North Penn retracing history in state run
Knights head out west again for state semifinal
It’s déjà vu all over again as the North Penn baseball team continues its push towards a PIAA Class AAAA championship.
One more close win over a District 1 team at Spring-Ford? Check.
Another senior-right hander coming through in a tight contest? Sure.
Yet again facing a western team in Scotland with a spot in the state final on the line? You bet.
As the Knights try for a second PIAA title in three seasons – and third in seven – the wheres and hows District 1 runner-up North Penn made those previous runs mirror its present path, which resumes 4 p.m. Monday at Greene Township Park against District 7’s
third place side Shaler.
One more victor y by the Knights extends District 1 streak of having a team in the state Class AAAA final at nine. Shaler is trying for its first state championship appearance since 1999 — it lost to Chambersburg in the AAA final — and to be the first District 7 team to play for AAAA gold since Canon-McMillan in 2007.
Greene Township was the site of North Penn’s visit to the state semifinals in 2009. That two-plus hour trip down the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 81 was for a matchup with North Allegheny. The Knights plated the first six runs as they pounded the District 7 champ Tigers 12-1.
North Penn got to Scotland that year thanks to a quarterfinal 2-1 win over a Suburban One League National Conference side at Spring-Ford. Fast forward to 2015, and the Knights are heading west after a 2-1 victory in the quarters over a National team at SpringFord.
The later win came last Thursday over Pennsbury, as North Penn rallied to keep it season alive and pick up its 20th win. Beating the Falcons and Rock North in ‘09 required a little small ball to edge out a decision.
Down 1-0 to Pennsbury after four innings last week, the Knights pulled even as
Jared Melone scored on an error after a Jake Schuster bunt single. Melone brought it the go-ahead run in the sixth as his RBI sacrifice fly plate Alex Peterson.
Mark Grassie’s RBI single gave the Knights the 1-0 lead in the 2009 quarterfinal in the top of the third. Council Rock North leveled the contest in the bottom of the inning, but Jimmy Smith’s RBI single in the fifth sent NP forward.
The two games are the bookends of a span of five postseason victories – four PIAA, one District 1 – North Penn has claimed at SpringFord’s Ram Stadium. The Knights also beat Coatesville and Pennridge in the 2013 state and shut out West Chester East in this season’s district semifinals May 26.
Holding WC East scoreless was James Witner, who along with that start and his effort against Pennsbury is putting himself alongside a few other notable North Penn pitching performances in the playoffs
Witner has three wins on the mound so far this postseason. He gave up three earned over 5 1/3 innings in the 9-3 district first-round win over Hatboro-Horsham. The right-hander allowed just three hits in a complete-game shutout of West Chester East. Witner went the full seven again against Pennsbury, limiting the Falcons to one earned run on four hits.
Witner’s efforts joins a long line of senior righties comes through in the season’s final weeks for the Knights. In 2009, Eric Ruth – now pitching for the Trenton Thunder, the Yankees’ AA affiliate – won three PIAA games, including the state final over Parkland. Two seasons ago Brian Maher tossed three playoff shutouts, the last against Pennridge in the state semis. Also in 2013, Dylan Borawski picked up two state wins, pitching all nine innings of the Knights’ win over Lower Dauphin in the state championship.