MAY 25
CATHOLIC LEAGUE SEMIFINAL
La Salle 10, Carroll 0 (5 inn.)
La Salle continued its march though the
Philadelphia Catholic playoffs on Friday with a 10-0 win in five innings
against Archbishop Carroll in the semifinals at Philadelphia University.
La Salle starter Dom Cuoci went all five innings, surrendering
just four hits. Cuoci admittedly didn’t have his best stuff in this
particular outing, but grinded and worked through several jams to keep
Carroll scoreless.
“I had control of my fastball today, and I kept going with that, but I
wasn’t always able to throw the curve where I wanted. But my coaches just
told me to stick with it and keep throwing it, and it’ll come,” Cuoci said.
And stick with it he did as he fanned five Carroll hitters, a few of
which were on curveballs in the dirt.
In the fourth inning with the Explorers protecting a 4-0 lead, Justin
Roman hit a triple off to lead off for Carroll. With no outs in the
inning, Cuoci forced a whiff on a suicide squeeze attempt that ran Roman
into an out at home. This play was one of three in the game in which
Carroll lost a runner on the bases.
“A game like this where it didn’t always come easy shows how hard you
have to work to be the best, and we’re excited to get the win and move on to
the final,” Cuoci said.
Leading 9-0 entering the bottom of the 5th, Philadelphia Catholic League
Red MVP Corey Baiada singled home Marcus Sistrun to assure La
Salle the 10-run lead and the win on the mercy rule.
“I went up there looking for an outside pitch. The bench and the coaches
were saying that the pitch would be coming outside because [Eichacker] had
been throwing outside all day. When it came I just went with the pitch and
knocked [Sistrun] in.”
La Salle now moves on to play Neumann-Goretti on Tuesday at Widener
University in a rematch of the 2011 PCL semifinal, which Neumann-Goretti won
18-13 in a wild game.
The La Salle players didn’t know who they would be playing next after the
victory over Carroll because Neumann had not beaten Monsignor Bonner yet,
but Baiada said, “Whoever we face, we’ll be ready, and we’ll be preparing
extra hard in practice to be our best on Tuesday.”
MAY 22
CATHOLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL
La Salle 6, SJ Prep 0
The top seeded and currently undefeated La Salle Explorers
cruised through the team’s second round matchup against St. Joseph’s Prep
6-0 behind the complete game 1-hit effort of Lehigh-bound senior Kevin
Long.
Long’s one allowed hit was a 50 foot swinging bunt off the bat of
Jawan McAllister in the 4th inning that hugged the 3rd base line and
came to rest on the edge of the grass, and McAllister’s speed allowed him to
reach first without a throw. Long faced only 2 more batters than the
minimum, striking out five batters in seven innings, including two
strikeouts against Florida-bound and 3-hole hitter Skyler Mornhinweg.
“I was just feeling really good. All my pitches were working for me,
especially my slider. I had a lot of control and was able to get ahead of
guys, and my defense played great behind me,” Long said.
Philadelphia Catholic League co-MVP Corey Baiada added 2 RBIs for
the Explorers, and his double in the sixth inning helped to extend the La
Salle lead to 3-0 and ignited the four run sixth for the Explorers.
Colin Pyne put away the game for La Salle in the sixth with a two
run double to give the Explorers a 5-0 lead, then stole third and scored on
a wild pitch to extend the lead to six runs.
Long then closed the seventh inning with two groundouts and a strikeout
to assure the Explorers a date with Archbishop Carroll on Friday afternoon
at Philadelphia University in the PCL Semifinals.
“Carroll’s a great team this year. They’ve had a lot of success this
year, so we’ll have to come out and play our best game against them to give
us a chance to move on to the PCL Final,” Long said.
Prep starter Tom Mullin went 5+ innings and kept the explosive La
Salle offense at bay for much of the game. Mullin allowed four runs, only
two of which were earned, to a La Salle team that plated 22 runs in its
previous two games.
“Tom definitely put some pressure on me, throwing a shutout through 3
innings. Whenever it’s a tie game, there’s a bit more pressure, so he did a
great job and kept us on our toes for the whole game,” Long said.
La Salle’s next opponent, Archbishop Carroll, went 8-2 in the Blue
Division this year and is the second seed in that division. Carroll
struggled to get by Lansdale Catholic in its second round game, and escaped
with a 4-3 victory in a game that was played at Archbishop Wood.
“We’re definitely excited to go
out to Philadelphia University on Friday to play a tough battle against a
really good team. It’ll be a fun matchup for sure,” Long concluded.
CATHOLIC LEAGUE PLAYOFF
PREVIEW
The craziness has begun as Monday marks the beginning of the
Philadelphia Catholic League Playoffs. Four games being played concurrently
amongst the third to sixth seeds in both the Red and Blue Divisions will
lead into four Tuesday games at the home fields of the top two teams in each
division, who all received byes.
The action begins Monday at Lansdale Catholic as the 3rd seeded Crusaders
welcome 6th seeded Bishop McDevitt to their home field. The Crusaders have
depth in the pitching department with Jon Motts and Matt Kress, both of whom
earned Second Team All-Catholic Honors, and with a win would face Archbishop
Carroll in the second round.
Fifth seeded Conwell-Egan will travel to 4th seeded Archbishop Wood today
seeking to earn a second round game, likely against reigning Catholic League
Champion Neumann-Goretti. Archbishop Wood is coming off a 13-6 thumping of
Archbishop Carroll, which was highlighted by six Wood home runs including
two by First Team All-Catholic Honoree Tim Greenfield. In addition,
Kevin Sullivan added a Grand Slam in the win. If there is a weakness
for Archbishop Wood, it would be in the pitching department, but the entire
Vikings team has been improving and playing good baseball in recent weeks.
In the Red Division, 6th seeded St. Joseph’s Prep will travel to 3rd
seeded Cardinal O’Hara for a chance to move on and play La Salle on
Tuesday. With a win for O’Hara, however, the Lions will move on to play 2nd
seeded Monsignor Bonner in the second round based on re-seeding. St.
Joseph’s is led by University of Florida football commit Skyler
Mornhinweg, who bats in the heart of the Prep lineup and was a First
Team All-Catholic Honoree. Junior pitcher Tom Mullin was Second Team
All-Catholic, and he looks to push the Prep deep into the Catholic League
playoffs from the 6 seed. For Cardinal O’Hara, the pitching staff is led by
Mark Onimus and Nick Donovan, and these two pitchers will try
to lead the Lions past St. Joseph’s and to a matchup against Monsignor
Bonner on Tuesday.
Fourth seeded Archbishop Ryan will host 5th seeded Father Judge on
Tuesday, and depending upon the winner of the Prep and O’Hara, the winner
could face either 2nd seeded Monsignor Bonner or top-seeded and currently
undefeated La Salle. Father Judge has been scrambling in the pitching
department recently and is coming off a sweep at the hands of La Salle.
Archbishop Ryan also fell in a sweep the week before at the hands of La
Salle and then closed the regular season with two consecutive losses to
Cardinal O’Hara. This matchup will be one between two struggling teams
looking to change their luck and will be one of the most interesting games
of the day.
Stay tuned for more previews and game reports throughout the High School
Playoff season!
