Pennsbury & Neshaminy advanced to the PIAA 6A elite eight with wins in Monday’s opening round of states. Pennsbury/Ephrata photos provided courtesy of Darryl Rule of J&D Photography.
PIAA 6A State Tournament opening round
#1-1 Pennsbury 6, #3-4 Ephrata 1
Henry Garlits and Nolan Kolanko bat seventh and eighth in a potent Falcons’ batting order. Their back-to-back, two-out RBI doubles in the fourth inning broke a scoreless tie and ignited a three-run inning that was the difference in the game.
“Honestly, having guys at the bottom of the lineup who can produce is huge,” Garlits said. “I knew
the pitcher we were facing today was a solid guy (Millersville commit Camryn Simes), and I knew we didn’t want to leave a guy stranded on second, so I made sure with a 2-0 count to get in there and step up and look for that fastball and drive it.”
Those three runs were more than enough for Keller Bradley, who gave the Falcons six strong innings in a winning effort. He fanned nine and allowed just three hits. Ephrata’s lone run was unearned.
“It was a great game – a 6-1 win over a tough team,” said Pennsbury senior Carlton Crane, who had a pair of hits out of the leadoff spot. “Their pitcher was really good, but we just had to trust our lineup to hit like we did all year.
“Keller was great today. He struggled his last game against our rival, Neshaminy, which is understandable. That’s a tough game to pitch, especially because a lot of those kids have seen him all four years of high school, and they know what to expect. I was glad to see he came back today and got a huge win for us.
“It’s been exciting the last couple of games. Team chemistry is really high. Everyone’s enjoying being there, and when we have practice, everyone wants to be thee. You can just see the attitude of a couple of guys is infectious with everyone else.”
The Falcons added a pair of runs in the fifth inning. Brendan Zuckerman drew a leadoff walk, and with one out, Michael Sogness doubled to left field. Both runners scored on a passed ball, and the Falcons led 5-0.
Ephrata plated an unearned run in the sixth, but the Falcons got that back in the bottom of the inning. Crane hit a one-out double to left field, and he scored when Zuckerman lined a two-out
double to center for the 6-1 final.
“That kid today was letting up an average of 1.3 runs a game, so it was huge to get those runs against him,” Crane said of Simes. “Second time through the order, we started seeing (the ball) better, and we got a couple of hits.”
Ephrata loaded the bases in the seventh off Owen Hawkes, who stranded the three runners with three strikeouts to close out the game.
The Falcons held an 8-6 edge with Crane, the lone Falcon with multiple hits, collecting two – including a double – out of the leadoff spot.
“My mentality to lead off the games – I want to see a lot of pitches and get on base for our guys, “ Crane said. “Me and Pierce Perry out of the two hole – we’re both been getting on base for our three and four hitters, Brendan Zuckerman and Tyler Lee.
“They hit us in almost every single time we’re on base, so just getting on base for those guys is huge. We trust them. We know if we get on base that we’re going to score one or two runs.”
Monday’s win was the seventh in a row for the Falcons, who are now in the elite eight of Class 6A.
“Honestly, this is most fun season of any sport I’ve played,” Garlits said. “Whether it’s football, wrestling or baseball, this is the most fun I’ve had. There hasn’t been a practice that I haven’t wanted to go to, there hasn’t been a game that I haven’t enjoyed.
“No matter the outcome, no matter what happens – at this point in the season, I just hope we keep winning because I just don’t want to be done playing with these guys. We’ve built a brotherhood. We’re always over at each other’s houses. If one guy’s struggling, we pick each other up. It’s been a dream season. You can’t ask for anything better than this.”
By the numbers: Keller Bradley (W) (6.0 IP, 3H 1R, 0ER, 3BB, 9K) Owen Hawkes (1.0 IP, 3H, 0R, 0BB, 3K)
Carlton Crane (2-for-4, 2B, 1RBI, 1R), Henry Garlits (-for-2, 2B, 1RBI, 1R), Nolan Kolanko (1-for-2, 2B, 1RBI, 1R), Brendan Zuckerman (1-for-3, 2B, 1RBI, 1R), Michael Sogness (1-for-2, 2B, 1R)
Key inning: Bottom of fourth – Tyler Lee led off the inning with a single and was replaced by courtesy runner Connor Zuczek, who advanced to second on Danny Seidler’s sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Henry Garlits lined a double to center that plated Zuczek with the game’s first run. Nolan Kolanko followed with an RBI double to left field, Finn Burke was hit by a pitch, and Carlton Crane singled home a run that put the Falcons on top 3-0.
Pennsbury coach Joe Pesci:
--The game: “In the second inning, I left a run out there. Henry Garlits hit a ground ball, and they threw it away. Danny Seidler was on first, and I had him rounding third base, and I hesitated because the ball was down the line against the fence. I thought the right fielder was coming up with it because the first baseman slipped. I should have sent Danny right away, so after that inning, I told the kids, ‘Look, I messed up. I need you guys to pick me up,’ and they went and scored three runs, and the big one was with two outs.
“Henry gets a two-out double, and then (Nolan) Kolanko comes up with one. Finn Burke gets hit by a pitch, and Carlton (Crane) comes up with a single. With two outs, we just kind of took the wind out of them.
“We ran the bases well, scored two on a passed ball. They scored a run on a wild pitch, which was frustrating, but we came out and we scored right away.
“They only scored 129 runs in the season before this game, but they’d only given up 66, so we knew they pitched and defended, but they didn’t hit. If they were behind, they weren’t really going to score a lot, so once we got a lead, we felt really comfortable. We always run the bases hard and aggressive. We have great two-out, two-strike hits. I don’t want to say we manufactures runs – we bunted here and there. Beyond that, Pierce Perry hit two balls to center field that were caught,
Nolan Kolanko hit a missle to center field that was caught. We were on the kid.
“We struck out seven times, but I was really proud of the way we hit. You’re not always going to score 10 runs, so the fact that they were out there battling and putting the ball in play and making some things happen – you’ve got to win in different ways in the playoffs, so I was happy we were able to get six. It was a hard-fought six.”
--Bradley steps up: “He gave us six innings and had nine strikeouts. He got out of a bunch of moments, and they had an unearned run on him. For him to come out and give us that performance - last year, he was incredible against Cedar Cliff and it was a 1-0 game. We just gave him no run support. He had a rough outing against Neshaminy in districts, and we picked him up, so for him to come out and give us that was big.
“Their pitcher was really good. We had a scout report on him, and he was everything they said he was going to be. For it to go three scoreless innings with Keller keeping us in it and getting out of things with some double play balls here and there – just to give us time to get a read on this kid. The second time through the lineup, we jumped on him, so that was great.
“Keller with nine strikeouts is less of the story – it’s more about him just getting out of jams and getting back to who he is as a pitcher.”
Up next: Pennsbury will face District 2 champion Hazleton, which notched a 5-1 win over #3-3 Hempfield.
Ephrata 000 001 0 1-6-2
Pennsbury 000 321 0 6-8-0
#1-4 Neshaminy 4, #11-1 William Allen 2
On a day when hits were a rare commodity for both sides, it was Neshaminy capitalizing on its opportunities while Matt Gryn was turning in a superb complete game outing on the mound.
“Every year we discuss ways we can win baseball games when the offense isn’t on,” Neshaminy coach Dan Toner said. “Pitching is the most important part of the game in high school baseball, then defense, then base running. We look at hitting as a bonus.
“In today’s game, we were fantastic at the first three. Matt Gryn was absolutely lights-out on the mound. They got to him early - he was just leaving his pitches up in the zone. He quickly made the adjustment and dominated the rest of the game. Our defense was fantastic behind him as well.”
Gryn allowed only three hits while walking one. He faced just 24 batters.
“We had a game plan, so all I needed to do was stick to that game plan,” Gryn said. “I knew I would be fine if I stuck to the game plan.
“We’ve played great team baseball throughout the whole year, so I knew we were going to be able to get it done today.”
The Canaries put a pair of runs on the board in the first inning, The Redskins evened the score in the third inning. Nick Sassano was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, and Dylan Cloud was safe when his sacrifice bunt was misplayed. An error on Mike Sassano’s ground ball to short plated Neshaminy’s first run, and the second run also scored on a miscue, evening the score 2-2.
“Since our hitting wasn’t there today, we had to put pressure on them when we got on base,” Toner said. “We used our entire base running arsenal, and it allowed us to get the runs we needed.”
The Redskins won it with a pair of runs in a fourth inning that included only one hit – an RBI single by Mike Sassano.
Gryn needed just 87 pitches in the complete game win – 55 of them were strikes.
“For me, I knew it was going to be with the off-speed pitches,” Gryn said. “Mostly just the curveballs and sliders, getting them to pop it up or roll it over.
“They scored two runs in the first inning. I just knew I had to stay calm. It helped me pitch better the rest of the game. I had that chip on my shoulder. I knew I needed higher focus than I had in the first inning.
“It’s always the goal to go the whole game, but it’s just great to be able to save our pitchers for whatever the next game is.”
Monday’s win over the District 11 champions vaulted the Redskins into the second round where they will face District 12 champion La Salle.
“In the state tournament, it doesn’t matter how you get the win, as long as you live to play another day,” Toner said. “We are excited to get back to work and prepare for our next game.”
By the numbers: Neshaminy: Matt Gryn (W) (7.0 IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 2K)
Mike Sassano (2-for-4, 1RBI)
Key inning: Top of fourth: Neshaminy broke a 2-2 tie with two runs in the fourth inning. Noah Wallace drew a leadoff walk, and with one out, Sam Hitchen was safe on an error, putting Redskin runners on the corners. A run scored on Nick Sassano’s groundout, and after Dylan Cloud was hit by a pitch, Mike Sassano singled home a run that put the ‘Skins on top 4-2.
Up next: Neshaminy will face District 12 champion La Salle in a second round game Thursday.
Neshaminy 002 200 0 4-4-0
William Allen 200 000 0 2-3-5
#12-1 La Salle 11, #1-3 Pennridge 1 (5 innings)
One inning, one explosive inning was all it took to turn a tightly contested game into a rout for the Explorers, who erupted for 10 runs in the fourth inning, bringing Monday’s game to an early end.
Pennridge managed just two hits – singles by Ascher Hamburg and Brayden Robinson - off La Salle’s Cooper Weiss, who walked three and struck out three in five innings.
Pennridge closed out its successful season with a 19-7 record and the SOL Colonial Division title.
Pennridge 000 00 0-2-3
La Salle 001 (10)x 11-9-1
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