Spano does it all as Henderson blanks LM

WEST CHESTER » No Ches-Mont League team was playing hotter baseball late in the season than West Chester Henderson.

The Warriors won their last five games of the regular season, and carried that momentum into the opening round of the District 1 Class 5A playoffs, as No. 8 Henderson took care of No. 9 Lower Merion, 4-0, Monday afternoon.

Shockingly, the Warriors will have a second home game, as No. 16 Penncrest stunned top seed Holy Ghost Prep, to earn a trip to Henderson on Wednesday.

Evan Spano was magnificent again for the Warriors (13-7) as he threw six shutout innings of twohit ball and even smacked a first inning two-run home run that proved to be the winning margin for Henderson.

“I hit a fastball that was a little up and out over the plate. It was a first pitch fastball and I hit it pretty well,” Spano said. “We as a team got out of the gate a little slow this season but we feel we are peaking right now and it is a good time to be doing that.”

Spano had a little trouble with the first batter of the game in Lower Merion (9-11) leadoff man Dylan Hurok. Hurok battled Spano, fouling off many pitches in a 14-pitch at-bat before getting to first base on a Warrior error. Spano threw 25 pitches in the first inning, but stranded the Aces’ leadoff man in the opening frame.

“I knew I threw a lot of pitches in the first inning and my pitch count would be an issue,” Spano said. “I started to try to not be too fine and pound the strike zone and it worked out for me today.”

Spano’s first inning blast came with one out in the bottom of the first. Thomas Caulfield had reached base as he took a Casey Murphy fastball and lined it to left field for a single. Spano’s blast went out in a hurry over the left field fence for an early 2-0 Warrior lead.

Lower Merion did not have a hit through the first four innings off Spano, but the Aces did have men on in the first, second and third innings via an error and two walks. But, in each of those three frames, Spano took care of business and kept the Henderson lead safe.

The Warriors gave their ace a little more breathing room in the bottom of the fifth, but it came after the Aces mounted a serious threat in the top of the fifth. After getting the first two Aces out, Jake Rocco lined a Spano fastball to right for the Aces’ first hit of the game. Hurok followed with another single to put two men on with two out. But Jake Stoller grounded out to Caulfield at short to end the threat and the Warriors still had a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Warriors got a ringing two-out double from James Vito. Shane Angle came up next and roped an RBI single to center, scoring pinch runner Brendan Gray and the Warriors were up 3-0. Henderson plated its fourth run in the sixth on an RBI single from Caulfield and all that was left was for Brady Bash to close out the Aces in the seventh for Henderson’s first district win in three years.

“Their leadoff man set the tone by really battling,” West Chester Henderson coach Luke McNichol said. “But Evan came back and got out of the inning and then made it to the sixth inning and Brady finished it up and that was big for us. I think we started playing better baseball when it got warmer out and early in the season we played a lot of games in a row due to rainouts, but the kids have worked really hard to get to this spot.”