(photo of Zach Fein via Shelby Kauffman/DBN)

RADNOR, PA — Radnor squared up against a tough Hatboro-Horsham team with a spot in the District 1 5A championship and the state tournament on the line. The Raptors used a late rally and some great pitching to beat the Hatters 4-3 in nine innings.

Hatboro-Horsham got out to a 3-0 lead early on. Ryan Thomas singled and Chris Herrera walked with one out. The runners moved to second and third with two outs to set the table for Kenny Lutz.

Lutz singled to center to score one run and chaos ensued after that. Zach Fein fielded the throw home and tried to throw to second to get Lutz but the ball got away and past the centerfielder.

Herrera scored and Lutz came all the way around as well for quite the Little League home run and a 3-0 lead for Hatboro-Horsham.

The lead held for a while thanks to some great work from HH starter Cole Reinheimer. Reinheimer worked out of danger all day and gave the Hatters a great start.

Radnor tied things up in the fifth though, thanks to some heroics from starting pitcher Daniel Kellis. Teddy Monahan doubled with two outs and Fein singled him home to get the Raptors on the board. 

Matt Szychulski singled to keep the inning alive and bring up Kellis. Up to that point, Kellis had been pitching a fantastic game. He added to his day on the mound by blasting a titanic triple to tie the game at 3.

From there, we saw some great, high pressure pitching from Kellis, Ryan McWilliams, and Hatboro-Horsham reliever Chris Herrera to keep the game at 3-3 until the bottom of the ninth.

Radnor got things going again with two outs. Will Selbach beat out an infield single and Monahan drew a walk.

Zach Fein was the hero for Radnor. He hit a ground ball to third that was going to be a close play all the way. The throw took the Hatboro-Horsham first baseman off the bag and Selbach, who was hustling around the bases, came home to score the winning run.

Radnor books a spot in states and moves on to their second straight district championship game. They’ll get a rematch of last year’s semifinal against Upper Dublin at Villanova on Tuesday.

We’ll most likely get a matchup of the Austins; Austin Havertine for Radnor and Austin Dahl for Upper Dublin. You won’t want to miss that one as we will be streaming it on the Delco Baseball Now YouTube channel.