It was a beautiful day for baseball — or so it seemed.

When Bryce Mengel took the mound for the Knights (1-2, 1-1) in the top of the first, it was a gorgeous day — the sun was shining and a cool yet comfortable breeze had it feeling like Spring.

But then, after a couple innings, the sun vanished and was immediately replaced with a miserable wind. What appeared to be a beautiful day for baseball turned into just another one of Mother Nature’s cruel illusions.

Mengel’s performance was just the opposite.

After the first batter of the game lined a single up the middle, Mengel didn’t make things any better when he fumbled the ball on a bunt by Central Bucks South’s center fielder Steve Veal. Two consecutive bloop singles gave the Titans a 1-0 lead before Mengel could even record an out. He responded with a much-needed strikeout — it didn’t even have to be a strikeout, he just needed an out — and looked as if he was starting to settle down, only to allow a two-run double to the very next batter.

Mengel would eventually work his way out of trouble, fortunate to only be down by three runs.

“I thought in the first inning Bryce was just kind of nitpicking a bit instead of really pitching to contact,” said head coach Kevin Manero. “Instead of starting from the middle of the plate and working out, I thought he was trying to start from the outer part of the plate and work into the middle, and he ended up with a small strike zone and started falling behind a little bit.”

The Knights were retired fairly quickly in the bottom half of the inning, but clearly that was all the time Mengel needed to find his mojo.

From there on out, Mengel’s performance was, like the weather during the first inning, beautiful. He was nearly untouchable, surrendering just three hits — one was an infield single that looked as if it could have gone either way — and punching out five in as many innings. His change-up had the Titans hitters off balance and, at times, looking silly.

“The biggest difference after [the first inning] was he wasn’t pitching behind, and he had all three pitches at all different points of the count, and the result was clear, as he certainly got better as the game went on,” said Manero.

While the first inning certainly didn’t go the way he would have liked it to go, Mengel did his part by keeping the score where it was and giving the offense a chance — make that several chances — to get back into the game and even take the lead.

“We did have opportunities early, and I thought that, on a couple occasions, we kind of got ourselves out by going up out of the strike zone a little bit,” said Manero.

The Knights stranded eleven men on base, went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, and left the bases loaded in each of the last two innings. That’s hardly the recipe for success.

North Penn saw its first big scoring opportunity in the third inning with runners on second and third and two outs and its clean-up hitter, Eric Albaugh, at the dish. After working the count to full, Albaugh took a healthy hack but came up empty on a high heater from South’s ace Ricky Dennis.

“He’s a good pitcher, and he bared down, and he was ahead a lot, so it’s difficult to put real aggressive swings on the ball when you’re behind all the time,” said Manero.

The team’s lone run came in the 6th inning when Ryan Erskine scored on Zillur Rahim’s fielder’s choice. With Brady West on third and Rahim on first, Nick Yacopino drew a walk to load the bases. The Knights failed to capitalize, as Chris Kersey hit a hard chopper back to the pitcher, ending the threat.

Despite the loss, the Knights have plenty of things to feel good about. The offense, while it wasn’t as prevalent in clutch situations, was able to get men on base and put them in those clutch situations, and the pitching was phenomenal — with an exception to the first inning.

Mengel, perhaps a little antsy for his first start of the season, is just happy it’s out of the way.

“It feels good. I don’t have to worry about it again, and now I can just go out there and pitch,” said Mengel.

Scoring Summary:

CB South, 1st: B. Moller singled to left, J. Mullin scored, S. Veal to third, W. Foy to second (CB 1, NP 0)

CB South, 1st: T. Shields double to right, S. Veal and W. Foy scored, B. Moller to third (CB 3, NP 0)

NP, 6th: Z. Rahim grounded into fielder’s choice to second baseman, R. Erskine scored (CB 3, NP 1)

Box Score: