Spring City wins first state title since 2010
Owls rally late as Red Sox come up just short in defense of Pa. State crown
UPPER PROVIDENCE » It proved a most competitive host for Pennsylvania’s Junior American Legion baseball state tournament.
Spring City, the state’s defending champion, worked its way through the bracket this past week to put itself in position to repeat as the Junior Legion kingpin. It needed to win two in the championship-round against West Lawn Wednesday to pull off the comeback at Ram Stadium.
A tall order, to be sure ... but one that didn’t leave the Red Sox daunted. They were one at-bat from topping the unbeaten Owls and forcing a second game; the dream, and the repeat, however, were dashed by the Owls’ big production in the seventh inning toward a 12-8 victory.
“We made a good showing,” SC manager Mike Skrocki said following the tournament’s medal and trophy presentation. “Obviously, taking it to the last day is great.”
A seventh-inning bat-around enabled West Lawn (42-2) to reverse an 8-5 deficit into a 12-8 lead. A 1-2-3 bottom half of the frame sealed the deal for
the Owls, who had topped the Red Sox by a 10-4 margin when they played on Sunday.
“Since the playoffs started, we’ve been ‘Cardiac Kids’.” West Lawn manager Scott Spatz noted. “In the Berks (County) playoffs, we had three walkoff wins.
“This team doesn’t quit. It’s a great group of kids who’ve bought into what the coaches say.”
West Lawn’s decisive final at-bat started out with Jack Gonsemer singling through shortstop, Adam Vanino reaching base on an error and Kayson Santos drawing a walk. Starting pitcher Gabe Bunn followed with an RBI single and Ryan Kelly plated two with his double.
Dennis Borelli (sacrifice bunt), Ryan Graff (single) and Gensemer (two-RBI single) added insurance for West Lawn’s biggest lead of the game. It spoiled the mound outing of SC starting pitcher Zack Skrocki, who ran out of pitches with the Owls leading 9-8.
“I felt we had a good chance of extending the day,” Mike Skrocki said. “But our Achilles heel was catching the ball. The defense let us down.”
Spring City answered West Lawn’s first-inning run with three of its own in the third. Nick Cagliola (double) and Jacob Phillips (walk) scored off singles by Andrew Barr and Robby Wilding, and Barr came home after Jack Kisela (4for-4) singled to right.
After the Owls made it a 4-3 game through three, the Sox upped the lead with two in the fourth, Wilding (2-for-4) and Kisela hit back-to-back singles, with Wilding coming home off a missed pickoff attempt and Kisela following off Skrocki’s bouncer to shortstop.
The Owls added single runs in the third (Damian Baird RBI single), fifth (Nolan Ramanjulu run-scoring single) and sixth (Colin Amerine sacrifice bunt).
In a game where the teams combined for 27 hits, Spring City got a 2-for-4 effort from Cagliola to complement the multiple-hit outings of Kisela and Wilding. Bunn was West Lawn’s leading hitter going 3-for-3 with five RBI, with Graff (3for-5), Gensemer (2-for-5), Santos (2-for-3) and Borelli (3-for-3) swinging other hot bats.
“They’ve been resilient all year,” Spatz said of his players. “They’re an emotional group, and we run with that.”
Bunn pitched the first five innings for the Owls, leaving behind a 7-4 score. Jack Ziegler closed out, yielding just the Sox’ last run.
Skrocki left after going 6-1/3 innings, tagged for 12 hits, one walk and West Lawn’s first 10 runs.
“It hasn’t happened to us a whole lot, getting pitching duels,” Spatz said. “We can go 8-9 deep in pitching. They’re not stars, but they’re guys who can throw.”
The Red Sox came into the state tournament without the benefit of any league or regional successes in previous weeks. They also had three starting-lineup holdovers from last year’s statechampionship outfit.
But Mike Skrocki sees the 2019 team benefitting from this year’s deep run in states.
“It bodes well for next year,” he said. “They got valuable experience.” NOTES » Kisela received the tournament’s batting award on the strength of a .562 batting average, and Nolan Gancasz was awarded the Elmer Daneker Sportsmanship Award.
For West Lawn, Gabe Bunn received the pitching award and the Pat Sundstrom Most Valuable Player award.