Spring City opens with win
Calvarse outduels Young in win over Ephrata
They both had to see it coming. The Spring City and Ephrata American Legion baseball teams opened play in the Pa. State Tournament Saturday with a classic pitchers’ duel. The Sox’ Grant Calvarese and Ephrata’s Nathaniel Young worked a combined one-hitter for 4-½ innings, with Young knocking down 13 strikeouts in a starting stint that ran into the sixth inning.
Spring City ultimately got to Young for all the runs it needed to post a 2-0 victory at Bear Stadium. The Region 3 champion Red Sox, in turn, got three-hit shutout hurling from Calvarese, who ran out of pitches in the seventh and was replaced by Kevin Hynes for the closeout.
“In a state tournament, you have to expect these kind of games,” Spring City manager Mike Gancasz said. “That kid (Young) was deadly today. He kept us off balance with an effective slider and curve.”
Calvarese, for his part, yielded just one walk while striking out four. He was touched for a pair of singles in the top of the seventh before topping the 105-pitch limit, but Hynes worked the save to put SC in Sunday’s 4:05 p.m. game against the winner of the Souderton/Uniontown opener.
“We came out with everything we had,” Calvarese said, “but their pitcher shut us down. Once we were able to get him out of there, we were able to capitalize.”
Brad Clemens drove in Spring City’s ultimate game-winning run in the fifth. He singled to score Ryan Harvey (2-for-3), who had an RBI hit in the sixth that added insurance to Calvarese’s mound efforts.
Pinch-runner Harrison Moyer, who escaped a pickoff attempt while at first in the sixth, moved
up while Thomas Hughes drew a walk and stole second.
Harvey then drove Moyer, pinch-running for Coy Walters, in to give the Sox an extra run.
J.C. Reed got Moyer into scoring position with his long fly to right
field.
“We got lucky, him (Moyer) getting to third on J.C.’s fly ball,” Gancasz said. “He has speed.”
Young also hit his pitch limit. He was replaced
by Paul Lowrie, who closed out the game for Ephrata.
“We waited him out more, to get his pitch count up,” Gancasz said.