Rinda sets tone as B’town tops Lansdale in opener

Steven Rinda found his best stuff when he most needed to.

Taking the mound to start Boyertown’s Chesmont Senior Babe Ruth League opener against Lansdale, Rinda was far from his sharpest but able to command the crucial moments. That was all the Blue Collars needed to get in front of the Cannoneers and stay there Saturday night.

Lansdale battled but too many miscues piled up as Boyertown claimed a 10-3 win at Memorial Park.

“I honestly don’t think I located very well, I know I can do better,” Rinda said. “But, I feel like I located well when it mattered. I didn’t get ahead of batters too well, but my curveball was definitely working with two strikes.”

Rinda, a rising senior at Pottsgrove, was only in real trouble once during his four innings of work. The righty faced loaded bases in the bottom of the second after a disputed call on a rundown allowed a Lansdale runner to reach third and keep the in

ning alive.

Facing Cannoneers leadoff man Nick Koch, Rinda went down 2-0 before working back to even the count. Then, the righty delivered one of his best pitches of the night, freezing the hitter for a called third strike to end the frame.

“I was frustrated because of the mishap so I told myself ‘they’re not scoring here,’” Rinda said. “I tried to just start pumping fastballs by them and not let a run score.”

Not plating a run from that opportunity was only part of the story for Lansdale,

which couldn’t get out of its own way on Saturday.

Cannoneers catcher Garrett Zimmerman, a North Penn graduate now playing at DelVal, noted the team’s rust was evident in several areas. Walks in particular would prove especially costly throughout the night.

“It was my first time out in three months and for some of these guys, it was even longer,” Zimmerman said. “It was tough. They threw a good pitcher against us and our defense and pitching hurt us.”

After Rinda took momentum with his big strikeout to end the second inning, he helped jumpstart a rally in the third by drawing a twoout walk. Ethan Ferraro followed

with another walk and Colin Eisenhard made Lansdale pay when he hit a rocket to right-center for a two-run single.

The next inning, the Blue Collars used six walks and an infield error to plate four runs without recording a hit in the frame. Eisenhard, who led Boyertown with three RBI, collected one of the four run-scoring walks in the third.

“From a pitching standpoint, any runs we get give me a boost when I’m on the mound and all I want to do is get people out,” Rinda said. “Doing that while also taking advantage of mistakes just gives us more insurance.”

Rinda’s night ended after the fourth inning, which

he capped off with his seventh strikeout of the game. As he left the field, the righty commented the fastball he threw for the last strike was the hardest he’d thrown in a while, a note on what a majority of players have dealt with this spring and summer.

“This was the longest I’ve thrown,” Rinda said. “A couple weeks ago, I went to the PBR event out in DuBois and threw three innings there. Throwing 25-pitch pens, it’s not anywhere near going four innings with 20 or more pitches an inning but it’s just great to be back out there.”

Boyertown scored three more runs in the sixth, keyed by an RBI double

from Brandon Shane and a run-scoring hit by Nathan Fox. Shane hit another double in the seventh with Fox added an RBI single in the inning for Boyertown’s final run.

Zimmerman said not one player on Lansdale’s roster was at fault for the loss.

“We walked too many guys and put too many guys on with errors,” Zimmerman said. “They had fiveplus runs in two innings off two hits and that can’t happen if you expect to win.”

Despite trailing, the Cannoneers showed plenty of fight. The pitchers, despite struggling to locate pitches, just kept throwing and the defense showed a couple flashes while the offense plated a run in each of the final three innings.

Zimmerman, who caught every pitch of the nearly three-hour game, walked twice, had a single and reached on an error while scoring a pair of runs. Peyton Hall was hit by a pitch and walked twice, scoring once, Brian Neal had a sac fly and Trevor Sliker hit an RBI single.

“We’re never going to go down without a fight, we’re all out here to have fun,” Zimmerman said. “We have the guys we need to have a good season, we just need a couple games to come together.”

Boyertown plays again Sunday while Lansdale’s next game is Tuesday.