The Mercer Mammoths shut down the Quakertown Blazers’ bats – hot off a 12-0 shutout over Southside – in a doubleheader Saturday, June 8.
Quakertown’s 2024 home opener marked its first game on the renovated Memorial Park field, 676 days after the Blazers played their last game there in 2022.
Mercer (4-4) took Game 1, 6-1. The Mammoths opened the game quickly, scoring three of their runs in the top of the first inning and the Blazers (3-3) scored their sole run in the bottom of the seventh.
Game 2 was cut short after the bottom of the fifth and the Mammoths mercied the Blazers 12-1.
Ahmir Cournier, currently in the transfer portal, played a consistent and efficient game in the field for the Mammoths. The shortstop charged every ground ball hit his way and was able to secure multiple outs at first this way.
Cournier, a member of the inaugural Mammoths team, is spending his fourth season in a summer league.
“I just try to attack the ball, especially on a playing surface like this … any good hop that I get, I just got to attack it, because I’m not going to get eaten up. My pitchers don’t like that, I want to save my pitchers from as many pitches as possible,” Cournier said.
Cole Klein (senior at George Washington University) took the mound for the Mammoths in Game 1, pitching five innings, giving up three hits, two walks and recording five strikeouts. His success on the mound helped guide the Mammoths to a win.
On the other hand, the Blazers used six pitchers in the seven-inning Game 1.
This was a strategic move by the team after last Wednesday and Thursday nights’ home games were canceled for the Blazers.
“Because we missed 18 innings between Wednesday and Thursday, we wanted to give everybody at least an inning or two innings to keep them fresh,” Blazers head coach Mike Fitzgerald explained.
“Going into it, we just wanted to win; that’s the main focus. It’s the home opener,” said Jackson Shollenberger, Blazer’s catcher in Game 1, on the team’s mindset heading into Saturday’s home opener.
“A big crowd came out, which was nice to see.”
Game 2 began in a similar way for the Mammoths, who were able to plate four runs in the top of the first.
“We were just trying to keep it going. It was nice to see that little spark at the end of (Game 1), but, we just tried to keep it going and it unfortunately didn’t go our way,” said Shollenberger about Game 2.
Dylan Broderick (sophomore at Chestnut Hill College) scored the only run for the Blazers in the bottom of the second inning in Game 2 from second base off a Luke Caucci double to left field. He reached on a single to center field.
“You got to build off that but also we got to flush it. Can’t take it too deep, but you got to also learn from it,” said Shollenbeger about what the Blazers needed to do in their Tuesday night matchup with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Fitzgerald echoed this, adding that “pitching kind of let us down in the second game and the defense as well.”
The Blazers recorded five errors in Game 2.
“We want a complete matchup. Since we’re away, we want to start at home plate in inning one and get some runs and hits and let our defense shut it down and our pitchers throw strikes,” said Fitzgerald ahead of Tuesday’s game.
The Blazers continued their road success on June 11 when they beat the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Miners 3-1. Casey Vaughan (senior at West Chester University) went 2-for-4 at the plate, with an RBI and a walk.
The Blazers host the Miners Thursday night, with first pitch at 7 p.m. They look to secure their first home victory of the season.
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