Pa. Boys: Heitzman powers Kennett

Kennett's Bobby Heitzman was hit twice by pitches in the opening round of the PIAA District 1 Class AAA baseball tournament, then did some hitting of his own yesterday.

Heitzman crushed a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the fourth-seeded Blue Demons a 7-5 win over visiting No. 5 seed Marple Newtown.

Kennett tied the game in the bottom of the seventh. Heitzman was 2 for 3 with three runs scored and a pair of RBIs.

In other opening-round games:

Joel Paradis ripped a grand slam in the third inning to spark visiting No. 7 seed Upper Merion to a 6-4 win over No. 2 seed Strath Haven.

Colin Weiss and Steven Grover each picked up three hits with three RBIs and boosted visiting No. 6 seed Upper Perkiomen to an 11-5 win over No. 5 seed Upper Moreland.

Andrew Strenge fired a one-hitter to lead top-seeded Holy Ghost Prep past visiting No. 8 seed Springfield (Delaware County), 5-0, in a first-round game.

Catholic. Mark Donato helped himself with a two-run double in the first inning, and Neumann-Goretti went on to beat visiting North Catholic, 4-0, in a playoff quarterfinal.

Donato went the distance for the Saints. He held the Falcons to three hits, struck out eight, and walked two.

Kyle Mullen held visiting Conwell-Egan to six hits and struck out nine for St. Joseph's Prep in a 4-0 quarterfinal victory.

Justin Walsh scored after Kyle McCrossen was hit with a pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Archbishop Wood a 14-13 win over visiting Roman Catholic.

Pa. Independent Schools. Mike McNulty proved to be a giant-slayer by leading No. 16 seed Episcopal Academy past No. 1 seed and newly crowned Inter-Ac League champion Penn Charter, 8-5, in an opening-round game.

McNulty hit two singles and a double and drove in five runs for the Churchmen.

In other first-round games:

Jon McAllister belted a pair of doubles, and Gregg Kozemchak struck out nine over six innings to lift No. 4 seed Chestnut Hill Academy to a 4-3 win over visiting No. 13 seed Academy of the New Church.

No. 6 seed Perkiomen School got home runs from Gaby Ramirez and Denzel Leslie and beat visiting No. 11 seed Friends' Central, 11-1.

No. 7 seed Haverford School got two hits each from Kevin Eberly and Ricky Troncelliti and eased past visiting No. 10 seed Germantown Friends, 12-2.

Dennis Mitchell set the tone with a three-run triple in the first inning as No. 3 seed Malvern Prep beat visiting No. 14 seed Abington Friends, 13-1.

Tom Coyle struck for a home run as No. 2 seed Germantown Academy defeated visiting No. 18 seed Westtown, 5-1.

Chris McCormick's goal 2 minutes, 31 seconds into overtime gave West Chester East a 9-8 win over Garnet Valley in a District 1 Class AAA consolation game at Truman.

McCormick finished with four goals.

Athletes hoping to win the Inter-Ac League title in the future will be glad to see Mike Kania graduate this June.

The Haverford School senior fired a 2-over-par 74 and won the Bert Linton Inter-Ac Golfers Invitational Tournament yesterday, his second-consecutive league title.

Jason Sisti of George School needed just two sets to win the Friends Schools League No. 1 singles title at Friends' Central.

Sisti downed Alex Margolies of Friends' Central, 6-1, 6-3, to take the title.

Tri-County. Adam Wachs needed to go to a tiebreaker, but won the second game and took the No. 2 singles title for Barrack Hebrew.

Wachs won his match, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) as the Cougars won their 11th consecutive league title.