Souderton rolls past Pennridge
Blaise Sclafani provided a big spark and an inning later the Souderton offense woke up.
Sclafani blasted a solo home run to pull Souderton level with visiting Pennridge in the bottom of the second before Post 234 went off for seven runs in batting around in the third en to rolling to an 11-1 five-inning BuxMont American Legion win on an overcast Wednesday night at Romanoski Field.
“I was just looking for my pitch,” said Sclafani of his homer to deep fenceless left field. “This season hasn’t been my best hitting season, it’s definitely the kind of the opposite of what it was my school season, really. But I’m starting to heat up back again.”
Sclafani finished 3-for-3, following his solo shot with a pair of singles as league-leader Souderton bounced back from its first loss of the season to Warrington Tuesday.
“I said in the beginning of the game in our little huddle we never lose two in a row. We’re not about that,” Sclafani said. “And we’re always just out here to 10-run any team we can. I mean, it’s kind of a cocky mentality but at the same time we want to get as many runs
as possible and as quickly as possible.”
Nolan Bolton was 2-for-3 with a 3-run home run in the third after Pennridge’s Drew Nace and Luke Nuneviller collided hard in right center field trying to make the catch. Both players did not return to the game.
“They’re both knicked. I don’t know, it’s legs fortunately, if that sounds right but it wasn’t heads and that’s what I was concerned about,” Pennridge coach Rocky Wright said.
Pennridge took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second on Kevin Knapp’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly to left.
Sclafani, however, made it 1-1 with his home run in the bottom of the inning and in the third Souderton took control, scoring seven times as it sent 12 batters to the plate.
Luke Barnum put Post 234 up 2-1 with an RBI double to center. With two on, Bolton sent a ball to right center and with the outfielder collision, Souderton scored three to make it 5-1.
Starting pitcher Dan Knechel helped himself out with a two-out, twoRBI double to left with Souderton grabbing an 8-1 advantage with a run as Zack Brown reached on an error.
Souderton tacked on more runs in the fourth. After an error on a double play attempt brought the first run in, Sclafani and Brown collected RBI singles.