TOWAMENCIN – Following a late inning loss Wednesday to Souderton and a victory over Quakertown Thursday, the North Penn Knights looked to beat the undefeated Central Bucks Patriots Friday afternoon. Behind strong starting pitching and solid hitting, the Knights were able to hand the Patriots their first Continental conference loss 11-9.
The Knights were lead by junior pitcher Kellen Williamson, who made his first varsity start today, and strong at bats by Jared Melone, Chris Kersey, Mason Nadeau and Anthony Cameron who combined for a total of 9 RBIs.
Coach Kevin Manero stated he was “very happy with the guys’ performance,” especially with Williamson’s.
“He did such a great job. He threw all his pitches for strikes, kept the ball down in the zone. He was very poised out there, very impressive start for him against a very good baseball team,” continued Manero.
“I knew I had to come out there throwing strikes and get groundball outs…I threw a lot of off speed pitches today to keep the batters off balance,” noted Williamson on this start.
The Knights got on the scoreboard first in the second inning after senior Bobby Scott walked, senior Matt Stella doubled and Cameron scored Scott with a single.
The Knights built a dominate 11-3 lead after six innings of play. However, as has been the case this season, the Knights struggled in finishing off teams and the Patriots came back scoring six runs in the seventh to close the gap to 11-9. Then with two outs and the winning run at the plate, Scott’s sliding catch ended the Patriots comeback and gave the Knights the victory.
When asked about the Knights’ struggles to finish games, Manero explained “we have to finish games. We talked about that after C.B. south; we talked about it after Souderton…we need to play 7 innings…Up until that last inning I thought we did a better job playing good, consistent baseball all the way through the game. If we hadn’t done that in the earlier innings we would’ve been in big trouble.”
Knights look to continue their success next week at C.B. West.