CR NORTH:Rock playing its best baseball right now

By Steve Sherman
Sports Editor

This year’s District One AAAA runnerup, Council Rock North would like nothing better than to win a state championship.
The Indians opened state play on Monday with a 6-2 victory over District 12 runnerup Central.
They head to round two at 3 p.m. today in Boyertown (weather permitting) in a quarterfinal pairing against SOL Continental Conference rival North Penn.
“I think anyone who starts playing high school baseball wants to win a state championship if they can,” stated Indians catcher Tyler Farrell.
“It might not always be realistic but once you have a shot at it, you can see it in sight and you want to fulfill it.
"You wanna go out there and win it.”
In their state opening triumph over Central High, Ryan Hartley got things moving in the right direction when he drove in the Rock’s first run with a second-inning, two-out single to left that scored Tim Filer, on board second with a single and a stolen base.
The Indians added another run in the third on a Scott Runzer single that scored Jesse Goldberg.
The Indians then sacked Central starter Stephen Schall in the fourth, building a 5-1 edge. Hartley again was a catalyst, leading off with a bloop single to right then advancing to second on a groundout.
Goldberg and shortstop Matt Hone laid down consecutive bunts with both runners reaching to load the bases, paving the way to a 3-run Indian outburst.
Runzer did the rest, scattering four hits and three walks while striking out five. At the plate, he added a pair of RBIs on 2 hits.
The 6-2 victory over Central put the Indians on their way. A win over North Penn and two more nets the Rock Keystone Gold.
“We really want to finish our senior year of right—with a state championship,” said Hone Wednesday afternoon in a post-practice interview.
“That would mean so much to all of us.”
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A week ago, Council Rock North made it all the way to the district championship, knocking off Methacton, Owen J. Roberts and Garnet Valley to get to the title tilt. The Indians showed their ability to bounce back, rebounding from deficits in all three district pairings to advance.
“When we get down, nobody gets scared,” explained Hone. “We seem to battle back and stay with it. We always have a shot. We’re never worried about [trailing].”
The SOL National Conference runnerup, finishing two games behind sister school CR South, North hardly remembers now how its season started off. But boxscores don’t lie and the truth is that the Rock suffered a 22-0 drubbing at the hands of SOL Continental rival CB South in its season opener at home.
Starter Scott Runzer surrendered four runs and threw 62 pitches in the first two frames. Even though the senior righthander gave way to reliever in the third, things wouldn’t get any better for the Indians in the third. Three different North pitchers surrendered 16 runs and seven walks in an inning that saw 20 Titans come to the plate.
“That’s baseball,” stated Farrell. “It was one of those days when nothing that you do can go right and everything they do goes right.”
Game two didn’t get much better with North suffering a 7-4 loss to Germantown Academy in an effort marred by three Indian errors.
“It was just one of those days you put it behind you; the next day you go out there and you get them,” explained Farrell. “You try harder and you make sure that you don’t make those errors.
“You try to win the next game and the game after that.”
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FALCONS SCALPED
The first two losses might have been ugly but the good news was they were non-league affairs. Game three was a league battle with Pennsbury so it counted.
For a long while in this one, North struggled. By the bottom of the fourth inning, the Indians were looking at a 6-1 deficit. With zeroes on the board in frames two through five, no one thought Rock would rebound. But North did just that, plating six runs in the top of the sixth, ignited by a 2-run homer by Ryan Venner and an RBI double by Lee Marvel.
The Falcons came back to tie in the bottom of the frame, sending the battle to the seventh tied 7-all. But Bill Hartley came through in the visitor’s half of the inning, pushing Venner home with the winning run on an RBI single.
Farrell added pair of hits of his own to the Rock’s effort.
“It seems to be a common thread in some games,” stated Farrell of his team’s ability to bounce back. “We definitely fought hard. It looked like we were out of it but we showed some fight and some spirit and we came back and bulldogged our way into it.”
North followed the win over the Falcons with another come from behind win. This time, the Indians rallied to score five runs in the sixth inning to defeat Truman, 11-7.
“After that, we started on a roll downhill; it was like an avalanche gaining, gaining—you couldn’t stop us
Indeed, Rock rolled to victory in battles against Tennent (7-2), Neshaminy (5-4), Bensalem (12-0) and again beating Pennsbury, this time in a 13-0 thumping of the Falcons
“It’s just a matter of doing your job and taking care of your responsibility,” stated Farrell.
“If you take of the things you have to take care of, the other things will fall in line.”
Oh, there were other setbacks suffered by the Rock throughout the season but none as bad as the 22-0 spanking they endured in the opener. Truman came back and bit the Indians in a 5-3 loss. South won both battles 3-2 the first time and 12-0 blister near the end of the season.
The players say none of that matters now. It’s the state playoffs and the Indians are on fire.
“We’re playing better now than we did in the regular season,” stated Hone. “We’ve been playing our best baseball lately and that’s really all that matters.”
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Photo caption: Kelly Adams on the mound in another win for the Indians.
Photo by William Anderton