Council Rock North Ends Rustin's Season

NEWTOWN -- By the time Chris Catenacci soothed his slight jitters in the first inning, the West Chester Bayard Rustin season had largely ended.

It wasn't so much that Catenacci melted in an opening inning that produced two runs for the opposition; it's just that's all Council Rock North pitcher Darren Lauer would need.

One of three Indians aces, Lauer took that lead and twirled a three-hit shutout at the Golden Knights, ending their season with a 3-0 loss in the second round of the PIAA District One, Class-AAAA tournament.

"I'll remember this," the junior pitcher said. "It will make me want to work harder and get better. After I calmed down, I started to throw strikes and get people out. It was a tough game. Their pitcher was great, they made great plays and played a good game.

Catenacci began Wednesday's game with walks to Mike Festa and David Pine, then surrendered a run-scoring single to Ryan Hartley for North's first run.

An error by second baseman Joe Palladino led to the second run. After a single to Benn Parker was nullified because it came with an illegal bat, Catenacci retired the next two hitters and got out of the inning.

He finished by allowing three runs on six hits in six innings, with three walks and no strikeouts.

"Chris did a nice job," Rustin head coach Brad Harkins said. "Once he settled in, he held a very good baseball team to six hits. That's something to be proud of. But you have to limit walks and mistakes because a team like that will capitalize. You also have to score runs to win."

That simply wasn't going to happen against a determined, senior-laden team of players ticketed for top colleges. Pitching for the defending District One Champions, Lauer fired mostly 88-89 mph fastballs at the Golden Knights.

"He had great velocity on his fastball, so we stuck with that unless we noticed them catching up to it," catcher David Pine said. "Every once in a while, we'd mix it up a little bit to keep them off balance, but his fastball was really good."

 Lauer pitched around two errors and was helped by two double plays. He struck out the side in the fourth and easily pitched around a fifth-inning leadoff walk.

 "Darren is special," North head coach Matt Schramm said. "It was pitching and defense today, and I'll take that any day."

Though they'd rather the season last longer, Rustin will accept the postseason experience. They had an exciting beginning to their playoff run on Monday, when Alec O'Dell tied the game against Central Bucks East with a seventh-inning home run. Kevin Jewitt then won it with a homer.

 That didn't happen on Wednesday.

"We're disappointed because we feel we can beat any team in the state," Harkins said. "Our kids believe that. With the bulk of our kids coming back, they got a good taste here. Being disappointed is a good thing. We don't want them happy just getting to the playoffs. We want them to go as deep as they possibly can and strive for the best. That's to be a state champion."