Towamencin – A lot goes into winning a baseball game. It’s not striking out every hitter or hitting a homerun every time that wins games. It’s the little things that have to be done in order to be victorious. The North Penn Knights just couldn’t execute those little things in Wednesday’s 9-0 loss to Bensalem. Multiple fielding errors, bad plate appearances, and lack of energy doomed the Knights. 

A good coach would lay into his team a bit, say his peace, do a little motivating and move on. North Penn is lucky to have a great coach. Coach Kevin Manero called his team together, after the game, and talked with them about their worst performance in a bumpy 2021 campaign. Then he left his team to talk amongst themselves. For 30 minutes, following the final out, team leaders stepped up and communicated about the poor play on the field. 

“It was a lot of ‘this is on us’, said senior RJ Agriss. “At some point we have to take responsibility and realize that this is our team. The coaches can show us and say anything but we have to play. We have 13 seniors and all of them can and have to be leaders.” 

Spinning an ugly loss into a moment of learning and getting better is a testament to the outstanding coaching by Manero and senior leadership by Agriss and fellow senior Evin Sullivan. 

“Everyone was in there talking,” Agriss said. “Me and Evin were vocal because that’s how we are, but everyone was saying how they felt and just trying to figure out everything that we need to fix.” 

Manero did reconvene with his team and after a constructive conversation, left his players with more than just a sense of defeat after a tough loss.

“Sometimes it’s not mechanical,” said Manero. “Sometimes it’s not how to field a ground ball or swing a baseball bat. Sometimes it’s the mindset you have coming into the game.”

The theme of the game for North Penn is the things that should’ve happened. A lot of situations, especially defensively, could have been different and even in North Penn’s favour if errors or mental mistakes were not made. 

Leadoff hitter for Bensalem, Jalen Soberal lined a single into right to start the game. After a sac bunt and a walk, a North Penn error with runners on 1st and 2nd scored Soberal. In the second with the bases loaded, Sean Nelson hit a sac fly that scored a run and then a throwing error attempting to get the runner at third, scored another run, making the Bensalem lead 3-0. 

Offensively it was just as lackluster for the Knights. Through 3 innings they had been sat down on strikes 6 times. The Knights tend to come out the gate slow, but usually see a pick up in pace and production, not today though. The bats for North Penn logged 5 hits total throughout the contest. 

“We were not ready to hit,” said Manero. “At some point you have to put the foot down and be ready to time a first pitch fastball, especially when he’s pounding the zone like that.”

The Knights did show flashes of solid baseball in the middle innings. In the third and fourth inning, North Penn starter junior Dylan Brown only saw 8 batters and retired 3 on strikes. The top of the 5th gave the Knights trouble in the field, once again. A ground out to third started the inning, but an error let a runner reach first. A flyout to left kept the runner at first base with two outs. Ryan Rooney drew a walk for Bensalem drawing Eric Hamilton out the bullpen to come on in relief of Brown. 

Hamilton forced a flyout to right and escaped without any damage. Coming back out on the mound in the top of the 6th, Hamilton sat down hitters in order with 2 strikeouts and a grounder back to him.

Still with the score 3-0 in favor of Bensalem, the Knights wanted to rally. That was until the Owls exploded offensively in the 7th. Nelson took a pitch on the leg to get things started for Bensalem. Matt McShane and Nick Nush each hit a single, loading the bases. Rooney also got hit by a pitch, forcing Nelson home and stretching Bensalem’s lead to 4-0. Logan Young hit a single scoring McShane from third and kept the bases loaded. Tyler Fisher drove a ball into right center and an overthrow at home, gave Fisher third base, clearing the bases and extending the lead to 8-0 for the Owls. Senior Sean Brennan came out the pen and a single scored the runner on third. A strikeout and flyout in the next two at bats finally stopped the bleeding for North Penn with a deficit of 9-0 heading into the final frame. 

“We have a lot of guys that have shown they’re next level players,” siad Manero. “It’s time we start playing like that instead of looking at other teams and playing to not make a mistake.” 

The bottom half was retired easily and North Penn (5-4, 3-4) is put in a position where their season nears a point where playoff position will start to creep into some minds if this ship can’t get turned around, starting with Council Rock North on Friday. 

“We only have like eight or nine games left,” said Agriss. “We have to realize that and lock in because missing the postseason isn’t really an option”