SOUTH PHILADELPHIA — La Salle College High School senior center fielder Shane Manieri swung at the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first inning and hit a foul popup off first.
Father Judge senior first baseman and Philadelphia Catholic League MVP Chuck Kelley settled under the ball, but dropped it, extending the at-bat. Manieri later hit a two-run home run to right field off Crusaders senior right-hander Nick Conway to complete a four-run first inning in the Explorers’ 11-4 win at Richie Ashburn Field in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park.
“That’s a team where you need to bring your A game to beat them, and we didn't do that,” Father Judge coach Mike Metzger said. “We had a couple mistakes in the first inning. Obviously, the home run hurt us too.”
Top-seeded La Salle, which only has one Catholic League loss, will face No. 2 Archbishop Carroll in Saturday’s championship game at Immaculata University. The Patriots beat Cardinal O’Hara, 10-5, on Wednesday evening to advance to the title game. First pitch of Saturday’s game is scheduled for noon.
Carroll is the lone Catholic League team to beat La Salle this season. The Patriots scored five runs in the sixth inning to beat the Explorers, 5-4, on April 30.
Father Judge senior outfielder Bill Kelly grounds out to second base to end the game.
Carroll senior left-handed pitcher Jake Kelchner, who is committed to the University of Alabama, struck out 12 Explorers and didn’t walk a batter in 5 2/3 innings. La Salle senior left-handed pitcher Joe Miller allowed two runs, three walks and one hit in six innings. The two are expected to oppose each other on Saturday.
“In the beginning of the year, we sat down in the classroom, went over some team goals for the year,” Manieri said. “And the goal was to win every set, and that’s what we did. And luckily we only had one loss this year. So 11-1 is pretty special and making it to the title game is obviously even more special.”
Manieri went 3-for-4 with four RBI. He singled home one of La Salle’s four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Both his home run and RBI single came on two-strike counts.
La Salle 11, Father Judge 4
The Explorers keep a Momentum Chart in their dugout during games. It is split in two to record positive and negative plays for each team. Things like two-out hits and strong defensive plays count as pluses on the chart.
“You start adding those things up, and you understand, ‘Hey, momentum’s in our favor, we don't have to do more, the game's going to start to reward us,’” La Salle coach Kyle Werman said.
The Explorers batted around in the sixth inning to increase their lead from 7-3 to 11-3. After Eric Marasheski — a senior infielder committed to Princeton University — popped out to shortstop, the next two batters reached base.
Father Judge senior right-hander Steve Leopold hit senior catcher Andrew Cossetti with a curveball on a 3-1 count then walked senior right fielder Anthony Cossetti. The Cossetti brothers scored on senior third baseman Jack Ruch’s two-run single two batters later.
Ruch stole second base to move into scoring position before Manieri’s single. He also executed a safety squeeze with runners on first and third in the first inning to give the Explorers their second run.
The Crusaders scored a run in the top of the fifth inning to cut their deficit to 4-2. Senior third baseman Pat Carroll reached on an error with two outs and no one on base. He advanced to second on a wild pitch by junior righty Gavin Moretski and scored on senior Bill Dougar’s full-count single.
Moretski limited Father Judge to one run in the inning when senior outfielder Tim McLaughlin lined out. Moretski allowed two runs, one of which was earned, in five innings. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out three Crusaders.
“I felt pretty good today, just locating my spots, keeping the ball low and I’ve been trusting my defense all year,” Moretski said. “That’s pretty much what I did today, just keeping the ball low and just mixing my pitches and hitting my spots.”
“Gavin did a great job,” said senior first baseman Brian Schaub, who went 2-for-3 with an RBI single past Father Judge sophomore second baseman Sean Levan’s diving attempt in the first inning. “He's been in that No. 2 role the whole year, but he's been doing his job. He's learning from Miller, and he’ll be the number one next year.”
McLaughlin drove in the only other run off Moretski with an RBI single to right field in the third inning. He also had an RBI double in the top of the seventh inning. Kelley also had an RBI for Father Judge.
La Salle will take the field on Saturday to play for its first Catholic League title since 2013. Archbishop Carroll hasn’t won the championship since 2004.
“Everybody’s hungry for a PCL championship,” Moretski said. “I know we haven’t had one in a little while, but I know the senior class wants it and everybody wants it.”