H-T’s third straight title stands on its own
Barrow named tournament MVP as Titans hold off Central Perk in championship game
Kolby Barrow didn’t see the runner go behind him, but he turned around in time to see the tag go down and the umpire call the would-be stealer out.
Barrow pumped his fist then found catcher Spencer Heilveil, the guy who had thrown out the runner, for an embrace on the infield as the rest of their Hatfield-Towamencin Connie Mack teammates swarmed around them. For the third year in a row, the Titans had come to historic Limeport Stadium and left with a state championship.
Hatfield-Towamencin rode a complete game from tournament MVP Barrow to a 5-4 win over a very good Central Perk team Saturday afternoon to make it three straight years and four in the last five.
“We played these guys three times before and I knew it was one of their faster runners and with the one and two batters coming up, they wanted to get run over so I was ready for anything,” Heilveil, who threw out another runner earlier in the game, said. “I saw it and let it loose. I just trusted what I’ve got and it felt great.”
Barrow had beaten Central Perk earlier in the season during Bux-Mont league play, but CP had gotten the Titans back later in the season to knock them down the seeding ladder. Originally, the state championship was supposed to be played on Tuesday, but a swath of rain forced tournament organizers to push it back to Saturday.
While it allowed Central Perk to reset its pitching, the Titans were still confident the offensive surge they’d hit early in the state playoffs would carry over. Plus, having Barrow ready to go only added to H-T’s confidence.
A rising junior at North Penn, Barrow was on the Knights’ varsity roster in the spring but added this summer let him get some valuable experience in postseason atmospheres and throwing in big games.
“I got my curve ball over a lot, which kept me grooving throughout the game and let me keep them off-time because they were trying to sit on my fastball,” Barrow, a right-hander, said. “I just tried to spot up, that’s really it. You hit your spots and trust your defense, which, they played a heck of a game and my catcher, Spencer, did a really good job too.”
Although this year’s team had a large number of guys from last season’s championship roster back, the Titans treated this summer like it was their own unique season. That let them ignore any pressure to three-peat and just enjoy their time together throughout the various stages of the season.
Hatfield-Towamencin coach Mark Swanson, who headed last year’s squad as well, has coached most of the team’s players since they were 8 years old and he knew this group would play for each other. The Titans just wanted to keep up the standard in the program and also represent their community well.
“We had an indoor practice the other day and the 10U guys were there playing and they started to give us a bit of a standing ovation as we left the facility,” Swanson said. “Everybody knows about it in our league and our high school coach Kevin Manero is very supportive of community ball and wants everybody staying local, playing with your friends and getting in the habit of winning.”
H-T got all the scoring it would need in the second inning. After Matt Swanson reached on a fielder’s choice, Luke Vandergrift started a string of three straight singles from the bottom three hitters in the Titans’ order. Heilveil brought in the game’s first run when he singled home Swanson and Nate Brown drove in Vandergrift the following at-bat.
“Once we get a couple hits going, that’s when we all come together,” Titans third baseman Chris McLean, who went 3-for-4, said. “CP is a big rival of ours, so once we started to smack the ball around, we all started to get hyped and it let us drive the ball all over the place.”
A wild pitch and infield error brought home two more Hatfield-Towamencin runs before McLean stepped up with two outs. Having already roped a double in the first inning, McLean crushed another pitch well into left-center for a double, scoring Chris Killion for what ended up being the winning run.
McLean, who is heading into his junior year at North Penn, went 10-for17 in the tournament and won the Batting Award.
“I came into the tournament just trying to hit the ball up the middle and work it, it ended up the ball worked in my favor and I was able to help the team out and get some runs,” McLean said. “You have to keep a simple swing and work it up the middle. They were pretty hard-throwing kids but if you put it up the middle, it’ll go.”
Central Perk wasn’t going away and came back strong in the fourth inning, plating four runs off Barrow to cut the lead down to one. Zach Male had a two-run double to put CP on the board, Kevin Christman smacked an RBI double to right and Zach Kratz’s RBI single made it 5-4 before Barrow ended the inning on a comebacker to the mound.
“I’ve caught Kolby for three years now and I just have to keep him in a rhythm,” Heilveil said. “If he gets frustrated after a few bad pitches, I have to make sure to calm him down and get him back to that 1-2 punch of fastball and curve ball and once he’s on, he’s on. You keep him in that rhythm and don’t mess with it.”
Barrow, who also plays hoops at North Penn and used to play football, regained his rhythm after the fourth, retiring the next eight hitters in order until a two-out single in the seventh.
“That kid is a competitor,” Mark Swanson said. “He knows how to compete and how to win and he just went after it.”
Barrow made a terrific play for the first out of the seventh, charging off the mound to field a bunt by Avery Lee and lasering a throw to Matt Swanson at first to beat the runner. He struck out Kratz, his ninth punchout of the game, for the second out before yielding a single to Tyler Haywood, who had pitched five scoreless relief innings for Central Perk.
Heilveil said he had struggled making throws in warm-ups, but his earlier caught base stealer and his trust in himself let him make the throw that nabbed Haywood to end the game with confidence.
As pitcher and catcher met, the rest of the team came together around them, just like the Titans had all season.
“For me, it’s all about going out and having fun, my team helped me win it,” Barrow said. “(Assistant coach Paul) Morestki calling pitches and Spence catching and trusting he’ll block any bad pitches, they’re as much a part of it as me.
“We built a team bond and most of us will head back to North Penn and hope to do the same thing there we did with Hatfield-Towamencin.”