Lehigh Valley rallies again for Carpenter Cup title

FROM THE MORNING CALL

PHILADELPHIA — Confronted by another early deficit and playing with a depleted pitching staff, Lehigh Valley was searching for a rally-starter.

Two Drews delivered in the middle innings, sending the Carpenter Cup up the Northeast Extension for the first time in a decade.

Nazareth's Drew Hercik continued Lehigh Valley's tournament-long trend of opportunistic play Tuesday, ripping a game-tying two-run double in the fourth inning for its first hit. Pleasant Valley's Drew Borger followed one inning later with a go-ahead RBI single as Lehigh Valley came from behind for the third time in the Carpenter Cup baseball tournament, claiming a 5-3 win over Burlington County in the title game at Citizens Bank Park.

The championship is Lehigh Valley's first since 2001 and third overall in the franchise's 18-year history. It also won in 1998.

This was Year 26 of the Carpenter Cup, a 16-team all-star tournament featuring the top players from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

"The biggest thing is the camaraderie of this team," Lehigh Valley coach Ted Plessl said. "They basically have come together. You could see it building and building each and every game. The character of these guys really showed in those first couple of innings. We could have easily turned tail and had things go from bad to worse."

Splendid pitching and defense over the final eight innings gave Lehigh Valley's offense a chance to scratch out enough runs to complete its third comeback in as many games.

Northampton's Matt Yanek surrendered a two-run home run to Kevin McMenamin in the first inning and allowed another unearned run but came back to retire eight of the final nine batters he faced.

Central Catholic's Seth Stoudt, Nazareth's Karl Keglovits and Notre Dame-Green Pond's Shane Simpkins then combined for six shutout innings of relief. They limited Burlington County to four hits and pitched around five walks with the help of three double plays.

"We watched them come out here today, they're big kids putting big swings on the ball," Borger said of Burlington County. "We just made plays defensively. Our pitchers threw strikes. That's all you can ask for."

While Burlington County boasted a pitcher, Kevin Comer, picked No. 57 overall by the Blue Jays in this month's Major League Baseball draft, Lehigh Valley had a pitcher who wound up as the tournament's star.

One day after throwing three strong innings in a semifinal win over Tri-Cape, Keglovits threw three more scoreless innings in the title game. He entered in the fifth with runners on first and second with no outs but escaped by getting a double-play grounder and a strikeout, preserving a 4-3 lead.

Keglovits created his own jam in the sixth, allowing a double and walking two to load the bases with one out. He wriggled free by fielding a comebacker to start a 1-6-3 double play.

He completed his work in the tournament with a 1-2-3 seventh. He finished the Carpenter Cup with a 0.77 ERA in four appearances, allowing four hits, walking five and striking out 19 in 11 2/3 innings.

"My arm was sore coming into today, but then I loosened up in the bullpen and felt fine," Keglovits said. "So I just came in and threw three more.

"When they called me in, I was surprised. I thought I was going to come in the inning after. I just came in, hit my spots, got a double play and got out of it."

Lehigh Valley managed just five hits Tuesday, but four of them came in innings where it scored. Hercik's two-run double was Lehigh Valley's lone hit of the fourth; it tied the game at 3-3.

Borger's game-winning single came after Whitehall's Matt Bonshak cracked a leadoff double in the fifth. Borger added another hit in the ninth off Comer that moved Parkland's Nick Rabasco to third. Rabasco scored on a fielder's choice from Nazareth's Justin Pacchioli.

Given a second run to work with, Simpkins converted his second save in as many days with a 1-2-3 ninth. He earned his biggest out an inning earlier, retiring Nick Cieri on a fly ball to center field with runners at the corners.

For Lehigh Valley, aka Team Opportunistic, it was another moment of executing when the moment demanded it.

Said Hercik: "This whole tournament, every advantage we had, we came through."