Lincoln Park Wins District 4A-12 With 6-2 Victory Over St. Andrew’s

St. Andrew’s Danny Young was 1-for-2 with a walk and a run in the Scots 6-2 loss to Lincoln Park in the District 4A-12 championship.

St. Andrew’s coach George Sands was not particularly pleased with how his team performed in Thursday’s District 4A-12 championship.

Although the team still secures a regional playoff berth despite its 6-2 loss to 4A-12 champions Lincoln Park, it was a disappointment for the Scots to follow up after playing such an impressive game in their 1-0 semifinal victory against Cardinal Newman.

“The best thing is that we are not in the region with American Heritage [Plantation] anymore,” Sands admitted. “It’s a good refreshing feeling know we do not have to go on the road right there. For three years in a row, we ran into a buzzsaw there.”

St. Andrew’s will travel to the winner of tonight’s Bishop Verot-LaBelle game, and Lincoln Park will host the loser.

The Scots (10-12) managed just three hits against the Greyhounds Spencer Rich and Dom Apugliese.

“We have to have a better approach offensively,” Sands said. “We just have to try and hit the ball a little bit better.”

St. Andrew’s opened with an early 1-0 lead after Anthony Cirillo drew a bases-loaded walk to push Danny Young across.

But the Greyhounds (10-11) quickly erased that deficit by scoring all the runs they would need in the bottom of the frame, as they capitalized on an error and then catcher Tanner Retherford connected for an RBI single before the Scots ended the inning by throwing out runner Matt Frederick at the plate.

Lincoln Park tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the third and one more in the fourth to pull away with the win.

Scots right-handed starter David Lundberg pitches against Lincoln Park in the 4A District 12 championship.

“This is our third district championship in a row, and we are most proud of that,” Lincoln Park coach Chuck Stewart said. “We lost 14 seniors from last year’s team, so we are really proud to have done this.”

Ronnie Rocca came on in relief for the Scots in the third after the first two batters reached on walks, and Rocca went the rest of the way in needing only 32 pitches to get through four innings.

“He’s a strike-thrower and he does a good job for us,” Sands said. “With Danny Young on the mound, we can beat anybody in the state, so it’s nice knowing we can go to Ronnie Rocca on Tuesday as well.”

Ronnie Rocca allowed only a solo home run to the Greyhounds Bryce McCune, and finished with four strikeouts without walking anyone.

The Scots last big scoring chance came in the fifth inning after Richie Rocca walked and Young singled to lead off. Justin Valente grounded into a 6-4-3 double play that scored Richie Rocca but limited the damage in cleaning off the bases and recording the double damage of two outs.

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