Allentown, PA — By Kyle Craig | For lehighvalleylive.com Under normal circumstances, 6-foot-6 Brady Handwerk’s sprint from the batter’s box to home plate would’ve been the most unconventional part of Phillipsburg baseball’s win over rival Easton. That was just one highlight, however, during a Friday evening filled with bizarre plays. The Stateliners defeated Easton 9-6 in a memorable showdown at Coca-Cola Park in front of about 1,700 spectators, including fans, pep bands, cheerleaders and youth baseball players. “Everyone counts us out. We’re here to prove ourselves every game,” said Handwerk, a senior first baseman. “Coach (Mike Ciavarella) works us hard in practice. I wouldn’t want any other team to show up to a ballpark with.” Handwerk put the Stateliners ahead for good in the bottom of the third inning. He came to the plate with one out, two runners in scoring position and the contest tied 1-1. “Stay focused, stay locked-in on the game, don’t let them take me out of my game,” the senior said of his mentality. “The coaches are working with me every day on contact through the middle. That’s what I chose to do.” Handwerk smashed an extra-base hit to the warning track in center field, plating Mike Bracco and Chase Pasmore. Easton botched the relay back into the infield and Handwerk charged home, giving the Stateliners a 4-1 lead. “He’s at his best when he’s hitting it up the middle. He’s got a ton of power. He hit the ball probably about 390 (feet),” Ciavarella said of Handwerk. “... He’s just having a really good season, and we’re working with him to stay middle, because that’s where he’s at his best.” Phillipsburg (7-7) was in a position to take the lead because it defused an early Easton threat with a triple play in the top of the first inning. The Red Rovers (10-8) opened the game with three straight hits. Juniors Khamryn Singto and Cole Ordway both singled and their classmate, Kurtis Crossman, followed with an RBI double for a 1-0 lead. Next, cleanup hitter Nolan Fuller sent a line drive that Phillipsburg shortstop Amman Bokhari caught while moving to his left. Bokhari made a diving tag of second base to double off Crossman. The shortstop then sprung to his feet and threw the ball home as Ordway broke to the plate. Stateliners catcher Brent Ott applied the tag to complete the triple play. “(Bokhari’s) been dealing with an arm issue all week. We didn’t know if he was going to play. He was a game-time decision. He put a sling on and just gutted it out,” Ciavarella said. “He made a hell of a play on that ball to not only catch it, but make a tag at second and have the wherewithal to get up from a dive and make a perfect throw home while dealing with the arm issue. You can’t script that stuff, but when it falls in your [favor] it’s pretty awesome.” “Shoutout to Amman. He’s a heck of a player,” Handwerk added. “He’s coming off an injury ... We’re dogs out here.” The defensive gem tilted momentum squarely behind the Stateliners. “It’s huge,” Easton coach Carm LaDuca said of the triple play. “It’s probably a double play no matter what, just with the play the (Bokhari) made. We just tried to make an aggressive play. The kid had to get up off the ground, stand up and make a good throw to plate – and he did. You have to give the other team credit for that.” Bracco singled, stole second base and scored on an RBI hit by Pasmore to tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the first. After Handwerk’s trip around the bases, Easton trimmed the deficit with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth, which started with a blast to deep center field by junior Chase Shollenberger for a triple. Shollenberger scored on a wild pitch. Red Rovers junior Max Martenis walked and his courtesy runner, Anthony Suffness, scored on a base knock to left field by senior Brogan Pagotto, making the score 4-3. Phillipsburg answered with another crooked number in the bottom of the fourth. Junior Kevin Buonocore, who led off with a single, eventually scored on a wild pitch. Senior Felix Matos, who also singled, scored on another delivery to left field by Pasmore, stretching the lead to 6-3. After senior Dylan Wayne walked, Handwerk stepped into the box with the bases loaded. The senior slapped a single past a diving third baseman to bring two more runs across and give P’burg an 8-3 advantage. Stateliners junior Nick Yaccarino then walked to load the bases again. That’s when another strange chapter was added to Friday’s story. Bokhari hit a grounder that was fielded by the third baseman, Pagotto, who threw the ball home. The home plate umpire, however, was in the line of the throw, which got past the catcher and allowed two more P’burg runners to cross home plate. Easton was upset about the apparent obstruction. The umpires conferenced and ultimately ruled that Bokhari’s hit was foul, erasing the entire sequence. Instead, a lineout/rundown combination ended the inning. “It’s P’burg-Easton, so nothing is ever going to go the way it’s scripted. It kind of was wacky,” Ciavarella said. “We’ve been up and down. We’ve been very inconsistent, which I’ve said before. But tonight, we were consistent. Tonight, we were the team that we’re capable of being. I’m very proud of these guys.” Fuller and Shollenberger registered sacrifice flies in the top of the fifth to slice the Stateliners’ advantage to 8-5. Yaccarino executed a run-scoring squeeze bunt to give P’burg more breathing room, 9-5, in the bottom of the sixth. “We had really good at-bats; we played some small ball, moved some runners, did some hit-and-runs,” Ciavarella said. “We put everything together tonight against a very good team, a very well-coached team.” True to the nature of Friday’s contest, the Stateliners registered the first two outs of the seventh by irregular means. Ordway walked to start the frame. Crossman followed with a groundball and P’burg tried to get the force at second. Ordway was initially ruled safe on a bang-bang play but came off the bag and was tagged out. After a walk to Fuller and an RBI single by Shollenberger, Fuller was ruled out after being struck by a ball off the bat of Rowan Galiotto. A conventional groundout to shortstop ended the contest and started the celebration for P’burg, which beat Easton for the first time since 2016 last season. “You have to play all three phases of the game. Ultimately, we weren’t clean enough in all the phases to win the game,” said LaDuca, whose team committed three errors. “When you get down big, it’s hard to fight back, even though our kids fought their behinds off to get back in the baseball game. A couple of things go our way here or there, it’s a whole different ballgame. We hit some balls hard.” Yaccarino started on the mound for the ‘Liners, tossing 6-plus innings while navigating through eight hits and four walks. “We played very clean on defense,” Ciavarella said. “Nick didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled, especially in tough spots. That’s why he’s a competitor.” Wayne moved to the mound from third base to get the final three outs. Wayne, a four-year letter-winner, has pitched more innings this week (6.1) than the rest of his varsity career combined. The ‘Liners are 2-0 since their Delaware River Rivalry matchup moved to Coca-Cola Park and transformed into a high school baseball atmosphere unlike any other in the Lehigh Valley. “I love it. It’s not just the record so far but the environment,” Ciavarella said about playing at the home of the IronPigs. “Hats off to the coaching staff and administration over there (at Easton), because they do a lot of the groundwork for it. Hats off to our athletic department, too, and Mr. Kyle Fleming. To have it here, it’s a great environment for everybody.” “It’s amazing; it’s crazy. The fans always come out and support us,” Handwerk said. “We have the maniacs over here in the student section. It’s so much support and we love it.” Easton will play its last Eastern Pennsylvania Conference regular-season game at Nazareth on Monday. P’burg hosts Delaware Valley in a Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex contest on Saturday morning. “We hope this pushes us and we win out,” Handwerk said. “That’s the goal.” Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Kyle Craig may be reached at [email protected].