N-G finds energy, rallies past Lansdale
LANSDALE >> It doesn’t take much to change the entire tone of a baseball game.
Nor-Gwyn was down to its last out and on the cusp of extending its losing streak Saturday when everything changed. Lansdale was an out away from what would have been an important win when the game turned against it.
Nor-Gwyn struck for five twoout runs in the top of the seventh to rally past the Cannoneers 3-2 at Weaver Field at Memorial Park.
“We kept telling them Lansdale is not a team you can sleep on, especially with all our players that go to North Penn together,” NorGwyn coach Brandon Billetz said. “These are the games they circle and we kept telling our guys they had to keep bringing the energy every inning and they didn’t bring it the first six innings.”
Saturday’s game, the first act of the annual Cannoneers Day at Weaver Field, was a pitcher’s duel for six-and-a-half innings. Lansdale starter Cole Egner was excellent, tossing 6.2 innings of shutout baseball while Nor-Gwyn’s Eric Hamilton gave up just two runs in his six frames of work.
The Hawks had chances against Egner, but every time the visitors threatened, the lefthander or his defense worked out of it. Egner picked off a runner in the first inning, catcher Garrett Zimmerman threw out a basestealer, shortstop Sean MacKay threw out a runner at home on and the defense got a couple other key outs on the bases.
“It’s why you play to the last out, we weren’t able to get that last out in the seventh inning and it’s a shame because Cole pitched a great game,” Lansdale manager Scott McClay said. “Their pitcher threw a great game as well, we were just able to manufacture a few runs on some key hits. Pitch count is everything in this league, Cole clipped his count and we had to pull him but up until then he mixed it up and we got some breaks.”
Nor-Gwyn had the bases loaded in the fifth with one out, but Egner got out of it with a fielder’s choice cutting down the run at home and a pop-up to first base. The Cannoneers offense finally
gave him some support in the bottom half of the sixth after leaving two runners stranded in the first and fifth innings.
Trevor Sliker led off with a double, then scored on Payton Hall’s ground-rule double for the game’s first score. Aiden Elam reached on an infield hit that advanced Hall before an error allowed Hall to come in for a 2-0 lead before Hamilton ended the frame.
“With today being Cannoneers Day, we wanted to make sure we played Nor-Gwyn,” McClay said. “They’re the local rivals and it’d be a fun game to participate in as part of a great day.”
Entering Saturday, the Hawks had lost their last five games and needed something to turn their fortunes
around as they try to make a push for the BuxMont playoffs. Down two runs in the final inning, it was going to have to start with the bats.
Billetz had been frustrated with the team’s twostrike approach at the plate, but some work in the cages Saturday morning seemed to pay off. Quinn Holt led off the inning with a twostrike hit and pinch-hitter Gavin Mikulski worked a walk to put two runners on.
Egner got the next two batters, but hit his pitch count and exited the game with the top of the Hawks’ lineup due up.
“All the credit in the world to Cole Egner, he threw a tremendous game against us,” Billetz said. “He worked us inside, he worked outside, his curve ball was nice and he commanded the strike zone very well.”
Hawks center fielder Jeff Sabater, a rising junior at North Penn, finally broke
the drought with an RBI single to score Holt.
“I’ve been struggling recently,” Sabater said. “I came up to the plate knowing I was going to hit the ball hard and I just happened to hit it up the middle.”
The spark from Holt’s leadoff single had caught fire as Ryan Feiser followed Sabater with a two-run double to right field on a hardhit ball that fell out of reach of the fielder.
“We’d lost a couple games in a row and I’d been struggling too,” Feiser, a rising senior at North Penn, said. “We’ve been falling short with the game there for us to win it so I went up and thought I just have to drive the ball to right field. I did that and got a little lucky it didn’t go well for them.”
Nor-Gwyn wasn’t done there. Steve Corrado worked a walk and both he and Feiser scored when catcher Spencer Heilveil
tagged a two-run single into the outfield to give the Hawks a 5-2 lead. A fly out ended the inning, but Nor-Gwyn had done all the damage it needed and all with two outs.
“We were kind of flat the whole game and something just changed,” Sabater said. “We started stringing together good at-bats. We wanted to win that game because we’d lost a few in a row.”
Brandon Drolsbaugh came in and picked up a 1-2-3 save in the seventh inning to snap Nor-Gwyn’s losing skid heading into the final stretch of the season.
“It’s a friendly rivalry, it’s fun playing against them but we’re teammates so you don’t want to take it too far,” Feiser said. “It’s good competition. You know what they’re going to bring to the table and it’s nice being able to beat them.”