Montgomery Twp. falls in final
LIMEPORT » As Trevor Lugara settled into the batter’s box, a breeze started to blow across Limeport Stadium.
Out beyond the high, old wooden fence in left field, the rows of corn stalks started waving in the breeze and almost acting like a full crowd anticipating a big moment. With a swing of his bat, Lugara brought it as Montgomery Twp walked off victorious to earn a spot in the Connie Mack state tournament final.
Ultimately, Montgomery Twp. would be on the losing end of a walk off Saturday afternoon, dropping the championship 12-11 to Moore Twp. but the team’s 4-3 win over Northern Valley earlier in the day was an extra highlight on a successful season.
“We know we had to keep battling,” Lugara, who split time between the infield and the pitching mound, said. “We kept picking each other up and kept making the plays.”
Left with just 10 healthy players on Saturday and needing three wins to clinch the state title, it was no doubt a tall task for Montgomery Twp. Of course, the Spartans had to win Saturday morning’s tilt with Northern Valley before even thinking about playing for a state title.
If the past few weeks had taught this group anything, it was how to play in a tight spot. Montgomery, which dropped just two regular season games, picked up a loss early in the BuxMont playoffs and ended up in a similar spot, needing two wins over NorGwyn on the same day to earn the league title.
Knowing his team was shorthanded, Ryan Cantz provided a gem on the mound against Northern Valley, then used every last pitch he had left later in the day against Moore Twp.
“We were short-handed the whole tournament, so we knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Cantz, a rising sophomore at La Salle College High School said. “I’m proud of this team. We fought through
out the whole tournament, even missing players and I was glad to see how far we came. It just happened that we came up just short.”
Cantz threw 82 pitches to get the win in the morning and the left-hander only allowed one earned run of the three total he gave up due to a few errors in the field. Later in the day, he would come in as a reliever and use the final 18 pitches of his daily allotment to help Montgomery out of a tough sixth inning against Moore Twp.
Lugara started the second game and pitched very well before exhausting his pitch count in the fifth inning to follow up the lategame dramatics that put Montgomery Twp. in the championship. Despite the attrition of playing with a short bench and needing two wins to force a final, decisive game, Lugara — a rising sophomore at North Penn — felt his team had a way to go to level off with the more full rosters of the other teams in the tournament.
“Our energy on the bench was the main part,” Lugara said. “We’re loud, a lot of people don’t like it. When that energy is high, that’s when our hitting picks up or we can focus on getting the next out.”
Montgomery struck first in both games and also had to deal with the opponent coming back to tie the game in both cases. In the first game, Cantz drove in a run with a ground ball, Lugara had an RBI single and Michael Capilato had a sac fly as part of a three-run third where Montgomery Twp. capitalized on three Northern Valley errors.
Northern Valley, which came through in a win-orgo-home game Friday night, was able to chip away and tagged a single run off Cantz in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to knot the score at 3-3.
Getting to the last day of the tournament, which started on July 21, was not a small feat and Montgomery wasn’t going to let a couple miscues keep it from a chance to play for the title.
“You just have to keep your head in it the whole time, that’s such a big factor,” Cantz said. “We played a lot of games through hot weather, a couple doubleheaders, even some rain delays so always keeping your head in it helps you win the game that’s up, then that’s what lets you move on to the next one and focus on that.”
In the bottom of the seventh, Keegan Kenally worked a one-out walk and Cantz followed with a free pass of his own, marking the third time he would be on base for the contest. Lugara, who had also reached three times at that point, drove a ball up the first base line.
The ball took a hard hop, eluding the first baseman and sending Kennally in from home. It wasn’t a given from there, as Northern Valley’s right fielder made a great throw to the plate but Kennally was able to slide in to score the winning run.
“I’m hoping to use this, bounce back and have an even better year with my school team,” Lugara said. “There’s always things you need to improve and I saw some of them playing with these guys this summer.”
Montgomery Twp. took advantage of a slow start by Moore Twp’s pitching in the afternoon cap to score a first inning run but fell behind 2-1 after a full frame. The Spartans used four walks, two errors and a two-run single by Capilato in the second to take the lead back and added two runs in the third and three in the fifth.
Moore Twp, which topped Montgomery on Friday to earn its spot in the final, chipped away little by little until Lugara ran out of pitches in the fifth. An inning later, it was Moore taking advantage of free passes and errors to put up a sixspot that tied the score 11-11.
In the seventh, Sam Erschen laced a ball just inside the third-base line that scored the walk-off run to give Moore Twp. the state title.
While it was disappointing to lose a win short of the state title, Lugara and Cantz agreed it was still a good summer, one that included a league title and plenty of resolve from their entire team.
“I think this team had a very successful season,” Cantz said. “We fought back plenty of times, so I’m very proud of what this team did.”