Big Dawgz Thunder Past Devils 9-3

BUCKTOWN - Knowing his Norchester squad has a showdown with Phoenixville looming on Wednesday -- in which the number two playoff seed hangs in the balance -- manager Ken Long hoped to gauge how prepared his Big Dawgz are for the post season as Bux-Mont foe Collegeville came to town.

Fortunately for Long, the Dawgz bats were thundering more loudly than the weather that rolled in and ended the game after five complete innings.

Norchester pounded out eight hits and sent 13 men to the plate in a nine-run fourth inning, erasing a 3-0 deficit to claim a 9-3 victory over the Devils who dropped to 8-6 on the season.

“We hit the ball well tonight,” said Long. “In a non league game, you want to come out and play as hard (as) if it were a rival, but you also need to get some people into situation and see what they can do. I wanted to get Stephen (Muscovitch) some work, which is important come playoffs. He threw very well and we stepped up defensively so I am happy overall. We need to stay back on the ball a bit more at the plate, but overall I was very happy.”

Muscovitch allowed two earned runs, five hits and no walks fanning six. In recording the complete game win, he had great command of his fastball while he mixed in some pretty nasty breaking stuff.

After striking out the side in the second inning, Muscovitch made one mistake in the game. He gave Perkiomen Valley sophomore Eric Gaines a fast ball up and in, which Gaines deposited over the scoreboard for a solo home run that brought the last Devils runner across the plate.

“I was able to hit my spots pretty well tonight,” said Muscovitch. “My fastball was definitely my best pitch even though I did use my curve some. It was huge for us to put that big inning together. As a pitcher it lets you relax when you know your guys are hitting behind you.”

Noah Beebe got things going with the first base hit off of Devils starter Austin Lee and was driven in two pitches later by Chase Line, who along with Beebe recorded two hits in the fourth inning with Line driving in three runs in the frame.

In the fourth inning, seven different Big Dawgz batters drove in a run. Ben Condello was the only one to do so with out a hit as he launched a sacrifice fly to score Blake McCourt.

Condello followed it with a sprawling diving catch with two outs in dead center field on a drive by Collegeville short stop Liam Grande. That stranded Jake Riehls at third.

“That’s the kind of player that Ben is,” said Long. “He is a guy that sparks the team and plays the game the way it’s meant to be played. It is so great to have such assets on the team like he and Tony Gruenling, who is another guy that just gives (150) percent all the time. Chase and Noah also did a phenomenal job tonight hitting the ball.”