NV routs Hellertown to stay alive
LIMEPORT — Limeport Stadium is a throwback sort of ballpark with a lot of character.
While its history may be lost on some of the young players playing there this week in the Pennsylvania Connie Mack state tournament, Northern Valley’s Landon Rosado knows one thing; he loves to pitch there during the state tourney.
The right-hander threw 3 1/3 shutout innings against Hellertown on Monday to record his fourth win pitching in the tournament during his days in Connie Mack baseball.
Following an all-too-familiar script, the Chargers beat Hellertown 13-3 in a game shortened to five innings by the 10-run rule. The win sends Northern Valley on to face either South Parkland or Chestnut Hill Wednesday night in the double elimination tournament.
“It’s always just a crazy atmosphere, and I like when the people are cheering. I feed off the energy, so I think that’s a lot of it,” said Rosado after the win.
Kaden Moyer started for Northern Valley on the mound and was unable to make it out of the first inning. Moyer faced five batters and issued two walks and hit one during the stretch, causing coach Erich Klein to go to Rosado — who had started the game in left field.
Rosado allowed a fielder’s choice and issued a walk, but limited the damage as Hellertown took a 3-0 lead.
Rosado went on to pitch into the fourth inning, allowing no hits and one walk to go with two strikeouts. Throwing 46 pitches, Rosado will be eligible to return to pitch again on Wednesday, if needed.
When they got their turn to swing the bats, the Chargers put the aluminum to good use.
An error, a single, and a walk loaded the bases for Coy Daubert, who singled to drive in a run. Parker Schaffer followed with a single to make it 3-2.
Jaden Christman hit into a fielder’s choice to tie the game and a pair of errors, along with a pair of walks brought in four more runs to give the Chargers a 7-3 advantage after one inning.
Not content with the four-run cushion, Moyer and Daubert both singled to open the second and put runners on first and third.
Daubert stole second and Hellertown got Moyer caught in a rundown off of third on the play, executing the rundown perfectly to get Moyer attempting to score. The only problem was as Daubert alertly took off for third and Moyer was tagged out, the throw to third sailed into left field to bring in Daubert for an 8-3 lead.
Northern Valley put the game away with five runs in the third. One run scored on a wild pitch, and Cole Dynda picked up an RBI single ahead of a two-run double by Cannon Fitch — who later scored when Schaffer singled to drive in his second run of the game to make it 13-3.
Christman added 1 2/3 innings of shutout relief to Rosado’s line to preserve the win and allow Northern Valley to advance.
Daubert finished the day with three hits, two runs scored and an RBI.
“I had a really good round of batting practice today and I felt really confident coming into the game,” said Daubert. “It was one of those days where my swing felt really good and I was able to have a good day at the plate.”
Klein believes that Rosado’s four state tournament wins is the most by a Northern Valley pitcher. He pointed out that in the past, Rosado was primarily a pitcher, but that he has been able to help offensively this season. Rosado finished the game with a walk, a single, and two runs scored.
While Hellertown is eliminated, Northern Valley will play the loser of the South Parkland and Chestnut Hill game that will be played tonight. Neither team has a loss in the tournament. South Parkland was the runner-up in the Lehigh Valley League and Chestnut Hill — the No. 5 team from the Bux-Mont League — has been one of the surprises of the tournament, beating Nazareth and Plymouth Whitemarsh, who were the Bux-Mont champions.
Wednesday’s game will be back at Limeport Stadium at 5 p.m.
Hellertown 300 00 - 3 5 6
Northern Valley 715 0x - 13 12 1
Salgado, Gillman (3) and Banonis; Moyer, Rosado (1), Christman (4) and Buskirk. W - Rosado. L - Salgado.