Friarside Chats, Basketball 2012-13

MAY 1
NON-LEAGUE
Malvern 7, Bonner-Prendie 0
The people were out in droves today at Malvern to watch two top 10 ranked teams in the city take on each other in the annual Friar vs. Friar game. The number 1 ranked Friars of B-P were a little late getting to the field, so the originally scheduled 4:00 PM start kicked off a little after 4:15 PM. Daylight was definitely not an issue today as the game flew by due to efficient pitching from Malvern’s Billy Ford and Bonner’s Brad Scull. Bonner started out a little sluggish at the plate in the top of the first that took Ford only 9 pitches and yielded only a single to Bonner SS Jim Haley. Although Malvern, in their usual first inning fashion, jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on a pair of line drive RBI singles by Steve Robinson and Brian Giacchino. Later in the inning, Ford helped his own cause with an RBI groundout to make the score 4-0 after the first. The next three innings were dominated by pitching and defense. Scull settled in after the somewhat rocky first to retire 9 out of the next 10 Malvern hitters, aided in the bottom of the second by a sensational diving catch made by CF Tom Crumlish, robbing his positional counterpart Brandon Gentile of a base hit. Ford was also lights out during the middle innings only allowing one base runner (on an error) during the third, fourth, and fifth innings. Recent teammate of the year nominee and backup catcher, Matt McNally, informed me that "Moose" had all the pitches working in the pen during the elongated warm-ups before the contest. After the crafty work on the mound stymied both teams' bats in the previous few frames, Matt Maul broke the hitless streak in the fifth by lacing a triple down the right field line into the corner. Sophomore OF Chris Butera then laid down a perfect suicide squeeze, scoring Maul and allowing himself to reach first on an error by Bonner’s Scull. It was a great call by Malvern skipper Freddy Hilliard as it caught Bonner completely off guard. Butera then got to 2nd on a wild pitch and to 3rd on Giacchino's second single of the day. With Ford at the plate during the next at-bat, Giacchino took off for second and after the throw down by B-P catcher Steve Furman, Butera scampered home and just beat the throw home.
^{Malvern
was able to manufacture another run in the bottom of the sixth with two
outs. Gentile began the charge with a hustle double, followed up by Joe
Poduslenko being hit by a pitch and sequentially being pinch run for by
Brandon’s brother, Jim Gentile, because "Pods" was a little banged
up. Maul ripped a bloop single into right field scoring the first Gentile to
cement the score at 7-0. Junior Tony Gruenling closed it out for
Malvern in the top of the seventh, striking out two in the final frame. This
was certainly Malvern’s statement win of the season to date, knocking off
the number 1 ranked team in the area. Matt Maul and Brian Giacchino both
went 2-3 on the day each with one RBI a piece. Ford pitched an absolute gem
for the Friars, going 6 innings, giving up 0 runs on 5 hits, while walking
none and striking out 5 batters. Poduslenko definitely gets the "old time
ballplayer" award for the game as he only went 1-2 from the plate but he was
hit by two pitches and swiped two bags in the process. Malvern improved
their record to 19-6 with the victory and take on EA on Friday to try and
boost their Inter-Ac record to 7-0.}