Baseball Loses PAC-10 Title to Boyertown

After a defensive stand in the PAC-10 semifinals against Methacton that led the Rams into the PAC-10 championship game, fans saw a polar opposite type of game against Boyertown on Thursday night.

Boyertown pitcher A.J. Bogucki pitched lights out in the title game and helped lead his Bears to a 6-5 victory. Aiding in the win was a Rams defense that let up six total errors - two in the second scoring the first run, two in the sixth scoring the next two runs, and two in the seventh, allowing the go-ahead to score.

"It's tough to take, but the point is we put ourselves in that position," said head coach Bruce Brobst. "We didn't make plays, they forced us into making plays, and we didn't make them."

Through the first five innings, Boyertown held a 1-0 lead and the Rams just couldn't get it going. Bogucki threw nine strikeouts over the course of those five and totaled that in the game. Four of the nine of the strikeouts had the Rams looking.

"He's just got that good of stuff," said Brobst. "We knew going in we had to put the ball in play."

Boyertown turned it on in the top of the sixth. Two singles got the Bears on base to open the inning and a Dalton Weeks bunt brought the first of four runners home. Then an Austin Heimbach RBI standup double led another home. Tyler Eckman came in to relieve Richie Michaud at the mound. Finally, a throwing error to first led home the final run of the inning. Eckman forced a groundout to end the inning.

But the Rams battled back, scoring five of their own in the bottom of the frame. Vince Ianni was walked to open the inning and advanced to second on a fielder's choice. Angelo Kelly and Tom Grablewski followed with singles, and a sacrifice fly to right by Michaud led the charge to score the first run. hit an RBI-double, followed by a Ryan Conway RBI-single. Designated hitter Tyler Yazujian hit an RBI-single to tie the game at five and the Rams had a prayer.

"To our credit, [Bogucki] was shutting us out," Brobst said. "He's no-hitting us. We're not really smelling a hit, and all of a sudden, it comes alive for us. Five-zip, you're down and this guy's no-hitting you. We come back and scored five runs the way we scored five runs. That was impressive."

Hank Coyne relieved Eckman in the top of the seventh, but two errorss by the Rams led the winning run home.

"Our pitching has been our mainstay all season long," Brobst said. "They did a great job. Richie did a great job, Tyler did a great job, Hank did a great job. We have to pitch and play defense and we didn't play defense. You can't have six errors. You can't do it."

The Rams are the first seed in the PAC-10 and fourth overall for the District One tournament. Boyertown is seeded fifth in the tournament. Spring-Ford will have a first-round bye and play the winner of Central Bucks South-Conestoga. They play Wednesday at 4 p.m. at home.

"There's optimism for districts," concluded Brobst. "I guess the bigger issue is, how do we bounce back from this loss? That will show our character there, also."