Jordan Smith's four-hitter pulls Nazareth within one win of Northampton County American Legion baseball championship

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

After an inauspicious beginning, Jordan Smith was virtually untouchable on Monday.

The hard-throwing right-hander fired a four-hitter and Nazareth scored three runs in the first inning en route to a 6-0 victory over Bath in the opening game of the best-of-three Northampton County American Legion championship baseball series at Cowling Field.

Nazareth can wrap up its second straight league title with a victory this afternoon at Nazareth Borough Park. Game time is 5:30 p.m.

"After two rounds of playoffs we're very fortunate to have a guy like Jordan Smith fresh for Game 1 of a championship series," Nazareth manager Jason Brown said. "He gave us everything we expected. He was dominant."

Smith allowed singles to Bath's first two batters, Alex Longernecker and Andreas Haller, before settling into a groove. He finished with five strikeouts and three walks.

"He didn't have a lot of strikeouts," Brown said, "but he did a good job of pitching to contact and he had a good defense behind him. We played good defense all night long."

"I was well rested," said Smith, who said he was on about eight days rest. "My arm felt good. (Shortstop Mike) Garzillo made a couple unbelievable plays, and Karl (Keglovits) made a heads-up base-running play. It was an all-around good effort."

The play Smith was referring to came in the seventh inning with Keglovits on first base and Kyle Dauscher at the plate.

Keglovits broke for second on a pitch that resulted in Dauscher grounding out to shortstop. Keglovits kept right on running toward third. When first baseman Jason Mitch's throw skipped past third baseman Pete Daland, Keglovits raced home with Nazareth's sixth run.

Nazareth jumped on Daland, Bath's starting pitcher, for three runs in the first inning.

Shane Siebler and Ben Schmitt opened the inning with singles. Siebler was picked off second, but Keglovits walked and Dauscher drove in the first run with a single to left field. Dan Shepherd was hit by a pitch, and Smith singled in two more runs for a 3-0 lead.

"We're swinging the bats much better now," Brown said. "We have a lot of veterans that know how to get it done come playoff time."

Nazareth added another run in the second inning when Garzillo walked with the bases loaded. Daland eventually found his rhythm but the damage was already done.

"(Daland) wasn't able to command much of anything the first couple innings," Bath manager Dave Brong said. "He wasn't himself. Something wasn't quite right. It's disappointing, but it happens to pitchers."

"To get those early runs against a good pitching team like Bath gave us a huge advantage," Smith said.

Smith likes Nazareth's chances today if it continues playing to its potential.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "We always play well on our home field. If we play as well as we did today I feel we have a good shot."

"Listen, we're going to show up," Brong said. "Our pitching is a little depleted, but we're going to show up to play."


NAZARETH (ab-r-h-bi) -- Siebler rf 3-0-1-0, Schmitt lf 3-1-1-0, Garzillo ss 3-1-1-1, Keglovits 1b 2-2-1-1, Dauscher c 4-1-1-1, Shepherd 3b 3-0-0-0, Smith p 3-0-1-2, Criscuolo cf 3-0-0-0, Godiska 2b 3-1-1-0. Totals 27-6-7-5.

BATH (ab-r-h-bi) -- Longernecker ss 3-0-2-0, Haller cf 3-0-1-0, Daland p/3b 1-0-0-0, J. Bertolotti c 3-0-1-0, Brong eh 2-0-0-0, R. Bertolotti rf 3-0-0-0, Mitch 1b 2-0-0-0, Allman 2b 2-0-0-0, Bender lf 2-0-0-0, Ryan 3b/lf 1-0-0-0, Ryan Santoro ph 1-0-0-0. Totals 23-0-4-0.

Nazareth (18-7) 310 010 1--6 7 0
Bath (18-6-2) 000 000 0--0 4 3

E -- Longernecker 2, Mitch. DP -- Nazareth; Birches 2. LOB -- Nazareth 6; Bath 5. 3B -- Garzillo. CS -- Longernecker.
Smith and Dauscher; Daland, Bender (5) and J. Bertolotti. L -- Daland. SO-BB -- Smith 5-3; Daland 3-3, Bender 2-1. HBP -- by Daland (Siebler, Shepherd).


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