Downingtown baseball coach Brian Stackhouse said his team had been able to overcome its mistakes all year.
That was until yesterday in the first round of the PIAA Class AAA state tournament against a Waynesboro team that the Whippets seemed to have overmatched in almost every department.
Waynesboro scored a run without a hit in the top of the eighth inning and hung on to stun the District 1 champions, 3-2, at Spring-Ford High.
The cloudy weather certainly matched the Whippets' spirits after the game. After all, the Downingtown pitchers struck out 15 Indians and allowed only two hits. And the Downingtown batters collected nine hits. But the Whippets left 10 runners on base.
Waynesboro (20-8), the runner-up in District 3, got its first run on a run-scoring double by Matt Lowans in the fourth inning. Then Downingtown starter Scott Rambo walked home an unearned run in the fifth inning. Rambo (9-0) pitched seven innings and struck out 12 in his 134-pitch effort.
The Whippets (22-3), who had set a school record for victories this spring, got a run back in their fourth on a fielder's choice-RBI by Tom Brophy. And they tied it at 2-2 in the fifth when Keith Carter knocked in his team-leading 40th run of the season on a foul fly-out down the left-field line.
But that's all the Whippets could produce against junior Ryan Devlin, a 6-foot-8 righthander who threw mostly a straight fastball.
Dan Armstrong relieved Rambo in the eighth and walked the first batter he faced, Jeff Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick then stole second and made it to third on a throwing error. Then, with Justin Warner at the plate, a pitch got past Downingtown catcher Dave Gibbons, allowing Kirkpatrick to score the winning run.
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WP: Ryan Devlin. LP: Dan Armstrong. 2B: W-Matt Lowans.
Brian Miller's e-mail address is millerbk@phillynews.com
