Town and Country Newspaper

Sports Article

Tribe Baseball Holds on for Win over Boyertown

Written by Dave Teufel, Correspondent
2013-04-24

Upper Perk's Ian Benz slides into home plate safely as the ball comes out of the glove of Boyertown's catcher in Friday's home game.

Looking to continue to rebound from a slow start to the 2013 season, the Indians picked up their third win in four tries last Friday with a win over the visiting Boyertown Bears by a score of 3-2.

Boyertown, who entered the game with a record of 6-2 in the PAC 10, wasted no time getting on the score board as Luke Stron singled home Cory Postell giving the Bears a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

Upper Perk tied the game in their half of the inning as they collected three singles; the third came off the bat of Brendon Fitzgerald with two out in the inning.

The two teams would trade runs again in the third as the Bears took a 2-1 lead in the top half of the inning, but the Tribe would do one better when Ian Benz was safe at the plate on a fielder’s choice, giving the Indians a 3-2 lead.

The Bears had one last chance in the seventh, and the Indians seemed determined to help the visitors make the most of their opportunity as the first three Boyertown batters all reached base on fielding errors.

The first out was had when a Boyertown runner was gunned down easily attempting to steal second, but the fireworks started when runner number two was called out at home. Whether the tag was ever actually applied by the Upper Perkiomen catcher may remain a mystery, but it was pretty clear that the visitors didn’t think it was.

When the smoke from the fireworks eventually cleared, and cooler heads prevailed, Fitzgerald, who had come on to pitch the seventh, was able to get the final out of the inning. It preserved the 3-2 Indians win.

Upper Perk head coach Frank Mercon said after the game that the win was important in his team's continuing improvement.

“We’re playing better," said Mercon. "We’ve won three of our last four games so we are improving. A lot of the players have little or no varsity experience so there were some growing pains early on and some things we still have to really work at but we’re getting there. I think some of the problems we had today in the seventh inning is from our lack of experience, and how the pressure of tight games can have an impact on players who haven’t experienced that at the varsity level."

Chris Kachmar (5IP-3H-2R-1ER-5BB-3K) was the winning pitcher. Kachmar threw 87 seven pitches in his five innings of work. Fitzgerald picked up the save.

Boyertown pitcher Tyler Bauman suffered the loss for the Bears but only one of the three Indian runs was earned. Bauman allowed three hits while striking out six and walking three in his five innings of work.

Upper Perk out-hit Boyertown, 5-3, but committed four errors to the Bears' one. The game marked the midway point of the seasons for both teams in the PAC-10 regular season. Upper Perk raised its record to 3-6 while Boyertown fell to 6-3.

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