PHILADELPHIA – From his years of coaching Lancaster Catholic sophomore pitcher Dillon Marsh, coach Kevin Schneider of Neumann Goretti knew that his team would be facing a tough pitcher in the first round of the PIAA State Playoffs on Monday afternoon.
“We knew we were going to see a tough arm. I’ve known Dillon from travel ball; he’s played for me for a few years, so we knew we were going to see a good pitcher,” Schneider said. “We were talking about it in practices, it was about diagnosing his stuff early and as you saw he was pretty good early.”
It was not until the third inning where the Saints' bats came alive and started to make a dent into the scoreboard. R.J. McGettigan broke the inning open with a bases clearing double to put the Saints up by a score of 5-0, which is all senior pitcher Jeff Ciocco needed to cruise his way to victory.
“It brought up the confidence in me,” Ciocco said about the five run third inning. “I had a really good change-up with a good breaking ball.”
Ciocco finished up with six strikeouts in a complete game, only surrendering one run on a solo homerun.
The Saints executed all the keys necessary to secure the victory Monday afternoon and it took a team effort to do so explained coach Schneider.
NG will play in the second round of the state playoffs this Thursday - PSD Photo
“It comes down to simple things like good pitching, good defense, and then two out knocks, scoring first, adding onto a lead and things like that. Jeff Ciocco was phenomenal like he has been all year,” Schneider said.
Neumann-Goretti vs. Lancaster Catholic (8 Photos)
The Neumann Goretti Saints will advance in the PIAA playoff bracket to face North Penn-Mansfield in the Quarterfinals on Thursday. Despite Ciocco’s dominating performance, the Saints have other options to go to for Thursday’s contest, in hopes to bring back Ciocco for the semifinals if the Saints garner another victory.
“We are fortunate where we kind of have a 1 and 1a in Ciocco and Pritchett, our two seniors,” said Schneider. “Jeff will probably rest up and pitch in the semis if we are fortunate enough to get there. It’s one game at a time; we never look ahead. We play like every game is our last because it is.”
Jeff Ciocco was optimistic about his team’s chances in the State playoffs after notching the win for his team.
“I think we can go all the way, we have a great stacked team with a lot of energy on the bench and anybody can come onto the field whenever and play a role,” said Ciocco.