Sweep & Go
Spring City caps comeback with two wins over Lionville for Chester County Legion League title
UPPER PROVIDENCE » Mike Gancasz has all the faith in the world in his Spring City pitching staff this summer.
“Coming in I knew we’d be strong pitching,” he said prior to Wednesday’s championship round of the Chester County League playoffs. “I’m confident in us from a pitching perspective.”
Gancasz’ faith was rewarded twice. He got complete-game pitching efforts from Chris Sparacino and Cole Webb as the Red Sox won the league’s tournament with a sweep of the Hillcats. SC rolled to a 10-2 victory in the opener, then capped its comeback with an 8-2 win in the nightcap.
Spring City small-balled a run in its first at-bat. Kasey Caras got to second when his bouncer to thid was misplayed; he then went to third on a wild pitch before coming home off Andrew Huang’s bouncer to the mound.
Lionville answered in the second, bunching three hits for a 2-1 lead. Tommy Hammett and Luke Moran (singles) scored off James Murray’s line-hugging hit on the right side and a muff of Ben Bates’ fly ball to shallow left field.
The Red Sox pulled even in the bottom half of the frame, Thomas Hughes (safe on error) moved to third off hits to short by J.C. Reed and Ryan Harvey before scoring off another Joe Hurley wild pitch.
Spring City took advantage of bases-loaded situation in fourth to go up on Lionville 4-2. Andrew Huang drove Nick Price (walk) and Tyler Horgan (single) home with a flare to right field after a walk to Kasey Caras loaded the bags.
A fifth-inning bataround upped the Sox’ lead to 8-2. Clemens had a two-run single to right-center that scored two runs and finished
Spring City’s Brad Clemens watches his hit Wednesday night against Lionville.
Lionville starting pitcher Joe Hurley, Tyler Horgan singled in another run and Caras scored on a double-steal that included Clemens’ swipe of second.
SC’s offensive capper came in the sixth, at the expense of Lionville reliever Tim Cohen. Clemens and Huang forced in runs in bases-loaded situations with a walk and hit by pitch, respectively,
Chris Sparacino pitched a masterful complete game for the Sox. He scattered four hits and yielded just one earned run, with three walks against four strikeouts.
Lionville jumped out to an early lead at the start of the second game. Will Peiffer laced a two-out triple before coming home off Tommy Hammett’s single to right.
Spring City got that run back in its half of the first, without benefit of a hit. Caras reached base on a fielding error, moved up when Clemens drew a fullcount walk, stole third and came home off Huang’s sacrifice fly to center field.
The Hillcats cut the Sox’ lead to 4-3 with two in the top of the third. Austin Taylor hit a leadoff single and Ryan Fick drew a walk before Hurley looped a single to short center, enough to score Taylor and Fick.
Spring City improved its lead to 6-3 with another pair of runs in the fourth. Moyer (walk) came home off Clemens’ double to left, and the Sox shortstop went on to score on a double steal that saw Andrew Huang (single) swipe second.
The Sox closed out their busy night with two more runs in the sixth. Clemens and Huang drove in the runs with their respective walk and being hit by a pitch .
Both Spring City and Lionville were assured berths in the Pa. Region 3 Tournament: The Hillcats by virtue of being the host team, the Red Sox by making the CCL’s championship round. But Lionville manager Brett Mariani stressed his team wanted to effectively validate its place in the regional.
“We certainly wanted to win this tournament,” he said. “We wanted to prove we belonged as more than a host. We had 16 guys who worked their butts off. We just gave a good team too many opportunities.
“This whole tournament was a great way to prepare for the regional.”