Hatfield-Towamencin wins state title
H-T uses early offense to roll past Warrington in final
LOWER MILFORD » After being denied the Connie Mack state championship a day earlier by Warrington, Hatfield-Towamencin quickly made sure things were going to be different in Sunday afternoon’s winner-take-all title clash with its Bux-Mont rival.
“We had a meeting before the game and we said we are the better team, we can not be beat with the pitching we had, the hitting we have,” H-T catcher Jake Drelick said. “We have better hitters we had better fielders. Absolutely, we wanted to get them and shut them down right away.”
Hatfield-Towamencin then went out and proved it early, using base hits, walks and Warrington errors to put together an eight-run outburst in the first three innings.
“As soon as the game started, we were swinging the bats,” Drelick said. “We were getting guys over, guys in, just seeing that first pitch and ripping it.”
After holding a 3-2 lead at the end of the opening inning, Hatfield-Towamencin pulled away with another three runs in the second and two more in the third. H-T would add a few more runs from there while right-hander Gavin Moretski and the defense kept Warrington from mounting any sort of comeback charge as Hatfield-Towamencin rolled to the state title with an 11-3 victory at Limeport Stadium.
“We know they’re a great team and they were second in BuxMont for a reason and we had a great run and yesterday we came out flat,” said Hatfield-Towamencin coach Mark Swanson of Warrington. “So the kids — not even the coaches — the kids had themselves fired up and it was almost a flip-flop of the game yesterday. They came out and got us and we wanted to do the same today.”
Sunday’s matchup was the rubber match between the teams in the double-elimination tournament. Hatfield-Towamencin — the
Hatfield and Towamencin programs merging together this season — edged Warrington 8-7 last Friday while Warrington handed H-T its first state defeat 3-1 Saturday to force a deciding final.
Drelick, hitting leadoff, went 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored while Kyle Schulze went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored for Hatfield-Towamencin, which defended the title claimed last season by Towamencin, which also won the state crown in 2014.
“Having the kids come over from Hatfield and join us, made our team even better from last year,” Drelick said. “Great team last year, we had the same thing. We came into this tournament fighting hard, same thing here, nothing changed. Came in fighting hard and we proved that every game.”
Kolby Barrow went 2-for-4 with two RBIs while Moretski walked four times — a third of the 12 walks H-T had on the afternoon — and earned the pitching victory, allowing three runs — two earned — on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out six.
“Just locate my pitches, inside and outside,” Moretski said. “Off-speed was on and then just trust my defense behind me.”
After Hatfield-Towamencin took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, Warrington got two off Moretski in the bottom of the inning on a Ryan Jennings RBI double and Anthony Yermolov RBI single. Moretski, however, settled in and allowed just one more run — that coming in the fourth, but by then it only Warrington’s
deficit to 8-3.
“I was just thinking keep throwing strikes and our bats will take over,” Moretski said.
For Warrington, Jennings finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored, Kevin Gillard went 3-for-3 and Michael Grispino was 2-for-3 with an RBI.
Starting pitcher Johny Kielar took the loss for Warrington, giving up six runs — four earned — on five hits in two innings. He walked two and struck out two.
Hatfield-Towamencin also picked up some individual awards to go with its state title — Schulze winning the hitting award and Joe Valenti earning the pitching award. Catasauqua’s Brayden D’Amico won the fielding award while Northern Valley’s Derek Holmes was named tournament Most Valuable Player. Northern Valley also won the sportsmanship award.
“We have the same colors for the most part, blended in the Hatfield yellow and so we still want to represent, we’ve been here four years in a row and we’ve won it three times,” Mark Swanson said. “It never gets old for the program and we’re really proud of our program.
Hatfield-Towamencin was up 2-0 after just four batters in the top of the first inning. Drelick led off with a single and went to second on an error. After Moretski walked, Schulze and Barrow connected on back-toback RBI singles. A Matt Swanson one-out ground out brought in Schulze for a 3-0 advantage.
In the second, Moretski’s two-out walk brought up Schulze, who singled through the left side of the infield to score Chris Killion from second to make it 4-2. After a Barrow walk loaded the bases, Moretski came home on an error on a Jack Yunaska grounder while Schulze scored on a wild pitch, putting H-T up 6-2.
“This is a game all about fundamentals, that’s how I think we won it today,” Mark Swanson said. “We took the extra bases when we could, we threw strikes, we didn’t walk a lot of guys. Had a lot of singles and drew a lot of walks.”
Hatfield-Towamencin pushed its lead to 8-2 in the third as Drelick collected an RBI single and Killion came in on a wild pitch.
Warrington pulled within 8-3 on Grispino’s RBI single in the bottom of the fourth but Hat field Towamenc in answered with a pair of runs in the fifth.
A Drelick leadoff single and walks by Moretski and Schulze loaded the bases with no outs. Drelick scored on Barrow’s RBI fielder’s choice with an error on play allowing Moretski home for an 10-3 lead.
Warrington threatened to get back in the game in the bottom of the sixth, loading the bases with no outs, but could find a way to plate a run — Garrett Zimmerman coming in for Moretski and getting the last out of the frame after Moretski reached his innings limit.
In the seventh, Hatfield-Towamencin tacked on its final run on a Matt Swanson bases-loaded RBI ground out.