TOWAMENCIN – The top of the order for the North Penn Knights (8-0; 3-0) squared the ball up all day and Danny Kirwin notched his third win as the Knights topped Council Rock South’s Golden Hawks (4-3) on Tuesday afternoon by a final of 7-1.

“Our hitting started off good in the first inning when we scored the first two runs. It gets contagious when the lead off guy gets on and then it goes on from there. When you see guys hitting the ball hard, it’s all contagious,” said senior DH Dan Drop.

The Knights were able to fight off some early Hawk baserunners and keep them from scoring in the top of the 1st inning. Tyler Siddal, started off the bottom of the 1st strong with a triple. Ryan Bealer followed with a hard ground ball that snuck down the left field line , and after Bealer stole second base, Zack Miles knocked him in and the Knights were off to a quick 2-0 advantage.

North Penn would go on to tack on a couple more runs in the third inning, while Kirwin kept the Hawks off the board.

“Putting up 7 runs in 7 innings, we try to put a run an inning, but if we get a little extra in some innings our pitcher should be able to keep them within 7 runs,” said Drop.

By the end of the 4th inning the Knights were able to reach their 7 runs. Matt Marino singled to start off the inning., Connor Mikulski bunted him over, and a Siddal double drove home Robbie Weiss, a courtesy runner for Marino. Bealer’s single to get Siddal to 3rd, resulted in another run when Siddal scored on a wild pitch. After Miles singled to centerfield, Bealer ran home to end the inning up 7-0.

“I thought the hits tacked on a couple of runs we needed and put the game to bed, so that the other team wasn’t able to come back. I just tried to do my job and score the runs. I always work on keeping my hands back and driving the ball up the middle, even though it doesn’t always turn out that way in the game, it results in making contact and producing hits,” said Bealer.

“We played a good game. We scored first and kept tacking runs on and that’s something we want to do offensively. We made a couple mistakes early in the game, but I thought our defense got a lot better as the game went on. Danny Kirwin did not have his best stuff today, but he still had a zero on the board when he came out the game, which is very big. This is a good conference win for us and we are doing a lot of good things. We just need to keep putting our foot on the pedal and keep getting better everyday,” said Head Coach Kevin Manero.

With 7 runs scored on the previous pitcher, Zach Mayer, Matt O’Neill went in to pitch for the Hawks at the top of the 5th. Kirwin walked a player at the beginning of the 6th, but with a double play from Miles to O’Donnell to Stouffer, the Hawks were quickly shut down once again. During the 7th inning the Hawks were finally able to put one run on the board. Eric Jeronis hit a double, and Kim hit a single, getting Jeronis to 3rd. Finally, Obarowsky’s single, was enough to get Jeronis home to put a run on the board, ending the game 7-1.

“We are making a couple mistakes here and there that we cannot make in closer games. Fortunately, right now we are scoring some runs so we can overlook a couple mistakes, but we have to clean things up a little defensively. We are playing good baseball against good teams, and we’re going to face much better pitching as the season continues to go on. We just have to continue to get better at the plate and keep working on hitting the ball in the middle of the field, and we will be in good shape,” said Manero.

The Knights host Souderton at 3:45pm on Thursday. NP senior Ben Hartranft will throw out the first pitch and sing the National Anthem for autism awareness day at NPHS