Henderson rally nips East, 4-3, in Ches-Mont thriller

Henderson High School’s Greg McLaughlin rose to the occasion in the big moments Wednesday afternoon, leading the Warriors to a thrilling comeback victory over archrival West Chester East, 4-3, in a pivotal Chest Mont National confrontation at Henderson’s Owens Field.

The standout senior ended up as the winning pitcher with two scoreless innings in relief and then tallied the decisive run in the bottom of the seventh with a heads-up dash for home on a wild pitch, beating the throw and touching off a wild, home field celebration.  The Warriors avenged a March loss to their cross-town rivals and grabbed an edge in the battle for Ches-Mont League District 1 Tournament post-season berths.

The Warriors battled back from a 3-1 deficit for their ninth league victory against four losses and for their sixth win in the last seven starts after a 3-5 start.  East is now 6-5 in the Ches-Mont and both teams are fighting with Rustin, the Downingtowns, Coatesville and several other schools in the battle for post-season berths and seedings. 

“Greg just takes the ball and does it,” marveled Henderson coach Luke McNichol.  “He has had some hard luck this year with close losses.  But, today, he was the guy.”

Those big moments came in the final two innings, when East held a 3-1 lead on the strength of a two-run home run from senior Billy Krebs.  On in relief of starter Chas McCormick, McLaughlin struck out the side in the top of the sixth to give the Warriors heart and they closed to within 3-2 in the bottom of the frame.  Ryan Hooven’s sacrifice fly plated P.J. Costello, who made it to third on a walk, a stolen base and an advancing fly ball.

McLaughlin then shut East down on eight pitches in the top of the seventh to set the stage for the final inning drama.  Jason McCormick led off with an infield single.  An East error put runners at first and second with one down when Chas McCormick registered an infield hit to load the bases.  A deep sacrifice fly by Costello tied the game at 3-3 with McLaughlin taking third.  East got another out, but an intentional walk loaded the bases and McLlaughlin got off quickly on the wild pitch to end the game.

“We played six innings instead of seven, ” offered East coach Dean Owens, whose team took the early season meeting, 5-4, in extra innings.  “We just didn’t finish off the game.”

“It was intense, for sure.  Every time East plays Henderson it’s going to be that way,”continued Owens, who lost 12 seniors to graduation.  “We’re battling for those Ches-Mont playoff slots.  Just trying to stay alive.  It’s been an odd season for us.”

Henderson has also had an unusual season, almost two years removed now from the 2010 AAAA Pennsylvania State Championship run.  Four of the Warriors’ losses have come in extra innings and the other defeat was a 2-1 nailbiter. 

“We got a couple of breaks and we capitalized,” continued McNichol.  “Some games haven’t gone our way and today’s did.  We’re starting to figure ourselves out a little bit.”

Ryan Lucas knocked in Henderson’s first run with an infield grounder that brought in Tyler McCabe, running for Mike Nugent, who had singled.  Another star of the game was East junior Brad Rhoads, who had two hits and was one of the top performers in the first East-Henderson meeting with a triple.  Krebs also delivered as the East starting pitcher, holding Henderson to just one run until the game’s latter stages.  Henderson sophomore Kevin Miller had a standout catch in left field.

Henderson, ranked sixth in the Daily Local News area rankings, travels to league-leading and second-ranked Rustin (9-1 through Sunday) for a 3:45 p.m. start on Monday.  East, ranked seventh, hosts eighth-ranked Coatesville (7-5 through Sunday) on Friday at 3:45 p.m.

Abby Cosgrove and Mike Griffith of The Henderson Warrior school newspaper contributed to this article.