The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
JP Mascaro holds off PV, forces Game 2
GRATERFORD >> JP Mascaro kept its season alive with a 2-1 win over Perk Valley in the Greater Norristown American Legion Baseball League Championship Game 1 Sunday afternoon at Perkiomen Valley High School.
The winner-take-all Game 2 is set for Monday night at Perk Valley at 7:30 p.m.
The top-seeded Haulers scored two runs in the top of the first inning on a two-out Daniel Carr single and that proved to be enough with Rob Maloney on the mound.
Maloney allowed one run over seven innings. He struck out two batters to two walks and scattered six hits.
“My fastball (was working best),” the rising senior at Methacton said. “I was struggling with my curve from the beginning and showed glimpses of it, but it didn’t really work out as I planned it to, so I stuck with the fastball and just located it.”
“Unbelievable,” Mascaro manager Lucas Denczi said of Maloney’s performance. “Backs against the wall. We were shortstaffed today, especially with the pitching rules. We really needed seven innings out of him and he gave them to us. It was unbelievable.”
The right-handed Maloney ran into some trouble in the later innings. In the sixth he hit back-to-back batters and walked another to load the bases with one out. Perk Valley’s Ethan Crovetti delivered with a sacrifice fly to center to end the shutout, but Maloney got a grounder to second to end the frame.
“I just knew I had to keep throwing strikes and that plays would come around,” Maloney said. “I trust my teammates. I knew we could get through it. We’ve gotten through worse. I thought we could do it.
“I was just really hoping they wouldn’t hit another shot out to one of the gaps and score him. I knew that was the one run we had to keep from scoring.”
In the seventh, Perk Valley sandwiched two singles around a strikeout to put the tying run on second and championshipclinching run on first with one
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