They say people in a glass house shouldn’t throw stones.
But Plumstead Christian has two brothers living in a Glass house throwing baseballs. And the Panthers are just fine.
The pitching tandem of D.J. Glass, a junior, and his freshman brother Declan are as good as any in the Bicentennial Athletic League. D.J. has struck out 58 in 35 innings of work; Declan has whiffed an unreal 39 of the 56 batters he has faced.
“They are a phenomenal 1-2 punch,” commended Plumstead head coach Wes Brown. “They hit, they pitch, they steal bases. They are slick, smooth and play excellent defense. They drive the ball with every at-bat.
“They are two of the best pitchers in the entire league,” Brown continued. “They are discouraging the other team early and then we are able to roll with that most of the time. D.J. and Declan are both going to go the whole game and get 10 or 12 strikeouts a game. It’s a great weapon to have.”
The Panthers sat at 7-4 after Tuesday’s 10-1 win at The Christian Academy. Chase Blattner drove in three and Logan Rufe added a double. Levi Zaskoda stole three bases to support the Glass brothers, who combined to strike out 13 and spin a one-hitter.
In two of Plumstead’s recent losses – to Delco Christian and Jenkintown – D.J. Glass pitched well enough to win. He posted a .83 WHIP and struck out 21 in 12 innings of work.
The verdicts against likely postseason bound teams were tough. But it also means that if the Panthers make districts – at press time, they were the fifth team of the four Class A to advance to the postseason – they have the pitching to win any one-game series.
“There was a silver lining even with our big losses. We made seven errors in both games and you can’t give those to a good team. Or even a bad team,” Brown pointed out. “It is: can we stop beating ourselves?”
Plumstead can slug too, having scored at least nine runs in all of its wins. They whipped Bristol, a strong 3A club, 15-0 on April 11 in the Panthers’ signature win. Philip Young drove in three and every Panther scored at least once.
“Bristol turned some heads. They’ve beaten teams that we’ve struggled with,” Brown noted. “Hopefully we’ll have a couple of more wins coming up in the next week or two.”
The bats are led by D.J. and Declan. D.J.’s .417 average and two homers lead the team; Declan’s 11 RBIs pace the Panthers. Blattner notably carries a .300 average and five steals; Rufe was batting .308 at press time having rapped out five hits in his last three games.
Yet Brown found his biggest surprise from the soccer pitch. Senior Jonny Michael, a futbol standout who barely played organized baseball prior to this spring, has worked his way up from ninth to fifth in the batting order. His .368 average is second on PCS.
Michael “had a double and a single against Jenkintown. He locks down left field. I’m going to try and get him some kind of league award in a few weeks,” Brown said, “because he has gone from nothing to batting five on a good team.”
The Panthers return to action at Plumstead on Thursday against Collegium Charter.
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