Council Rock South's Season Ends in State Quarterfinals

The six seconds or so that it took Spring-Ford'ss John Rosenberg’s lazy fly ball to travel into the glove of right fielder Jeff Miller must have felt like an eternity for the Council Rock South fans that had seen their beloved club battle time and time again, through out the District One and state playoffs.

Once the ball was nestled in Miller’s glove, Mike Oczypok raced home for the Rams and was able to avoid the tag from catcher Dan Callahan, ending a dream season for South, with Spring-Ford narrowly escaping the clutches of the Hawks with a 6-5 win.

It marked the fifth time in the post season alone that a Hawks game has been decided by the last at bat, as South posted two runs in the top of seventh to take a 5-3 lead into the home half on the frame.

“I can’t say enough about this team,” said manager Greg Young. “This is a very special group of young men that exceeded anyone’s expectations except their own. They expect to win every game, which is what makes them who they are.”

The Hawks (17-6) got on the board first as Ryan Downs and Dan Callahan reached base on infield singles and were driven in on a fielder choice by Bret Destefano and a laser off the bat of Kane Price which ate up Rams third basemen Cody Clarke, but Price was thrown out trying to grab an extra base.

“We need to do other things to close out the game,” added Young. “Spring-Ford did a nice job taking care of business. “The first time through their line up we went at them with change up curve ball early in the count to keep them off balance. We knew Ryan (Downs) would throw them for strikes, which he did a great job of.”

Downs (4.3 IP, 3R, 2ER, 4 BB, 2K) kept the vaunted Spring-Ford offense, which has averaged 14 runs a game through districts and states, off the board until designated hitter Ryan Conway led off the fourth inning with a solo home run, his fifth round tripper in the last three games.

Following Spring-Ford posting two runs in the fifth to take a 3-2 lead, the Hawks knotted the game at three when Justin Thomas led off ripping a shot back through the box, then advanced on a throw getting away from first basemen Sean Larkin on Downs’ fielder choice, setting the stage for Miller, who launched a long fly ball into left scoring Thomas.

In their final at bat of a dream season, Brian Donnelly led off the inning with a single then Bill Flemming followed suit with a blast up the middle and the Hawks were in business.

Zach Fitzgerald squared to sacrifice his teammates into scoring position, but when Mike Oczypok’s threw the ball over the head of Larkin, Donnelly raced home with the go ahead run; Flemming added another as Justin Thomas drove him on a single.

“We knew we would hit,” said Young. “Our approach is to get at least one run an inning, then we put our foot on the pedal, we run the bases hard, we play hard. We don’t put the ball in play, we hammer the baseball, and I was not concerned one bit with who they threw at us.”

Downs did exactly that, as he crushed a 2-1 fastball but right at second basemen Tom Grablewski, who rifled the ball home in time to cut down Fitzgerald on a call that could have gone either way. Then catcher James Hoff threw a laser to Ricky Gorrell covering the bag at second, completing a devastating 4-2-6 double play.

In the home seventh, the Rams loaded the bases with no outs with Gorrell reaching on an error, then Hoff and Oczypok rapping infield singles, setting the table for Cody Clarke’s RBI base on balls and back-to-back sacrifice flies by Ryan Conway and Cratsenberg to advance Spring-Ford into Monday’s semi final.

“This hurts right now," said Bill Flemming. “I don’t know how long it will take to get over this, but I will look back on the season as the best of my life, I love these guys and have life long friends. We have had such a great year that there is so many great memories from.”

 Flemming wasn't the only one with plenty of memories.

“We are a scrappy, hardnosed bunch of kids,” added Young. “And it is fun an easy to coach a group like this. They expect to win; they work their tails off in practice doing the right things and play the right way, to lose like this hurts, right now I am heartbroken for them.”

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

R

H

E

C.R.South

0

2

0

0

0

1

2

5

10

2

Spring-Ford

0

0

0

1

2

0

3

6

8

6

C.R. South

AB

R

H

RBI

Spring-Ford

AB

R

H

RBI

Flemming ss

3

1

1

0

Medley   lf

4

0

2

0

Fitzgerald 2b

3

0

1

1

Grablewski  2b

3

0

0

0

Thomas  3b

4

1

2

1

Gorrell  ss

4

2

2

0

Downs p 1b

4

1

2

0

Hoff  c

2

0

1

0

Callahan c

4

1

1

0

Oczypok  p

3

2

2

1

Miller rf

2

0

0

1

Clarke  3b

2

0

0

1

Destafano dh

3

0

0

1

Conway  dh

2

1

1

3

Price  lf  cf

3

0

1

1

Cratsenberg rf

2

0

0

1

Donnelly cf p

3

1

2

0

Vining cf

2

0

0

1

Simmons cr

0

0

0

0

Sheldon cr

0

1

0

0

Totals

29

5

10

5

Totals

24

6

8

6

IP

R

ER

H

SO

BB

Downs

4.3

5

5

6

3

2

Donnelly (L)

2.6

3

2

2

1

2

Larkin

5

2

1

6

3

1

Oczypok (W 13-0)

2

3

1

4

1

0

2B-none 3B-Oczypok   HR- Conway (7)       LOB- CR South-8      Spring-Ford-10 

time of the game 2:06       game temp 98 degrees