March 18, 2026 Games:

The Central League season is underway!

We were supposed to stream Garnet Valley @ Haverford this afternoon for our first “game of the week”, but the game was postponed until Friday. You won’t hear me complaining too much with how cold it was today, but on the other hand, only the true crazy people will be tuning on Friday to our broadcast over March Madness now so oh well.

We’ll see you then at 3:45 PM on YouTube Friday!

As for the games that did happen, we had some big blowouts and one game that wasn’t even able to get completed, so let’s start there really quick:

Strath Haven 1, Radnor 1

By: Brendan Ricciardi

The defending Central League Champion (well, one of the two) Radnor will have to wait until Monday to record their first result of the season as the Raptors and Strath Haven remained tied at 1-1 after nine innings at MSI.

The teams needed to postpone the game as another game on this list, Delco Christian vs The Christian Academy, was set to start right after.

The game will be finished on April 29th with the idea that they will finish this game and then start the second of their two matchups this season.

We won’t go too deep into this game since it isn’t over, but also because nothing really happened in nine innings.

Atticus Bean had an RBI triple for Strath Haven’s only run in the third, and then Caden Szychulski knocked in a run with a groundout in the sixth to tie it for Radnor.

Jasper Hals threw five shutout innings with eight strikeouts for Haven, while Travis McDonough and Patrick Burke threw well in relief.

For Radnor, reigning Delco Baseball Now Most Valuable Player Austin Havertine allowed one hit and one unearned run over 4.1 innings with seven strikeouts, and his twin brother Blake threw 4.2 innings with one hit allowed with five strikeouts.

Some might say their stat lines were nearly identical.

We’ll have more on this game once it actually is completed.

For now, Radnor will welcome in Marple Newtown on Monday for their next game while Strath Haven travels to Harriton.

Harriton 13, Penncrest 3

By: Brendan Ricciardi:

Speaking of Harriton, talk about a statement win to open the year for the Rams on the road!

There had been a lot of buzz around Penncrest going into the year, especially with the addition of SS Sergio Hernandez from Bonner, but Harriton came out humming in this one.

If you had told me that Harriton was going to win this game, I wouldn’t have been terribly surprised, but I didn’t see a win like this coming at all.

Sam Bohnenkamp, who was a Second Team All-Delco selection for us in 2025 after he had a 1.76 ERA in 43.2 innings pitched, was sharp. He struck out six over four innings with just two hits and one earned run given up.

Nate Swalley got it done on both sides of the ball as well as he had three hits, which also happened to be the amount of hits he let up on the mound as well over three innings.

The Rams scored in five of seven innings and while they had control of the game going into the seventh, they scored five to put the game out of reach.

Gaven Bowman also had two hits for Harriton in the win. Myles Freed delivered an RBI single in the seventh as well.

Travis Younger had two of the five Penncrest hits in the loss.

Harriton improves to 1-0 in the Central League and will host Strath Haven on Monday for their next game.

Penncrest falls to 0-1 in the Central League and is right back to work Thursday afternoon when they host an Episcopal team that they defeated on opening day last year.

Ridley 11, Upper Darby 0

By: Brendan Ricciardi:

Ridley missed the playoffs in 2025 for the first time since 2017 last year, ending a streak that was so long that I played that Ridley team my senior year.

Ridley certainly played like a team ready to start a new streak today, even with an Upper Darby team that has struggled the last two years and has a new coach.

Jake Mansfield tossed four shutout innings and allowed just two hits while striking out seven. He was a Second Team All-Delco selection for us last year as two-way player, and he also added a hit and a walk, scoring three runs.

It was a very well balanced offensive output for Ridley today. The Raiders had eight hits, with eight different players having one hit.

Luke Ladislaw threw a shutout inning to close out the win in five innings.

Yerlin Feliz had two of the three hits on the day for the Royals.

Ridley improves to 1-0 in the Central League and will be right back to work with a non-conference game against the reigning PIAA 5A State Champion Upper Dublin Cardinals on Thursday. That’s a fun challenge for them.

Upper Darby falls to 0-1 in the Central League in their first year under new Head Coach Tom Faust and will host Academy Park for a non-conference game on Friday.

O’Hara 7, Oxford 0

By: Nick Mazzarella:

Cardinal O’Hara picked up their first W of the season after a quiet first game thanks to six different guys driving in a run for the Lions.

The funniest part about it is that the Lions offense only had three hits. Oxford pitching certainly helped out O’Hara, walking them eight times. 

Three straight bases loaded walks in the third inning pushed O’Hara’s lead to 3-0, which was then followed by a fielder’s choice to drive in another, and it was topped off by a double from Vinny Mancini to make it 5-0 after three. 

A wild pitch in the fifth allowed Connor Clark to come home and make it half a dozen for the Lions. The following inning, Jack Quinn drove in Sean Vaughn on a double to put them up a touchdown on Oxford.

Colin Thomas and Michael Brown pitched five of the seven innings, and combined for two hits, five walks, and 10 strikeouts.

Padraig MacManus and John Welde finished off the game for the Lions, throwing two total innings of one hit ball with four strikeouts.  

The Lions pitching staff held Oxford scoreless en route to the 7-0 win.

Cardinal O’Hara picks up their first win of the season and moves up to 1-1 on the season and will go on to face arguably the best team in Pennsylvania on Friday when they travel to Malvern Prep.

Carroll 10, Germantown Friends 4

By: Nick Mazzarella:

Archbishop Carroll wins their opener on the heels of Colin Moran embracing his Shohei Ohtani.

Moran went 2-3 with a double and driving in three runs, while on the bump went six innings, allowed four unearned runs, and punched out five batters.

Carroll got on the board real early, scoring over half of their runs in the second inning. Ricky Evans drove in Dan McNally on a base hit to score the first run of the game. The next five batters then drove in a run, including Morans two-run double. McNally drove in Moran to top it off at 7-0 after the top of the second.

It took a few innings for Germantown to finally get on the board, but a single from Alex Kranzel got them on the board to make it a five run game.

The following inning, Germantown made it even closer, as Christopher Neer and Charles Koehler drove in a run each and made it a three run game with still a few innings to go.

In the sixth and seventh (don’t laugh) Carroll managed to tack on some insurance to make it a 10-4 game and just three outs away from picking up an opening day W.

Carroll brought out Max Barnes to close out the win, as he did so, setting the side down in order on 14 pitches.

Archbishop Carroll gets the opening day W, and will face Central (0-0) on Friday @ Carroll at 4pm for Central’s opening day game.

Delco Christian 17, The Christian Academy 0

By: Brendan Ricciardi:

It may be the season opener for Delco Christian, but that may be the most runs we see in one inning by any team all year.

Delco Christian put up 17 in the bottom of the first inning on a cold night at MSI in a game that only ended up going three innings. Justin Ma, Josiah Lyren and Nathan Burd all had two hits in the win, Delco Christian had eight hits total.

Cyrus Mulder threw two shutout innings with four strikeouts and Peter Certo III struck out two over a scoreless third inning.

Delco Christian will be back in action Thursday on the road at Sun Valley.