TOWAMENCIN- Despite some early petulant weather yesterday afternoon, the Knights (6-3; 5-2) proved victorious over Pennridge, as their bats were hot and their defense showed few flaws in a 5-3 win over the Rams (3-4 conference). The win keeps the Knights in a three-way tie for first place in the Continental Conference.
“I thought it was a real big win for us. We came out of the gates very strong,” head Coach Kevin Manero said after the game. “I thought our at bats in the first inning were real good and we hit the ball all over the field.”
Even though a bunt resulted in the Rams getting on the scoreboard with a run, Senior Chris Kersey led off in the bottom of the first with a bullet over the left field fence, kick-starting off NP’s offense.
“It was a good start you know, I think it gave us a little life” Kersey said. “I was trying to just put a good swing on the ball with two strikes to put the ball in play and put pressure on the defense. Fortunately, he hung one and I made the best of it.”
Seniors Brandon Heggan and Bobby Scott were right on the heels of Kersey as they crossed the plate twice more in the inning, tallying up a 3-1 lead for the Knights. The Knights got two more runs in the second with aid from Junior Zach Zeigler, Kersey and Heggan to make it a 5-1 ballgame. Junior Colin Healey led on the mound , subduing Pennridge’s offense until an unsuccessful comeback attempt in the top of the sixth and seventh.
“I think it was a pretty good game from a defensive standpoint. I walked some batters but our offense got runs for us early on” Healey explained, agreeing that offensive support contributed to the defensive confidence.
During the second half of the game, the Knights gave up a little momentum as their hitting suffered a little, but the main take away from yesterday’s game were the arms as Manero emphasized.
“We need to make sure we finish games. We can’t sit on a little lead. But the bottom line in today’s game was pitching and defense. That’s been inconsistent for us the last couple of weeks but today we made some very good defensive plays.”
Manero also talked about the loss of the Knight’s number 2 hitter, Mason Nadaeu. Despite Nadeau’s injury, he acknowledged that Brandon Heggan was a qualified backup.
“He puts the ball in play, he can run, he can do a lot of things too. He’s having a really nice year as a senior,” mentioned Manero.
He also focused on the coordination the defense and offense need to have together in order to win upcoming games.
“That’s one of the problems we’ve had so far, we haven’t had pitching, hitting, and defense all clicking at the same time… But today I thought, especially for the first four or five innings, we put it all together pretty well.”
The Knights will go on to play Spring-Ford on Thursday afternoon and will host Souderton at Ben Hostelley Field on Friday night at 7pm for Community Knight at the Ballpark.