Top Lumber earns playoff spot

WEST GOSHEN » It came down to the regular season finale, which was actually postponed a day due to rain. But the wait was worth it for Top Lumber, who slipped into the West Chester Baseball League playoffs with a workmanlike 5-0 victory over the Jays on Thursday at Flagg Field.

Made up primarily of players from Delaware County, Top Lumber jumped ahead of the Bandits and PJ’s Prowlers and into the third-seed for the postseason. At 14-16 overall, Top Lumber will begin a playoff series on Saturday at Hoopes Field against No. 2 Crawdads (21-9). Top-seeded Englund’s (23-6) will play the fourth seed, which will be determined on Friday in a one-game play-in contest between the Bandits and Prowlers (both finished 13-16-1).

“Being the first team in this

league from Delaware County, we wanted to come here and show this league we can play too,” said player-manager Sean Mohollen.

“We played in the Delco League and were looking for a change of scenery. We heard about the competitiveness of this league and it’s been nothing but great for us.”

Top Lumber pitchers Corey Hunt, Will Carey and Scott Zimmer combined to throw a four-hit shutout on Thursday, in a game that was halted after six and a half innings due to lightning. The hard-luck Jays (10-19) managed to get just one runner into scoring position, but were playing without their top five hitters in the lineup following a rash of injuries in the last three weeks.

“I think we could have gotten the four-seed if we’d have stayed healthy,” predicted designated hitter Kyle Reynolds. “I’ve never seen anything like it in the 13 years I’ve been in this league.

“It was a tough finish to the season and we just scrapped together what was left. We worked with what we had and gave it our best shot.”

Top Lumber led from the start and won it in familiar fashion: with strong pitching – especially by Zimmer, who went the final four innings – and an offense that has a knack for manufacturing runs.

“The fact that we find different ways to win without the long ball is a good sign,” said second baseman Kevin McGowen, who went 2-for-2 and two runs scored.

“We’ve had good pitching all season and our problem’s been timely hitting,” Mohollen added. “Corey (Hunt), Will (Carey) and Big Zim (Zimmer) all threw well today. It’s good to go into the playoffs with good pitching.

“We score runs when we put together good atbats, put the ball in play and maybe run a little bit. I think we are last in the league in home runs, so this is the way we play.”

Top Lumber grabbed the early lead thanks to a McGowan double and a sacrifice fly by Bill Ford in the top of the first. Two unearned runs made it 3-0 in the next inning, which included a pair of Jays’ errors, two stolen bases and RBIs for Matt Briner and McGowan.

The third sacrifice fly of the day for Top Lumber in the fifth made it 4-0, and once again McGowan was at the center with a single, followed by a stolen base and a wild pitch. The winners added an insurance run in the seventh on a hit, a walk, a two-base error and two hit batters.

“We came together as a team late in the season,” Mohollen said. “This is a new team and we’ve been fighting all year. We went through a lot early in the season because we didn’t have as many guys. But we’ve played better since we got all of our guys together.”

One of the three lateseason wins for Top Lumber came against first-place Englund’s. The squad never mentioned the heady implications of Thursday’s clash, but everyone on the roster knew what was at stake.

“Baseball is a sport where you need to stay loose, so as long as we were having fun, good things happened,” McGowen said.

“We were shaky in the beginning of the season, getting our feet wet in a new league, but we figured it out towards the end. We knew we had to win three of the last four to get in, but we didn’t have to say anything (Thursday). We just needed to play.”

Mohollen added: “We all knew, but we like to stay loose. We wanted to play summer baseball without worrying too much and having some fun. We wanted to come out, get some reps, get ready for college ball and not be too stressed.”