Down five runs halfway through the game, the Bucks County Ghost squad rallied behind a three-run bomb from Jimmy Casey in the sixth. They clawed. They scratched. They stole five bases. And still, they came up just short, dropping a 7-5 heartbreaker to the Rake Collegiate Team on Monday.
Let’s rewind.
Rake opened the scoring with a second-inning burst: a Ryan Madden double, a Kevin Cronin single, and a wild pitch. A classic three-run inning that didn’t need a home run — just a little chaos. Add in a third-inning error from Bucks County and suddenly it was 4-0 before the Ghosts had a chance to haunt anybody.
Alex Jenkinson started for Bucks County and struck out seven over three innings. Unfortunately, his own defense worked against him, and he was tagged with four runs (three earned) on five hits.
Rake kept adding on, building a seemingly safe 7-2 lead.
And then came Casey.
Top of the sixth. Boom. A three-run shot to right. Suddenly, 7-5 didn’t look so comfortable. Especially after the Ghosts started walking, running, bunting, and forcing the issue.
The late surge fell short, but not before a reminder: if you let a Ghost hang around too long, it’ll make you sweat.
The gloves were sharp. The swings had pop. And the comeback was almost something out of a campfire story. But in the end, the Philly Fightin Quakers did just enough to hold off a charging Philly Bandits Collegiate squad, 5–3, on Monday in a game that packed more tension than a late-inning mound visit.
The Quakers came out of the gate like they had somewhere to be, plating two runs in the first on a sac fly from Michael Christian and an RBI single by Frank Provenzano. Then came another two-run burst in the second, thanks to a single down the right-field line by Luke Hardnock — a name built for this kind of game. Joel Bonner tacked on a fifth run in the third, and suddenly it was 5–0, and the Bandits looked cooked.
But Bandits don’t fold. They claw. And that’s what they did.
Christian Clauss opened on the hill for the Bandits and was solid, giving up no earned runs in his lone inning of work. Brett Barrett took over and ate up four innings, but the Quakers scraped together just enough to stay in front.
Offensively, the Bandits punched back. A triple. A groundout. A pair of productive at-bats that chipped away at the lead. Leor Kedar and Tahir Parker each drove in a run, and Patrick White — who looked like a man who didn’t get the memo — went 2-for-3 at the dish.
They loaded the bases late. They walked six times in the game. They turned a double play. They threatened. But they never got over the hump.
They don’t give out awards for timely hitting in June. But if they did? Drew Brown would have needed an extra seat on the bus ride home.
Brown’s bases-clearing double in the third inning cracked open a tight game and sent the ASBA Futures Collegiate Team rolling to a 7–3 win over the Philly Mummers on Monday. Add in a two-run single from Luke Kenney later that inning, and you had yourself a five-run exhale.
Brown wasn’t just driving in runs — he was everywhere. Two hits, three RBIs, five defensive chances, and zero fear in the box. The guy looked like a one-man campaign for July MVP votes.
On the bump, Tyler Iams delivered exactly what the doctor ordered — seven innings, just three runs, and five strikeouts. He scattered four hits like he had a train to catch and trusted his defense to handle the rest. And they did — no errors, one double play, and a fielding performance that would’ve made a Gold Glove panel nod in approval.
The Mummers didn’t go quietly. Bill Zentmayer knocked in two runs, going 1-for-1 in the kind of “don’t forget about me” performance you circle in the postgame box score. Sam Serpiello, Nick Merunka, and Owen Pinkerton each chipped in a hit, but the Mummers never quite recovered from that third-inning eruption.
Connor McCloskey took the loss for the Mummers, who now have to shake this one off before a rematch Tuesday with the same Futures squad that just handed them a lesson in momentum.
Sometimes baseball is a game of inches. Other times, it’s a game of one swing. And Drew Brown made sure this one never got close again.
Standings
1. Philly Fightin' Quakers (4-0)
2. Bucks County Ghost (2-1)
3. Rake (2--2)
4. Philly Mummers (1-2)
5. Philly Bandits (1-3)
6. ASBA Futures (1-3)
Tuesday's Schedule
Philly Bandits vs. Rake | 6pm | Holy Ghost Prep
Philly Mummers vs. ASBA Futures | 6pm | Westtown School
