WALLINGFORD, PA — Last season, Lower Merion walked off Strath Haven in extras in their lone matchup of the year. One year later, the script was flipped.
This time the Panthers emerged victorious, with Quinn Kell hitting a walk-off single in the bottom of the eighth to secure a 3-2 win. While Kell will rightfully get a lot of the attention, they wouldn’t have even gotten there if it wasn’t for a two-out, two-strike single by Alex Selverian in the seventh to tie it.
The game was scoreless for the first six innings as we went into the final frame tied up at 0-0. Lower Merion starter Justin Heck was perfect into the fifth inning before Alex Selverian hit his first single of the day. Strath Haven’s Jasper Hals has been excellent so far this season and stepped up in a big way following the injury to ace Luke D’Ancona with five shutout innings today.
While there were no runs scored in the first six innings, the last two innings were a different story, with runs coming in each of the last four half-innings.
Caden Shuster came in relief for Strath Haven in the top of the sixth and retired the first five hitters that he faced. The sixth hitter, Gus Wright, launched a go-ahead solo homer with two outs in the seventh to put Lower Merion ahead 1-0 with starter Justin Heck still cruising.
For Strath Haven, Matt Caputo singled to lead off the bottom of the seventh. After a sac bunt from Quinn Kell to move pinch-runner Preston Jensen to second, Will Taylor struck out to put Lower Merion one win away from a huge road win against the two-time defending Central League Champions.
Alex Selverian wanted no part of that.
Even after going down 0-2 in the count, Selverian battled. He got it all the way back to 3-2. On the eighth pitch, he stroked a single up the middle to tie this game up at 1-1. That was one of the most clutch hits that we have seen so far this season in the Delco Baseball world.
With Caden Shuster still on the mound, Lower Merion thought so highly of what they did offensively in the seventh inning that they would try it again in the eighth. That of course meant seeing the first two hitters get retired and then smacking a solo home run, this one off the bat of Brendan O’Gara to again put the Aces ahead.
Since Justin Heck was so efficient all game, he was able to go out for the eighth, a very rare sight in the high school baseball world.
Patrick O’Connor led off the inning by reaching on an error, and then Lower Merion committed another error on Wolf Boswick’s bunt attempt. That’s how Strath Haven gets you.
Caden Shuster was then hit by a pitch to load up the bases with still nobody out. On a 1-2 pitch, Ben Milligan singled to left field to bring around O’Connor to once again tie this game up at 2-2.
On their first chance to win it, Lower Merion played good defense when Matt Caputo grounded to third base and Jack Hollowell fired home to get the force out. The Panthers wouldn’t wait any longer after that.
Quinn Kell was up next and he hopped on a 1-1 pitch, ripping a line drive to center field to walk it off and bring home a massive win for Strath Haven.
Strath Haven now sits at 5-2 in the Central League and will be off until they head to Conestoga (3-4) next Monday. Spring break is coming at a great time for them as Luke D’Ancona looks to get back on the mound soon.
As for Lower Merion, they as well are 5-2 now in the Central League and have a road non-conference game at Daniel Boone this Saturday before a tough road conference game at Radnor (4-1) next Monday.