Horsham finishes strong, tops LOMA for Pendel title
“The past three years, we knew we had a championship team . ... We have a lot of new guys, so it took a little bit of meshing together but as soon as we came together, there was no stopping us.”
– Mark McCouch, Horsham Astros infielder.
WILLOW GROVE » The Horsham Astros made the most of their title shot Monday night.
Needing a single win to claim the best-of-five Pendel League championship series against LOMA, Horsham entered the game with a full roster ready to put the finishing touches on the season. Despite a slow start to the season, the Astros rounded into form at just the right time.
Horsham’s offense clicked top to bottom to back up strong pitching as the Astros topped LOMA 12-2 at Mason’s Mill Park to sweep the series and clinch their first Pendel title since 2017.
“The past three years, we knew we had a championshipcaliber team,” Astros infielder Mark McCouch said. “Last year we struggled with pitching while this year, we had a surplus of arms, a surplus of guys on the bench ready to go. We have a lot of new guys, so it took a little bit of meshing together but as soon as we came together, there was no stopping us.”
Horsham started the season 2-6, reaching the midpoint of the 15-game regular season looking anything but a title contender. But the Astros finished the regular season on a tear, winning their last seven games and taking the No. 3 seed for the playoffs.
Pitching played a key part in the team’s surge and into
the playoffs with a veteran staff aided by some young hurlers. One of those newer arms, Grant Calvarese, got the ball to start Monday night’s clincher.
“Me being a younger guy, I’ve looked up to the older guys and knowing they had big shoes to fill, just tried to live up to what they do, trying to go all seven innings and doing the best I can,” Calvarese, a Spring-Ford graduate and junior at St. Joe’s, said. “I treated it like any other game, didn’t try to amp it up too much and just come out here and throw strikes.”
Calvarese’s night didn’t get off to an ideal start, giving up two singles to start the contest before he gave up a two-run double to LOMA’s Trey Guaglionoma. LOMA, which had won the last two Pendel titles, struggled with offense during the championship series, so the early lead was exactly what it needed.
On Saturday, Horsham won Game 1 with 1 -0 score in 10 innings via a Mike Krusinski walk-off home run before nabbing Game 2 by a 5-1 margin. Calvarese got a strikeout to end the first and his offense went to work getting him a lead.
Horsham plated five runs in the second with Joe Gorla, Matt McCallister and Anthony Kelly loading the bases before Krusinski walked in the first run. A fielder’s choice and two errors accounted for the other four runs as the Astros took a lead they wouldn’t give back.
“We took a step back, took a breath and relaxed,” Krusinski said. “We found the middle of the battle, made plays in the field and everything came together. We started working as a team, it wasn’t an individual thing; everyone was trying to win as a team.”
Calvarese only allowed two further baserunners after the first inning and credited Horsham catcher Mike Kerns, who threw out a runner in the second, for helping him settle in and find the zone. Ben Christian, a Methacton graduate and sophomore at Lehigh, pitched a clean sixth and seventh innings to seal the title.
LOMA, the No. 4 seed, beat the Philly Legends in a one-game playoff before knocking off top-seeded Upper Moreland in three games during the semifinals. Horsham on the other hand, had to go a full five games with No. 2 Northampton before prevailing to set up a rematch of the 2018 final series.
McCouch said having to go the distance in the semifinals helped, as it gave the team more atbats and the pitchers more pressure situations.
“We were all pretty eager to end it tonight,” McCouch said. “We had the full squad here, so we were eager to try and score as many runs as we could.”
Horsham opened the game up in the final two innings. McCouch roped a two-run double as part of a three-run sixth inning while the Astros went on to plate four runs in the top of the seventh including an RBI double from Kelly.
Krusinski, who had a shot to right tracked down by Guaglionona in the fourth, got all of one in the seventh for a two-run blast over the right field fence. The 2019 West Chester graduate said he didn’t so anything different on the home run swing, nor did the Astros deviate from what worked the latter half of the season.
“We finished off strong,” Krusinski said. “The kids going back to school get to go back heads up high and every can carry that feeling of finishing off strong.”