hits for the Red Sox.
With their sights set on returning to the championship game, the Bulldogs understand they must get through a tough Oley/Topton team first.
“It’ll be a solid game as they have some college kids back and some really good arms,” said Harrison. “We need to do a better job against the caliber of team Oley/Topton is if we want to advance in the playoffs.”