CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. – Keystone baseball opened the defense of its 12-consecutive Colonial State Athletic Conference championships by splitting a conference-opening twinbill at Wilson College Sunday afternoon at Henninger Field.
Phoenix took the first game, 3-1, while the Giants rebounded for a 4-3 victory.
Nathan Hinkley (Bradenton, Fla./Saint Lucie West Centennial) went the whole way on the mound in game No. 1, getting five strikeouts with just one walk while giving up five hits for three runs and the loss.
Patrick Adamski (Kingston, Pa./Wyoming Valley West) got his first win on the mound in the second game, going 6.0 innings with three strikeouts and allowing six hits but just one earned run.
Brandon Valles (Toms River, N.J./Toms River North) recorded his second save of the season.
Keystone now stands at 6-10 overall and 1-1 in the CSAC while Wilson is 12-3 overall, 1-1 CSAC.
The two teams last met up in the 2021 CSAC Championships title game series.
Game No. 1: Keystone 1, Wilson 3
JD Barrett (Moosic, Pa./Dallas) scored the Giants' lone run with a lead-off homer in the top of the seventh inning.
Wilson pitcher Cam Nolet pitched a gem, notching 12 strikeouts — five looking, seven swinging — while Michael Hippchen nabbed the save in two innings of relief work. Both combined to send 21 of the last 22 batters faced down in order.
Dean Mercer drove in all of the Phoenix's runs with a two-run home run in the third inning and an RBI single in the eighth.
Chris Hadsall (Lehman, Pa./Lake Lehman) recorded four assists at third base while right fielder Vince Montone (Oak Ridge, N.J./Jefferson Township) and shortstop Bobby Pokorney (Margate, Fla./J.P. Taravella) each had three putouts.
Game No. 2: Keystone 4, Wilson 3
The Phoenix again got on the scoreboard first, this time in the bottom of the second inning.
Brady Andre got on with a lead-off single and came around the horn to score on Haden Hoff's ground-single to left field that was misplayed. Alex Siedleck followed with a double to deep right field to plate another run for an early 2-0 lead.
The score remained until the top of the fifth when Jason Thomas (Miami, Fla./Barbara Goleman) laid a bunt down the right side and evaded the tag to reach base safely and score Pedro Abreu (Bronx, N.Y./Santa Teresa) from third. After Barrett's sacrifice bunt advanced Ryan Cosby (Buford, Ga./Mountain View) and Thomas to third and second base, respectively, RJ Gouldsbury (Throop, Pa./Mid Valley) lined a shot up the middle for a two-RBI single and a Giants' 3-2 lead.
Keystone added another run an inning later with a series of bunts.
Hadsall led off with a single up the middle followed by a bloop bunt to the pitcher as Pokorney reached first base safely. Abreu then bunted the runners over and Cosby perfectly placed a short bunt on the first-base line that stayed fair and scored Hadsall.
Wilson threatened in both the sixth and eighth innings with runners at the corners, but Adamski ended the former with a strikeout while Valles closed out the latter by inducing a fly out to left field.
What's Next
Keystone is scheduled to host William Paterson this Thursday, March 24 with first pitch at 3:30 p.m. followed by an away game at Susquehanna and back home against Moravian before returning to conference play against Rosemont on April 2.
Wilson will host Penn State Altoona before returning to CSAC action against Rosemont next Saturday.
Keystone splits its conference-opening series after gutting out a 4-3 victory in game No. 2 over Wilson #d3baseball pic.twitter.com/3lwTPw4TlO
— Keystone Giants Athletics (@KCGiants) March 21, 2022