Arguably the best season in CB West (20-7) baseball history ended in last Thursday’s PIAA 6A quarterfinal at Villanova Ballpark. District 12 champion Father Judge eked out a 1-0 win in the bottom of the ninth.
Sam Greer was nearly perfect on the mound, fanning eight and allowing only five baserunners in seven innings. And teammate Julio Ermigiotti was perfect on June 5; the Lehigh commit threw an 80-pitch perfect game against District Three’s Wilson in a 3-0 first-round win. West allowed just two runs in its final 28 innings.
Greer blanked Spring-Ford 4-0 in the district title game. “Sam threw something like 19 scoreless innings this postseason,” reminded West skipper Brian Weaver. “Julio certainly got a lot of attention, but one of my favorite quotes from Sam, when he won the title game, was ‘It was me today but it could have been any of our pitchers because we are so dialed in.’ I felt that was so mature with the recognition that they are a staff.
“As a coach, you don’t make that happen,” Weaver continued. “You have guys who work hard all year. They lift. They train. They take care of their arm and rest appropriately. It’s a credit to them for handling things the right way.”
The Bucks, as a No. 14 seed, won the program’s first District One crown and made their first trip to states. Both Ermigiotti and his battery mate, Army signee Max McGlone, made the first team All-SOL Colonial.
“We don’t have a team full of flashy D1 guys who put up insane numbers at showcases. We have a lot of very good players who are scrappy and play together,” Weaver said. “Baseball is such an individual sport in so many ways but these guys were cognizant that there was a common goal we were reaching for. That’s been so cool.”
The Bucks lost their opener to North Penn 12-3 (more on that later) and then rattled off a 10-game win streak. West then hit a skid, dropping five of six, before getting back on track with a big win over Quakertown on May 12, a day after West got uncharacteristically thumped by rival CB South.
“With the exception of getting smoked by South, we lost four close ones,” Weaver reminded. “It took three really good teams their last at-bat to beat us. We focused on that. As a coach, your default setting is to press and change things. But our guys, and especially our captains, were very level through all that and never seemed shaken.”
Quakertown started a nine-game win streak that carried all the way to the district title and a win in PIAAs before the quarterfinal. One of the wins was a 14-1 revenge mercy rule waxing of North Penn in the district semifinals.
This is not the end of the line for many Buck seniors. Kevin Bukowski (Widener), Alex Jenkinson (Haverford), Matt Carr (Gettysburg) and Luke Birkhead (Clarion) will all play collegiately.
“A loss was not an existential crisis. Every win wasn’t treated like they won something really important,” Weaver commented. “They are the same guys after Julio throws a perfect game and after losing an extra inning 1-0 heartbreaker to Judge in the state quarterfinals. Starting with the first bus ride of the year, my staff realized their personality and confidence might be different than any team we’ve coached. And if we can let them be them, that might really pay off.”
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