Knights offense silenced by Taylor in loss
3B Connor Ertel dives back in to first as P Luke Taylor attempts a pickoff.
TOWAMENCIN- In a crosstown rivalry game, the pitchers took center stage in a great duel. Lefty Joe Valenti and righty Luke Taylor both pitched well as they combined to only give up 8 hits.
The North Penn Knights (5-5) lost to the Souderton Indians (9-2) 2-0 on a sunny Tuesday afternoon at North Penn High School.
The first run of the game didn’t come in until the top of the third inning when 3B Jacob Horton hit an RBI single. Taylor started off hot for the Indians, as he started the game with 3 perfect innings until C Jake Drelick got the first hit for the Knights to leadoff the 4th.
Valenti kept dealing throughout the game for the Knights. He gave up 2 runs in 7 innings of work allowing 6 hits and 1 walk while striking out 4. The other run for the Indians came in the top of the 7th when Moses Clemens came in to score off a passed ball.
“I had a few bad pitches that led to some hits but most of my pitches were working and it kept them off balance,” Valenti said.
However, Taylor was able to outduel Valenti in this game. Taylor recorded the complete game shutout as he allowed 2 hits and no walks while striking out 6.
“He threw a lot of big strikes when he had to. Even a couple times when he fell behind 3-0, he came back and threw strikes and he didn’t walk people,” Head Coach Kevin Manero said.
The Knights will be back in action Thursday on the road at Pennsbury for a date with the Falcons.
“You have to have short-term memory, like look we’ve won three out of four. Now we dug a hole, so three out of four is really good most of the time and right now we would like to have four out of four but we gotta comeback and rebound with a win on Thursday. We can go out there and steal a win at Pennsbury Thursday and we’re right back in good shape and where we want to be. But like I said it’s one at a time and we have to react,” Coach Manero said.
