EAST WHITELAND >> The Radnor baseball banquet started without the team Thursday night.Crazy as that sounds, you need to hear their excuse.
The Raiders had barely completed an epic 11-9 upset of defending District One Class AAA champion Holy Ghost Prep at Great Valley High, the game ending just eight minutes before the banquet began.
The storybook script took 3 hours, 19 minutes and matched Raiders pitcher Andrew Austen, who plays without part of an arm, with Ghost’s Nolan Jones, the coveted infielder-pitcher an army of Major League Baseball scouts checked in on because one of their employers is going to draft him in the first round. All you needed was Danny Glover waving his arms to wake up those Angels In the Outfield.
“We are a Disney-ish team,” Raiders coach Mark Jordan said. “The teams that play us are like, ‘how the heck did they beat us?’ And here we are in the finals. We’ve never been in the district finals before. This is the first time. It’s uncharted ground for us.”
The Raiders (12-10) played like they enjoyed every pitch, every swing, every playful “DNP” taunt from the dugout of Jones, who they thought would begin the game on the mound but instead pitched in relief.
Peyton Birch took the ball first for the top-seeded Firebirds (14-6), and after giving up two runs in the first inning, had a 3-2 lead entering the third.
That’s when the Raiders went to work, massing walks and aggressive base running until catcher Pat Scheri looped a two-run single into left, keying a four-run burst and a 6-3 lead.
Meanwhile Austen was pitching Jones carefully, walking him three times but nearly picking him off twice. The left-handed Austen was too quick for the first base ump on one play. On another occasion the first baseman didn’t hold on after making the tag.
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