All hands on deck for Souderton
QUAKERTOWN >> If you’ve pitched at any point during your baseball career, Souderton could use you on the mound.
After a state championship run by the Souderton Area High School baseball team, Post 234 has had a lot of games to play in a short amount of time. Their doubleheader against Quakertown Tuesday night at Memorial Stadium put them at 12 games in 16 days.
Souderton needs pitchers to eat up those innings. They’ve got plenty of guys with experience on the mound, like Jordan Morales, Luke Taylor and Nolan Bolton, but with so many games in notso-many days, additional arms are needed.
That’s where guys like Hogan DeSpain step in. He’s appeared in a handful of games for Post 234 this season despite not pitching
since Little League.
Morales exited the front end of the doubleheader Tuesday after four innings and an hour-long lightning delay with Souderton trailing, 5-0. DeSpain came on and finished the 10-2 defeat. He allowed five runs on four hits over three innings. Throwing a knuckleball, curveball and an eephus pitch, he struck out three batters to three walks. Quakertown went on to sweep the doubleheader with an 11-1 win in the second game.
“I used to (pitch) in Little League so it’s fun to do it again,” DeSpain said. “Just get up there and throw strikes — that’s what I try to do.”
“Anybody that has pitched in Little League has pitched this year,” Souderton manager Paul Meera said. “Obviously Hogan’s not a pitcher, but he went out there and muscled for three innings. I only have ‘X’ amount of guys left, so I wanted to save (Aaron) Groller for (the second game of the doubleheader). I think we’re in a good spot. We’ll be all right, just keep grinding it out — you pitch a little bit, you pitch a little bit, if you get up you pull them out.”
The loss was Souderton’s first after starting the Bux-Mont American Legion season with 10 straight wins. Most of the team played for Souderton Area’s state championship team, so they were riding a 16-game winning streak.
After a long high school season and a chaotic start to legion, the defending Bux-Mont tournament and Region 2 champions get a little break for the Fourth of July holiday before closing out the regular season and possibly making another postseason run.
“It’s getting a little tiring,” DeSpain said, “especially since we’re playing every night and it’s a doubleheader, but it’s still fun playing with the guys.”
“Every day,” Meera, who’s on the Souderton Area coaching staff, said. “We went all the way through the high school season and now we’re playing every day here. It’s like torture. We get through this game, we play Doylestown (Wednesday), we get a couple days off. Guys can go down the shore, relax and then we’ll go back at it for another eight straight games. Doubleheader Sunday, doubleheader Monday.”