MARPLE \u2014 Upper Darby manager Dave Jerdon didn\u2019t need a scouting report to describe Christian Strickland\u2019s big night at the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about time,\u201d Jerdon said with a grin. \u201cYou can quote me on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
OK, he may have thrown in a few extra words that aren\u2019t fit for print, but the smile said it all.<\/p>\n
Strickland came alive Thursday night, ripping three hits and in Upper Darby\u2019s 11-0 romp over Springfield in a Delco Baseball League showdown that felt a little more important than your average early July matchup.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of guys hit the ball well tonight,\u201d Strickland said.<\/p>\n
The Blue Sox (15-5) looked every bit like defending champs. They snapped Springfield\u2019s six-game winning streak and kept pace in the race for the top spot, sitting just one game back of league-leading Wayne (15-3-2).<\/p>\n
Strickland, the veteran backstop, led the charge as Upper Darby\u2019s bats did some damage. After a few tight wins, sandwiched around a lopsided defeat to Drexel Hill, the Sox were due for a blowout, and they got it.<\/p>\n
Springfield (10-8) came in hot and in third place, but the Blue Jays ran into a buzz saw. The Blue Sox scored seven runs on five hits in the first inning and never looked back.<\/p>\n
Strickland finished 3-for-3 with two RBIs. He laced an RBI single in the first, then smoked an RBI double in the second to extend the lead to 8-9. He added another double in the fifth to round out a perfect day at the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been trying to make some adjustments, trying to sit back a little more,\u201d Strickland said. \u201cI think lately I\u2019ve been a little jumpy, so I\u2019m just trying to stay in the middle, sit back a little more and just make good contact.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the mound, Kevin McGovern handled his business.<\/p>\n
The lefty carved through Springfield\u2019s lineup, scattering three hits over five shutout innings. He struck out seven, walked just one, and was in sync with Strickland the whole way.<\/p>\n
Upper Darby has its sights set on a third Delco League title since 2021, aiming to carve out a dynasty in a league long dominated by Wayne\u2019s championship pedigree. The Blue Sox may be trailing Wayne in the standings, but they\u2019re the team everyone\u2019s gunning for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a lot of these teams, we are going to see their No. 1 or No. 2 (starters). So, we\u2019ve got to keep knocking them off when we play them so that we can get that No. 1 or No. 2 seed for the playoffs,\u201d Strickland said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool to be on a team that wins a lot and is always up on top of the standings. And we just want to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brendan Till ripped a double to lead off the game and came around to score on Sam Wright\u2019s RBI single.<\/p>\n
Joey Suppa, who also had a three-hit night, followed with a two-run knock, and Gus Wright chipped in with a sac fly to make it 7-0 early. Ant Kelly added an RBI single, Suppa delivered again with another two-run base hit, and Chase Ecker wrapped it up with an RBI single in the fourth to cap the 11-0 rout.<\/p>\n
Harold Ivery, Jalyn Tidwell and Sam Dinitz each had a hit for Springfield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARPLE \u2014 Upper Darby manager Dave Jerdon didn\u2019t need a scouting report to describe Christian Strickland\u2019s big night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[212,28,726,210,147,149,148,150],"class_list":["post-154093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-delaware-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-dtd","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}