Saturday
June 29, 2024 
The bullpen woes continue for the 2024 Quakertown Blazers, who lost 13-1 to Southside in a seven-inning mercy rule game Tuesday night at home.
Dylan Broderick started the game for Quakertown.
The Blazers pitching staff gave up 14 walks in the loss. Southside was disciplined at the plate, working the counts to their advantage.
Ashton Johnson, a junior at DeSales, pitched six innings for Southside. The decision to go to the bullpen came after the top of the seventh inning, when Southside scored four runs on six straight walks from Caden DeSiato.
Mason Woolwine roped a solo home run over the 325 sign in left field in the bottom of the second inning to record the Blazers’ sole run of the night.
“Trying to hunt the fastball, other games I’ve been struggling with my timing … got a fastball that I liked and I just smoked it,” said Woolwine.
Woolwine’s home run marks the first home run of the 2024 season at Memorial Park.
“Feels good, I gave my teammates a little ‘Let’s go!’ down the first baseline … it feels great,” Woolwine said.
Three home runs were hit at Memorial Park Tuesday night.
Southside’s Aidan Butz hit a two-run shot over the left field fence and teammate Dennis Pierce, 2019 Quakertown Community High School alum, smoked a deep ball over the center left field fence in the top of the sixth inning.
Pierce recorded his sixth home run of the 2024 ECCBL season.
“It brings back some memories … this field. I played on it for four years, so it’s good to be back and play on it again,” Pierce said.
Southside manager Dylan Dando and Pierce noted that consistency has been the key to their success all season.
“It’s always about being consistent …coming to the park and being ready to play, going about your business the same way every time,” Dando said.
On facing the top team in the league, Blazers manager Mike Fitzgerald said, “Our approach was to win the game … we’re a little shorthanded in the bullpen right now, but we had our approach set should we take the lead, hold the lead, and we were going to approach it a lot differently than we approached it after they took the lead and our starting pitcher had to come out.”
Woolwine echoed Fitzgerald: Quakertown’s approach was to win and there wasn’t any mindset change because they were facing the league’s best team.
Southside, while scoring 13 runs, also left 13 men on base. The Blazers were able to get out of bases loaded situations in the second and seventh innings. Errors plagued the Blazers as they recorded four Tuesday night, two coming from the outfield.
“We made some plays when we had to … we also had some plays that shouldn’t have been made … which allowed them to score those 13 runs, not the way you win baseball games,” Fitzgerald said.
The Blazers look to find an offensive spark as they went 6-for-27 as a team at the plate, with one walk.
The Blazers host Southside again Thursday, June 27, with first pitch at 7 p.m.
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