Article Courtesy of Will Neusidl for PA Sports Beat, Covering the Lehigh Valley
The Quakertown Blazers hosted the South Jersey Kings in a doubleheader today.
In game 1, South Jersey score the first run of the game in the top of the 2nd on an RBI groundout by
Anthony Swenda of UMBC.
Chase Conklin of Richmond hit a groundout to second that scored Swenda in the top of the 4th to make it 2-0 Kings.
The Blazers would cut the deficit in the bottom of the 4th when
Dominic Proietto of Kutztown hit an RBI groundout to score
Riley Davis of Lehigh. The next batter,
Conlan Wall of St Joes, hit a double that scored
Owen Petrich of Delaware to give the Blazers their first lead of the game.
The Kings would tie the game up when
John DeMucci of West Chester scored on a wild pitch. In the 8th inning, Swenda scored from first when the Blazers suffered a series of errors while trying to throw him out stealing second base. The sequence gave the Kings the lead back 4-3.
Robby Barrientos of Old Dominion added an insurance run by hitting a double to score Conklin.
The Blazers would cut the deficit by one again when
Cole Hertzler of Liberty scored on a error by the third baseman. However,
Hunter Sibley of Arcadia would strike out the final hitter to leave the tying run on 3rd and the go ahead run on 1st to end the game and give the Kings a 5-4 victory in game 1.
Matt Choi threw 2 innings of scoreless relief for the Blazers while striking out 4.
Click here to see interview with the Kings, Hunter Sibley, at PA Sportsbeat
In Game 2,
Luke Lesch of Rider hit a 2 Run HR in the top of the 4th to give the Kings a 2-0 lead.
The Blazers would cut the lead to one as Cole Hertzler scored on wild pitch in the bottom of the 4th.
Riley Davis of Lehigh would hit a double to score
Thomas Faggioni and
Eric Shandler of UMBC and gave the Blazers a 3-2 lead. An error by the shortstop scored Davis to increase the Blazers lead to 4-2. in the bottom of the 5th, Faggioni hit a double to score Hertzler and
Andrew Nole of Lehigh to make the lead 6-2. Faggioni would score on an error by the shortstop to make it 7-2 Blazers.
The Kings then cut the deficit down to 7-3 in the top of the 6th when
Matthew Sheppard of Cumberland Community College hit a single to score
Chris Baker of Virginia.
In the bottom of the 6th, Sheppard overthrew the third baseman trying to catch a stealing
RJ Huth of Chestnut Hill College, allowing Huth to score and make it 8-3 Blazers.
In the top of the 7th, Lesch hit a single to score Baker and
Anthony Swenda to cut the Blazers lead to 3. Baker would score on a wild pitch to make it a two run game. However.
Tom McLaughlin of Franklin & Marshall got
Michael Decker of Columbia to fly out to 3rd to preserve the 8-6 victory.
Quinn Warmkessel of East Stroudsburg earned the victory by going 4.2 innings allowing only 2 runs and striking out 9. Quinn stated that pitching well is a confidence booster after redshirting his freshman year at ESU.
Click here to see interview with Quinn Warmkessel the winning pitcher for the Blazers in Game 2, at PA Sportsbeat