No Panic Button
Souderton loses, looks to bounce back in state final Wednesday
Souderton’s first loss this postseason didn’t exactly have coach Paul Meara running to hit the panic button.
“We didn’t start yelling and screaming and kicking our heels,” he said. “We just said, ‘OK, let’s get the one tomorrow.”
Already assured of a spot at the Mid-Atlantic Regional, Post 234 could not earn itself a shot at securing the Pennsylvania American Legion State Tournament title Tuesday at Bear Stadium.
Ephrata grabbed an early lead with two runs in the top of the first inning and Souderton could
not find key hits off left-hander Hunter Johns as the defending state champs stayed alive with a 4-1 victory over Post 234 in their afternoon contest.
“We had chances, again we hit the ball hard in those crucial situations but we’re not hanging out heads,” Souderton center fielder Luke Barnum said. “You’re not really going to see all of us throwing helmets, keeping our head down
because we’ve punched our ticket to Virginia and we’re in the championship.
“I’m not going to say that was a meaningless game but that was a game that we can get behind us really quick.”
Ephrata’s win advanced it to a Tuesday night contest with Spring City, which began the day’s action beating Swoyersville 8-3. The Ephrata-Spring City winner meets Souderton for the state title 12:05 p.m. Wednesday. The final two teams in the tournament both clinch a berth in the Mid-Atlantic Regional in Purcellville, Virginia.
“We’re already getting on the bus for Virginia, so we’re happy, that was last night (an 8-0 win over Swoyersville Sunday). That was the big one. We win one game, we win a state title, all right, can’t ask for more than that.”
Tuesday had a rearranging of the state tournament schedule, with the opening two games pushed up earlier in the day and Game 15 — the Ephrata-Spring City matchup — moved up from Wednesday, leaving just one game left to play, the winner-take-all final.
“We had set up to play today and tomorrow, our pitching, knew where we wanted be, knew who we wanted to throw. Then they threw in this game afterwards,” Meara said. “So if we would have won, we would have had to play again and that wasn’t in our plans. Yeah, that shuffled us a little bit.”
The last loss for Souderton (28-4) came against Quakertown 9-8 in Post 234’s regular-season finale July 3. Since then Souderton had ripped off 11 straight victories — three in the Bux-Mont tournament, five at Region 2 and the first three at states.
“We’ve never done this before and we know what it feels like to lose, so we’re not going to let that take care of us,” Souderton pitcher Jake Morgan said. “So we’re just going to keep doing our things and we’re just going to have fun in the next round.”
Paul Lowrie’s two-RBI double put Ephrata up 2-0 in the first while an RBI single by Adam Maser — who went 2-for-3 at the plate — extended the lead to 3-0 in the third.
Souderton plated its lone run in the bottom of the fourth on Moses Clemens’s RBI sacrifice fly to left center. But Post 234 ended the inning stranded runners on the corners and went on to collect just one hit — a two-out double by Jacob Horton in the seventh — in the final three frames.
“Today we hit the ball hard, we just hit it to people. I was happy,” Meara said. “Jake did a nice job. He hung that one 0-2 pitch which hurt us a little bit but besides that he did great. He went out and (six) innings and that’s what we asked him to do and he did it.”
Johns picked up the complete-game victory for Ephrata, the lefty allowing one earned run on five hits. He walked one, hit one batter and struck out one.
Morgan took the loss, the Souderton right allowing four runs — three earned — in six innings. He walked six and struck out four.
”I couldn’t get ahead of the count, my command wasn’t there. But once I got there, once I got the command my pitches started to come a little bit better,” Morgan said. “I really think we would have had the game if that changeup stayed down in the first inning. That two-run first inning was tough.
After walking two of the first three batters in the top of the first, Morgan struck out Nathaniel Young and was a strike away from escaping the inning but Lowrie connected on a double to left center to score Ricky Bromirski and Tyler Keppley.
“I honestly thought he just kind of stuck his bat out and he just got a luck hit,” Morgan said. “That’s baseball, it happens, right.”
Ephrata pushed its advantage to 3-0 with two outs in the third. After Lowrie drew a walk, Maser singled to right center, scoring Lowrie from first. Maser was thrown out trying to reach second on the play.
Barnum produced the first of Souderton’s two extra-base hits as he led off the bottom of the fourth with a double to deep right field.
“My first at-bat, he’s a good pitcher but I didn’t see anything that was going to blow me away, was going to fool me,” Barnum said. “So I stayed patient, looked for my pitch. I wish I would have gotten that more on the barrel but I’ll take what I can get. It was a good hit.”
Barnum advanced to third on Nolan Bolton’s single to center then scored on a Clemens RBI sac fly to left center. Bolton — who finished 2-for-3 — stole second and after a Luke Taylor walk went to third on Luke Shank’s fly out to left. But another fly out stranded the pair of baserunners.
“This guy (Johns) was a good pitcher, he’s a good lefty. For some reason every team that we play tries to throw all their lefties at us,” Barnum said. “I think we a decent job hitting the ball hard, it just went right at them.”
Ephrata tacked on a run in the sixth. Maser began the inning with an infield single, went to third on a wild pitch and passed ball, respectively then scored on Aiden Bracken’s RBI ground out to make it 4-1. Ephrata 4, Souderton 1
Ephrata 2010010—441 Souderton 0001000—150
WP: Hunter Johns 7 IP 5 H 1 R 1 ER 1 BB 1SO1HB. LP: Jake Morgan 6 IP 4 H 4 ER 6 BB 4 SO. 2B: E-Paul Lowrie; S-Luke Barnum, Jacob Horton. Ephrata: Lowrie 1-2, 2 RBI, R; Adam Maser 2-3, RBI, R. Souderton: Nolan Bolton 2-3.