Radnor Wins For The First Time This Season

coach John McGillian could sense something different as his team filed out of the bus Monday at Penncrest. There was a sense of urgency that he hadn’t seen in the Red Raiders their first two games of the season, a feeling that their little hiccup they began the season with would stop.

Radnor made sure it struck first, and struck fast, getting three runs in the first inning en route to a 6-1 Red Raiders victory—their first this year and making a pitcher winner of Connor Walsh. Radnor improved to 1-2 overall and in the league, while it marked the first time Penncrest lost this season, dropping the Lions to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the league.

“We spoke to the kids about their mentality going into this game,” McGillian said. “We hit first, and we got on top of them and didn’t look back. Penncrest is a pretty nice team. But this was nice for us. Hopefully, this helps us get the ball rolling.”

Walsh thought the Red Raiders’ 6-2 loss in the rain to Strath Haven  was important.

“We weren’t hitting coming into this game,” Walsh said. “After the last game, we got on the bus and a lot of us had a bad taste in our mouths. We came into this season with a lot of hype, and hype can sometimes make you feel invincible. Sometimes you have to feel failure before you can taste success. We needed those losses. We learned from them.”

Walsh was brilliant. He went seven innings and struck out 11 and walked just one, giving up only one hit, a single in the fourth inning to Penncrest’s Andrew Belfiglio, who scored later that inning on a double steal.

Penncrest had outscored its previous two opponents, 15-8, beating Harriton and Archbishop Carroll. So run production wasn’t an issue for the Lions. Radnor, however, had its problems.

Entering the game, the Red Raiders were struggling offensively. But in one inning, the Red Raiders equaled the total number of runs they scored in the combined previous 14 innings, getting three runs off Penncrest starter Andrew Belfiglio. Radnor senior third baseball Mark McGee-Pasceri added another run with a solo homer in the third inning.

Radnor’s Kyle VonHertsenberg added two hits, a single and a triple, with an RBI. Walsh helped himself with a single and two RBI. Radnor scored the first four innings. The only inning that Radnor didn’t have a baserunner was in the fifth, when Penncrest reliever, sophomore John Geffres, mowed the Red Raiders down in order, striking out all three batters he faced.

“You could tell there was a lot of energy today,” McGee-Pasceri said. “More so today than the first two games. We had no life in the dugout. There was dead silence in those games. This game we came out fired up, and it’s nice to know you have support when you’re up there.”