It’s a great day to have a turf field, huh?
Every game that was played today was on a turf field (or in Myrtle Beach) unsurprisingly after the rain that came down overnight. It’s a good thing that Radnor was able to switch their game from at Radnor to at Marple Newtown, or else they still would have zero games played so far this season after their first game was suspended.
It was worth the wait.
Radnor 3, Marple Newtown 2
By: Brendan Ricciardi:
Radnor fans, make sure you consult with a cardiologist at some point this season, because basically every game is going to be like this.
Radnor has arguably the best pitching staff in Delco led by Austin Havertine and Daniel Kellis. They also have seven seniors to replace on offense. There’s going to be a ton of low-scoring nail-biters.
It really wasn’t a full nail-biter until the top of the seventh. Outside of a Cole Buckley single in the top of the third, Havertine did not allow a single baserunner through the first six innings of the game.
His offense built him a nice lead in the bottom of the second, with Andrew Quigley delivering a two-run single to score Matt Medina and Blake Havertine. Hayden Goldenberg’s sac fly drove in Sean Mutschler to make it 3-0 off of Marple Newtown starter Jackson Burger.
It looked like Havertine, who was the 2025 DBN Most Valuable Player, was just fully in control and this game would simply end 3-2.
Marple Newtown did not go down without a fight, however.
After Jackson Burger singled to start the seventh, Kevin Agger was hit by a pitch. The big momentum shift here came when John Matthews blasted a triple to dead center drive both of them in. The tying run was now 90 feet away.
First up was Sean Grogan, and on the fifth pitch, Havertine got him swinging for out number one.
Next up was Sal Brady, and on an 0-2 count, Brady grounded one back to Havertine who calmly checked third and tossed it over to first for the second out.
Last but not least was Jordan DiPinto, who would eventually ground out to first base as Havertine pulled a houdini act to give the defending Central League and District 1 5A Champion a 1-0 Central League record.
Wow!
Radnor wins a thriller here and will head to Harriton on Wednesday for their next game.
As for Marple Newtown, it’s definitely a tough pill to swallow that you had three shots to get that last runner 90 feet and couldn’t. With that being said, they could have easily just packed it in and left with a 3-0 loss but they didn’t.
The Tigers fall to 1-1 in the Central League and will head to Penncrest on Wednesday for their next game.
Garnet Valley 19, Upper Darby 1
By: Brendan Ricciardi:
Garnet Valley scored seven in the first inning and never really looked back in this one.
Cole Lombardo went 2/3 with an RBI in this game, and that actually lowered his average as he came into this one 8/10 on the year. The reigning Central League batting champion is very clearly the DBN Offensive Player of The Year award favorite in the early part of the season.
Harrison Maull had three hits, and the Jaguars as a whole had 17.
Ryan McGhee, Thomas Acosta, Dylan Orr, Kyle Klein, and Connor Criswell all had multiple runs batted in. Criswell also threw four strong innings while Colton Turner closed it out.
Garnet Valley improves to 1-1 in the Central League and will head Conestoga (1-0) on Wednesday for a great central league game with the Pioneers.
Upper Darby falls to 0-2 in the Central League and will welcome in 2025 Central League co-champion Haverford (1-0) on Wednesday.
Malvern Prep 14, Bishop Shanahan 7
By: Brendan Ricciardi:
Make that 47 runs across four games this season for Malvern Prep. I was a journalism major not a math major like my brother who is at Princeton for Grad School (nerd) so I’ll say that’s around 12ish runs per game.
It feels like every day it’s someone new leading the charge too, with Grady Forsberg driving in four runs to lead the way today. Jalen Bowman and Tommy Sergio both had 2 RBI as well. Brady Abate was walked four times today, which may not show up in a big way in the box score as he technically went just 1/1, but still very impressive.
The Friars as a whole drew 13 walks.
They actually trailed this game 3-0 in the top of the first and scored one in the bottom of the first before exploding for eight in the bottom of the second.
I’m assuming due to the long innings here that this game was called due to darkness as the teams only played five innings. With 21 runs in five innings, I’m scared to know what would have happened if they played all seven.
Malvern improves to 4-0 and will head on the road for the first time this year when they travel to Shipley on Tuesday.
Friends Central 10, Maret 5
By: Brendan Ricciardi:
Let’s forget about the baseball for a second and just admire Maret Academy’s logo here. The Frogs!
The prep school from the DC area does what way more schools need to do and get creative. Way too many Wildcats, Panthers, Tigers, etc out there. Let’s be bold!
When I was covering High School Football at PA Football News, I learned that Williamsport High School’s team name is the Millionaires and that rocks.
Anyway, back to the action here as Friends Central won their first game down in Myrtle Beach. The top five in the Friends Central order of Caleb Bachman, Shane McGarry, Gavin Yeager, Zac Canterino and Vaughn Jones combined for seven hits and drove in nine runs.
These guys had FIVE triples today. Two from Yeager, two from Jones and one from Canterino. I don’t think in my 26 years of life I have five total triples. My college friends still make fun of me to this day for getting thrown out by about 15 feet trying to stretch a double into a triple against Cornell:
I drove in all three runs and came back to the dugout and got absolutely destroyed for it. Harsh but fair. The slide was a tough look.
Fisher Haggerty started the game for the Phoenix and gave them 103 pitches over 6.2 innings. That’s big for a team that plays four games in four days and lost their ace, Michael Mamaluy, for the forseeable future.
David Manfre struck out the lone batter he faced to wrap it up.
It was a consistent Friends Central offense, as they scored at least one run in five of their six at bats. They really iced it with four in the bottom of the sixth when they went into the inning only leading 6-4.
The Phoenix improve to 4-3 and will close out their Myrtle Beach trip Tuesday morning at 11.
Germantown Academy 8, Bonner 0
By: Brendan Ricciardi
Certainly not the start to the season that the 2025 PCL Champions wanted to see.
Germantown Academy scored in each of the first four innings at MSI, with two in the first, two in the second, one in the third and one in the fourth.
Bonner only had five hits on the day, with Gavin DiRita and Sean Erickson each having two and Owen Lockhart adding one.
Obviously not ideal for the Friars, but they don’t have much time to think about this one as PCL play opens up on Wednesday against a St. Joe’s Prep team that has a couple of flamethrowers.
Not sure whether we’ll see Duke recruit Cole Kuhn, Miami recruit Chris Grasso, or St. Bonnie’s recruit Mihretu Rupertus. Likely a combination of those three against Danny Buckton for Bonner would be my guess.