Crusaders rally past Dock
TOWAMENCIN >> Two outs, the bases loaded and Lansdale Catholic trailing by two in the top of the fifth inning, Paul Moretski connected on a ground ball up the middle.
From there transpired a bit of baseball chaos.
Dock Mennonite tried for the force out at second base but Sean Martinez’s foot-first slide was ruled to have beaten the Pioneers’ diving attempt at the bag. That brought in one run and when Matt Costello dashed in to score a second, the throw to home plate ended up going out of play, allowing a third run in.
“It was perfect,” Moretski said. “Perfect situation.”
The final result of all the action in the infield was the visiting Crusaders holding a 9-8 lead and Moretski at third base, where he scored from the following at-bat on Jack Ferko’s RBI single. LC added a run in the top of the sixth as it went on to claim an 11-9 comeback victory in the non-league contest Friday afternoon.
“I was definitely happy about it,” Moretski said. “Broke the game open for us, brought us to the win.”
The teams traded off batting around and scoring six runs in consecutive half-innings — Dock going up 6-0 in the bottom of the second only for the Crusaders to pull even in the top of the third.
“Our coach came in and gave us a really great pep talk — Brian Ferko, he got us up off our feet, he made sure
we weren’t staying down, let us know that we had a lot of ballgame left,” Moretski said. “And we stayed in it and we came back and hit strong.”
The Pioneers (6-1, 6-0 BAL) regained the lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third but Moretski’s fielder’s choice that cleared the bases in the fifth swung the game in favor of LC (7-3, 2-3 PCL), which won its second straight.
“There was a call the shortstop thought was wrong and he reacted to that and all of sudden it’s a panic because the play’s still live,” Dock first-year coach Dan Galluccio said. “And it’s just getting these guys to understand that you finish the play, if there’s a bad call, I’ll take careof it.
“It’s dealing with the young guys. We’ve got a young group, they’re smart, they’re athletic but we get emotional spikes too much. So it’s kind of hard to control the flow of the game when we’re reacting to whatever emotional thing happens.”
Moretski, a Kutztown commit — his older brothers Zach and Gavin both play for the Golden Bears — threw a complete game Thursday in LC’s win over Roman Catholic. Friday, the senior collected three RBIs and scored twice while Jack Ferko also had three RBIs and finished 2-for-5 with a double and a run scored.
Costello went 2-for-3 with two runs scored, Andrew Horan was 2-for-4 and Martinez scored twice for the Crusaders.
“Coming into today we were just trying to swing the bats, get loose,” Moretski said. “It was kind of like a practice game for us, get ready for Monday, we play St. Joe’s Prep.”
Pioneers leadoff hitter Nate Lapp was 3-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored, Carter Jagiela went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run while JD Bennett was 2-for-4 with two runs scored. The loss was the first time this season Dock did not finish with double-digits runs as it had outscored its first six opponents 103-10.
“Unfortunately in our league whenever we put up runs it’s generally not going to be answered so far — that was our first real baseball game to be honest with you,” Galluccio said. “So all-in-all we’re in our first boxing match I guess you could say — we’re 0-1, you know what I mean and it’s just you live and learn and you get better and get ready for the next one.”
Both teams next play Monday — LC hosting the Prep at 4 p.m. while Dock is home against Holy Ghost Prep at 3:45 p.m.
Ethan Mellinger earned the win for the Crusaders, pitching a scoreless fourth. He gave up two hits, walked one and struck out one. Pilewski threw the next three innings to pick up the save, allowing one run — unearned — on three hits. He had one walk and one strikeout.