**Note: This article originally published in The Reporter and on PaPrepLive.com**
WARRINGTON >> The Souderton Area baseball team outscored Central Bucks South 2-0 Tuesday in its District 1-AAAA playoff game. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough.
“If it was a best-of-three series they got yesterday’s game, we got today, and we’d see about tomorrow,” Souderton head coach Mike Childs said. “Unfortunately it’s not.”
In a game that spanned two days due to rain, No. 26 Souderton was unable to overcome a 3-0 Monday deficit and fell to No. 7 CB South by a score of 3-2 Tuesday.
“Yesterday they won, today we won, but unfortunately they had more runs yesterday than we had today. It’s the beauty of baseball,” Childs said after the game.
Before the third-inning rain delay Monday, and already down 3-0 in the game, Souderton finally had a rally going after not registering a baserunner in the first two innings. The Indians had first-and-third with one out when the rains came.
It also turns out they had plenty of time to figure out what they wanted to do on offense when play resumed 23 hours later.
“We wanted to be out of the gate and get a run right away,” Childs said. “We had a plan from the beginning to suicide squeeze today, we just didn’t know which pitch.”
Souderton decided it would be the very first pitch. Matt Reinert executed the bunt play perfectly to score Connor Lennon and get his team on the board.
A second run would come for Souderton in the fifth, when it was able to capitalize on some CB South mistakes. A leadoff double by Thylar Summarell was followed by a groundout and an error by the Titans to make the score 3-2.
Aaron Gulibon, who started the game Monday and allowed three runs on six hits in two innings, continued the game Tuesday and was a completely different pitcher.
“Gulibon had an awesome season, an awesome career. He came out and did what he had to do today and kept (CB South) in check,” Childs said.
The senior was a microcosm of Souderton’s turnaround Tuesday, allowing no runs on just three hits in four innings of work. He also struck out two.
“He’s an incredible player. Work ethic, everything else,” Childs said about Gulibon. “Baseball is about adjustments, and he made the adjustments from (Monday) to (Tuesday).”
Offensively Souderton had plenty of chances, leaving men on third with less than two outs in the fifth and sixth innings, needing just a run to tie the game. A lot of the reason the game stayed 3-2 was because of Dan Klepchick, who started the game for South.
Klepchick, one of the area’s most dominant pitchers in 2016, allowed two runs and struck out four while walking none in the game. The Titan starter from Monday threw 88 pitches in a complete game effort, 64 for strikes.
“We had chances to score, we tried to score, and it didn’t happen to put it politely. But it is what it is,” Childs said. “I’m happy we scored two runs off (Klepchick). Honestly, if we’re looking at the positives, the guy gives up six runs all year and we got two…based on that I’m very proud of them.”
CB South hit the ball hard from the start of the game Monday, tallying three extra-base hits over two innings. The big one was a two-run home run from Tyler Rossi, who sent an 0-1 pitch well over the left field wall on a humid day.
Tyler Watson plated the third run for South on a double to deep left field, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple.
Souderton, who handed South two of its three conference losses during the regular season, finishes the season with a record of 10-11.
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 3, SOUDERTON 2
Souderton: 001 010 0 – 2 5 0
CB South: 030 000 x – 3 9 2
WP: Klepchick – 7IP 5H 2R 2ER 0BB 4K – 88 pitches
LP: Gulibon – 6IP 9H 3R 3ER 1BB 2K – 89 pitches
HR: CBS- Rossi, T
2B: S- Summarell; CBS- Moller, Watson
SB: S- Lennon
CS: CBS- Moller (Gulibon PO), Goldsworthy (Gulibon-Gular)
Double Plays: S- 1 (Freed-Kullmann- Summarell)
Souderton: Amenta 1-3, RBI; Summarell 1-3, R; Lennon 1-3, R; Reinert 0-3, RBI, SAC
CB South: Rossi, T 2-3, 2 RBI; Dietz 2-3, R; Watson 1-2, RBI; Gross 1-1, R, HBP
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