It was another rainy night in Delco, but we somehow were able to get two championship games in.
One of those games didn’t take place in Delco, but still, it counts.
I didn’t take the time to make the newspaper covers for these but I did want to quickly mention that Senior Legion playoffs had some action yesterday but the games were suspended. Upper Darby and Mt. Airy were tied 2-2 in the sixth while Narberth led Broomall-Newtown 2-1 in the sixth. We’ll have more updates on those (hopefully) in tomorrow’s edition.
Also, the Ridley 11’s fell 7-6 to Upper Providence in the second round of sectionals. I totally missed that in the original social media post because I just went to bed assuming that they did not make it up. It appears they somehow got in the rest of it after waiting out the rain.
Ridley will play the winner of Springfield (MontCo) and Morrisville later tonight, that Springfield/Morrisville game is in the fifth inning and will resume at 5:00.
As always, make sure to subscribe for free to keep up with all things summer ball in Delco:
Cal Ripken 12U:
The wait was well worth it.
This game was supposed to be played Monday, then supposed to be played Tuesday, and finally got in on Wednesday.
Nether-Swarthmore brought home a 6-5 walk-off win over Pennsbury at Nor Gwyn Little League. Brady Torregrossa was the hero with a walk-off single and also threw the last 1.2 innings of relief after a strong start from Liam Wallace.
The Nether-Swarthmore 12’s advanced all the way to the World Series in Branson, Missouri, last year. It sure looks like these guys have the potential to do the same thing.
Little League 10U:
You can tell from this picture alone just how hard the rain was coming down at Aston-Middletown, but I’m sure the Ridley players and fans did not mind.
As mentioned in the paper above, Ridley and Newtown-Edgmont played each other in all three district titles. We have only been running this site since 2022, but I can’t recall the last time that has happened if it ever even has happened.
It’s turned into quite the rivalry.
Ridley won that “best-of-three” if you will after their 10’s team won 4-1 last night. Sean Burkhart drove in more runs at the plate than he allowed on the mound which is always a great recipe for success.
Ridley will now head to the Section 8 Tournament at Lower Gwynedd Little League. Not a terrible drive, it’s up near the Upper Dublin/North Penn area in Ambler and should be about 45 minutes to an hour. The tournament begins on Saturday.
Ridley will play at 1:00 PM against the District 21 rep who is not listed on the bracket yet.
Delco League:
It seemed like a foregone conclusion that the two teams missing the playoffs would be the Narberth Outsiders and the Ridley Black Sox, but the Black Sox have gotten hot as of late to make things interesting on sixth place Aston Valley.
Second Team All-Delco pitcher Ryan McWilliams (Radnor) threw a gem against Narberth to put Ridley just a few points back with plenty of time left.
As for Drexel Hill, they now sit in fourth place which would give them home field advantage for the Delco League playoffs, which are the exact same style as the MLB Playoffs just with different lengths for the series:
Wild Card Round: Best-Of-Three series between #3/#6 and #4/#5
Semi Final Round: Best-Of-Five series between #1/lowest seed left and #2/highest seed left
Finals: Best-Of-Five series between the two remaining teams.
Wayne and Upper Darby will be the #1 and #2 seeds (in some order) barring an epic meltdown.
MLB:
I am still angry about the first two games of this series.
However, at least they didn’t get swept. They took out their anger on some baseballs in this one and really poured it on late. For as rough as Bryce Harper’s return from injury has been, he had one of the best game’s of his career in this win.
It was great to see him hitting the ball the other way like he was.
Coming off of a recent series win over the Padres, the Phillies will again play San Diego this weekend.
Here are the pitching matchups and game times:
Friday, 9:40 PM: Ranger Suarez vs TBD
Saturday, 7:35 PM (FOX): Zack Wheeler (PHI) vs Yu Darvish (SD)
Sunday, 4:10 PM: Cristopher Sanchez (PHI) vs Nick Pivetta (SD)
The All-Star break begins on Monday. Zack Wheeler and Kyle Schwarber are the Phillies representatives.
Trea Turner not being on the roster is embarassing. Cristopher Sanchez was robbed too. I do understand Ranger Suarez not being because he missed a lot of time, but they both should be there.
Hopefully that’s just some more motivation for them.
Also, make sure to tune into the MLB Future’s game at 4:00 PM on Saturday as Bonner alum Kevin McGonigle will suit up at shortstop for the American League team. It’s a great day to showcase the future stars of the league.