TOWAMENCIN- After they blew out Quakertown 11-1 last Thursday, Bryce Mengel made sure the Knights (3-3, 3-2) stayed on track with a big performance of his own.

Mengel tossed a complete-game five-hitter and notched his first victory of the 2013 campaign, as the Knights defeated Hatboro-Horsham, 2-1, in a Suburban One Continental Conference matchup.

“I thought it was a great game,” catcher Eddie Posavec said. “Bryce pitched really well, our defense played well behind him, and our offense produced just enough to get the win.”

Mengel allowed one unearned run on five hits, struck out three, and walked none, as he guided the Knights back to .500 at 3-3.

In the second inning, with the Knights leading 1-0, Mengel got himself into some trouble when he threw the ball away on a pickoff attempt to first base, allowing the runner to advance to third. After the next batter popped up a bunt attempt, the Hatters’ catcher Eric Thomas drove the first pitch he saw into right field to tie the game at one.

“I kinda messed up mentally on the throw, but you gotta get past that,” Mengel said.

And he did.

After the throwing error, Mengel allowed just three men to reach base the rest of the game.

“He made them put the ball in play. Bryce is not necessarily going to strike out a lot of guys all the time, but if you get the ball in play and we can make basic plays in the infield, we’ll be in good shape,” said head coach Kevin Manero. “We don’t need guys to be outstanding; we just need them to make the routine plays. As long as our pitchers can trust that they will, we’ll be in good shape.”

The Knights’ offense wasn’t nearly as vibrant as it was in the team’s last game against Quakertown, and Manero picked up on that pretty quickly.

“It looked after the first couple innings that runs might be a little tough to come by, but I thought that we could make some things happen on the bases today, so we were just trying to get some base runners on early in the inning and try to make something happen,” Manero said. “We need to do a little better job with our execution, though.”

Chris Kersey got things started right off the bat with a lead-off double in the bottom of the first. Kersey advanced to third on a beautiful bunt single by Brad Bertucci and then scored on Posavec’s base hit, giving the Knights an early one-run advantage.

After a four-hit first inning, the Knights mustered just one hit over the next four innings. Zach Pendergast relieved starter Ryan Kelly prior to the sixth inning. Kelly allowed five hits, struck out four, walked one and threw just 70 pitches in the process.

Pendergast entered the game with the score knotted at 1-1. Posavec laced Pendergast’s first pitch into right field for his second hit of the game, providing the Knights with a lead-off base runner. Eric Albaugh — the clean-up hitter — sacrificed Posavec up to second. With Brady West at the plate, Posavec made his way to third on a wild pitch. The Knights finally got that big hit they desperately needed. Down in the count, 1-2, West fought off three tough pitches before lining the ball back up the middle, driving in Posavec and giving North Penn a 2-1 lead heading into the top of the seventh.

With 84 pitches through six innings, Mengel trotted back out to the mound eager to finish things off. The Knights’ senior needed just ten pitches to get through the seventh, as he set down the Hatters in order.

“The first and the last inning, I thought we did a great job offensively. We got guys on base early, we did good things to get them into scoring position, and we cashed in when we needed to,” Manero said. “Some of the middle innings, we had opportunities with base runners and we didn’t do a great job on the bases with our execution. And that was the difference in the game.”

The Knights will look to extend their modest two-game winning streak Wednesday at Central Bucks West.

Scoring Summary

NP, 1st: E Posavec singled to right, C Kersey scored (1-0)

HH, 2nd: E Thomas singled to right, E Lane scored (1-1)

NP, 6th: B West singled to center, E Posavec scored (2-1)

Box Score