DOYLESTOWN – Sometimes in sports the equation is very simple. Win and you’re in, lose and you go home. For the North Penn Knights baseball team on Thursday afternoon, winning was the only option.

Riding the right arm of Reed Shuttle, the Knights (14-5; 9-5) scratched out just enough offense to top the Central Bucks West Bucks  3-0 in the final conference match up of the season for both teams.

“We expected coming into the season that a realistic goal would be returning to districts,” said head coach Kevin Manero. “But it was a tough conference this year, and the road to the post season took a lot of tough turns. Going forward now, we just need to play smart, aggressive baseball, one pitch at a time.”

Shuttle went the distance for the Knights, allowing just two hits and striking out ten, en route to his fifth win of the season. Junior catcher Eddie Posavec paced the offense for the Knights, contributing a double, single, and an RBI.

North Penn and CB West (9-5) exchanged zeros through three innings, until two-out RBI hits by Posavec and Bryce Mengel got the Knights on the board in the fourth inning. North Penn would tack on a seventh inning insurance run when Nick Marukos stole thirdbase with two outs and then scored on a wild pitch.   

North Penn will close out their regular season tonight with senior night, when they play at Hostelley Field against cross town rival Lansdale Catholic. They will begin their playoff push Monday when they travel to Marple Newtown as the #9 seed in the AAAA District 1 Tournament.