Phantoms top Pope John Paul II
PHOENIXVILLE >> Phoenixville’s baseball team coughed up a 4-1 lead in the top of the sixth inning with its ace pitcher, Michael Anthony, on the mound and rain falling throughout the Pioneer Athletic Conference meeting.
Visiting Pope John Paul rallied to tie the game at 4-all with three runs on three hits in the sixth, but the host Phantoms countered by scoring one run on one hit and one error in the bottom of the eighth inning to win the game, 5-4, Tuesday afternoon at Doc Kennedy Field.
Anthony doubled down the left-field line to plate Kyle Bennick from sec- ond base with one out in the eighth. Bennick had started the inning with a walk and took second base on a throwing error. The double was Anthony’s second of the game.
Anthony pitched the first six innings for Phoenixville (2-1 PAC-10, 3-1 overall) before Zach Masalski came on for the last two frames to pick up the mound victory. Andrew Szpindor hurled the first 3.2 innings for the Golden Panthers (0-3, 0-3) before left-hander Vinnie Togno finished the final 3.2 stanzas.
“They (Golden Panthers) scrapped hard, but it is good for us to win a game like this,” said Anthony, the senior right-hander who has already signed to pitch for Division I La Salle University. “Everyone stepped up and did what we needed to do. We won, and that is all that matters.”
Anthony shackled PJP on one run and two hits through the first five innings on 66 pitches. However, the visitors got to him in the top of the sixth to extend the game by finding some holes and taking advantage of some Phantom mistakes.
Leadoff man Kyle Miller began the PJP sixth with a double to the right-center field gap. With one out, Billy Hittman singled home the team’s second run and moved to second on a throw. After Anthony came up with one of his five strikeouts, he hit Amadeo Citro on the foot with a pitch to put runners at first and second base. Two wild pitches allowed Hittman to score the third run. Then Rich
McGarry (two hits) lined a run-scoring triple to right field to knot the game at 4. Pinch runner Ryan Lynn tallied the tying run.
Phoenixville closed the day with nine hits and drew six walks, but the Phantoms also wound up stranding 11 baserunners. PJP totaled seven hits and drew four walks while leaving six men on base.
Phantom catcher Jason Waltman went 2-for-3 with two runs batted in, and he was also hit by a pitch in the fifth inning. Waltman also threw out a runner attempting to steal second base in the seventh and also assisted on the last out at the plate in the sixth with a relay to Anthony after the pitch initially got by the catcher.
“Waltman had a huge game today,” said Anthony of his battery mate. “He was looking to break out of a slump.”
Center f ielder Austin Walsh went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles, one run and one RBI for the Phantoms. Leadoff man/shortstop Brett Arney, third baseman Owen Goryl and sophomore second baseman Matt Osisek-Byrne also had hits for the hosts. Anthony, Goryl, Walsh, pinch runner Nasir Green (stolen base) and Bennick scored runs. Freshman designated hitter Luke LeBeau and Arney laid down sacrifice bunts, and LeBeau also had a stolen base.
Designated hi t t er Christian Wagner, Cam Nowakowski and Connor Beaudoin had the other hits for PJP. Miller, Hittman, Lynn and Beaudoin scored runs.
“I was feeling good,” said Anthony. “They had a couple balls that fell. We couldn’t get to them. That’s baseball. Hopefully, this carries over to the rest of the year. The last couple games I started to see the ball well again. It just carried over and I hope to keep going. The whole team has been hitting. We have a lot of young kids who are stepping up. Zach Masalski came in and pitched two great innings for the win. It was a good all-around team win.”
While happy with the victor y, Phoenixville coach Jack Sturgeon knows his team still has a lot of work to do andmistakes to fix and adjustments to be made.
“We made a lot of baserunning mistakes and some defensive mistakes,” said Sturgeon. “Our inexperience sort of showed today. You can’t duplicate game experience. We practiced two hours yesterday (Monday) on baserunning and bunting. But you just can’t re- ally duplicate game experience. That’s something we really have to work on.”
He was happy with how the Phantoms jumped out to the early lead with a run in the first and three more in the fourth, and with Anthony doing a sound job on the mound and at the plate. Sturgeon also liked the way Masalski, another sophomore, threw strikes in his twoinning relief stint.
PJP had suffered a 15-5 loss to Perkiomen Valley Monday but came back with a much better outing against the Phantoms. The Golden Panthers also played highly touted Spring-Ford tough in a 7-4 rain game earlier this season. So despite wholesale changes from a team that captured the PIAA Class AAA state championship a year ago, PJP is hanging in there during the early going of a transition period.
“That’s what makes this a little tough to take,” said first-year PJP head coach Matt Eckman. “We had the momentum, but one little slip, and they can steal it from you, one play. We knew what to do and what we were up against. We came ready to play the last couple games. It is the little things that we have to keep on reiterating and keep on going. It is a challenge. They (Golden Panthers) could have quit, but they chose not to.”