NORTH WALES – North Penn Baseball is all about community.
Before the Knights (15-5; 10-5 SOL) lost their final regular season battle to the Pennridge Rams (11-9; 6-9 SOL) by a single run Monday night, they celebrated their seniors and the next generation of baseball players under the gleaming lights of Hostelley Field.
Seniors were escorted onto the diamond by their families and the teacher they were most inspired by from their career at North Penn. Then, they invited little leaguers from around the area to warm up with the team before the first pitch.
Senior LHP Trevor Lugara controlled the entirety of the matchup on the mound. Going into the night, he was 5-0 in SOL matchups and had 1 earned run in his 35 inning pitched this season. Lugara held true, allowing a mere 4 hits on the night against the Rams.
With palpable tension and excitement permeating the air, Lugara managed to make it out of the top of the first only allowing a double from the 1st batter of the night, Tom Ginetti.
North Penn’s first baseman Mason Coyne was walked as the 3rd batter of the evening for the Knights, and although there was potential after stealing second from a pitching error, Coyne ran into a tag out at third, closing the first inning without a score.
In the top of the second, Pennridge’s Brayden Robinson hit a single and two batters later, Ryder Olson knocked the ball towards third baseman, Luke Chartrand, who’s rare error resulted in the only run of the game.
Both teams were unable to make anything happen during their next time at the plate, but in the bottom of the second, the Knights began to show some signs of life. Luke Chartrand slipped the ball in the gap between 2nd and 3rd for a single, putting him on base. Brace watched two pitches and then grounded a ball towards 1st, getting him on base, but hitting Chartrand running in fair territory resulting in the second out of the inning. Jones was next up, but was retired leaving the Knights down 1-0.
Lugara commenced the top of the fourth by walking Pennridge’s leadoff batter, Noah Keeting, then the Knights’ minute errors began to catch up to them. Brayden Robinson hit a grounder towards second baseman Logan Waynick, who’s errors on a bad hop resulted in a man on first and second. The next batter bunted the first pitch straight to Lugara who palliated Waynick error, throwing out Keeting attempting to advance to 3rd. With a man on first and second once again, Pennridge’s Ryer Olson fouled a ball down the first baseline, where right fielder Jerimiah Criger got to it but was ultimately called with a catch and carry advancing all base runners up a base. The Knights made it out of the inning unscathed as Lugara struck out Croyle for the 3rd out.
With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, the North Penn student section could’ve been heard from Montgomery Mall. The chaos proved to work as it frazzled the Pennridge pitcher who called a meeting, but one pitch later struck out batter Mason Coyne to close out the fifth, Knights still trailing by a run.
The Rams remained quiet for the final two innings, and although the Knights tried to rally, they couldn’t get the bats swinging enough for a comeback.
“It was only one run. One run is very little. We have certainly enough people in our lineup that we can put together some base runners and get some momentum going. We had men on base in multiple innings and men in scoring position but we just couldn’t seem to come up with contact in the right spot,” North Penn baseball head coach, Kevin Manero stated.
As of right now the SOL Conference Champion North Penn Knights are ranked 7th, but finalized rankings and schedules for the District Tournament won’t be released until after the seeding meeting on Thursday May, 15th.
“We have to hit better. We only scored 4 runs in the whole series and that’s not going to win playoff games. We have to be more aggressive early in the count, we have to be better with our timing in the batter’s box,” Manero concluded.
