Moyer tosses shutout, Tigers edge Plymouth
PLYMOUTH >> Lansdale’s Brett Moyer took a perfect game into the fifth inning and finished with a two-hit shutout as the visiting Tigers scored Wednesday night’s lone run in the top of the first to edge Plymouth for a 1-0 Perky League victory at Villanova Ballpark at Plymouth Township.
“I like pitching when it’s warm.” Moyer said. “But felt really good, nice and loose. Everything was working nice, spotting fastballs, getting ahead. These guys are a good hitting team, aggressive team, so I knew first-pitch fastball would be key tonight.”
Moyer retired the first 14 Diamond batters before Mike Gama’s two-out single to left center field with two outs in the fifth. The right-hander struck out nine, the first eight swinging as first-place Lansdale claimed its 11th straight victory.
“That’s what we expect out of Brett,” Tigers manager Jeff Murtha said. “He’s shown that stat for the last about eight years that he’s going to go out, throw a lot of strikes, keep us in games.
“We’ve been hitting the ball lately but tonight it just for whatever reason we didn’t and Brett did what a leader does and got through the game and got us a win.”
Jason Brooke was 2-for-3 with a double while Ricky Gorrell went 2-for-4 with a double for the Tigers (16-3), who host
Upper Merion at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Plymouth (12-5) visits Valley Forge at 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
Lansdale took a 1-0 lead three batters into the game. Gorrell led off the top of the first with a double to right with Matt Hanson following with an infield single to put runners on the corners. The next at-bat, Kyle Wenger’s sacrifice fly to right brought home Gorrell.
Robbie Zinsmeister walked to put two on with one out but Diamonds starting pitcher Quinn Rovner kept the damage to just a single run with ground out back to him then a strikeout.
Rovner, who is heading to Muhlenberg in the fall, kept the Tigers off the board the rest of the way, limiting the visitors to four hits over the final six frames. Rovner struck out one and walked a pair in taking the loss despite a solid complete-game effort.
Gama ended Moyer’s perfect game and no-hit bids with his two-out base hit in the fifth. Ben Kollender reached on an error to put two on but Moyer got an infield pop out to end the inning.
Plymouth put its leadoff batter on in the sixth on Juan Familia’s infield single down the thirdbase line. Mike Hutchinson put down a bunt, but touched the ball as both he and the ball went down the first-base line and was called out on runner’s interference, sending Familia back to first. Lansdale proceeded to turn a 5-4-3 double play on the next at-bat.