There’s no such thing as too much pitching.
Huntington Valley’s
three-headed monster of Dan Johnson, Chris Ruhl and Rob Hoffman combined to shut
out the Morelanders 1-0 while allowing only two hitsin Sunday’s Lower Montco
American Legion action.
Johnson started the game, throwing four strong
innings of two-hit ball, stymieing the Morelanders’ bats.
“Johnson is one
of the best pitchers in this league,” Horn said. “He throws hard, he’s in
control and doesn’t walk a lot of batters. All season long he has been pitching
really well; anything other than the effort he put out today would have been a
surprise.”
Although Huntington Valley’s pitchers were great, the
Morelanders’ Mike Janas also shined, going the distance and allowing only one
run on five hits, three of which were infield singles. Janas got in a bit of
trouble in a couple innings due to errors or walks, but never lost control. It
was unfortunate for him that he did not receive more run support.
“You
have to tip your cap to Mike Janas,” Morelanders manager Rob Albert said. “He
threw a heck of a game for us today. He kept batters off balance and did a nice
job. We left a lot of guys on base and never got the big hit, which was our main
issue. I thought we played pretty good defense, though.”
The pitching was
so good that neither team had an extra base hit. The Morelanders had a tough
time putting the ball on the ground through the holes, as only six outs in the
game were recorded ground outs. Huntington Valley pitching forced the
Morelanders’ lineup to get under the ball, making most of their outs in the air.
Their only two hits came from singles by Pat Driscol and Tom
Robinson.
After scratching and clawing all game, Huntington Valley
finally broke the 0-0 deadlock for good in the fifth. After Matt Meyers and Cal
Palmer got on with singles, Hoffman played the hero, knocking Meyers in with an
RBI single.
Horn contributed his team’s resilience to having a deep
bench.
“Every game we have 16 kids come to play and I play everyone every
game no matter what the situation is,” Horn said. “I have as much confidence in
my 15th or 16th guy as I do my top guys. It seems like that’s why we’re good
this year. At some point in every game a kid who doesn’t normally get the hit is
going to come up big. Depth is really important in this league.”
Albert
did not seem to think his team played terrible, but with a potential playoff
spot still up for grabs, it is important for his squad to keep its
composure.
“We have two games to go and if we win both we’re in [the
playoffs],” Albert said. “We just need to keep our heads up and come ready to
play the next couple.”
As far as Huntington Valley goes, Horn is thrilled
that his team beginning to check off its preseason to-do list.
“We had
three goals coming into this season: win 15 games, make the playoffs and win a
championship,” Horn said. “This was the last regular season game of the year and
it was our 15th win, the kids wanted it really bad and they got it.”
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