(cover photo of Toby Myers via Shelby Kauffman/Delco Baseball Now)
BRYN MAWR, PA — Lower Merion and Conestoga met in a high stakes rubber match as part of the first round of the District 1 6A playoffs. This time, the Aces won in convincing fashion.
An 8-2 win gave Lower Merion the season series and advanced them to the next round of the tournament where they will play #5 Pennsbury Tuesday afternoon on the road.
Brian Heck got the ball for LM and was fantastic yet again. He threw a ten-strikeout complete game and had Conestoga hitters off balance all day.
The first two and a half innings flew by in this one, with Heck and Conestoga starter Luke Hunter trading zeroes. That trend stopped in the bottom of the third, when the Aces broke through.
Good things happen when the bottom of your lineup gets on base. Lower Merion saw that first hand today after nine hitter Matt Hartstein singled to lead off their half of the third.
LM’s lineup flipped over and leadoff hitter Gus Wright followed with a single of his own to put runners on first and third. Brody Slensky got his team on the board with a RBI single to right and again, Lower Merion had runners on first and third.
That brought up Toby Meyers, who showed off some power. Meyers smoked a 1-0 pitch to dead center field that looked to clear the fence at Harriton pretty comfortably.
Meyers’ bomb put Lower Merion up 4-0 and made the decision to move the game to Harriton, a field with a fence, look like a great one.
Conestoga showed some fight against Heck in the top of the fourth. James Quici led off with an infield single and Hunter helped himself out with a bloop to right that put runners on first and third with one out.
Chase Cherny cut the lead to 4-1 with an RBI single. Cherny was almost picked off during the next at-bat but Heck threw the ball away, allowing another run to come in. With Cherny now on third, Heck picked up two clutch strikeouts to end the threat.
From that moment on, it was all Lower Merion. In the fifth, Nicholas Dragut led off with a double and put them in a good position to add to the lead.
Calvin Rendle laid down a good bunt that was thrown away by Stoga pitcher Ryan Bauer and LM’s fifth run came home. Charlie Parsons made it 6-2 with a double to the left-center gap.
Meyers came back around to put things away in the bottom of the sixth. After a leadoff double from Wright and a Slensky single, the stage was set again. Meyers came through with a single, picking up his fourth and fifth RBIs of the day and giving Lower Merion an 8-2 lead.
Heck had another clean inning in the top of the seventh and this one was over. Lower Merion picked up a well-earned playoff win and advanced to the round of 16 in the 6A tournament for the second time in three years.
Their last trip to that round ended in a loss to Spring-Ford, but the Aces have reason to believe this time could be different. They’re swinging some hot bats right now and have Justin Heck and the rest of the bullpen ready to roll.
On the other side, Conestoga wraps up what was a great first season for head coach Anthony Greco. The Pioneers made their first playoff appearance since 2021 and have a lot to be excited about with some of their returning players.
Losing obviously stings but they can hold their heads high knowing that this was a formative year for a program looking to get back to its previous heights.
Lower Merion will face 6A fifth seed, Pennsbury, on Tuesday. This game was originally scheduled for Wednesday but with the weather forecast not looking great, all the schools in the 6A bracket agreed on moving their games up.
I think moving the game up could help the Aces. Pennsbury is a really strong team so being able to just go right back out and face them the day after playing one of your best games all year feels like an advantage.
We’ll see how it shapes up tomorrow. It’s going to be a big day of baseball.