PHOENIXVILLE, PA — Great pitching, great defense, bunts, and timely hitting. This recipe has worked for over 20 years for Strath Haven Head Coach Brian Fili, so why change now?
#9 Strath Haven is heading to the district quarterfinals for the fifth consecutive season after taking down #8 Phoenixville by a 6-1 final. It’s the third time in four years the Panthers have beaten the Phantoms in districts.
Senior pitchers Luke D’Ancona and Rob Mattai were excellent for Strath Haven, each allowing just one hit in their innings of work.
The only trouble that D’Ancona ran into was in the bottom of the second when he allowed a run to score on a wild pitch, but it was a great outing from D’Ancona as he has thrown just two innings since April 2nd after suffering a pec injury. This 10-6 record would have looked a lot better if he was healthy.
The Panthers couldn’t break through in the first three innings, but the top of the fourth was where they got their brand of baseball back.
Caden Shuster singled to lead off the inning against Phoenixville sophomore starter Cadin Coleman. After Quinn Kell sacrificed him over to second, Atticus Bean smoked a double down the left field line to tie the game up at 1-1.
Following another single from Patrick O’Connor, Fili called for Preston Jensen to come in to pinch-run at third base. Anyone who has followed Strath Haven knew that a safety squeeze was coming, yet there is still nothing you can do about it.
It was nine-hitter Matt Caputo who got the job done, pushing a bunt to first base that easily scored Jensen to give the Panthers the 2-1 lead.
Following a Ben Milligan single, the Panthers got their third run of the inning when Eli Price slapped a single the other way into left center field to extend the Strath Haven lead to 3-1.
Rob Mattai then came in and tossed a scoreless top of the fourth in relief for D’Ancona as they didn’t want to overwork him in his first game back.
With the momentum still on Strath Haven’s side, they were ready to take full control.
The inning certainly did not start out as planned with back-to-back outs, but Quinn Kell singled to left to keep the inning going. Atticus Bean then was hit by a pitch, and Patrick O’Connor walked to load the bases up for Matt Caputo.
Caputo delivered in a huge way, ripping a two-run single to left field to score Kell and Bean and give the Panthers a 5-1 lead. O’Connor would then come into score on a wild pitch, giving Haven back-to-back three-run innings.
All of that came after they had two outs and no one on as well.
Rob Mattai then continued to carve, retiring the side on three hitters which featured two strikeouts. Phoenixville got something going when Mattai walked two in the sixth, but a groundout to Caputo at second got him out of the inning unharmed.
After Caputo’s third hit of the game in the seventh, the Panthers were unable to add insurance runs but they still led 6-1 and were three outs away from a win.
Mattai retired the first two hitters before allowing a single. He wouldn’t allow that runner to go any further as he picked up his fifth strikeout of the game to wrap up this one and punch Haven’s ticket to the quarterfinals.
Strath Haven will now take on #1 Chichester on Wednesday. The weather forecast does not look ideal for that one, so we’ll so what happens. It seems more likely that one gets played on Thursday.