TOWAMENCIN – In a 9 inning pitchers duel, Central Bucks East got their bats moving and came out on top 4-2 over the North Penn Knights. The Patriots used two run homers by Sophomore Joey Wilga and Senior Jack Nugen to power the victory. Nugen’s 2 run homer came in the top half of the ninth inning and ended up being the winning runs. Offensively for the Knights, Senior Steven Corrado went 2-5 with an RBI and Junior Ethan Cohen was able to get a sac fly to plate the second run. Despite dropping two of the last three games, Coach Kevin Manero knows how good this team could be if they get things turned around. 

“We are good and they need to know that,” Manero said. “It is hard to stay up when you don’t get the start to the season that you wanted, but we have a plan.”

In a week where they struggled, Manero actually thought that today was the best game played by his squad. He explained how he felt that while it was a great game played by the Knights, there were a lot of opportunities to win the game that they squandered.

“Today was a really clean baseball game,“ Manero said.“It was much cleaner than any other game this week. The lack of execution offensively in the late innings was the difference maker.”

Things started slow offensively for both sides, as both starting pitchers got through three innings without any damage. North Penn got the first run of the game with an RBI single from Corrado putting the Knights up 1-0 in the 4th inning. 

The top of the sixth is when Wilga got a hold of a high fastball from Senior Mike Lennon and drove it over the center field fence for a 2 run shot, giving East a 2-1 lead. 

Ethan Cohen responded and tied the game in the bottom of the 6th with a deep fly ball that allowed Corrado to tag up and tie up the game. North Penn put runners on second and third in the bottom of the seventh, but couldn’t capitalize as Senior Sam Cohen hit a hard line drive that was caught at third. 

“We did everything right in that situation,” Manero said. Sam could not have hit the ball harder. That’s exactly what you want in that situation, lined the barrel up and smoke a fastball and that’s what he did.”

Both teams left runners stranded in the with inning. Senior Eric Hamilton came on in relief of Lennon and got out of a jam with no runs allowed. In the bottom half, the Knights got a couple base runners but couldn’t drive them in. 

Jack Nugent stepped up to the plate for East in the top of the ninth and connected on a fastball over the plate, sending it past the fence for a two run homer and giving the Patriots a 4-2 lead. 

“With the runner on first, that’s somewhere that I wanted to clutch up at,” Nugent said. “Coach trusted me to put the ball in play and that’s all I was looking to do.” 

The homer was the difference, as North Penn couldn’t erase the deficit in the bottom half. Manero noted how East took advantage of pitching mistakes, something he wants to see with his own hitters. 

“That’s something we have to be able to do,” Manero said. “We have to take advantage of pitchers leaving the ball over the plate. That’s the difference between us and other teams.” 

North Penn looks to end their woes and bounce back this Tuesday against Pennsbury.