Pine Forge ends summer with CML title
It was the only home run he hit all season.
But Gavin Troutman picked an excellent time to go “yard” for Pine Forge. His solo round-tripper gave the Indians their margin of victory, 13-12, over Kennett in the Ches-Mont Senior Babe Ruth League’s playoff championship game last weekend.
Troutman, who had a triple and double in previous at-bats, came on in the bottom of the seventh inning with the score 12-12. He connected with the first pitch he saw and gave Pine Forge (13-3) the walkoff victory.
“When it went off the bat, I knew it was gone,” Troutman said. “I’d hit a triple before. I crushed this one.”
It certainly pleased Indian manager Rich Zuber, who admitted he was hoping for such a scenario.
“When Gavin was batting, I was talking with our one coach, Andy (Duffy),” Zuber recalled. “I said a walkoff by Gavin would be nice.”
Troutman’s homer was the inspired capper to a playoff weekend that saw Pine Forge sweep past the three clubs it faced. The Indians opened Friday with a 24-3 romp over the SpringFord Rams, then handled the Lansdale Cannoneers Saturday, 15-10.
The Spring-Ford game was highlighted by Owen Fischl collecting three hits and driving in five runs. Brady Evans and Brandon Gebhard each had three hits.
“It was a back and forth game with Lansdale,” Zuber recalled. “The kids decided it was time to hit. We were pitching thin coming into the playoffs.”
The title game with Kennett was marked by big run producing at-bats from both sides. The Kings started out with five in the first innings, then hit for another six in the sixth after Pine Forge took a 9-5 lead in the bottom of the fifth.
Trailing 11-9, the Indians reversed the deficit to a 1211 lead with three in their half of the sixth. Kennett pulled even with one in the seventh.
And the stage was set for Troutman’s heroics.
“It was a fastball right down the tube,” the Oley Valley resident, who recently completed his freshman year of academics and athletics at Lock Haven University, recalled. “It was the first pitch. Every single at-bat, I swung at the first pitch.”
“Gavin Troutman is a class kid who loves baseball,” Zuber added. “He looked at one pitch over the plate and hit it as hard as he could.”
Lennon Paris contributed three RBI to Pine Forge’s 13-hit offense. On the mound, the Indians got 4-1/3 innings of four-strikeout pitching from Dylan Murphy while Troutman, going two frames, fanned four more.
“We knew this was going to be our last game, for the championship,” Troutman said. “We wanted to win it.”
The CML playoff title offered a measure of consolation to Pine Forge, which placed third in the regular season (10-3) behind the Boyertown Blue Collars (15-1) and Lansdale (11-3). If 2020 had been a normal (i.e. non-pandemic) season, PF would have been the host team for Pennsylvania’s Senior Babe Ruth Tournament.
“We had a plan laid out. We wanted to see how the season went,” Zuber said. “We tried to have playoffs and a state tournament. We were holding out for all the above.
“I talked to the state committee and decided there were not enough teams to do a tournament. We waited for playoffs, and all teams were approached.”
The CML ended up with a five-team field, Caln joining the pack. West Chester had expressed interest, but it did not have enough players.
Such was not the case for Pine Forge Blue, which was consolidated with its Pine Forge Red counterparts for the league playoffs.
“I wasn’t sure we’d have a team,” Zuber said. “But the kids said they wanted to play. We went from not having enough players to having plenty.”
The Indians’ regular season produced distinctions of its own.
PF Blue handed the Blue Collars their lone loss of the summer, and it ran off fourand five-game win streaks over the course of a month’s time. It did that with a roster of players from various municipalities: Boyertown, Exeter, Oley Valley, Pottsgrove and Pottstown.
“They all blended together over their desire to play baseball,” Zuber noted. “It was exciting to see the kids get the opportunity to play baseball.”
“The kids were enthusiastic ... glad to be out there. Very little was needed to motivate them. We wanted them to have fun and enjoy the game.”
Pottstown senior Jake Eagle, playing his first season with Pine Forge, derived benefits from the experience that figure to help him down the road.
“I was glad they got it together,” said Eagle, who will be heading to Cabrini University to play for the Cavaliers’ NCAA Division III program and study computer science. “We all bonded pretty fast, working together. There were three guys on the team who were in college. I learned from them.”
Eagle was particularly productive for the Indians in their playoff game against Spring-Ford, driving in four runs. He played primarily at first base and right field this season.
For Hunter Ewing, the team’s center fielder and leadoff batter, the summer afforded him at least one more season of diamond action.
“It was great to get out and play,” Ewing, a player for the TCL’s Boyertown Kodiaks one year ago, added. “There’s not much else to do.”
The 19-year-old Ewing, who will head to Bloomsburg University to study criminal justice, enjoyed the Pine Forge experience.
“It was awesome bringing guys in from all over,” he said. “We became a brotherhood, everyone coming together. We were all happy to get out there and play a game we knew how to.”
For his part, Troutman was grateful for getting the chance to play ball this summer, with Lock Haven’s 2020 season cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m so thankful,” he said. “Being a college baseball player, I needed the reps.
“It helped my confidence, and it was fun.”
NOTES » Zuber’s coaching staff included such other notables as Dave Willman, Jeff Evans and John DiMartino. Willman, a star for The Hill School and Boyertown’s American Legion program, was a draft pick of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1988; Evans is a coach at Wilson High School; and DiMartino was a player for Pine Forge’s 2016 squad that made it to the SBR World Series . ... Zuber has logged 47 years at Pine Forge, a handful shy of its total existence. Pine Forge Athletic Association was formed 50 years ago by his father-inlaw, Merrill Harner, and wife Anita’s uncle, Skip Trainer.