MAY 26
PUBLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL
Frankford 9, Bok 3
   Let me start off by saying, myself and numerous other people who are familiar
with Public League Baseball arrived at the game thinking that this contest
would be "Mercy Ruled." Meaning that Frankford would be up by 15 runs or more
after the third inning, or 10 or more after five, thus the game would end on on
of these rules.
   I know that the Pioneers were undefeated this season and had a great record
over a three-year span. I found out from one of their assistant coaches that
they were 58-2 over that time frame. Bok, on the other hand, had lost its first
game of the year to Saul and then ran the table by winning 17 straight before
arriving at Frankford. However, Bok is from Division B which is not as strong
as Division A, in which Frankford plays. So I went there with the mindset that
this "affair" would be abbreviated, but I would get to see the highly touted
Luis Alicea, who plays shortstop for the Pioneers. The Bok players knew what
they were up against and were also aware that half the Frankford players were not
from the Frankford area and were transfers from other schools. I heard Kensington
and Olney.
   The Pioneers featured many Latin players and also a very vocal Hispanic cheering
section, which was enjoyable to listen to as they all sang or cheered in unison,
accompanied with their hand-held musical shakers.
   Speaking to Bok infielder Nick Perrone before the game he said to me, "I know
that this team (Frankford) is the best in the Pub and no one gives us much of a
chance, so I'm just gonna go out and have some fun and play some ball." Bok
coach Tom DeFelice, a very successful football coach at the school and very
animated and emotional on the sidelines, usually seems to be a bit calmer
coaching baseball from what I've seen in the past. However, knowing Tom for over
30 years and his highly competitive nature, there's something about being a
huge underdog to stir up his juices. In his mind, you could stick the "Mercy"
stuff up your know what. The man managed his butt off.
   In the top of the first, B division MVP Joe "Pepe" DeSalis, who played behind
the plate, lined a bullet right back at winning pitcher Rich Jimenez. He  
deflected the ball with his glove, but it still shot through the middle for a base
hit. He later tried to steal second, but was thrown out by catcher Ramon Reyes.
   The third play of the inning displayed the tremendous defensive ability of
Alicea, who went deep in the hole to his right and backhanded a hard hit ball
by Perrone and threw him out by half a step. Frankford scored one in its half,
but probably shouldn't have scored at all. DeFelice, a former catcher at
Temple University who has a real feel for the game, was screaming to his shortstop
Rosario Messina to move two steps to the right when Frankford's leadoff man
Andrew Bracero came to the plate. Messina moved only about a half step and sure
enough, a hard hit ball was just out of Messina's reach and rolled to left
center for a lead off double. Bracero made what appeared to be a huge mistake
when he took off for third on a routine ground ball to Messina with the play
directly in front of him. With DeFelice and all Bok players yelling "third base,
third base", because Bracero (3-4, two 2B's, 4 runs scored and RBI) would have
been out by at least 30 feet. Instead, Messina threw one in the dirt to first
base for an error, putting runners on first and third. Bracero scored on an
RBI single by Carlos Rosado (2-4, 2B, 2 RBI) giving the home squad a 1-0 lead
after one. Bok went down in order in the second while Frankford capitalized on
another Bok miscue. Kelinton Tejada led off the Pioneer second with a sinking
line drive to right, where Bok rightfielder Sam Cubilette came running in and
made a nice shoestring catch for out number one. The next batter, DH Jose
DeLeon, sent a Robert LaMotta fastball over the left field fence for a 2-0 lead.
   Bracero was next and hit a routine fly to right, but the wind took the ball
back a little further, then Cubilette caught up to it and simply dropped the
ball. After Alicea (2-4, 2RBI) hit a hump-back liner to second for what should
have been the third out, Rosado got the opportunity to hit as result of the error
and hit a hard ground ball down the third base line. Third base Ump Ivan
Lieberman made no call and deferred to the plate umpire, who by the way was
his Dad Joe, who ruled the ball fair allowing Bracero to score. Myself and a
writer from a local Frankford weekly paper called "The Spirit" were standing
against the batting cage looking right towards the bag. The ball was clearly foul
to both of us by at least 12 to 18 inches. DeFelice pleaded his case, but
Lieberman said it bounced over the bag fair, and then went foul. The Spirit
reporter shouted to DeFelice, "Hey, coach, you got screwed on that one." So what was a
3-0 game conceivably could had been 0-0. After Bok's Rasheed Fleming (LF, 1B)
led off the third with a walk, Mike DelValle hit a rocket right at second
baseman Rosado, who easily doubled up Fleming at first. Cubilette then struck out
to end the inning. Frankford sent nine men to the plate in their half,
scoring 5 times with the big blows being doubles by DeLeon and Alicea. Alicea's
double finished the day for LaMotta, giving the Pioneers an 8-0 advantage with one
out. Sophmore Matt Stewart stopped the bleeding by retiring the next 2 hitters to
end the inning. LaMotta's line ended up: 2.1 innings pitched, 9 hits, 8
runs, 7 earned, 2 walks, no strikeouts, 1 HR, WP. Stewart did a great job going
3.2 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 1 earned, 1 walk and no strikeouts. Bok made some
noise in the fourth when Messina blasted a one out double. Perrone got hit by
a pitch and Anthony Rivers singled to left to score Messina and a bad throw by
Bracero allowed Perrone to score with Rivers ending up on third. He would
score on a sacrifice fly by LaMotta, making the score 8-3. Frankford scored one
more in the fifth on an RBI single by Alicea to end the scoring. Jimenez left
after 5 giving up 4 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts and one hit
batter. He was replaced by centerfielder Edwin Burgos, who went the final two,
but made things interesting in the top of the seventh. LaMotta started the
inning with a base hit to left, then Justin Stewart and Fleming both walked,
laoding the bases with no outs. Bok could not capitalize as pinch hitter Ramon
Martinez and Cubilette both went down swinging and DeSalis hit a fly to right
towards the line where Tejada made a fine running catch in fair territory to end
the game. Burgos' line was 2 innings, 1 hit, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts and he also
committed a balk.
   Now back to DeFelice. He was proud of the fact that in spite of his pitchers
registering no stikeouts, as compared to the approximate 7 or 8 a game, his
defense had to make 18 putouts. A lot of that had to do with him manuvering his
players batter by batter. He could be heard reapeatedly shouting to his good
guy scorekeeper Melvin James, "Melvin, Melvin, who's up?, What number is he in
the order? What did he do in his previous at-bats?" After hearing Melvin's
answers he would adjust his defense accordingly, and amazing and somewhat
uncannily, the ball would go exactly where he positioned his players. He would
continually talk to his catcher DeSalis about location and type of pitch he wanted.
There surely was some luck involved, but he proved to be just as knowledgeable 
in baseball as we all know he is in football. He was also grateful of the
parents of some of the Frankford players coming over to him after the
game commenting on what a good team he had and the fact that he put a scare into
the Mighty Pioneers. The Wildcats will represent the Public League in class AAA
on June 6th against a currently unknown opponent in the PIAA.