NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA — We certainly saved our most thrilling game of the week for the last one.

For the second straight season, we saw The Haverford School take on Episcopal at Stone Field in Newtown Square, and for the second straight year, there were less than three runs scored. This time, it was Episcopal who came out on top.

Sophomore rising star RHP Hunter West was excellent for the Churchmen, throwing six shutout innings with five hits allowed and six strikeouts. Even while picking up the loss, Haverford School junior LHP Jacob Horwitz was great as well, allowing just one earned run over five innings with six strikeouts.

The first three innings were a stalemate.

Both pitchers worked into some jams but got out of them without anything to show for it. It wasn’t until the bottom of the fourth where we had any runs.

Episcopal had the bases loaded with one out when Trey Schwaninger grounded one to third base where Thomas Lawler stepped on third for one out and tried to get the double play at first, but with his momentum going away from the bag it made it a really tough play and his throw wasn’t able to be dug out at first by Ethan Farrington which allowed Reggie King (walk) to score.

A fitting way for the first run of a pitcher’s duel to come in.

Episcopal would start to see Horwitz much better in the fifth inning. Spencer Schuh singled with one out and Jake Virbitsky was hit by a pitch. That set the table for Reggie King, who has been the key to this Episcopal offensive turnaround this season. He delivered again, ripping a single to left center field to score Schuh and make it 2-0.

The Churchmen almost scored another, but they turned an unorthodox 5-3-2 double play when Will Cohen grounded one to Lawler who stepped on third, fired over to first where the runner was safe, then the ball got away but Ethan Farrington was able to recover and fire home to get Reggie King who was barreling home just in time.

That wasn’t the most important play at the plate in this game, though.

The top of the sixth was the best offensive threat so far for the Fords when Nicky Vanni and Harrison Bongiovanni both walked. Hunter West was able to keep his composure and recover, striking out Farrington and Brayden Scanlan for his final two batters of the day to leave with a 2-0 lead.

Episcopal looked to add some insurance in the sixth when Logan Correll walked and Ian Ferrell was oh so close to leaving the yard with a bomb off the wall, making it second and third with no outs.

That was it for Jacob Horwitz, and new Delco Baseball Now intern Connor Haney was called in from the bullpen. It’s a tough situation for any pitcher to come into, but the lefty was ready.

Haney started off by getting a groundout to first base where Correll had to stay put at third. Next batter, same result as this time it was a ground ball to shortstop where again, Correll had to stay. Lastly, Haney got a fly out from JD Amoroso to end the inning and somehow escape with no runs, giving the Haverford dugout some life as they needed two runs and only had three outs to work with.

Matt Roberts came in to try and get the save and had the top of Haverford’s lineup to work with. That means superstar outfielder Jaidyn Rivera, who he hit with a 1-1 pitch to have the leadoff runner on.

Next was Thomas Lawler, who was walked on five pitches. Episcopal Head Coach Tom Grandieri was not going to wait for the damage to continue, so he went to Charlie Smith in relief to try and get the final three outs.

Another DBN intern in Pat White got down the sac bunt to put Rivera and pinch runner DJ Pennewill in scoring position with one out to bring up Zac Fuscaldo in what would be the biggest at bat of the game.

On an 0-1 pitch, Fuscaldo delivered, ripping a single into center field. Rivera scored easily but Reggie King came up firing to JD Amoroso at shortstop, who quickly fired home to get DJ Pennewill just in time for the second out as the Episcopal dugout erupted. It was probably the best moment we have seen all year in our game of the weeks.

As awesome as it was, the game was still not over. Fuscaldo advanced to second on the throw home, so the tying run was still in scoring position with Nicky Vanni up.

Charlie Smith was able to slow things down on the mound, and on a 2-1 count, got Vanni to fly out to right field to wrap up an incredible game on both sides with a 2-1 Episcopal win.

My heart rate still hasn’t really recovered from that last inning.

Episcopal improves to 5-4 and will travel to Penn Charter on Tuesday as they try and secure second place in the Inter-Ac which will likely lead to a bye in the PAISAA state tournament.

As for Haverford, they played a great game, but they fall to 2-7 in the Inter-Ac. They will head to SCHA on Tuesday as they look to get things right before states.