PHILADELPHIA - Chuck Kelley has been the Crusaders ace all season long and in Monday afternoon's outing, he showed just how dominant he can be.
Other than a jam in the fifth inning, Kelley breezed through Roman Catholic’s lineup on the way to earning the complete game victory, as the Crusaders knocked off the Cahillite’s by a score of 7-1.
“I was amped up all day coming into this matchup,” Kelley said. “And credit to my teammates for getting an early lead for me and that allowed me to settle in out on the mound.”
Kelley scattered one run on six hits in his seven innings of work while walking just two hitters and striking out ten.
“He was really commanding his fastball out there today, and was also throwing his off-speed pitches for strikes,” Crusaders head coach Kenny Devenney said. “When he’s able to get ahead in the count and gets guys out in front on his off-speed, that’s when he’s successful.”
Father Judge junior pitcher, Charles "Chuck" Kelley - PSD Photo by Jacob Guzdek
Like Kelley said, he was able to settle down early as the Crusaders offense gave him a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning. Senior shortstop Matt O’Connor led off the inning with a single, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, and came around to score on an RBI single off the bat of senior right fielder Kevin Schmitt for the Crusaders first run. Schmitt then came around and scored later in the inning on an RBI groundout off the bat of senior Christian Lutz.
After the first, Cahillite’s starter Santino Nave settled down himself, as he allowed only one base runner over his next three innings of work. Roman Catholic’s offense was also able to get one run back in the fourth inning on an RBI double from freshman catcher Blaise Faiola.
In the top of the fifth, Kelley was able to escape his only jam of the day, as the Cahillite’s loaded the bases with one out. But, Kelley was able to get a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat.
Then in the bottom of the fifth, the Cahillite’s defense ran into trouble. After a lead-off single, the Crusaders turned to a little small ball and it paid off. Junior Billy Kelly laid down a bunt in front of the plate that Faiola was unable to pick up and Kelly reached first safely. O’Connor then came to the plate and laid down a bunt and reached safely as Cahillite’s second baseman Brendan Myers was unable to hold onto the ball after a collision between him and O’Connor at first base.
After another Cahillite’s error later in the inning let the Crusaders go up 5-1, first baseman Pat Carroll added the final blow in a five run inning, with a two run single, to extend the Crusaders lead to 7-1.
“We work on bunting a lot because were not a team that’s going to go out there and put up double digit hits every game, so we need to play some small ball.” Devenney said. “When we get the lead-off guy on, we do what we can to get that guy into scoring position and go from there.”
That was more than enough run support for Kelley, who closed out the final two innings with four strikeouts, including striking out the side to finish the seventh.
The Crusaders improved to 8-4 overall and 5-2 in the Catholic league with the victory. They will be back in action on Wednesday for a Rivalry game at Archbishop Ryan.
“We have another big game on Wednesday against Archbishop Ryan,” Devenney said. “And we are just trying to stay with the goal of breaking the league season into three sets of four and going 3-1 in each of those sets.”
Roman Catholic’s next league match-up will take place on Monday, May 1 at home against La Salle at 4:00pm.