Walk it Off
Norchester storms back but Souderton steals thunder in Region 2 opening round victory
WEST LAWN » Kyle Lennon knew he made a mistake.
He wasn’t able to get a clean bunt down to trigger a squeeze play and the winning run had gotten tagged out at home as a result. On top of that, the Souderton infielder was down 0-2 in the count. But it wasn’t all bad.
A second runner had moved up to third on the botched bunt and Lennon still had another chance. He came through in a big way.
Lennon’s flare to right field provided Souderton with a walk-off 6-5 win over Norchester in the first round of the Region 2 Legion baseball tournament Saturday at Ted Palka Park.
“I knew (coach Paul Meara) was going to be mad and I went down 0-2, so I just had to protect,” Lennon said. “He gave me something to hit and I got lucky and was able to take it opposite field.”
Souderton had started the game very well, taking a 5-0 lead after two innings and looking to play conservative baseball in the nine-inning regional game. The plan was to pitch by committee and try to save enough of a few arms that they could come back into play later in the tournament.
It was a solid approach until Norchester rallied to tie the game 5-5 in top half of the eighth
inning. Lennon said Post 234 wasn’t worried, as it had been putting runners in scoring position all night but just hadn’t driven them in after the first two innings.
“I have to give their pitcher credit,” Meara said. “I thought he’d be done early and he hung in there. He made it to the seventh and did a nice job. We pitched by committee hoping to get some of the kids back and it worked at some points and didn’t work at some points.”
Norchester right-hander Corey Hennessey did have a rocky start — including a four-run second inning
— but settled in and kept Souderton off the scoreboard until his day ended with two outs in the seventh inning. He stranded runners in the third, fifth and sixth innings, although Souderton hurt itself after a leadoff triple in the sixth.
Brett Moyer had a pair of RBI singles for Post 234, including one in the first inning to put Souderton on the board and the other as part of the hit parade in the second. Souderton didn’t get one big, crushing hit but instead used a double and four singles to build its lead.
“We had runners all game and had timely hits early in the game,” Lennon said. “It just happened we didn’t have the same timely hits later in the game.”
Souderton likely wouldn’t
have been in position to walk off without the play of catcher Greg Gallagher behind the plate. Gallagher made two tremendous defensive plays in the top of the ninth, first fielding a short bunt by Leif Wergeland up the third base line and gunning the Norchester runner out at first.
He also ended the inning with a dart to second base to throw out an attempted base-stealer.
“Two bunts, he made unbelievable plays on,” Meara said. “He’s like the key for us. He blocks the ball, he throws kids out. But plays like that, we take it for granted. Their kid throws a four-foot bunt down the line and Greg’s on top of it, throwing him out by half a step.”
Souderton’s plan was
to send Derek Freed from third base on the second pitch of Lennon’s at-bat in the ninth inning. When things went haywire, Lennon knew he still had the bat in his hands and at the very least, battle.
Meara said he was happy to see Lennon “bail himself out” and said the infielder has been making plenty of plays all season that have helped Souderton win its way this far.
Post 234 will play in a winner’s bracket game Sunday at 4 p.m. with Hatfield-Towamencin in the nightcap of the winner’s doubleheader.
“I knew I could handle the pitcher,” Lennon said. “I was just trying to put the ball in play and hit it hard. With two strikes, you just have to battle.”