Northampton, North Parkland lose openers
Northampton coach Steve Kerbacher held his thumb and forefinger very close together and reminded his players that the “little things” he had stressed to them were exactly the reason they lost to Pennridge, 3-2, in the opening game of the Region 2 playoffs Saturday at Bear Stadium in Boyertown.
The loss puts Northampton’s backs against the wall as they continue in the double elimination playoff system.
“We left a lot of base runners on and then we didn’t execute a couple times. We had a couple guys that we put the bunt on for and they are traditionally great bunters for us, and we didn’t get it down,” said Kerbacher.
“We also failed to get guys into scoring position and then we hit balls that could have produced a run for us.”
Northampton also had two runners thrown out attempting to steal second and had a wild pitch that resulted in a run for Pennridge.
The Rams were not exactly textbook perfect.
They committed three errors, had a runner thrown out at second and had a sacrifice bunt turned into an out in the game.
The difference is that Northampton was not able to take full advantage of the three errors, getting just one unearned run.
Pennridge’s Will Slamm followed a first inning double from Robbie Pliszka with an RBI single to give the Rams an early lead.
From there, starter Evan Hughes settled in and retired six straight, five on strikeouts.
With Hughes keeping the Pennridge offense in check, Sam
Erschen reached on an infield single to open the third inning and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Mason Haupt and on the play, Erschen never broke stride as he headed for third.
Pennridge’s Ryan Hass uncorked a wild throw to third that allowed Erschen to score and tie the game.
One thing Northampton did take care of was a leadoff walk to Matt Merced to open the sixth. A groundout moved him to second and a single from Eli Angstadt moved him to third.
From there, Hughes put his team up 2-1 with a sacrifice fly to center. Pennridge used a single, a walk, and a sacrifice fly to tie the score in the bottom of the inning.
Northampton threatened with runners on first and third with two out in the seventh, but reliever Pat Mill got a fly ball to center to end the threat.
Erschen moved to the mound to pitch the seventh and gave up three singles to load the bases with nobody out.
Aiden Fretz stepped up and grounded a ball to left to score the winning run.
Wanderers 9, North Parkland 0
With patience being a virtue, two virtuous teams met in game two of the Region 2 playoffs Saturday. Both teams went through their warmups, the starting lineups were introduced and lined up along the foul lines, the umpires were standing with them, and the national anthem was coming through the stadium speakers loud and clear.
And then it happened.
Rain started to fall and quickly picked up in intensity to the point that when the anthem ended, the home plate umpire sent both teams to their dugouts to wait out what turned out to be a two-hour delay.
An hour of that was the field staff working to return the field to a playable condition.
Whether it was the rain or the hot, humid weather that quickly returned, North Parkland never seemed to get in gear, while Wanderers pitcher Evan Applegate went on as if nothing happened.
Applegate threw a complete game shutout, giving up just three hits in the game. Applegate got little rest when he was off the mound since he collected two singles, reached on an error, drew a walk, scored a run, and stole three bases.
The Wanderers opened the scoring in the second inning when they strung together three straight singles with the last being an RBI single from Ryan Hoffman. Paul Erfle drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Braylen Gonzales and J.C. Spinosa both singled to drive in runs as Wanderers put four runs on the board.
As Applegate continued to put down hitters, Wanderers kept adding on runs. Tom Mason knocked in two runs with a lined single to left in the third to make it a 6-0 game. North Parkland threatened in the fifth when Leo Dauberman singled to right-center with one out and Owen Ness followed with another single. From there, the Buffaloes moved a runner to third, but Applegate was able to get the final out of the inning.
If the Wanderers had not yet put the game away, they did so in the sixth when they put three more runs on the board as the first four batters in the order reached base and Mason hit a fly ball to drive in another run.