Nazareth Area High School baseball team ends season with 5-4 loss to Hatboro-Horsham

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/06/nazareth_area_high_school_base_19.html FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES It's not how hard you hit them. It's where you hit them. Casey Saverio's infield single with two outs in the seventh inning broke a tie and lifted Hatboro-Horsham High School's baseball team to a 5-4 victory over Nazareth in a PIAA Class AAAA first-round playoff game at Parkland High School. Saverio's hit came with the bases loaded on an 0-2 pitch from Blue Eagles relief ace Dan Horvath. The lefty swinging center fielder punched a ground ball that was perfectly placed between shortstop Mike Garzillo and third baseman Dan Shepherd. Garzillo, a Lehigh University recruit, ranged far to his right to field the ball but had no play. Hatboro-Horsham (21-4), the third seed from District 1, advances to Thursday's quarterfinals against Wyoming Valley West. "This is a big win for our program," Hatters coach Pete Moore said. "These guys just battle and compete. I couldn't be happier." Hatters pitcher Casey O'Donnell, who threw 136 pitches while striking out five and walking 11, ran into trouble in the bottom of the seventh. Anthony Gaetaniello led off with a single to center and stole second. O'Donnell bore down to strike out Garzillo and Shepherd, and retired David Warner on a come-backer to end it. "Casey is just a bulldog on the mound," Moore said. "(Garzillo) was the kid I was worried about the most. He has great speed and we wanted to keep him off the bases." Nazareth (21-5), the Lehigh Valley Conference and District 11 Class AAAA champion, fought back from a 3-0 deficit to take a 4-3 lead before faltering. "I'm just so proud of these guys for what they've accomplished," Nazareth coach Jon Lock said. "We could have folded up, but that's not this team. We just came up a little short today." Hartboro-Horsham used aggressive base running to take a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Two singles and an error loaded the bases with no outs against Shepherd, who pitched into the sixth inning. Tyler Zingle scored the first run on Chris Hens' sacrifice fly to shallow left, and the other runners moved up a base on the throw home. Grant Opalisky's sacrifice fly plated the second run, and the third run scored when Gaetaniello's throw got past third baseman Horvath. "They're a very, very good baseball team," Lock said. "They've been near the top of the state rankings all year." The Blue Eagles rallied for three unearned runs in the third and one in the fifth to take a 4-3 lead. Warner's two-run single capped the third-inning rally. Billy Deutsch's fifth-inning RBI double to deep left gave Nazareth its short-lived lead. "Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't," Shepherd said. "Today just wasn't our day. They're a good team. They hit the ball well." The Hatters tied it 4-4 in the sixth when Saverio scored on the back end of a double steal. With runners on first and third, Opalisky broke for second and Horvath turned and threw to second baseman Wil Godiska. Saverio sprinted home and slid safely ahead of Godiska's throw. "Base-running is one thing we pride ourselves in," Moore said. "I figured we'd take a chance because we had two very good runners on base." "Dan thought the runner was close enough to (Godiska) that he could quick tag him," Lock said. Lock praised the work of Shepherd, who emerged as the staff ace when Karl Keglovits was lost with a broken finger. "I can't say enough about Shep," Lock said. "When Karl went down we asked him to log innings and he became our workhorse." "We embraced each other as teammates," Shepherd said. "It's an awesome bunch of guys, great people. Every day was a day to enjoy."