Fast start sparks Montgomery

NORTH WALES » Now more than ever, Montgomery wants to make every inning count.

“Most of these guys, we’ve been playing together since Little League. And for a lot of us, it’s our last year, so it’s kind of one last dance,” said first baseman Colin McGuire, a rising senior at North Penn High. “We really wanna do our best to go out with a bang.”

McGuire provided a couple of them, contributing a pair of hits, driving in a run and scoring twice to help lead Montgomery to a 10-6 win over Nor-Gwyn Wednesday night at Windlestrae Park.

“We came in confident we could win and went at them,” McGuire said.

Montgomery, pushing for the playoffs, raised its record to 6-8 with a home game against Fort Washington coming up on Sunday at 7 p.m. Nor-Gwyn (2-10) is in action Friday night at home against Plymouth-Whitemarsh. BIG START » Brandon Thomson reached on an error and Max Alexander singled to immediately give Montgomery two runners on in the first.

A ground ball by Owen Doran scored one run, and Steven Corrado’s double moments later scored another.

The lead grew to 3-0 when Corrado raced home on an error.

Montgomery added three more in the second against Hawk starter Gavin Ridge.

Collecting three hits and taking advantage of a third Nor-Gwyn error, Montgomery built its lead to 6-0 on an RBI single by Earl Kelly, a wild pitch and a sac fly by Doran.

McGuire, Kelly and Alexander all had hits in the inning for Montgomery.

Nor-Gwyn got on the board in the third, when Ryan Sullivan singled and came in to score on a double steal, making it 6-1.

BACK COME THE HAWKS » Nor-Gwyn came to life in the fifth, keyed by back-to-back, RBI doubles by Ryan Sullivan and John Milligan. Sullivan was in the midst of a sensational night, going 4-for-4 with two doubles and three runs scored. Also impressive was Milligan, who was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, a run and three RBI.

Wagner Hayden’s sac fly sliced the margin down to 6-4.

“We kind of fell off there in the middle but we came right back at them when it got close,” McGuire said.

Sean Smith’s RBI double widened the gap to 7-4 in the fifth, but then the Hawks got to within 7-6 on Milligan’s two-RBI double.

Doran dug deep for Montgomery, getting Ben Criger to fly out to center for the final out. Doran threw six innings in a winning effort for Montgomery. His finest moment came in the fourth, when he struck out Alex Smith to get out of a bases-loaded jam.

Montgomery bats provided the finishing touches in the top of the sixth.

McGuire drove in a run with an infield single, another run came in on an error, and Matt Currado knocked one in to make it a 10-6 advantage. The game was then called at 7:45, due to another game scheduled to start soon after.

“Hopefully we can carry this momentum on to the next few games,” McGuire said.