Wild Pitch

Morgan Cullen scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 11th inning Thursday night to give Bristol a 2-1 victory over Harry S Truman in one of the weirdest finishes of the high school softball season. With the score tied, the Warriors began their half of the inning with Cullen on second base as part of the tiebreaker rule. She moved to third on Kelly Pond's sacrifice before scoring. The matchup was part of a doubleheader at Bristol Memorial Park. Neshaminy and Pennsbury played in the second game, which ended too late for this edition.

Morgan Cullen scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 11th inning Thursday night to give Bristol a 2-1 victory over Harry S Truman in one of the weirdest finishes of the high school softball season. With the score tied, the Warriors began their half of the inning with Cullen on second base as part of the tiebreaker rule. She moved to third on Kelly Pond's sacrifice before scoring. The matchup was part of a doubleheader at Bristol Memorial Park. Neshaminy and Pennsbury played in the second game, which ended too late for this edition.

At the plate, Bishop Eustace's baseball team managed just two hits and struck out 12 times. In the field, the Crusaders were nearly flawless. Zac Gallen pitched a complete game with zero walks and T.J. Maiorino and Chris Jones worked middle-infield magic with their gloves, as Bishop Eustace clinched a share of the Olympic National title with a 4-1 victory over Paul VI on Tuesday. "The defense was big," Gallen said. "Those guys made every play, especially when we needed it. " Gallen, a junior righthander, pitched a six-hitter with three strikeouts as Bishop Eustace won its sixth in a row to improve to 14-5 overall and 6-1 in the division.

Morgan Cullen scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 11th inning Thursday night to give Bristol a 2-1 victory over Harry S Truman in one of the weirdest finishes of the high school softball season. With the score tied, the Warriors began their half of the inning with Cullen on second base as part of the tiebreaker rule. She moved to third on Kelly Pond's sacrifice before scoring. The matchup was part of a doubleheader at Bristol Memorial Park. Neshaminy and Pennsbury played in the second game, which ended too late for this edition.

Upper Darby softball coach Becky Daly could barely explain why pitcher and No. 3 hitter Savannah Nierintz has been on such a roll during the season's stretch run. Neither could Nierintz herself. "We just try to keep everything the same," she said after throwing her second shutout of the season against Ridley, and fifth overall, in a crucial, 3-0 Central League victory Wednesday. The win kept the Royals (12-6 overall, 12-3 league) ahead of the Green Raiders (11-7, 10-5)

FUNNY THING about sports accomplishments. First, a kid needs to try out for a team. Even now, in this his junior year at Ben Franklin High, Khalil Coles has played only one sport at the organized level. And he's not exactly Mr. Unofficial Activity in basketball, flag football or anything else. But at least he plays baseball, and the experience is going rather well, thank you. Coles, a 6-1, 170-pound righthander, hurled a three-hitter with 12 strikeouts Thursday as the Electrons bested visiting Mariana Bracetti Academy, 7-5, in a Public C game at 29th and Chalmers.

Norristown softball coach Jon Kandrick didn't want a repeat of his team's earlier meeting with Wissahickon in a Suburban One League American Conference game. The Trojans won that first game, and sophomore lefthander Katie Ziegler limited the Eagles to two hits. Thursday, the Eagles resorted to their slapping and bunting offense and earned a 7-0 victory that kept them in the driver's seat in the conference. "I told them we needed to get on base and score runs any way we could," Kandrick said after the Eagles improved to 10-3 overall, 9-2 in the conference.

Pitching at ball fields all around the Philadelphia area, Conwell-Egan High's Brian Herman went 10-0 for the Catholic League champion Eagles this season. He had a much tougher time yesterday on the mound at Citizens Bank Park. Herman, in a relief appearance, threw three wild pitches in the eighth inning as Tri-Cape scored three runs to beat the Catholic League, 6-5, in the first semifinal of a Carpenter Cup doubleheader. Tri-Cape, composed of all-stars from the Tri-County Conference and Cape-Atlantic League, advanced to its sixth final.

Cherry Hill West's Chris Matarese made the two biggest plays of the game yesterday in a 4-3, 12-inning win over host Washington Township. Matarese drove in the winning run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the 12th inning and threw out a runner at the plate in the bottom of the inning to preserve the victory. West, ranked No. 10 in South Jersey by The Inquirer, is 2-1 overall and in the Olympic Conference American Division. No. 6 Township fell to 1-1, 0-1. "I had had a rough day at the plate," said Matarese, who had struck out in his first three at-bats.

It's been a frustrating season for the Great Valley softball team and new coach Dick Abplanalp. After finishing atop the Pioneer Athletic Conference in three of the last four seasons, the Patriots are struggling with a 1-9 record. And nowhere was that frustration more evident than in Thursday night's 12-11, error-filled league loss to Upper Perkiomen. Great Valley rallied twice to overcome 2-0 and 7-3 deficits before taking a 9-7 lead in the top of the sixth inning. But a combination of errors, passed balls, a wild pitch and questionable baserunning ruined the comeback.

Was La Salle's Kevin Long, still feeling the effects of a flu that had arrived over the weekend, hoping rain would arrive as predicted and push back a Catholic League baseball quarterfinal vs. St. Joseph's Prep? "No, I was ready to go," he said. "Breathing was difficult for me at times, but I knew I'd be able to tough it out. " Long, looking anything but worn down or sluggish, pitched a one-hitter with five strikeouts as the host Explorers silenced the Hawks, 6-0, Tuesday in a game that lasted 1 hour, 33 minutes.

At the plate, Bishop Eustace's baseball team managed just two hits and struck out 12 times. In the field, the Crusaders were nearly flawless. Zac Gallen pitched a complete game with zero walks and T.J. Maiorino and Chris Jones worked middle-infield magic with their gloves, as Bishop Eustace clinched a share of the Olympic National title with a 4-1 victory over Paul VI on Tuesday. "The defense was big," Gallen said. "Those guys made every play, especially when we needed it. " Gallen, a junior righthander, pitched a six-hitter with three strikeouts as Bishop Eustace won its sixth in a row to improve to 14-5 overall and 6-1 in the division.

Upper Darby softball coach Becky Daly could barely explain why pitcher and No. 3 hitter Savannah Nierintz has been on such a roll during the season's stretch run. Neither could Nierintz herself. "We just try to keep everything the same," she said after throwing her second shutout of the season against Ridley, and fifth overall, in a crucial, 3-0 Central League victory Wednesday. The win kept the Royals (12-6 overall, 12-3 league) ahead of the Green Raiders (11-7, 10-5)

Bridgette Allessandrini raced home on a two-out wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning, giving host Hammonton a 1-0 victory over Absegami on Friday in Cape-Atlantic League softball. Kimmy Hellyer went the distance for the win, shutting out the Braves on six hits. Kelly Lupton took the loss even though she gave up only two hits and two walks and struck out 11. In other Cape-Atlantic action: One day after pitching her third perfect game of the season, Brittany Scott tossed her fourth no-hitter in Buena's 5-0 home win over Middle Township.

Sean Correlli and Brandon Musselman lined key run-scoring singles and Radnor took sole possession of first place in the Central League's small-school-division baseball standings with a 4-2 win over visiting Marple Newtown on Thursday. The Red Raiders (12-3), who opened the season with a 10-0 loss to Marple (13-3), took a 2-0 lead on Correlli's two-run, two-out single in the second inning. Radnor added two runs in the fourth on Musselman's RBI single and a wild pitch. Marple loaded the bases in the seventh with two walks and a hit before pitcher Kevin Connor ended the threat by inducing a groundout.

WHILE TAKING hacks in the on-deck circle, preparing for his fifth at-bat, Augusto "June" Ortega was handed a three-leaf clover by teammate Kevin Montero, who was sitting on the grass nearby. "Here, take this for good luck," Montero said, in Spanish. (We'll assume no four-leafers were available.) "I don't need any," Ortega cracked in that same language, though he did tuck the clover into his right back pocket. Ortega rapped a grounder toward first base and, oh, the ball was misplayed for an error.

FUNNY THING about sports accomplishments. First, a kid needs to try out for a team. Even now, in this his junior year at Ben Franklin High, Khalil Coles has played only one sport at the organized level. And he's not exactly Mr. Unofficial Activity in basketball, flag football or anything else. But at least he plays baseball, and the experience is going rather well, thank you. Coles, a 6-1, 170-pound righthander, hurled a three-hitter with 12 strikeouts Thursday as the Electrons bested visiting Mariana Bracetti Academy, 7-5, in a Public C game at 29th and Chalmers.

PITTSBURGH - The fireworks exploded over center field at PNC Park and Jimmy Rollins squatted in disbelief at shortstop. An entire stadium motioned "safe" just as first-base umpire Tony Randazzo spread his arms, and the game was over. Rollins remained exactly at the point where he threw the ball that was a fraction of a second too late. Welcome to life with offensive anemia. The Pirates scored twice Saturday: Once on a wild pitch and then on an infield single. They still beat the Phillies, 2-1, and all of the concern from a less-than-stellar opening day victory permeated.

Archbishop Carroll relied on the strong arm of Eric McGough and a late, fortunate bounce to edge host Lansdale Catholic, 5-4, in Wednesday afternoon's Catholic League baseball matchup. McGough didn't allow a hit in six innings, but was removed before the seventh as his pitch count totaled 93 and Carroll held a 5-1 lead. In the absence of the junior hurler, Lansdale stormed back with three runs and loaded the bases with two outs. Rick DiDominico's wild pitch bounced off the back stop and was recovered by catcher Dan Santoleri, who fired back to DiDominico for the game-ending out at home plate.