Hamilton helps Fort deal Roslyn a loss

FORT WASHINGTON » It was hard to tell Ethan Hamilton hadn’t been on the mound in two weeks with the way he threw Saturday afternoon.

The Fort Washington righthander took the ball as the Generals resumed their Lower Montco Legion playoff semifinal against Roslyn in the second inning and just started dealing. Six shutout innings later, with some solid defense and typical Fort offense backing him up, Hamilton was done for the day.

Behind Hamilton’s effort, Fort Washington topped Roslyn 5-0 at Upper Dublin High School to advance to the LML finals against Horsham.

“My curve was there, my fastball velo was there, I had a twoweek break, so I was pretty well rested,” Hamilton, a 2020 Springfield Twp graduate, said. “Our coaches did a really good job too, especially calling the game.”

The teams got a single inning of scoreless ball in Friday night before lightning and rain

prompted a postponement to Saturday afternoon. While Roslyn starter Bobby Curry came back for a second day on the hill, the Generals opted to put Friday starter Sean Curran at first and put Hamilton on the hill.

Fort manager Gary Bonitatibus said the two hurlers are “1 and 1A” on the depth chart so it was an easy call. Hamilton certainly made it look like a smart call by striking out the side in order during the top of the second.

The Blue Hawks and Generals have a good rivalry in the LML, with Roslyn topping Fort for the league title last year, so the Fort Washington players were eager to get a little payback.

“There’s nothing we wanted more than to beat this team and move on to the championship,” Fort’s David Sharp said. “We didn’t beat them at all last year, but they didn’t beat us at all this year. They’re a big rival for us so it’s always exciting to play them.”

Curry threw the second and third innings while Jamie Burkhart pitched the final four innings for Roslyn. The Blue Hawks didn’t score, but they threatened a couple times only to be thwarted by good defense from Fort Washington or a big strikeout from Hamilton, who rung up eight batters.

Ultimately, it was a mix of Fort playing the cleaner game and the lack of a crucial hit that ended Roslyn’s summer.

“I knew we had a tall task ahead, we were missing a couple guys, we’re playing a good team and Ethan Hamilton is a great pitcher,” Roslyn manager Mark Troyer said. “We’ve played against him a lot of times and he’s the kind of guy you might hurt by getting a hit here or there but he bears down on you and is a very mentally tough pitcher.”

The third inning would prove a turning point in the contest.

Roslyn got singles from Cam Marrow and John Lockhart to start the frame and turn the order over, with Burkhart lacing a single to left. Marrow was sent home from third, but Fort’s Ethan Madnick came up with a perfect throw in from the outfield and Griffin Johnson got the tag down at home for the out. A fielder’s choice and groundout left two men on base and a zero on the scoreboard.

Buoyed by the defensive effort, the Fort offense went to work. Sharp, the leadoff man, opened the inning by dropping the first pitch of the frame for a bunt single.

“It was all the little things, everything Coach talks about,” Sharp said. “Once you get the ball rolling, you have to keep going with it and that’s exactly

what we did.

“Coach said something to me before my at-bat, he told me ‘you have the speed, be ready for it and let’s get things rolling.”

Ryan Deal reached on an error before Curran followed with a hit that shot up the middle and deflected off the second base bag for and RBI single plating Sharp. An errant thrown on a steal attempt allowed a second run in and Nate Dennis initiated a rundown that allowed Curran to score for a 3-0 lead.

“I don’t think the ball left the infield that inning and they got three runs out of it,” Troyer said. “That’s what they do, it’s what they coach and they’re able to get guys over and get them in. We needed to play cleaner baseball, especially against a good team.”

Tim Saiber scored the other two runs for Fort Washington, coming in on Deal’s sac fly in the fourth inning and rushing home on a wild pitch in the sixth after reaching on infield single, moving over on a bunt and taking third on a fly ball.

Hamilton worked a clean fourth and stranded two men in the fifth with a strikeout looking to end the frame before he got in another jam in the sixth. A double by Steve Vogl and a two-out walk by Jameson Gionnattasio helped load the bases for Marrow, who had singled and walked already.

The speedy Roslyn outfielder drew a full count

and fouled off a couple pitches before Bonitatibus and Curran went to the mound to talk to Hamilton.

“They just told me to throw strikes and I was going to get out of it,” Hamilton said. “I was leaving things up.”

Hamilton buckled down and delivered, as the umpire gave him the call for a called third strike to end the threat.

“I went fastball,” Hamilton, who hip-bumped Curran on the way off the field, said. “I was pretty pumped up after that one.”

Despite the outcome, Troyer was glad the Blue Hawks had a chance to play this summer, especially the players who will age out of Legion after this season.

“We had an opportunity to play when it looked like that door was closed,” Troyer said. “We got a lot of games in, the guys were able to play baseball when there almost wasn’t any baseball in the spring or summer.”

Fort Washington will face Horsham, a 6-3 winner over Centennial, in a bestof-three championship series beginning Sunday. Fort went 2-1 against the Macs this summer, but the teams match up well.

“It’s so important to each and every one of us, especially the seniors because it’s their last chance,” Sharp, a rising junior at Upper Dublin, said. “We were able to stay focused and ready to play, so it’s good we got to be back out here.”