For info on how to order the DVD of the Catholic or Public final . . .
Please contact Joe Malizia at 215-482-9355 or 215-681-7301.
Also, his e-mail address is joemalitz@hotmail.com. Thank you!

JULY 1
VACATION TO MASSACHUSETTS
  Well, The Wife and I are back from a week in Chatham and Nantucket. Let's see. How many shops did she drag me into? Sorry, can't count that high. Good thing she claims she hates shopping. Ha, ha. Nah, she really didn't buy too much. We're not overwhelming beach people and the next fish we try to catch (or eat) will be the first, so all of the walking around was no problem. We saw three familiar faces on the trail: Harry Greer, a long-time Pub football official who also has made great strides as a baseball ump (super regionals in the NCAAs), was working first base at a Cape Cod League game; ex-Virginia hoops coach Pete Gillen was eating dinner a few tables away at a roadside place in West Chatham (tremendous burgers, well done perfectly!!); and then came the capper. We were sitting on benches in a small park in Siasconset, commonly called 'Sconset, when a guy in a Phillies cap, at the wheel of a Jeep, called out "Hey, Ted!" It was Matt Paul, a former basketball star at Chestnut Hill Academy and most recently the Blue Devils' interim coach during the stretch run of last season. The Wife was amazed. "Get OUT," she exclaimed, laughing. "You know somebody here?!" (Hey, you do this job for this long, you meet MANY people.) We walked over to exchange pleasantries with Matt and his girlfriend, Tina Smith, whose sister has a house in 'Sconset, and they suggested a nearby place for lunch. I kiddingly responded that I was STILL trying to find a McDonald's. (Guess what? There are no fast-food restaurants anywhere on Nantucket Island! Shouldn't somebody get arrested over that?) Anyway, it was great to see Matt and it was nice of him to stop. Our talk had to be short because his car was stopped on a narrow one-way street and a couple cars wound up behind his. Oh, in case you're wondering, the drive was roughly 6 1/2 hours each way. We shared the duties on the way up. I drove all the way to the hotel, then the lovely Anne drove from the main building to our building. Distance? Maybe the equivalent of a long driveway! "I told you I'd help with the driving," she quipped. If you're bored, click here for a small sampling of vacation pics. (Anne said I HAD to post a decent pic of her to make up for the one she hated from the Carpenter Cup. Man, this woman is high maintenance -- ha ha.)

JUNE 19
CARPENTER CUP CLASSIC QUARTERFINAL
Lehigh Valley 5, Inter-Ac/Independents 3
   Not my idea of fun, gang. One city team departs in a quarterfinal one day, the other does likewise the next. Now what? Any suggestions on how to fill the time (and website space) until football resumes? (smile). Honestly, a chance to regroup and again learn loved ones' names is always appreciated, but one of "our" squads won't be at CBP for the semifinals and that is definitely not cool. I-A/I managed just six hits, but one was a big-time goodie. With one out and GA soph 2B Tommy Coyle on first, following a 9-6 fielder's choice (a popup fell down the rightfield line), Malvern sr. SS Phil Gosselin jumped on a 2-0 fastball and sent a shot to pretty much exact left-center. It had "The Look" from the start. I could almost hear Harry Kalas roaring, "Well struck!" Yes, indeed. The ball smacked off the right-hand side of the scoreboard, pretty much halfway up. Two-run homer. The blast created a 2-2 tie and pumped some life into the squad on a brutally hot day. It did not last. Gtn. Friends frosh LH Jesse Biddle, who'd turned in a three-batter fourth, walked two of the first three batters in the fifth. He was yanked and the next guy was Haverford School sr. Jared Cohen. Cohen has respectable arm strength, but the LV boys reached him for two quick hits and then worked two walks and another pitcher was summoned. This time it was Malvern jr. RH Chris Cowell. He induced a popup and followed with a strikeout to prevent further damage and then posted two more quiet innings. In hoops and baseball, Cowell has had quite the coming-out junior year. It'll be interesting to follow his senior year. The last pitcher, for a 1-2-3 eighth, was Penn Charter sr. LH Mark Adzick. The 18th-round Phillies draftee had a rough go of it in the first round of the tourney. Being human, he was no doubt a shade tentative as he walked to the mound. Hmmmm. How's THIS gonna go? Will my stuff be good enough to finish on a strong note? Yup. Fly to CF. Grounder to 3B. Grounder to 2B. I had a brief conversation after the game with Mark and he said, among other things, "It's been a fun five years." Lest we forget, Mark DID pitch in varsity games for PC as an eighth-grader. Incredible. He got his first Inter-Ac win, 4-3 over Malvern, on May 2, 2003. I saw PC only once that season and Mark didn't happen to pitch. But here is a link to those I-A team photos and you'll note that he's standing next to Matt Ryan, now a star QB for Boston College. One of our student reporters that year was Episcopal OF Andy Barks. Mark did pitch in relief in a game against the Churchmen and Andy wrote, "Adzick, although he wasn't throwing very hard, looks like he has good mechanics and a solid future for PC." Good call, Andy! (smile) The new hot young buck is Malvern soph LH Tim Cooney, a k a "Cooney Toons." He worked the first three innings and the two runs against him were unearned. Tim hurt himself with a wild throw on a fielder's choice, then Haverford School sr. SS Jim McConlogue whipped the ball into the LV dugout while trying for a tough 6-5 forceout. Cooney fanned three in his stint. Chestnut Hill frosh OF Jon McAllister was the only I-A/I player with as many as two hits. The other RBI went to GA frosh 1B Slater McCue on a base hit to right. The guy who scored on that was Malvern sr. OF Matt McEndy, who'd posted a double-error combo to get all the way to third. Well, that's it for school year No. 36 on the high school trail, counting time with a suburban newspaper chain. I know. I don't look as if I'm even 36 years old, right? (Ha, ha. Hold the snickering.) Anyway, we'll get to the All-City squad in the upcoming days and here's hoping everyone has a wonderful summer. As always, thanks for paying attention.

JUNE 18
CARPENTER CUP CLASSIC FIRST ROUND
Chester County 10, Catholic 5
   In any kind of baseball game, but especially in one where all of the players are all-stars, it's not a good idea to give away extra outs. However, the CL committed six errors and a costly passed ball and the sloppy play led to seven Chester County runs -- all AFTER the CL had taken a 4-3 lead in the visiting sixth. Not good, right? Didn't think so. Before we get back to the action, it's time for some tidbits. No. 1, The Wife made an appearance. I know, don't all faint at once. This was her first time at a game since the very beginning of football season, in Wildwood, and for that doubleheader she just usually sits in the car reading magazines until everything's over. Why'd she come to this game? Well, there was a legit reason. She had to be at the airport for a 3 o'clock flight to Phoenix and I said I'd take her after the Carp Cup game, but there was no way I was driving home first to get her. (I can be tough at times -- smile). So, she accompanied me to Penn's Meiklejohn Stadium and sweltered along with everyone else. Near the end, she sat on the grass above the stands on the first base side and didn't even complain when I took her picture. Oh, my goodness! Is she sick? She's quite a shy gal and usually can't stand it when I take her picture. We'll blame the oppressive heat for throwing her off-stride (ha ha). Tidbit No. 2: Soph 3B Christian Walker, of Kennedy-Kenrick, has an off-the-wall nickname. What is it? Well, his family members were calling him "Ya-Ya." Or maybe it's spelled "Yah-Yah." Who knows? I didn't get a chance to ask. But all the adults and kids in his personal rooting section were calling him that -- didn't hear "Christian" once -- and I hope someone sends an e-mail to explain it (smile). OK, back to the game. Do we have to? This was disappointing, troops. It would have been cool to see the CL again advance to CBB for the semifinal round. The best inning was the sixth and it provided some interesting byplay, courtesy of manager John Fleming (Bonner). Two strikeouts began the frame, and the strike three pitch to SJ Prep jr. LF Tim Edger was up, if not way up. Tim had fashioned a great at-bat, fouling off 6-7 pitches. Fleming was incensed that a shaky call had done him in, and he barked loudly from the dugout. Carroll sr. 1B Chris Dengler followed with a single and then stole second. Carroll sr. DH Chris Lisowski then probably SHOULD have been rung up, but I'm strongly guessing that the plate ump, with Fleming's barrage still ringing in his ears, was hesitant to do so. Bang! Lisowski sent an RBI double to left. Bang! Walker sent an RBI double to right-center. Bang! Roman sr. RF Dave Deodato sent an RBI single to right-center. See? It pays to bitch sometimes (smile). To its credit, though it did have help, Chester County roared back with two and then the five-spot an inning later. Uggggh. The CL's most proficient pitcher was La Salle jr. LH Matt Day. After Ryan sr. LH Kevin McGovern scuffled through the first two frames (two runs, three hits, three walks, one HBP), Day restored big-time order in the third and fourth. He gave up nothing while facing the minimum six batters and striking out three. One guy did reach on an error, and was immediately erased in a doubleplay. I was surprised he didn't work one more inning. Oh, about the five-run seventh. As bad as that inning turned out to be, it did come within inches of being a no-runs frame. With two out, the No. 9 hitter sent a line drive that barely cleared the glove of the leaping SS, SJ Prep soph Stephen Bruno. That hit brought in two, as did a following double, which was followed by an RBI triple. Oh, well . . . Walker finished with two RBI; he got the other on a sac fly. Dengler was the lone CL player with two hits. The ink went to Deodato, the South MVP, who reached base in all three of his plate appearances with a walk, the RBI single and another walk. Just one city squad still alive now. Inter-Ac/Independents plays tomorrow at 1.
  ***Here's a note I received from Christian Walker's mom about his nickname. Thanks for being a good sport! . . .***

JUNE 13
CARPENTER CUP CLASSIC FIRST ROUND
Inter-Ac/Independents 11, Burlington County 10
   Once again, the Little Engine That Could has done. While the 15 other squads in this tourney draw from MANY schools, the Inter-Ac has just six and only two of the 22 players used today by coach Mike Hickey (Malvern) were from outside the good, ol' I-A. Not bad production, eh? OK, so the game was sloppy/goofy and seemed to drag on forever, but Our Guys are headed to the next round and that's all that matters. How'd it happen? Got an hour? Mostly, guys who don't yet shave led the way. Yup, we're talking freshmen and sophomores. The ink went to sr. 3B Mike Galetta (Haverford School, Boston College signee), who rapped three hits (one double) in as many at-bats while adding one RBI and two runs scored. But aside from Mike and Malvern sr. RF Matt McEndy, who's bound for Monmouth (the roster had him as a freshman; I neglected to catch that foulup earlier today; thanks to GA assistant Jon Cross for the heads-up), it was pretty much the Baby Brigade. Frosh CF Jon McAllister (Chestnut Hill) went 3-for-4 with one RBI. (McEndy went 2-for-4 with one RBI. Again, he's a SENIOR, not a young buck.) Soph 2B Tommy Coyle (Gtn. Academy) went 3-for-3 with two RBI. Soph LH Tim Cooney, a baby-faced character whose nickname is "Cooney Toons," fared best on the mound, allowing one hit and one unearned run in three innings. We heard Gerber's supplied the post-game meal! (smile) We'll focus on the later innings now. Trailing by 9-8, I-A/I scored two in the home eighth. McEndy lashed a double to right-center and jr. C Joe Conaway (GA) drew a walk. Malvern sr. 3B Pete Greskoff went down looking, but schoolmate Phil Gosselin, a SS bound for Virginia, followed with an RBI single to left. Sr. CF Billy Goldman (Penn Charter) sliced a single to left and another Va.-bound guy, sr. DH John Barr (GA), milked a walk. Coyle was plunked by a pitch to bring in the second run. Or maybe he wasn't? As I walking out to the parking lot, I saw him talking with family/friends and asked him whether the pitch hit him on the foot or ankle. His response: "I don't think it hit me at all." Hmmm. Up in the press box, we were all suspicious. He added, "IF it hit me, it must have been on my cleat." Anyway, I-A/I now had the lead and needed just three outs to wrap things up. Plus, jr. RH Mike Barsotti (Germantown Friends), a big kid with a decent fastball, had breezed through the eighth. But as the ninth began, he could not get glove on a comebacker and my immediate thought was, "Here we go. It's that kind of game." Burlco indeed tied the game and to the home ninth we went. McAllister led off with a double that plopped against the bottom of the fence in right-center. McEndy sent a grounder to center. Ballgame! Um, wait. Hold on. As someone told me afterward, McAllister is battling a back problem. He spun his wheels slightly rounding third and was thrown out. Oh, baby! This kid is already a spectacular baserunner, so this result was stunning. Conaway was next. And handshakes were next after that. Joe sent an RBI single down the rightfield line, scoring Coyle. Good thing the I-A/I won. It would have been hard to accept a loss in a game where you've outhit your foe, 19-10. By now you might be wondering, "How'd Mark Adzick pitch?" You know, the Penn Charter kid who was drafted last Friday by the Phillies. Well, this young man has enjoyed some wonderful moments through his scholastic career, but today was an all-time downer. The lefty's pitches were moving like crazy. Unfortunately, rarely did they pass over the plate. Mark toughed out three innings. A pickoff (ever the master at that) and a doubleplay helped him escape jams in the first and second; as did his own good glovework on a one-hop rocket right back at him (to end the second). But in the third, he was touched for six runs as Burlco sent 10 men to the dish. Five of the runs were unearned due to an ill-timed catcher's interference call. Nevertheless, the frame was ugly and the Wake Forest signee's final numbers for his stint showed four hits, four walks and three HBPs. To his credit, Mark did not slink away and spend the rest of the game buried deep in the dugout. At least every time I looked over that way, he was perched on the top step, fully involved in the game, and he was always among the first to greet doers of heroic deeds. Great to see! Here's hoping he returns to form in the quarterfinals. Among today's ballpark visitors: ex-Malvern star Tom Grandieri, who just completed his freshman season at Villanova; Malvern FB star Paul Ostick; and the ever-amazing Thomas "Hockey Puck" McKenna. Puck at one point barged into the press box and began babbling about summertime basketball. I told him, "Puck, we're here covering/watching baseball! You have one minute to chirp about basketball" -- this was between innings -- "and then it's baseball talk or you have to leave the press box." I pretended I was serious. (smile) Puck babbled a shade more about the Narberth League, and then departed. My fellow reporters were highly grateful (ha ha).

JUNE 11
CARPENTER CUP FIRST ROUND
Chester County 14, Public League 5
   Some folks from the Catholic and Inter-Ac leagues could not possibly care less about the Pub – really, their care level is already at zero – and they’ll never understand why I cover the games and try to give its athletes some positive attention. What can I say? The games are always fun and most of the kids give off positive vibrations and the detractors have NO idea what so many of them are up against. With that in mind, it’s painful to see the Pub get mostly whacked year after year in the Carp Cup. This year, there was a wacky twist as the Pub yet again tasted defeat. As the home sixth was about to begin, the deficit was only 6-4. GAMP sr. LH Andrew Caines was about to begin his stint when . . . wait, everybody’s walking off the field. What the heck is this about? Well, the umpires spotted off-in-the-distance lightning and halted the proceedings (it wasn’t raining). After an 11-minute delay, Caines went back out onto the mound and, phew, did not have it is putting it mildly. Walk, walk, HBP, walk to force in a run. Manager Bob Peffle (Frankford) brandished a hook and went to jr. RH Micah Winterstein, of Central. Triple for three runs. Triple for another run. Sac fly for the sixth run of the inning. Oh, baby. One bolt of lightning. Six runs in the immediate aftermath. Can the Pub ever win? The unchallenged headliner was soph CF Edwin “Tito” Rohena, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles and one RBI. His Frankford teammate, jr. SS Esteban “Shortie” Meletiche, was the only other Pubber with as many as two hits; one was a double. The team’s other RBIs went to Northeast soph DH Tim Freiling on a sac fly, to Frankford sr. 2B Jon Bracero on an infield single and to GAMP sr. OF Brandon Henson on a bases-loaded walk. That came in the seventh after Henson was summoned to bat for himself. Huh? Well, he’d already hit twice, but when the No. 8 spot in the order came around this time, Prep Charter sr. LF George Whitleigh stepped to the plate. Henson had not departed. Whitleigh was slotted in the No. 2 hole. Larry Conti, one of the tournament organizers, was keeping the official box score in the press box. He immediately noticed the snafu and came scrambling out of the box. Meanwhile, PA announcer Dan Baker was advising the umps to hold up play without being specific. Legendary! Conti told the plate ump what was happening and Whitleigh was waved back to the dugout. Henson, of course, then went to the plate and drew the walk. The only Pub pitcher to experience success was sr. RH Joe Breitweiser (Northeast). He worked two scoreless innings, then surrendered a run in his third frame. Joe has been a horse during his four years on the Vikings’ varsity and it’s going to be weird not seeing him next spring. Best of luck to Joe and all outgoing seniors. Somewhere down the line I hope you’re able to pick up a Daily News (or even visit this website, Lord willing) and read about a Pub victory. And you WILL feel good about it, right? (smile). Promise?

JUNE 11
CARPENTER CUP FIRST ROUND
Catholic League 8, Olympic/Colonial 5
  Hey, it's getting to be a nice habit. The CL has advanced past the first round for the fourth consecutive year and this time made the grade in reasonably easy fashion, building an 8-2 lead through six innings. The batting headliners were guys from a pair of suburban schools in the Southern Division, sr. DH Chris Lisowski (Carroll) and soph 3B Christian Walker (K-K). Lisowski went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBI. Walker also went 2-for-3 with a double, but had to settle for one RBI. Lisowski's first RBI came in the two-run first as the lefty swinger inside-outed a double down the leftfield line. He was at it again in the fifth, smoking a two-run single right through the box. Roman sr. RF Dave Deodato followed with a sac fly to right. Walker, a strong righthanded hitter with much potential, was part of the second unit. He crunched an RBI single to left in the fourth and doubled into the leftfield corner with one out in the sixth, thus setting the table for a two-run frame. La Salle sr. OF Matt Howard and SJ Prep soph SS Steve Bruno later delivered RBI singles. Bruno's featured beautiful placement. Howard was running from second -- not sure if it was a steal or hit and run -- and Bruno drilled a groundball right through the vacated spot at SS. The other notable at bat was jr. CF Andrew Lacovara, who went 2-for-3 with a stolen base and a run scored. Four guys divided the pitching. Jr. LH Conor Kerins went the first three innings and collected the win, allowing three hits and fanning as many. He allowed one run. Ryan sr. LH Kevin McGovern also was touched for three hits and one run in his three-inning stint. He helped himself with two nice plays on hard comebackers and benefited from a third-to-first doubleplay by Wood sr. Evan Garner. La Salle jr. LH Matt Day worked a perfect, two-K seventh and Carroll sr. RH Chris Dengler worked the final two frames. He did not appear to be throwing as hard as I'd remembered, so maybe he was working on short rest? Or maybe he hasn't gotten much sleep since graduating Friday? (smile) He surrendered three runs and the last, in the ninth, came courtesy of a homer to dead LF by the last O/C player to appear in the game. The CL won't play again until early Monday morning.
  The CL's underclass showcase event will be Wednesday, 3:30, at Richie Ashburn Field (FDR Park, across the street from the Wachovia Center). Click here for rosters, etc.

JUNE 5
PIAA STATE PLAYOFF
Class A First Round
Delco Christian 5, GAMP 0
  So, when this one at Radnor High ended, I drove to nearby Berwyn to give Malvern's Matt Forman his plaque for being named Best Teammate '07. Then it was off to Wawa for a ham-and-cheese hoagie with a side of Fritos (forgot how much I used to love those bad boys; bought them on a whim) and then back home to Jersey (man, I hate this state) to write the DN story. I kept postponing the phone call I'd eventually have to make because I knew what would be coming. And then, about 8:10, I did break down and call the operation that provides scores and details to the Daily News and That Other Paper That Shares OUR Building (ha, ha). In AAA, Franklin Towne Charter indeed absorbed a whipping from Bethlehem Catholic and the number after the hyphen was indeed a zero. That made things final. In four games, the Pub was outscored, 42-0. Can you say ouch? At high volume? In three years, the Pub is now 2-12 in the states and Central's '06 squad provided the only wins. Depressing. In this one, DC was able to deliver a slap to GAMP's face and get away with it. The Knights led after three innings, 3-0, and decided to yank sr. LH Trey Neal, a hard thrower who has hit at least 87 mph on radar guns. The reason? DC was already looking ahead to Thursday's second-round game. If Neal had thrown another pitch, he would have been ineligible due to the PIAA's save-pitchers'-arms rules. There is no rule on total number of pitches, but maybe there should be. Neal threw 67 pitches today. In his previous two starts, I was told, he threw 178 and 161. Phew!! And this is a Christian school? (smile) Neal struck out eight and walked four in his stint. The Pioneers were mostly way behind his tailing/sinking fastballs. Jr. RH Mike Connelly worked the last four innings and maintained the shutout, fanning four more and giving up his opponent's four hits -- the best were doubles by sr. C Eric Funaro and sr. RH-CF Brandon Henson. GAMP stranded five guys in scoring position. The starting pitcher would have been sr. LH Andrew Caines. But in the Pub all-star games last Saturday, he suffered a deep cut on his right hand when hit by a pitch. He was able to play first base. Asking him to catch the ball again and again while hurling would have been unrealistic; he had to yield to a DH. Henson is GAMP's hardest thrower. He is also tightly wound (more of a closer's persona) and the combination of some decent hits and his teammates' miscues brought about an early departure. Henson moved to CF after a two-run triple by RF Nick Mascioli made it 3-0 in the third. Jr. RH Foster "Slow and Slower" McKoskey went the rest of the way. An infield bobble led to two unearned runs in the sixth. The ink went to sr. SS Anthony Venafro. Ant went 0-for-4, but his last out (and the game's) came on a 400-foot drive to CF that was caught by a tumbling Neal. Geeeeeeeeeeeeez. Venafro was also part of three impressive defensive plays. In the second inning alone, he turned in a pair of biggies. First, he snuck in behind 3B Kevin Hiddeman at second base to take a bullet from Funaro that resulted in a picked-you-off. Then, when Neal launched a double to center, Venafro gloved a throw from CF Jon Sheridan and fired a pea to Funaro, whose excellent catch-and-tag (here's the pic) erased Matt McClelland. Then, in the sixth, Neal stole second with McClelland on third. Venafro noticed that McClelland had strayed a shade too far off the base, and he gunned to 3B Stefan Thompson to erase him. The teams arrived at the field simultaneously and there must have been some talking on the way in; there was definitely scattered in-game chirping. Because most batters are righthanded and the sun was not an issue, I spent most of the game on the right side of the backstop. That's where DC's dugout was located. The Knights were often quite emotional (as were the Pioneers) and at one point I heard a DC player mutter, "I HATE that team." Hate? Being expressed by a player from a Christian school? The world gets crazier and crazier (smile). Well, the official part of the school sports year is now over. Hard to believe. All that remains: the Carpenter Cup. Let's hope it's fun and productive.

MAY 31
CL FINAL AFTERMATH
  The text below was sent to us by Bill Avington, SJ Prep's director of marketing and communications.
  It comes from “St. Joseph’s Preparatory School: A History of 125 Years” by Rev. James J. Gormley, S.J.;
it was written in 1976. It discusses The Prep's 1925 title. Thanks for sending this, Bill!

MAY 30
CATHOLIC LEAGUE FINAL
SJ Prep 19, Ryan 0
   One reason I love getting to games WAY early: You might see something interesting that could have an effect on the outcome. As I approached Widener's field, this was the sight: the Prep's players and coaches removing all of their gear from the third-base dugout and heading to the first-base side, and then Ryan's crew moving everything in. CL rules state that the home team gets its choice of dugouts and when Ryan coach Ron Gerhart arrived, he said the Raiders wanted the third-base side (where it had been for the semifinal win over O'Hara). Prep coach Chris Rupertus was mostly befuddled by the uprooting, but he understood that he had to obey the order. Nevertheless, he found curious the fact that some members of Ryan's staff had first gone to the first-base side. In jest (at least I think in jest), he said, "We'll just have to jump on them for three or four first-inning runs." His wish. The Hawks' command. Prep dropped a four-spot on the Raiders, but that was ONNNNN-ly the beginning, folks. In the second inning, the Hawks exploded for 13 more. Yes, 13. That was the biggest final frame in CL history, breaking 12 by Dougherty against St. James (that school was in Chester, not far from Widener; it closed in June 1993) in the last game of a three-game series to decide the 1969 champion. For the blow-by-blow of the outburst, go to the bottom of this report. A 19-0 final. Hard to believe, Harry, as Richie Ashburn used to say. Carroll's 16-0 win over La Salle in the '02 final was outrageous enough. Plus, this one went only five innings due to the 10-run mercy rule. (As the second inning ended, I asked two CL honchos whether the mercy rule was in effect for playoffs. They said yes. I took that to mean that the game would end after three innings because the spread was more than 15 runs. That's the rule used by PIAA schools, and the CL just went to that this season. When it did not end, said honchos reported that only the 10-run rule had been adopted, and not the 15-run version. They declined to show me how the rule was written in the CL's red book -- it covers all rules and was right there in the press box. One added that a team getting crunched can elect to halt a game at any time, anyway. Comforting.) Anyway, the Prep added one more in the third and fifth. The Hawks are quite young, with only four seniors total on the team. Just two were starters today, yet both enjoyed special moments. RH Matt Dolan, who skipped baseball as a junior to concentrate on basketball (he was a starting forward), allowed just one hit over the five innings -- an infield single to deep short by sr. RF Rob McArdle, leading off the third. Dolan fanned two, walked as many and plunked one. His infield turned two DPs. Sr. LF Matt Fischer led the way with four RBI, thanks to a two-run single in the first and a two-run double in the second. He walked earlier in that second inning and scored three runs total. All four first innings runs were unearned, thanks to an infield bobble. It was not as if the inning was completely a freebie, though. Prep lashed four hits in the frame and worked two walks. Ryan's starter, sr. LH Kevin McGovern, was working on three days' rest. Nutshell: just didn't have it. His location was almost non-existent, especially with his curve, and the Hawks didn't miss many pitches that WERE in the strike zone. He departed after the fifth batter of the second. Won't be possible now, and maybe not for a while, but hopefully McGovern will be able to treasure all the good he did for Ryan this season after transferring from Dougherty. Ryan's over-the-top star was sr. C Mike Kovacs, who again and again and again (again many more times) saved his hurlers wild pitches by stopping balls in the dirt. The parts of his arms that aren't blue are black. Great hustle/desire to still get things right on a wickedly depressing afternoon, young man. Not much else to say, troops. I do know this: while doing play-by-play for the game DVD with the legendary Joe Malizia, I almost felt guilty having to repeat the score every so often.
Here's a rundown on Prep's second, exactly the way it was prepared for tomorrow's Daily News:
   Kevin McGovern pitching. Brett Tiagwad walks. Tim Edger walks. Aaron Haas hits into short-to-third fielder's choice. Steve Bruno singles to right for one RBI. Bruno steals second. Jeff Lynch doubles to left-center for two RBI. Jim Edelman replaces McGovern. Lynch moves to third on wild pitch. Matt Fischer draws walk. Sean McChesney draws walk, loading the bases. Dennis Murphy singles to right for one RBI. With Stefan Longo batting, Fischer scores on passed ball. Longo gets hit by pitch, reloading the bases. Tiagwad singles to left for one RBI. Edger singles to center for two RBI; is thrown out stretching. Kevin Reiber replaces Edelman. Haas walks. Bruno doubles to the base of the leftfield fence for two RBI. Lynch is hit by pitch. Fischer doubles to right-center for two RBI. McChesney singles to right for one RBI. Murphy hits into shortstop unassisted fielder's choice, ending the inning.
  Totals: 17 batters, 13 runs, 8 hits, 3 doubles, 5 walks, 2 hit batsmen, no errors, one left on base.

MAY 29
PUBLIC LEAGUE FINAL
Frankford 7, Central 5
   Wanting to win a championship should be motivation enough for any team involved in a final. The Pioneers had an extra push today at Campbell's Field, in Camden: wanting to make sure they did not send coach Bob Peffle into retirement with a sour taste in his mouth. Who knows what'll happen to Frankford in the state tournament, which begins June 4? But this much is assured: Peffle's final season DID produce one last Pub title, raising his total during these last eight seasons to five and giving him exactly 100 wins (along with seven losses) against Pub opposition, counting playoffs, over the last six seasons. Not bad, eh? That's a winning percentage of .935 and the main provider of this most recent win was a guy whose batting average last season was .---. As in, he didn't have one. That's right. As a junior, Kevin Roche joined the team at about mid-season and made only ONE plate appearance, drawing a walk. Now the 6-1, 235-pound senior is the first baseman and cleanup hitter and in this one he went 3-for-4 with four RBI. Aside from his hitting, he assisted the Pioneers in the heart department with his upbeat nature and non-stop encouragement. Frankford yielded a pair of unearned runs in the second, then Roche created a 2-2 tie in the third with a medium shot to left that went for a single, scoring sr. 2B Jeffry Bru (walk) and soph CF Edwin "Tito" Rohena (single, stolen base). The score became 4-2 in the fourth as jr. 3B Dave Doggett worked a leadoff walk, moved upon a sac by jr. SS Jon Bracero, took third on a passed ball and scored on a ringing double into the rightfield corner by jr. LF Frank Donato. Following up with another double was the pitcher, jr. RH Esteban "Shortie" Meletiche; that ball barely tipped off the glove of sr. 3B Jim Benek en route to the outfield. Next inning? Another two-spot. Rohena fired a single through the left side, thieved second and scored on a smacked double to exact left-center by Roche. Sr. RH Jared Farbman then switched positions with jr. SS Micah Winterstein. With two away, Bracero rifled a single to center for another run. The Pioneers' seventh-inning run was unearned. Donato, the No. 9 hitter, got things rolling with a leadoff single and later scored on Roche's single. The big hit of Central's two-run second was Winterstein's triple to right. It would have given him an RBI, but a wild pitch had scored courtesy runner Alex MacCready (on for jr. C Aaron Esbensen; reached on error) moments earlier. Winterstein scored on a bloop single to right by the No. 9 hitter, soph RF Zack King. A groundout by jr. CF Mike Braun produced a run in the sixth. Central's seventh? Things did get hairy. Consecutive singles by soph 2B Tom Capewell and King started the frame. Both runners moved upon a groundout and that brought Magdovitz to the plate. Zach chopped to Meletiche, as Capewell broke. Esteban could have made Shortie work of Capewell if he'd run directly at him. Instead, he ran toward third with the idea of trying to retire MacCready, now officially a pinch-runner for King. He got no one and Capewell scored. Next, Farbman sent a popup to close-proximity center. It became a sac fly when MacCready sprinted home; risky, but he made it without a play. Up came Esbensen, who'd batted lefthanded in his previous at-bat (striking out on three pitches). This time, back to righty, he lifted a popup toward Central's dugout on the first base side. Roche ambled over and made the game-ending catch just before his spikes skidded on the top step and he tumbled part way down. He was unhurt. Meletiche's final line: 7 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 10 K. Pretty good for a small guy working on just four days' rest. Frankford received tremendous support from its rooters. A decent number were recent players, and their parents/supporters, who remain as loyal as humanly possible to Peffle. Great to see! Central also had strong and loud fan support. What the rooting sections lacked in pure numbers was overcome by the passion. The fact that Central is finished is just now hitting me (at 11:45 p.m.) The Lancers were fun to watch these past few seasons and our best wishes for the future go to the two veteran seniors, Farbman and Benek. The other eight guys who started will be back. Frankford's next opponent will be West Chester East or Council Rock North. That game will be played somewhere in the city this Monday. I heard Philly U. mentioned as a possibility. We'll see. My son, Kevin, handled photographic duties today during the game itself, as I was upstairs doing play-by-play for Joe Malizia's game DVD. Kevin took about 300 pictures!!!! "A lot of them will look the same," he understated. "Except for that one time when I went to get something to eat, I took at least one pic pretty much every pitch." Somehow, the batteries did not go dead! "I never turned off the camera," he said. Website legend Mark "Frog" Carfagno did a great job as the PA announcer. Lots of energy. Before the game, Frankford's retiring athletic director (and former FB coach) Tom "Mr. Sunshine" Mullineaux called me over and said, "Now that I'll be outta here in a few weeks, I want to get something off my chest. It's a DISGRACE that the Phillies, Eagles and Sixers don't offer their stadiums to host these kinds of games. All the money put into those places by the taxpayers . . . and they can't let kids from Philly get in there to decide their championship?" Does make a point. After the game, Peffle was doused by two Pioneers, sub Sean Henderson and the injured Jose Burgos, a jr. OF. He used his left arm to carry around the bucket. Why's that distinction necessary? Well, Burgos was the guy, on the very first play of the GAMP semifinal, who dislocated his right shoulder trying to make a diving catch of a sinking liner. He's coming along, but his right arm was in a sling.

MAY 22
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
FIRST-ROUND NORTH PLAYOFF
Judge 14, La Salle 7
   Since when are teams from the Public League's worst baseball division (D) allowed to compete for the CL championship? This is generally regarded as a down year in the CL, and this one definitely hit the depths. There were 10 errors, 10 unearned runs, 11 walks (two intentional) and seven hit batsmen -- my guess is that NO CL playoffs have had 38 total negative stats like those -- and parts of this game were like a stake through the eyes. Sorry if that sounds blunt, but we call 'em as we see 'em and there's no way a playoff game should unfold as this one did. The participants could not even blame a large throng of people for making them nervous; neither school is too close to Widener and I'd be surprised if more than 75 people were in attendance. But as bad as this game was overall, there was one outstanding performance and a few bright moments along the way. The ink went to jr. 3B-RH Tim Ashenbrenner, who spent the first two innings at the hot corner and then was called upon to pitch because sr. RH Ryan Kreider, the co-MVP of the Northern Division, just had "one of those days." Ashenbrenner went the final five innings, limiting the Explorers to one hit and one run (earned). After committing four errors in the second, the Crusaders backed him by making just one thereafter. Ashenbrenner fanned just one, so he needed his teammates to get it together in the field and that was what happened. After some early flubs, sr. SS Keith Chichearo played well down the stretch and Ashenbrenner helped himself with two assists on comebackers. Ashenbrenner (single) and jr. RF Jim DiLisio (sac fly) had the RBI in a two-run second and a single by sr. 1B Frank Leaden produced a run in the third. The breakthrough frame was the fourth. After soph LH Shawn O'Neill (his dad, also named Shawn and a lefty, was a star for Judge's '76 CL and City Title-winning squad) surrendered a double to DiLisio to start things, he was pulled in favor of sr. RH Joe Weitzman. Jr. CF Steve Stout, a lefty swinger, fired an RBI single down the leftfield line. A bobble let in a second run and a two-run single to right by sr. DH Joe Ashdale made it 7-4. In the fifth, jr. LF Andrew McHale, struggling to that point with two Ks and a popout, redeemed himself big-time by blasting a two-run double up the left-center alley. As for Judge's five-run seventh . . . ouch. It featured just one hit and the Explorers committed three errors. The early highlight for La Salle was a two-run triple to CF in the first by sr. C Sean Saverio. From the fifth inning on, La Salle's batters were under orders to take a strike. With the count at 1-0, one unfortunate soul swung and grounded out. Coach Joe Parisi is STILL glaring at this kid, I'm guessing (smile). Plate ump Mike Finney, who's usually very good, had some early-game struggles on ball-strike calls, especially with Judge at bat, and some Crusader fans rode him hard. After the game, I said "tough loss" to a member of La Salle's coaching staff. He responded, "It's not 'tough' one when your team gives up." Great job preparing the field, as always, by Widener coach Steve Carcarey and his assorted player-helpers. One was Mike Villari, star OF for last year's La Salle team. He had a great frosh season, highlighted by a .319 average and 32 SBs.

MAY 17
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Kennedy-Kenrick 8, Roman 3
  Before this game could mean nothing, it had to mean everything. Sound strange? Makes perfect sense, though. K-K needed this win to complete a three-game series sweep and tie Roman for fourth place (and elsewhere, Carroll was beating Bonner to make it a three-way situation) and now the slate is wiped clean and the three will have a mini-tournament to decide which team gets fourth place for purposes of the regular playoffs. The schedule: Saturday, at La Salle High, Carroll-Roman at noon, followed by that winner vs. K-K. The Wolverines' headliners today were the battery members. Coming off a 4.1-inning relief stint in Monday's win, sr. RH Tom Mahoney went the distance and limited the Cahillites to six hits. He struck out just two, but walked only one and left all four of Roman's LOB guys in scoring position. Jr. C Nick Ciccone gunned down a would-be basestealer, sold a tag-play at the plate to the umpire (though I strongly suspect he dropped the ball; if not, why did he run to the rear portion of the backstop to again tag the runner? -- smile) and went 3-for-3 with a pair of RBI doubles (one to left-center, the other to right-center) and a sac that helped in a two-run inning. Roman's pitcher was frosh LH Mark Donato. The stakes were large and Donato, though he clearly battled, was a shade short of sharp. K-K hit some true rockets en route to collecting 16 hits. The Wolverines earned leads of 2-0, 4-0, 4-2, 5-2 and 7-2 through five. Sr. CF Carlo Petrillo launched a solo homer to dead center in the third while jr. 1B Andrew Gulotta and sr. SS Jeff Couchara had RBI singles along the way. The only Cahillite to truly hurt Mahoney was sr. LF Will O'Mara, who went 2-for-2 with a double, two-run homer to center and sac fly for a third ribbie. Roman ran itself out of a possibly big inning in the fourth. Donato reached on an error to start things off, but sr. courtesy runner Dan LePera was erased by Ciccone. (Wonder if he's related to Madonna? Isn't her real last name Ciccone?) O'Mara followed with a ringing double to deep left that would have scored LePera. Sr. CF Dom Joseph reached first on an infield single. Couchara, who otherwise had a strong game, bobbled a grounder by sr. C Adam George and then whipped the ball high over Gulotta's head. It hit off the screen and Gulotta recovered to gun down O'Mara at the plate (the controversial play mentioned earlier; one adult Roman fan really gave the plate ump an earful from behind the fence that's maybe six feet behind the backstop). I remember him saying something like, "You're fired! Just take your severance pay and go home!" Roman's best defensive play was a diving catch in RF by Deodato, the South MVP. To make the regular playoffs, Roman has a hard way to go. If it does make it to Saturday's second game, it'll be the fifth game in six days. Anybody and everybody could be making a pitching appearance. K-K, meanwhile, has won seven of its last nine. The weather knuckleheads are dispensing shaky forecasts for this weekend. Please pray they're wrong. There's so much going on with baseball and track, not to mention the City All-Star Football Game.

MAY 14
PUBLIC LEAGUE
CLASS AA SEMIFINAL
Prep Charter 12, Nueva Esperanza 1 (5 inn.)
   Ouch. Not a classic. In many leagues, this would have been a JV game because both squads are very young. PC SS George Whitleigh was the only senior in the starting lineups! NuEs fielded three freshmen and five sophs while PC countered with one and one. The Huskies' extra experience mattered as they coasted to a shortened victory. They posted three in the first, eight in a 13-batter second and one in the third on a blast of a solo, over-the-fence HR to exact left-center by soph 1B Angelo DelVecchio. A few guys could have gotten the ink, but I went with Whitleigh because he's a senior and has had, by all accounts, a solid season as a player/leader. His four plate appearances produced three walks, one strikeout, two steals and two runs. Also, he made an inspiring play as the game began. Soph RF Edwin Lebron pummeled the game's first pitch off the leftfield fence on a short hop and the Huskies had to be thinking, "Uh, oh. These guys might be decent." Frosh SS Nardo Rosa then sent a groundball deep into the hole. Whitleigh made an impressive stop after scrambling over, and he was even able to hold Lebron at second before gunning to first. A strikeout and groundout kept NuEs off the board. Looking back, the play was rather unimportant. But at the time, especially since the teams were still feeling each other out, it was huge. The home first was a mess. PC drew three walks and stole five bases and NuEs committed three errors. There was one very interesting scenario, though. With a 3-0 count, coach John Grone called for a pitchout. A walk resulted, of course, but frosh C Luis Santos caught the pitch and gunned to third to pick off jr. CF Casey "Butters" Margerum. He was off too far because he'd expected a squeeze. Like I said, crazy sequence. The second featured Margerum's RBI double and two-run singles by jr. C Mike Bariana and jr. 3B Sean McGovern. PC jr. RH Joe "Catch Those" Crooks went the distance, recording five whiffs and allowing five hits. NuEs' starter, soph RH Joshua Ortiz, is a big, beefy kid, but does he ever throw slow pitches! Phew! The reliever, soph RH Reinaldo Benitez, threw much harder and he's not only short, but thin. The second best defensive play was made by NuEs' backup leftfielder, soph Gilberto Zavala. Bariana sent a shot to deep left and Zavala kept drifting back. He made the catch as he banged into a metal light box set on top of contrete, and crumbled downward. He received a nice round of applause even from PC's players/fans. Grone was a first team coaches' All-Pub quarterback for Mastbaum in '99. PC's first-year coach, Rob Hale, was a first-team All-City pitcher for Southern in '89. He was quite the fireballer. (And, yes, Southern used to have some very good teams. Hard to believe, I realize.) NuEs next year will be known as only Esperanza Academy. (Nueva Esperanza means "New Hope.") Said Grone: "A lot of people just call us Nueva. The school wants to make sure the emphasis is on Esperanza since that means hope. Also, the nickname will change from Scorpions to Toros.

MAY 11
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Chestnut Hill 5, Haverford School 4
  If nothing else, this game set a world record for step-offs and step-outs. With men on base, HS sr. RH Jim McConlogue was extremely methodical and the Blue Devils were quite (and understandably) impatient and the stoppages were so common as to be highly annoying. At one point a CHA fan bellowed something about a need to finish the game by the summer solstice (ha ha ha). As things turned out, the game concluded moments after the bell tower sounded 6 p.m. Sr. RH Anthony "Fonz" Cafagna (Richmond) saw to that by mostly making short work of the Fords. Playing for the first time since breaking a bone in his left hand April 25 (while getting picked off 1B), Cafagna pitched a four-hitter with 12 strikeouts and NO walks (though he did drill a guy). So, how did HS score four runs? Two majestic swings of the bat by sr. 3B Mike Galetta (Boston College), a lefty. He hit a solo shot straight down the RF line in the first -- on an 0-2 changeup -- and a three-run blast to pretty much dead center in the third. That came on a hanging curve. The No. 3 spot in the order came up one last time, in the sixth, but the hitter wasn't Galetta. He was removed in the top of the fifth and coach Bob Castell said afterward only that Galetta wasn't hurt and that HE had made the move to yank him from the lineup. I didn't see anything outrageous and I have no idea what happened. Galetta did stay on the bench and was the first Ford through the post-game handshake line. Very weird development, not to mention unfortunate. That third duel would have been an all-timer! McConlogue, also a SS, pitched the first five innings and yielded all of the runs, though just one was earned. Soph RH Ben Ware worked the last two and left four guys stranded. For CHA, jr. 1B Mike Mattei lined almost identical singles to left in the first and third for one RBI apiece. Soph 3B Steel Russell, a lefty, collected one RBI on an infield topper in the third and a hard single to center in the fourth. This was my second look at frosh sensation Jon McAllister, a CF and lefty leadoff hitter, and there is so MUCH to love about this guy. He is completely disruptive because of his speed and instincts, not to mention his brass. He singled, doubled, stole two bases and scored three runs. On one of his steals, he was picked off by McConlogue in dead-duck fashion, but merely made a mad dash for second and beat the throw. I'd also have to think he was at least a partial cause of two wild pitches along with an off-line throw on what could have been a fielder's choice out at the plate. Sr. LF Maurice "Mo" Young, the No. 2 hitter, also had a major influence though he collected just one hit. He walked once while reaching base four times in all and thieved three bases as well. Sr. SS Mike "Spike" Christiansen went 2-for-4 with a double and a shot to the base of the CF wall that was caught by sr. Jared Cohen. The defensive play of the day was made by soph 2B Brandon Sady, who scrambled to his left, and did a mini-slide, to grab a grounder and retire jr. 2B Matt Baureis. Cafagna said his fastball was clocked at 88 mph last June, and he appeared to be throwing at least that hard. He fanned six of the first nine batters and five of the last seven. The BDs/Hillers are 8-1 with Tuesday's game at Penn Charter remaining. Gtn. Academy (7-2) and Malvern (6-2) are looming right behind. If CHA falters, the winner of the GA-Malvern game (also Tuesday) will either tie for the title (in GA's case) or have a chance to do so next Friday (in Malvern's case; in a game with visiting HS).

MAY 10
PUBLIC LEAGUE
CLASS A PLAYOFF
Phila. Academy Charter 11, Masterman 6
   Well, the 2007 Masterman baseball squad goes down as one of the very few in city history, in any sport, that went unbeaten in league play in its first season of competition. Meanwhile, the Blue Dragons' conqueror is another first-year entrant and PAC's only loss was to Masterman in Game No. 2 of Division D play. Strange how things unfold sometimes. PAC is located at 11000 Roosevelt Blvd. (WAY the hell up there -- smile) and will graduate its first seniors next month. The coach, Jack Smith, was a starting player for Judge and the school/squad includes many kids who no doubt would have attended Washington back in the not-too-far-back day. Masterman, a special-admit school (and truly top-notch), has been in the basketball Pub for a while and AD Dave Lieber said the school finally went with baseball because the demand was there, the time was right due to a slight increase in enrollment and he was able to find a quality coach (Alex Dejewski, who coached Lamberton back in the day). The Blue Dragons use one of the Fairmount Park fields near 33rd and Dauphin and that's where this one was played. (PAC now travels to GAMP for the A title on Monday.) The ink went to sr. CF Eric Schaeffer, a lefty swinger and leadoff hitter. He attended Northeast for half of his freshman year, and then hightailed it to this place and is now proud to call it home. The early story focus was on his game-day pants and how they haven't been washed in quite a while and are now rather smelly/stinky/funky/whichever you prefer. Anyway, Schaeffer (is that surname the one with the most spelling possibilities in world history?? -- smile) went 3-for-4 with a walk, two-run single and three runs scored. The other two senior starters are LF Justin Beattie (3-for-5, two-run double) and 1B Matt Sanabor (one hit). The junior mainstays are LH Dave Pachuki, a partial sidearmer who went the distance, and C Bobby Ropars, a gritty, spiritual leader who also plays well. Ropars had just one hit, an RBI single, but he got home two other runs with a groundout and sac fly. PAC scored three apiece in the second and fourth as Schaeffer and Beattie had the big hits. With the score 6-6, the Chargers posted four in the sixth against frosh RH relievers Micah Krey and Bill Powers. One-out singles by Schaeffer, Beattie and Ropars produced a run and Pachuki was issued an intentional walk to load the bases. Powers replaced Krey and Sanabor hit a chopper to the mound. Powers threw wildly to the plate, scoring Beattie and leaving the bases loaded. Soph SS Taylor Vanderwoude followed by smacking a groundball through the hole for a two-run single. Ropers' sac fly added the final run in the seventh. Powers, originally the catcher, and jr. LH Evan Hunt, who later played 1B, delivered two-run singles for Masterman. Jr. CF Adam "All My Children" Chandler (two runs) and jr. 1B-3B-C Chuck Feeley (three runs) both had two hits. During the top of the fifth, Hunt told the base ump, "I guarantee we score two runs in the next inning." (Meaning the bottom half, of course.) Right he was! Ropars' mother kept PAC's scorebook. Bobby at one point said loudly, "Mom, who's up for them?" She provided the answer and then Bobby asked, "Where'd this guy hit the ball last time?" She again provided the answer. Family teamwork. Gotta love it! After my interview with Schaeffer was finished, Smith laughingly said in front of Eric and others, "He's been hoping you'd write a story on him all year!" To which I responded, "Some people have small goals in life." (ha ha ha). Oh, one last thing: There was a crazy play in the seventh. With Hunt on first, Powers sent a sinking liner to jr. RF Mike Edwards. The base ump at first called Powers out and Hunt, of course, hugged first. But the guy then changed his mind and Hunt was easily forced at second. As was well within his right, Hunt screeched, "You said he was out! Which was why I didn't run to second!" At first it appeared the base ump was going to give Hunt the base because of the mixup. After a lengthy discussion involving both coaches and both umps, that compromise plan was nixed and Hunt was indeed called out. Dejewski did not file a formal protest.

MAY 9
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Roxborough 7, Bok 6
  Even when a game is somewhat messy, how can you possibly complain when it's still in doubt at the very end? You can't, and I won't. In fact, this fray had lots of positive moments and I'm glad I made the trek to Andorra, a k a Upper Roxborough. (The two other possibilities today also turned out to be one-run games, as Olney bested Prep Charter and Northeast did likewise to Edison). Deep into the third inning, a stunning accomplishment appeared to be in the works. Rox sr. LH James Paulk (a junior in school; he'll likely try to apply for another year of eligibility) struck out the first eight batters with a decent fastball (not eye-popping, but DECENT) and the occasional breaking pitch. That brought up frosh RF Gary Jackson, who worked a full-count walk, then stole second and then thieved third and came home as the throw sailed into the outfield. Jr. CF Raymond Martinez followed with a hard groundball single, so at least that run wound up being earned. But the ball was bobbled in centerfield, allowing Martinez to take an extra base, and jr. SS Kendall Johnson followed with another hard ball up the the middle for an RBI single. That made it 2-2. Bok later claimed a 5-4 lead in the fifth, only to see Roxborough respond with three in the bottom half to of course make it 7-5. We flash to the seventh: Roxborough's pitcher is sr. RH Chris Schroeder, who'd breezed through a 1-2-3 sixth. But Schroeder was called out to end the Indians' half and he muttered something while walking away and his concentration was likely shaky as the inning began, especially after a borderline pitch went against him. Jr. 2B Anthony Maddox, the No. 8 hitter, worked a walk. Jackson fanned, but the competitive Schroeder (he might be the Pub's best player NOT in Division A) issued two more free passes and coach Bob Stowman had to brandish a hook. The call went to sr. RH Doug Sponsler, who earlier had played 1B and SS. Jr. C Anthony Rivers sent a hard grass-cutter toward Paulk at 1B. James bobbled and the ball squirted into foul territory. Maddox scampered home to make it 7-6 and Martinez also tried to come in. To his credit, Paulk recovered and fired to jr. C Amir Boler and Martinez was a dead duck. The runners then wound up on second and third as sr. 1B Mike Nunez batted. Nunez battled, but was eventually called out on a 3-2 pitch he claimed was inside. Might have been, but it was definitely too close to take in that situation. Paulk went five full innings, finishing with 11 strikeouts and five hits allowed. His mates committed two costly errors in the three-run fifth, capped by Nunez' two-run single. Bok still had first and second, and Rivers tried to steal third. The throw was true, but sr. 3B Pat Cummiskey butter-fingered it and the ball bounced over toward Schroeder at SS. Rivers kept going and was out at the plate. Earlier, Schroeder had made an impressive relay throw to nail Nunez at third (as he tried to stretch a leadoff double). Schroeder mashed three balls, collecting a triple and two singles for one RBI. Sr. CF Stephen Tucker also went 3-for-4, with his extra-base hit going for an RBI double. Jr. RF Adrese Hicks went 2-for-4 with one RBI. Paulk collected RBI on a sac fly (actually, a popup right past 1B) and a fielder's choice. Bok's starter was soph LF Joey Ferlaino. Not a quickster, but I liked his approach and that he was often able to live on the outside corner. Could be successful over the next two years, especially if he can add some velocity. Rivers, who writes for this website ("Rivers' Flow"), shows good baseball savvy and leadership qualities. More than once I heard him explaining situations, and even rules, to his teammates. Johnson, though quite small, is also a feisty kid. Jackson is probably even smaller. He did a nice job on flyballs in his vicinity. After Paulk fanned in the first, Schroeder said kiddingly, "All right, strikeout king!" Paulk responded with a laugh, "That's not why I'm here." After Bok sr. LF Sam Cubilette got called out on a definitely low pitch, he muttered, "Yo, that's for golfing." After hearing a Roxborough player, perhaps as far away as LF, belch VERY loudly, Bok sub Gennaro Argondizza said in astonishment, "That sounds like a crocodile!" It's only 10:43 as I finish this report. Phew, feels like a day off. (Part of the night was not spent doing a story for the DN because tomorrow's paper will include a piece on Bartram WR Shanon Wilson for next week's City All-Star FB Game. Along with the rosters.)

MAY 4
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Conwell-Egan 11, North Catholic 9
   Well, gang, the "clean" score of this game was 5-4, North. As in, only nine runs were earned and the Falcons had one more than C-E. Despite the sloppiness, this was eminently watchable and there WAS, no doubt, some serious rockin'. One thing about standing so close to the cage/backstop/whatever-you-want-to-call-it: On hard-hit balls, you almost feel as if your eardrums have ruptured. Clang! Clang! Aluminum bats sometimes make serious noise! Anyway, the story subject was C-E soph DH Pat Sevick, who's so new to the team that his uniform does not have a number (ha ha). He'll take No. 2, thank you, and it IS available. Sevick was promoted to the varsity on Tuesday and has since gone 7-for-12. In this one he went 2-for-4 with a sac fly and a two-run homer for three RBI; he reached base twice on errors. His homer? High entertainment value. It came in the visiting seventh after sr. CF Mike Thomas fired a triple over the head of jr. RF Chris James for one run and a 9-8 lead. Sevick sent a long drive to dead leftfield at Piccoli Playground. The ball disappeared and the base ump signaled a homer. But frosh LF Ryan Etsell (among others) was contending that the ball went through a hole in the fence and there was very little joy as Sevick reached the plate because the Eagles could not be sure what the final ruling was going to be. They all stood and watched in amazed silence as the ump ran out to the spot and looked at the fence, high and low. He finally determined that the ball had indeed cleared it, and once again he twirled his index finger. The Eagles then went nuts! North scored an unearned run in the bottom half and did get the tying run to the plate after sr. 3B John McDonald, the starting pitcher and usually an excellent fielder, threw wildly to first on sr. RH-CF Ryan Nally's grounder. Soph 2B-RH Bob Hopkins sent another grounder to McDonald. This throw was low, but reserve 1B Rich Horn, a jr. fresh off the bench, made a clutch scoop and James (two earlier doubles, one RBI) was retired to end it on a drive to deep center. For C-E, Thomas added a single and one other RBI; sr. LF Joe McAnany lashed three hits, including two doubles, for one RBI; soph 3B Julian Faria delivered a two-run single to highlight a four-run fourth; and sr. 2B John Marziano almost went to the hospital (smile). He bunted in the second and the throw sailed way over the area. As John neared the base, jr. 1B Chris Morrin jumped and wound up crunching down on John. Morrin somehow was barely affected. Marziano was dazed, big-time, and was given several minutes to rejoin this wonderful world of ours. McDonald was throwing hard, but in time the Falcons were able to sit on dead-red because he could not locate his curve. At all. Maybe not even once the whole game. It was amazing. At one point, a North player and I were bringing up that possibility. Maybe a minute later, about 5 feet from where we were, two other North kids began talking. One said, "Has he thrown a curve for a strike this whole game?" The kid next to me said with a laugh, "Is there an echo?" McDonald switched to 3B after allowing a leadoff double to Hopkins to start the sixth (he might have been the kid next to me). Soph LH Kevin Cahill finished up and emerged as the winner. North rapped 11 hits with five going for extra bases. Morrin powered a solo homer to pretty much exact left-center (perhaps even a shade to the right of that) while Etsell had the double not previously mentioned. This lefty has a sweet swing. His brother, Derrek, a sr. 1B-OF and also a lefty swinger, collected two RBI on a pair of sac flies to left. Sr. SS Chris Bonecorse went 2-for-3 with a walk and one RBI. Before he was ready to bat in the sixth, Bonecorse said, "I'm gonna do a Morrin. Write that down." Hit a homer, he meant. Instead he hit a semi-liner to first. Oh, well. I never mind seeing/hearing a kid exude confidence. Nally, sr. RH Adam Miller, Hopkins and jr. RH Kegan "Just One 'E' in that First Name" Smith did the pitching for North. Among the spectators was Penn Charter FB assistant Chuck McCloskey, a North grad, and the brother of PC head coach Brian McCloskey. Their mom was also in attendance. Sevick has ties with the ever-productive Zeglinski brothers (Zack, Joe, Sammy). Their aunt, Barbara, is Pat's step-mother. North's mound is outrageously high. We're hearing little kids learn mountain-climbing on it (smile). Four-five girls from Little Flower watched part of the game. One said pleasantly that I should cover the school's golf matches at the nearby Juniata course. If I've ever covered a golf match, I don't remember it. One time, though, while working in the suburbs WAY back, I did interview a champion high-jumper while he was walking around the golf course, as a caddy, at North Hills Country Club. This was on a Monday and my employer was a weekly paper. He'd won a state title two days earlier at Penn State. His name was Keith Taylor, of Upper Dublin HS. His brother, Donald "Dorn" Taylor, later pitched in the major leagues for the Pirates, and now serves as McDevitt's pitching coach. See what off-the-wall stuff you can learn if you read these reports to the end? Hey, wake up! You still there? (smile)

MAY 3
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Carroll 6, Kennedy-Kenrick 4 (8 inn.)
   It’s a good thing CL brass did not institute three-game series a few years ago because these teams truly hated each other and the third game, as this one was of the week, would have been played somewhere behind bars. There’s still not a whole lot of love, but frisky behavior by players was non-existent and even the student spectators behaved. Borrrrrrr-ing! (smile) This was a three-tiered affair (and it didn’t start until 4 o’clock because of bus problems for Carroll). The first two innings were slow-moving and not particularly gripping and both pitchers threw to first/stepped off about 1,000 times. The next 2 ½ innings absolutely flew as many of the batters first-pitch swung into outs. The game then again slowed down, but no one minded because all kinds of interesting things were happening and any game that goes beyond regulation has to be a memory-maker of some kind of variety, right? The starters were Carroll jr. LH Andrew Candelore and K-K sr. RH Tom Mahoney. They lasted five and seven innings, respectively. Jr. RH Phil Dougherty (one inning) and sr. RH Chris Dengler finished up for Carroll. Jr. RH Sal Spera worked the eighth for K-K. The Patriots’ early headliner was jr. SS Tim Weglicki, whose dad, also Tim, was a first-magnitude soccer star at North Catholic. Tim crushed the ball in all four of his at-bats and delivered RBI singles in the second and sixth. In the fifth, after K-K scored twice and was looking for more, Weglicki had the presence of mind to regroup after bobbling a groundout and gun to second for a forceout. K-K’s two runs in that inning came courtesy of Mahoney’s beautiful bunt single (he pushed it to the right side, fast enough to get past Candelore and create a no-play situation) and a bases-loaded walk to sr. RF Mike Fazio. The seventh began with K-K up, 3-2. Mahoney, a battler more than a true pitcher but definitely fun to watch/admire, allowed a leadoff walk to soph CF Nick “Meatball” Szalejko and it wound up costing him. (Oddly, all three free passes issued by Mahoney went to Szalejko.) With sr. 3B-RH Chris Dengler at bat one out later, Szalejko stole and Dengler followed with a rocket right back at Mahoney. Tom was able to slightly deflect the ball with his glove and it went for an infield single. Sr. DH-1B Chris Lisowski, a lefty 0-for-3 to this point, ripped an RBI single to right . Sr. C John Thomas was given an intentional walk to fill the sacks. Sr. 1B-3B Kyle “Baked Ziti” Baker chopped to jr. 3B Vinny Couchara. He got a forceout at home. Soph C Jerry Ploskon dropped the ball, however, and wound up getting trampled by Dengler. His right hand looked pretty mangled and he had to depart in favor of jr. C Nick Ciccone. Sr. LF Mike Parrilla grounded to soph SS Christian Walker. His throw was high and Carroll had a freebie, along with a 4-3 lead. The Patriots immediately returned the favor in the bottom half as Mahoney’s grounder was bobbled by Baker, now over at third. Mahoney thieved second with Walker at bat and then Christian absolutely buried a ball deep into center, not far from the 393-foot sign, for an RBI double. No further damage. Onward to the eighth, with Spera on the hill. Sr. RF Pete Coppa, the No. 9 hitter, directed a groundball single to center. Szalejko bunted and Spera uncorked a wild throw to jr. 1B Andrew Gulotta. An intentional walk filled ‘em and K-K had hope after Dengler popped out. It was short-lived as Lisowski pumped a two-run double into the leftfield corner. (My DN story focused on how Chris changed his batting gloves from white to black after he dropped to 0-for-3 on the afternoon. We’re guessing he’ll continue to wear the black ones in Carroll’s next game. Oh, also, the Patriots wore their pants up high, with socks showing all the way, pretty much, to knee level.) K-K went 1-2-3 in the home eighth. Had a camera problem. After I took K-K's team pic, the memory card was full and for some strange reason I couldn't do any deleting. Oh, well. Good-guy former K-K assistant (and pitcher) Matt Johnson, who was rockin' the Turtle from "Entourage" look, gave me directions to a local K-Mart. I saw a chain drug store first and, luckily, the place had a small-capacity memory card. Before the game, K-K jr. Shane Giongo mentioned that his name had never been on the website. It’s on here now, friend. So is his pic, for that matter, because Shane drew prayer duties. Sr. Alex Johnson said earlier today he was reading a report from the 2005 football season where it was mentioned that he stepped on the hand of a Conwell-Egan opponent while jumping offside. “I didn’t step on his hand. Really,” he said, laughing. Hey, it’s never too late to make things right. Early in the game, some female K-K fans were standing near the dugout. One blurted out, “Gulotta, who’s hotta? Christian!” As I walked through the group a few moments later, I repeated the comment and some of the girls pointed to the one who’d said it. She shrieked, "You heard that?" A kid was standing with them. He said, “That’s going on the website, right?” You know it!! (ha ha)

MAY 2
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Franklin LC 3, Swenson 1
  Was it really possible? Was I going to see a 1-0 Pub game for the second consecutive season? Certainly appeared that way deep into this tilt, but some sloppy play got in the way and the shutout even dissolved with two away in the visiting seventh. At stake was the Division C regular season title and before the game FLC manager Mike Davis, who's unable to play because of a health issue, kept saying I should call sr. RH Lenny Nicoletti "Lights Out." I kept laughing and telling Mike, "Let's see how he pitches first." Well, Lenny did not completely turn off the Lions' lights, but he certainly dimmed them. Leonard Dominic Nicoletti IV allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out eight. Seven of those fan-jobs came in the first four innings. His velocity decreased thereafter, but that was mostly by design as he made a conscious effort not to overpitch, and to rely on his fielders. (Meanwhile, the strike zone was sometimes gigantic. The game required just 94 minutes.) Swenson's only hit through six was a second-inning single by soph 3B Justin Holzshu. In the seventh, Holzshu drew a one-out walk and moved to second as jr. LF Mike Allen grounded out. The No. 8 hitter, jr. RF Shawn Rose, sent a fly to RF. Honestly, sr. Pedro Lopez should have made the catch, but he circled a little and had trouble drawing a bead on it and the ball fell for an RBI single. Jr. 2B Pat Quinn followed with a comebacker. Rather than chance an errant toss or lack of a catch, Nicoletti ran to the bag to end it and set off unabashed glee. Nicoletti's counterpart was soph RH Harry Davila, who also pitched well. He whiffed 12 in his six-inning stint and held the Bobcats to four hits. Two came early and wound up hurting. Jr. 2B Joe Maloney smoked a one-out double in the first and came around as Nicoletti followed with a likewise stung RBI single to left. The two-run sixth was seriously messy. Davila plunked two guys and his teammates committed two errors. The game's best fielder, by far, was Maloney, a transfer from Roman. He showed soft hands and keen instincts even during the pre-game drills and it was a pleasure to watch him throughout. Here's an excerpt from the DN story: His two best plays were a skidding catch of a line drive to his left and a heads-up bailout of frosh 1B Keith "Spike" McCandless, who mishandled a grounder with the ball bouncing in Maloney's direction. Another time, jr. SS Dom Simone grounded up the middle. The ball hit the rubber and bounced at least 20 feet in the air. Maloney stayed with the play, caught the ball near second and quickly stepped on the bag for a forceout. FLC's players and fans, a group that included parents and teachers, showed good energy throughout. Memo to manager Eric Wilson: I'm more than a website dude. I also write for the Daily News!! (smile) Nicoletti, the second of seven children, was watched by his mom along with a brother and sister. Joe, age 10, wants it known that he also plays baseball. There you go, buddy. Maybe you'll get a story in six to eight years. Before the game, I told some of FLC's guys about a Bobcat game I covered 20 years ago that featured some incredible circumstances. Here's that story:

MAY 1
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Chestnut Hill 9, Penn Charter 6
   First, let's get some guesses on how many times a CHA parent (or maybe a teacher?) yelled, "C'mon, bench, let's make some noise! You're too quiet!" Fifty times? One hundred times? Phew, the dude was relentless (smile). By game's end, though, his passion for this game was rewarded as the Blue Devils/Hillers used a four-run, home-sixth rally to erase a 6-5 deficit and go to 6-0 in Inter-Ac play. CHA is two ahead in the loss column with four to play (GA is 4-2; Malvern is 3-2). Today's ink went to jr. RH Mike Mattei, who is now the No. 1 starter because sr. RH Anthony Cafagna (Richmond) is out with a broken bone in his left hand. He was having a stupendous season. There's a slight chance he'll make it back, but the BDs cannot count on that and are proceeding accordingly. The situation was flip-flopped last fall. Mattei was the starting QB and HE suffered a broken throwing hand in game No. 4. Anyway, it was not until this season that Mattei was asked to start an Inter-Ac game, so he's new to pressurized situations. Truthfully, he was hardly overwhelming. But he battled and even redeemed himself for an error that, at the time, was very costly and, all together now, recite the mantra right along with me, there's much to be said for that. Mattei surrendered six hits and seven walks (one intentional) while striking out nine. The intentional walk was issued to sr. 1B Mark Adzick (Wake Forest-bound as a LHP; still not recovered from a muscle strain well enough to pitch) with a base NOT open in the sixth. Two were out and the free pass loaded the bases; Adzick had stung three balls already. Mattei responded by getting jr. DH John Walton on a looking strikeout. Earlier in the inning? Did you have to ask? While covering first on a gounder to jr. 1B Bob Martz, Mattei let the ball trickle out of his glove and TWO runs scored on the play, putting PC ahead, 6-5. Mike was livid at himself. After CHA posted a four-spot in the bottom half (more on that momentarily), Mattei walked jr. LF Ryan Wenger to start the seventh and was told to swap positions with Martz. Soph SS Mark Rhine sent a grounder into the hole. Sr. SS Mike "Spike" Christiansen was able to knock it down, but could make no play (the perhaps charitable scoring was single) and up stepped sr. 2B Mario Incollingo. He sent a decent grounder up the middle. Soph 2B Brendon Sady made the stop and tossed to Christiansen for the force. Spike's relay one-hopped its way toward Mattei, who held steady and executed a clean scoop to complete the DP. Sr. C Anthony Cardona then caught a popup at the screen fronting PC's bench to end it. PC's starter was sr. RH Tom Caramanico and he appeared to be throwing quite hard. (Where's a radar gun when you need one?) He yielded just one unearned run and no hits through three, while blowing away seven. But he became unraveled in the fourth. Sr. LF Maurice "Mo" Young broke up the no-no with a single to center. Sady and Mattei milked walks and sr. RF Mark Justice sent a semi-liner to right for an RBI single. Martz collected an RBI on a bases-loaded walk and Caramanico departed in favor of jr. RH Mike Carroll. Bang! Frosh CF Jonathan McAllister, a lefty swinger with impressive speed and savvy (lots of nice freshmen in city ball this season!), clocked a two-run double to right. In the four-run sixth, a walk to Martz and singles by McAllister and The Spikester (a one-hop shot that ate up sr. 3B Mike Basile) loaded the bases. Soph 3B Steel Russell, the son of ex-Phillie John Russell, delivered a sac fly to center. Cardona popped out and the damage was still minimal. However, Young sent a hooking blast into left-center for a two-run double (sr. CF Billy Goldman was just short on a sprawl-dive combo) and Sady followed with an RBI single to center. Nine to six, BDs. This game had a decent amount of spectators and the CHA folks, especially, were lively throughout. The field, as always, was in perfect shape and the view toward the outfield was beautiful. If you make your way to Special Photos, you'll notice that Christiansen and Mattei are making the victory signal in the very last one. My guess is that the ever-frisky Spike was the leader on that one (smile). Oh, also check out a slide-at-home pic. McAllister is signaling for Spike to stand out. He'd have none of that, baby! He knows sliding runs make for much better pics than standing-up runs. Thanks, Spikester!! (ha ha) For PC, sr. RF Sammy Zeglinski spanked an RBI double and Incollingo had an RBI single. PC coach Rick Mellor took a ribbing from the CHA fans, especially when they thought he was stalling in the fourth to get Carroll more warmup time. The discussion appeared to center on the permissible number of mound visits. Rick even summoned CHA coach Stan Parker to the plate area to get his input. Finally, a woman yelled, "C'mon, wrap this up! The ground's not soft!" I don't EVEN want to get into what that statement referred to (smile). Those who know, know. Hopefully, all involved have reached the let-bygones-be-bygones stage.

APRIL 30
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Del. Valley 9, Bodine 6
  High-strikeout numbers in the PL depths must always be taken with bags (not just grains) of salt, but the only way to make a true evaluation about a guy is to go see him, right? DV sr. RH Stefan "Stizzy" Parker has mowed down 19 and 17 batters this year. Is he the second coming of Bob Gibson? Not quite. Does he throw REALLY hard? Not today. But he throws hard enough to get multiple K's at this level of baseball and I liked his poise and approach and, as was revealed afterward, he was working with a tender right knee after getting crunched to the cement over the weekend in a pickup basketball game. Parker notched six of his 12 strikeouts in the first two innings and four more in the last two. In between, his velocity was down a shade, but he definitely found a second wind. Overall? A messy performance. Though he yielded just four hits, he did walk six and plunk two. However, I LOVED how he eradicated himself from what could have been a disastrous fifth. A walk, error and another walk loaded the bases with nobody out. Up to bat was sr. CF Andrew Rosado, already 2-for-2 for three RBI. Parker induced a comebacker and got a force at the plate. Sr. RF Rob Davis? Same result. Parker then fanned sr. 2B Keith Marchiafava to end the inning. Noteworthy: on both forceouts, jr. C Marvin Gaines applied tags instead of merely stepping on the plate. The first time, and he was correct, he told his coaches the throw was offline and he didn't want to take any chances. Not sure why he did so the second time (smile). This morning, I called Bodine coach Joe Stanley to check on the site of the game and while discussing his team he said with a laugh, "We don't hit and we don't field." Flat-out errors and failures to make what should have been normal stops on balls into the outfield truly doomed the Ambassadors, as did an asleep-at-the-switch moment, and sr. LH Jesse Steinberg, who also hurt himself with an early miscue on a pickoff throw. Meanwhile, take nothing away from the Warriors, who hit some true shots while posting a six-spot in the visiting seventh to erase a 5-3 deficit. Steinberg must have been a shade tired by that point because his pitches were mostly up. Here's a blow-by-blow of DV's seventh: groundout; Parker reached first on a bobbled grounder; after Parker stole second, sr. 3B Jamel Fuller hammered an RBI double to left-center; sr. Reggie Hawkins kinda threw his bat at the ball while bunting and wound up with a hit when no one covered first base (Bodine inexplicably napped and he kept on running to second!); frosh 2B Marquis Budd lined a two-run single to center; soph LF Clevis "And Butthead" Burris smacked a double to left; frosh RF Tavon Holloway sent a two-run double to left; jr. 1B Kenny Thomas went down looking; Gaines sent yet another rip-job to left for an RBI; and soph SS Kameron Nuble fanned to end the inning. In the bottom half, Steinberg tripled deep to right-center and jr. C Andres Hernandez followed by drawing a walk. Now remember, DV was up, 9-5. As Hernandez stole, for some reason DV tried to throw him out and Steinberg came home on the error. Geeeeeeez. Parker big-boyed it from there, getting a groundout and two strikeouts to end it. As folks can fully understand, hopefully, it's impossible to get around to see all of the Pub's baseball teams. But games involving four more teams were nearby in Fairmount Park, so I did some quick driving around and got team pics of Mansion, E&S, Masterman and Southern. Let's hope we get the required IDs. DV coach Will Cambria showed good hustle. He began the day attending a funeral all the way at the eastern end of Long Island, but made it back for the start of the game. One of the late-game spectators was ex-Dobbins star Cliff Carter, who went on to enjoy an excellent career at Temple. I know it likewise pains him to see what has happened to inner-city baseball. In case you're wondering, DV is now located in a former nursing home on Old York Road, not far from the Broad & Olney subway station. It formerly was housed in a building at Wayne & Chelten.

APRIL 26
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Roxborough 7, Franklin Towne 2
  Wasn't sure where to go, if anywhere, because the weather prediction was shaky. But it wasn't too cold and the rain mostly held off except for a couple of short stints of drizzle, and this game wound up having good moments. This was a really lucky day on the photo trail, too, because things kept happening pretty close to the camera. Always a bonus (smile). These two teams played just yesterday and FT rallied for a monumental win after being down to its last strike. There was nothing close to a repeat. No complaints, however. Both teams are stocked with energetic kids who appear to enjoy the game and just aren't playing because someone dragged them out of a gym class. Roxborough's pitcher was jr. LH James Paulk, who was largely impressive last year for Saul. He missed the early part of this season and this was (pretty sure) only his second start. His velocity was not what I'd remembered and his concentration appeared to drift at times. But he also locked in big-time in difficult situations and still boasts a wickedly effective pickoff move. Some FT runners were barely a step and a half off the bag. He picked off three, though one was caught near second base after breaking in that direction. He allowed four hits -- just one to someone above No. 7 in the order -- and struck out six, with none BELOW No. 5 in the order. Weird, right? (I forgot to get the grades for FT's players.) RHP-3B Ryan Kubacki, in the seven hole, had two of the hits and No. 9 Ron Gunning, the DH, smacked a two-run, second-inning single to center. Kubacki allowed three runs in two innings and RH Pete DelGais went the rest of the way. Both are small, frisky guys who attempt to get by with control and help from their fielders. They combined for five strikeouts -- all against the last two guys in the order. Paulk was also 'Boro's best hitter out of the fifth slot. Also a lefty swinger, he went 3-for-4 with a ground-rule double (it barely cleared the third base area and then took a crazy carom out of play) and three RBI. His best smash was probably his out, to left-center. Jr. RF Adrese Hicks is an old-school leadoff guy -- good wheels and ready to steal the instant he gets on. He went 2-for-5 with two SBs and two runs scored. The Injuns' top overall player, SS-RHP Chris Schroeder, went 2-for-3 with two RBI (one came on a sac fly). 'Boro salted away the game with three in the visiting sixth, expanding a 4-2 lead. Sr. 2B Anthony Scipione got one run home with a groundout while Schroeder (on the SF) and Paulk (single) plated the others. There was a scary moment on the very last play. DelGais sent a popup into shallow right and Hicks and Scipione had a pretty violent collision. Some of the players dashed to the scene expecting to find maybe blood and/or broken bones. But both appeared to be OK and were even laughing about it shortly thereafter. Hicks held onto the ball, by the way. When Roxborough first arrived, the kids were at the bench area and someone said that I was in attendance. One player (maybe jr. C Amir Boler; maybe Hicks, not sure) said he wanted me to autograph his spikes because he visits the site every day. I told him I only carry pencils and that a pencil signature wouldn't look too cool. He was going to try to get a marker from somewhere. Never happened. I think I convinced him his spikes would decrease in value (smile). FT's Kyle Riley and Roxborough's Bob Stowman are two of the top-notchers among Pub coaches, especially in terms of how they interact with their players. Definitely not in-it-for-the-money-only guys. From the game, it was off to the Penn Relays.

APRIL 25
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
O'Hara 12, Bonner 2 (5 inn.)
  Is this any way to stage a showdown for first place in the Southern Division? Both teams entered 7-2, but O'Hara had this one wrapped up by the second inning. It was a dreary day at Haverford College and it rained -- never hard, but just enough to be annoying -- pretty much throughout the game, but the Lions lit up the gray skies with some rockets-red-glare hitting heroics. Strangely, they smacked around (no other phrase for it) jr. LH Conor Kerins, whose numbers had been impressive this season. O'Hara posted four in the first and five in the second. Kerins surrendered all of them and seven were earned (in just 1.1 innings). No need to detail everything. The first seven hitters had at least one hit in those first two innings and one guy, sr. SS Kevin Culbert, notched two. The game began in ominous fashion as sr. 2B Pat Young posted a triple to center. Jr. CF Pat Warrington attemped to make a diving catch and the ball squirted past him. Before Kerins departed, sr. 3B Marco Menna launched a three-run homer over the fence in left-center, Culbert doubled over the head of sr. RF Matt DeVito and sr. C Joe Colleluori crunched a blast to center for a two-run double. Bonner's other pitchers were RHs, soph Ryan "Prayer Reader" Haley and sr. Pat Lake. Haley yielded the other three runs while Lake pitched hitless ball over two innings. I spent the game at one end of Bonner's dugout. When Lake was told to go warm up by assistant Rich Merchant, he grabbed his glove and fist-tapped about four-five guys as he made his way through the dugout. Merchant barked at Lake, but said later with a smile, "That was great, wasn't it? Never saw that before. We tell him to go warm up and he has to celebrate first." Near the end of the game, a Bonner sub named Dan Haley came to bat. Ryan was standing nearby and I asked him, "Is that kid your brother?" He said, "Yup. I have eight brothers and one sister." Hay-zoos! Ryan said he's No. 2 in line and that he has -- brace yourself -- 85 first cousins!!!! His mother is one of 15 "kids". Later, I ran that past Bonner assistant John "Lefty, But I Throw Righty" McCauley and he mentioned that the Haleys' mom is part of the Moran family (of Bonner athletic fame). Lefty then said that the Haleys' dad, Dan, played QB for Bonner. That did ring a bell! When I kidded Ryan that he probably couldn't name all of his cousins, he said, "Yup. I've never MET some of them. Some are 30 years old." (Wow, so ancient -- ha ha). The Friars' lone highlight was a solo homer to left by sr. C Tim Dougherty. As the game wound down, however, D. Haley and lefty-swinging frosh OF Sam Christie (a double down the LF line) did lash hits as subs. O'Hara's pitcher was jr. LH Joe Sessa. He allowed three hits and no walks while striking out four. He made some excellent two-strike pitches and rarely offered anything remotely fat. Very nice job! Culbert finished 3-for-3 with two doubles and one RBI. Haverford College is a weird venue. There's no parking even remotely close to the field and there are no numbers on the fence to indicate distances. The atmosphere was drabber than drab. Hardly any students showed up and there were not too many adults, either, come to think of it. Bonner-O'Hara is usually a war. This one could have been played in a church. Meanwhile, you will NOT believe this one: There are more guys with Italian surnames on O'Hara's team than there are on Neumann-Goretti's (10-9, by my count -- though it's possible N-G's roster has changed since the start of the season). Is that allowed under Catholic League rules??? The Wife is half-Italian and her late father grew up in South Philly. She won't believe this tidbit until I actually show her the teams' respective rosters (smile).

APRIL 23
PUBLIC LEAGUE
GAMP 10, Northeast 7
   Not sure how to start this report, so that's what I'll do -- start it by telling you I'm not sure how to start it. This wasn't a horrible game, but neither was it a classic and the fact that it started late (GAMP's bus must have come by way of Vermont) and lasted a good (or bad) while made everyone drained by the end, especially since the temps, after all of the bad weather we've had, were more like summertime than springtime. Oh, well. The ink went to sr. C Eric Funaro, who went 3-for-5 with a double and two RBI out of the leadoff slot. (That's a new assignment for him and he is taking to it rather well.) He formerly hit second and that job now belongs to jr. RF Jon Sheridan. All he did was also go 3-for-5, with his base knocks yielding four RBI. He lashed a two-run job in the sixth, giving GAMP a 7-6 lead and chasing soph LH Brian Susten. 1B Chris Matticks and sr. LH Andrew Caines later added RBI singles against sr. RH Jose Lopez, the starting CF, and the Pioneers owned a 9-6 lead. Sheridan's RBI single made it 10-6 in the seventh and the first Northeast batters made outs in the bottom half (sr. CF Brandon Henson contributed an impressive tumbling-backward catch). Go meekly? Not exactly. Jr. DH John Katein, in the No. 9 hole, finished a great day (3-for-4, RBI) with a double to right-center against sr. RH Anthony Venafro, who'd played SS the first five innings. Lopez milked a walk and soph 2B Jose Delgado sent a grounder to second that was bobbled for a run-scoring error. Hmmm. All of a sudden, the tying run was coming to the plate in the person of soph C Tim Freiling, a fine player who somehow had a wicked day at bat and in the field. He sent a rocket to right, but Sheridan was right there to get the out and secure the win. Caines allowed seven hits and fanned four in his five-inning stint. None of his frames was clean and sr. 1B Joe Breitweiser touched him for a blast of a two-run homer to left-center in the first inning. The Pioneers' solid hitters aside from Funaro and Sheridan were 1B Chris Matticks and LF Stefan Thompson (two hits apiece). Strange strategy department: each coach, in the bottom part of the order, called for sacrifice bunts with one out. Sr. LF Craig Young had a day to forget. Three different times, hits skipped past or off him and he struck out twice to boot. Plus, his eyes were closed when I took the team pic! (smile) He's one of the Vikes' leaders, so we expect him to get it back together. Susten has some possibilities. He has decent size and strength and most of his best pitches were delivered with two strikes. Unfortunately, his attention seemed to wander early in counts. Northeast has six -- count 'em, six -- girls serving as managers. The sun was behind Northeast's bench and upper-back sunburns were incurred by all. The Vikes' best-ever manager, Jade Barron ('04), was in attendance. Some dude who wanted to be called "Pop Tart" led NE's student contingent. He was grilling hot dogs in the first row of the stands. I think he left the pop tarts at home (smile). It's only a rumor that aside from bats and balls and water the managers must keep Pampers on hand. However, there ARE six sophs in the 10-man starting lineup. Coach Sam Feldman starts an all-soph infield on days when Breitweiser pitches -- Susten at 1B, Delgado at 2B, Lance Lempert at SS, A.J. Logan at 3B and Freiling behind the plate. John Waldron, a soph tagged "Rookie" and recently promoted from the JV, chased every foul ball. He did not appear to appreciate the special job he'd been given (smile). Late in the game, I was taking pics from behind Northeast's bench and foul ball went WAY up above where I was standing. I pointed the camera upward and pushed the button. No such luck. No ball in the photo. The ball landed a couple feet away. Getting conked would have been legendary, right?

APRIL 21
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
N. Catholic 5, Conwell-Egan 3
   The plan was to watch son Kevin and his track teammates for a while in the Woodbury Relays and then catch game two of a doubleheader at C-E (Judge was the first opponent). One problem: the Woodbury Relays were held at West Deptford High and no one bothered to tell me. Kevin? He's a clueless young man (smile). "I didn't know. We just got on the bus. We didn't know where it was going," he said. Kevin was finished competing by the time I arrived at WD, so off to Levittown it was a shade earlier than I'd planned. The arrival time was maybe 1:40. It was the fifth inning and C-E led Judge, 13-3. A couple more outs and the game would have been over due to the 10-run rule. Not quite. Judge exploded for nine runs and the tilt wound up going the full seven. How'd it end? With a "walkoff strikeout" as the happy C-E players kept calling it. Sr. 2B John Marziano swung and missed for strike three and what should have been the third out of the inning. But the ball was low and bounced away from sr. C Joe Thompson and Jim Love raced home to end it at 15-14. Geeeeeeeez. In all, the doubleheader took 5 hours, 45 minutes, and the Eagles were required to arrive an hour beforehand. North has a decent mix of hitters and fielders and smallish sr. RH Adam Miller is quite the crafty pitcher. He kinda worked butt-backwards, often starting batters with breaking balls. His control was mostly excellent and there's always something to be said for working ahead. C-E collected six hits and not one was noteworthy. Four came on grounders that did not leave the infield and the two that reached the outfield were loopers. Sr. SS Chris Bonecorse was mostly solid (though he did make one error that allowed a run) and he came up with a tremendously heady play in the sixth. After sr. SS John McDonald (very impressive fielder!; best effort was leap-backward snag of a popup) was plunked, soph C Julian Faria grounded to sr. 3B Chris Morrin. He bobbled and the ball squirted away. Trying to be aggressive and thinking he could make it, of course, McDonald raced toward third. As Morrin regained possession of the ball, Bonecorse scrambled over to third and took the throw to get the out. In hindsight, with no out and already in scoring position, McDonald should have held tight. C-E later loaded the bases, but Miller went slightly sidearm to whiff sr. Sean Taylor, a backup OF, for out No. 3. The Eagles remained resilient. Faria looped an RBI single to right, making it 5-3, and the tying runs were on first and second. Losing pitcher Andrew Sinon, a jr. RH, sent a fly ball to center to end it. Sinon had a relief stint in game No. 1 and was touched for four runs in two innings of game No. 2. As the third inning started, Sinon walked Morrin and coach Rich Papirio came walking back to the bench area. Not sure if he was chasing a foul ball or answering nature's call (smile), but he was surprised to see Sinon on the mound. He'd wanted soph LH Steve Verano to begin the inning, but there was obviously miscommunication. Anyway, Verano replaced Sinon and did solid work over four innings. He only yielded one hit and no runs. "Every time we put him out there, he does good work," Papirio said. Sr. RH John Chapman pitched a scoreless seventh. North's most productive batsman was jr. RF Chris James (also a quality LB and wrestling stud!!). The lefty swinger went 3-for-4 with a triple and two RBI and the balls were stung. Frosh LF Ryan Etsell, also a lefty swinger, smacked a pair of singles to right (one RBI). He was also the frosh team's QB and a key performer for a noteworthy basketball team. His brother, Derrek, a sr. 1B, went 0-for-2 with a pair of walks. Oh, he too swings lefthanded. R. Etsell had the "pleasure" of being forced at second, 8 to 6. Huh? Well, soph RF Brian Cleary misplayed a fly and Love recovered to get the out. So, that's two weird scoring plays in one game -- 5-6 on an out-stretching and 8-6 on a forceout. Out thoughts are with the family of North coach Gene Bryan, who has been forced to relinquish his duties due to health problems. I covered Gene when he started at 3B for a championship North team in '81 and he has always been a friendly guy. Three men are handling the Falcons in his absence. Athletic director Fran Dougherty said recently that Tim Murphy is officially the boss. Ed Hepworth and Andy Schwab are also part of the crew. Meanwhile, the legendary Mike Tos, Mr. Egan/Conwell-Egan, was not on hand today! What's up with that?! Rumor has it he traveled somewhere with C-E's softball team. We're trying to come up with an appropriate punishment (smile). It was good to see ex-trainer Frank McGowan, who now lives in Florida. He returned for the retirement dinner of a C-E employee.

APRIL 20
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Washington 11, Central 9
  Call this an unearned victory. Literally, at least. Yes, all 11 of the Eagles' runs were posted thanks to errors (and more errors), but coach Max Bilkins' squad definitely showed some positive qualities and learned a lot about itself. For the second time this season against the defending champion, no less. We take you back to March 26, Opening Day in the Pub. Washington stunned Central, 12-11, thanks to an eight-run visiting seventh capped by a grand slam from sr. Isaiah Johnson. Phew! After that game, a Central player contended the Lancers had lost to "the worst team" in the Pub. So, as I arrive at Washington today, I see a piece of paper taped to the fence in the bench area. It references the quote and asks, "How are you going to respond to that!?!?!?" The Eagles looked at it early and often, and their boisterous fans -- great energy and funny comments, gang! -- made comments about it throughout. (Side note: At one point, a Washington fan bellowed, "Worst team in the Pub!" As in, how could you knuckleheads have said that? I was standing in Central's dugout when this happened. I heard one of the Lancer infielders mutter, "At least they still know." -- smile) The early part of the game stirred memories of a game played May 1, 2003, also at Washington. That day the Eagles edged Northeast, 24-23, in 4 hours, 6 minutes! The first two innings of this one took FOREVER and ended with Washington ahead, 10-6, thanks to a nine-run second. But the game eventually settled down, relatively speaking, and lasted about 2 1/2 hours. Washington had just six hits. The Nos. 8 and 9 hitters, sr. 2B Dave Mullen and jr. CF Andrew Goodman, had two apiece, along with two RBI apiece. Not to be harsh, but Central truly butchered the home second. Inexcusable for a defending champ with five returning starters, especially since three of the best players made the first errors of four total in the frame. The pitcher at the time was jr. RH Micah Winterstein. Mullen singled and Goodman sent a grounder up the middle. Easy doubleplay. Um, no. Sr. SS Jared Farbman was thinking the same thing, but got ahead of himself and bobbled the ball. Sr. 1B Ed Sabara provided a sac. Winterstein grabbed the ball and threw wildly past second, allowing Mullen to score. Jr. 3B Stan Borodyansky sent a chopper to sr. 3B Jim Benek. His throw to the plate was WAY wild. Three straight errors by headliners. Phew! In all, 13 guys went to the plate. Mullen (two) and Goodman (one) had singles for RBI in their second at-bats and a throwing error by jr. 2B Matt McHugh allowed the last two runs to score. Farbman pitched the last four innings, allowing one run (unearned) and two hits. He fanned seven. Washington's starter was jr. RH Dan Engelberg. He was roughed up, badly, and departed three batters (and no outs) into the second. He was charged with six runs (all earned) while yielding seven hits. His replacement was feisty jr. RH Tom "Hat Way Up on the Head" Radziak, all of 5-9 and 150 pounds. He did begin by plunking a guy and allowing a bases-loaded walk, but with nobody out, he regrouped nicely to get three straight outs (force at plate, whiff, groundout). He worked three uneventful innings, was reached for one in the sixth (Farbman tripled, then scored on a single by jr. C Aaron Esbensen) and went out for the seventh with an 11-7 lead. Somehow, Washington caught Central-early-game disease. Three miscues and an RBI single to center by Benek made it 11-9. Just before that, jr. C Damien Wilmer made a huge play, gunning down a courtesy runner at second in one of those situations where the first-and-third steal of second is supposed to be automatic. After Esbensen walked, Bilkins brandished a hook and called upon sr. RH Corey "Son of Randy" Seidman. The tying runs were on first and second. "C-Seid Heights" (as one of his teammates called him) induced a grounder to second by soph 1B Zachary "Brother of Joe" Magdovitz (last year's catcher) and Mullen's flip to soph SS Will McFillin (or Fill McWillin as his teammates kept chanting) ended it. As the Eagles celebrated, one guy held up the piece of paper. Until a seventh-inning bobble, the rangy McFillin was smooth and efficient. Borodyansky, who wrote about a few Washington basketball games for this website, made the play of the game, ranging to his left to handle a hot grounder. The Washington fans mainly rode Farbman and Winterstein. Micah wears extreme facial war paint, I guess you'd call it, and one kid kept saying he could perform with Kiss. Another said Micah was struggling because he needed to "fix his makeup." At one point, about a dozen black Washington kids were watching the game along the first-base side, standing behind a small fence. They started doing The Wave! Most were football players. I kiddingly said, "C'mon, not even white people do that. At least not sensible ones. That's the worst thing in the history of sports." The ones nearby heard me and laughed. Hopefully, that'll be the last Wave this season (ha ha). I love Wilmer's approach behind the plate, especially that he gets VERY close to the batters. That is a lost art, folks! Take my word for it: Having a guy right there is very distracting for batters. In youth ball and later in the no-windmill version of fast-pitch softball, I used to drive guys NUTS doing that (smile). Plus, you can earn more calls for your pitcher because you catch the ball much closer to the plate. No chance for late sailing/tailing/whatever to affect the ump's judgment. Anyway . . . Though the game was quite, um, "unclean", this was a fun afternoon!

APRIL 19
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Judge 14, Wood 4 (6 innings)
  Ryan Kreider not only showed talent, but a good sense of humor. Last fall, the 6-3, 227-pound Kreider was a defensive end of some note for the Crusaders. Now the righthander plays first base and pitches (though this was his first hurling start of the season) and, man, he attacked the baseball like the darn thing was a wise-ass quarterback just asking to be dismembered. Pow! Bam! Smack! Thereafter? Let's say he set no world speed records for getting around the bases. But at least he laughed along with everyone else when his teammates said to get out the oxygen tanks. Kreider went 3-for-4 with a walk, two triples and five RBI. His RBI single to center ended it with one away in the home sixth; he'd drawn a bases-loaded walk in the fifth. As for his triples, I'll just use the descriptions from the Daily News stories. In a seven-run third, which also featured two-run singles for jr. LF Andrew McHale and sr. C Joe Thompson, Kreider chased two guys home with a triple to straightaway center. Right at the edge of a slight incline, in an area where the ground was wet, backtracking jr. CF Kyle Schwab stumbled slightly as he reached for the ball. It glanced off his glove. Kreider was at it again an inning later. This blast carried WAY back a shade to the left of center, scattering some girls who were practicing softball. Third base coach Mike Whitaker twice hollered, "Two! Two!" As in, stop at second base. Kreider kept racing -- OK, rumbling -- and slid into third with an RBI triple. Kreider guessed he was "too geared up" to hear the settle-for-a-double command. Wood's co-coaches, Jim DiGuiseppe Sr. and Jr., said afterward that Kreider would not log an official at-bat for the rest of the series. Kreider said he had worked just two innings this year. He went four-plus innings and his performance, honestly, was uneven, especially from the mechanics standpoint. To be expected, though. He switched to 1B after walking the first two batters in the fifth. Jr. RH Ryan Levocz and sr. LH Paul McLaughlin finished up with one inning apiece. Though McLaughlin did allow a walk, two hits and a run, he did throw a few of the most impressive pitches. Wood sr. RH Dan Slocum yielded seven runs in the third after pitching two perfect innings. Weird. Some overall facts for Judge: sr. SS Keith Chichearo, the leadoff hitter, singled twice and reached base two more times (HBP, BB) while getting two RBI. Thompson managed two more RBI (on a groundout and walk) aside from his two-run single. Thompson momentarily thought he might have successfully blocked the plate when jr. 2B Joe Harrison scored a sixth-inning run. He acknowledged, after being shown a photo, that he was incorrect (smile). Harrison's hand got in there. There was also a wild pic of Schwab, who pitched in relief. He was already looking down at the ground before he even released the ball! Phew, how did he ever throw a strike? Jim Jr. brought him over to see the pic. Restructuring of his motion will likely start immediately. Wood has an interesting prospect in frosh RF Brian O'Grady, a lefthanded hitter who goes maybe 6-2/6-3 and has the "look." Though he fanned in his first two at-bats (the timing on his stride appeared to be off), he rebounded with a pair of hard-hit singles for one RBI. Oh, by the way, he hits third. Sr. 3B Evan Garner also had two hits, one RBI. Sr. SS John Stephenson, who happens to have the same name as the Met whose strikeout ended Jim Bunning's perfect game for the Phillies in 1964 (man, am I old, or what?), bagged two RBI on a single and a sac fly. Here's another notable name: Gubicza. Mark Gubicza (Penn Charter '81, our Pitcher of the Year) pitched for a long time in the majors. His nephew, Pete Gubicza, is a member of Wood's squad. Pete's dad, Gary, played for Central. As McHale watched his two-run single head toward Stephenson, he yelled, "Get through there!" Major props to Judge's Pat Capone, a sr. backup catcher. He delivered the pre-game prayer from memory! After Kreider stumbled while making a play on a chopper, one of Judge's coaches playfully yelled, "Like a three-legged puma out there!" Coach Tim Ginter said it was assistant Kevin McGerry, a former minor league pitcher (and our POY in '97). Kevin said it was Tim. Hmmmmmmm. Can we get to the bottom of THIS one? (smile) Some of the Crusaders sport small, pink hearts with the initials "CM" on the left sides of their hats. That's a tribute to Cate Mackel, the late sister of sr. infielder Tom Mackel. Nice gesture.

APRIL 18
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Roman 4, SJ Prep 3
  A guy walks to a mound, gets a ball and throws it toward a guy holding a piece of aluminum. He swings and tries to hit it. If he does, he runs around these puffy white things called bases. Just a quick refresher course in case you'd forgotten what baseball involves during the last week or so of wickedly putrid weather. (Our basement still has standing water! Go down there and empty it out, wife! I have website work to do! Ha, ha, ha.) This game, played at Richie Ashburn Field at South Philly's ever-popular Lakes (across Broad Street from the Wachovia Center), featured some uncommon happenings. First, Prep jr. CF Tim Edger gunned down two runners at the plate. Second, Prep sr. DH Bradley Clark, a large lad at maybe 230 pounds (not sure, just a guess), was asked to lay down a sacrifice bunt in the second inning and did so perfectly. Then, in the sixth, with the Hawks down, 4-3, and runners on first and third with one out, he yielded to a pinch-hitter. Strange. Third, the star of the game was a freshman. Say hello to LHP-1B Mark Donato, whose grandfather happens to be The Wife's first cousin. She "met" Mark once. At a party to celebrate his christening. "I don't remember that," Mark said dryly. We'll give him a mulligan on that one since he was maybe 5 months old at the time (smile). I heard good things all last summer about Mark from Danny D'Ambrosia, his coach with the Phillies' team in the semi-pro, wood-bat Pen-Del League. Danny said Mark, who opted for Roman over Penn Charter, more than held his own against teams featuring mainly adults, even some guys who'd spent time in the minors. My thought then: maybe he's big and strong and succeeds only because he's WAY advanced physically. Guess what? Not the case. He's lean and still has plenty of room to grow. His hitting is ahead of his pitching at this point, but that could change. At bat, he drove two singles to right and mashed a long drive toward the 330-foot sign down the rightfield line that, oh!, hooked foul by maybe 8 to 10 feet. The ball did clear the fence. On the mound, he did not have sensational stuff, but was gritty throughout and displayed a knack for making solid pitches at big moments. Also, he appears to have the perfect, nothing-phases-him temperament. Four of his six strikeouts came with men in scoring position. Also, he showed reflexes and poise while making a play to end it. After soph SS Steve Bruno beat out a one-out roller to SS, jr. 1B Aaron Haas grounded out to first and Bruno, of course, moved up. Edger followed with a lined smash toward the mound. Donato got leather in the way of it, recovered the ball on the ground nearby and pegged to first to end it. In the sixth, the Prep loaded the bases with two away as the pinch-hitter for Clark, jr. Pat Malloy, drew a walk. Zoom, the inning ended quickly. Donato fanned soph RF Dan Turner, a backup, on three pitches and Tiagwad lifted the next pitch to sr. RF Dave Deodato. Roman's other heroes were sr. CF Dom Joseph (bound to Virginia for DB purposes), who went 2-for-3 with a double, walk and RBI; sr. C Adam George, who collected his two RBI on a sac fly and a bases-loaded walk; sr. CF Will O'Mara, who provided the big hit (RBI double) in a two-run fifth that put Roman ahead for good, at 3-2; and jr. 2B Tom McGee, who went 2-for-4 with a stolen base and made a heads-up play to get an out after the Prep botched a squeeze. The Hawks' starter was sr. RH Matt Dolan, who was also a basketball starter. Matt's about 6-5, 6-6. He does not throw lights-out hard, but is more than adequate. He got through the first three without being scored upon, then hurt himself with four walks over the next two frames. Soph Kevin Gillen, a smallish RH, worked the final 2.1 innings. Prep jr. 2B Matt Tiagwad was extremely active. He notched a pair of infield singles, stole three bases, scored two runs, came within a whisker of making a sensational diving catch on a foul ball down the RF line and did range back a decent amount to catch a popup toward right-center. Haas finished 2-for-3 with a sac fly and two RBI. Joseph's dad is one of the all-time baseball-chatter guys. He talks pretty much non-stop and dispenses solid advice/encouragement. Fun to listen to! Had a nice pre-game chat with Roman assistant Tom Hagerty, who is still recovering from open-heart surgery just five weeks ago. He's feeling better and better. All the best, Tom! The Prep's starting 3B is jr. Leonard "Trey" Sikahema and guess what number he wears? Ten! One of his teammates said it's because he's a fan of Chipper Jones. Hmmm. My thought is this: He's a fan of his dad, Vai, sportscaster for the NBC station in town . . . Channel 10!!! Maybe Trey or Vai will send an e-mail to clear up this matter (smile).

APRIL 13
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Haver. School 8, Episcopal 1
   Anyone have a few spare fingers or toes? A couple of mine snapped off at this one. Today we had the trifecta of pain-in-the-butt spring weather conditions -- chilly temps, hardly any visits by the sun and wicked winds blowing straight in from center and left. My head told me to stay home and wait for better weather, especially since this was not going to be an official visit (i.e., no Daily News story), but with the forecast so crappy for Sunday and perhaps into the middle of next week, I figured I'd better catch a game before baseball season becomes swimming season. Honestly, Episcopal was not the first stop on the ever-popular trail. The intent was to watch Chestnut Hill at Penn Charter. But as I arrived at PC at about 2:30, 1:15 before gametime, I noticed an abandoned tractor on the infield not far from second base and that produced a lengthy "Hmmmmmmmmmm." And, yes, it was justified. Maybe 10 minutes later, PC coach Rick Mellor came out and said the infield had a couple of soft spots (it did, but not THAT soft) and that he had to postpone the tilt. So, off to EA it was. With a detour through East Falls, caused by construction on School House Lane, thrown in. So, how was the game? Not too good, troops. Sr. RH Jim McConlogue, also a shortstop and bound for Lehigh, was almost totally lights out and Episcopal counterpart Elliot Faust, a jr., was not, and the game's competitive spirit was drained rather early. The Fords posted four in the second and three in the fourth, then added one more in the sixth against frosh LH Chris O'Brien, whose dad, Chris, was a star point guard at La Salle HS and Drexel. (Chris was also one of Hockey Puck's favorite players ever. We used to kid that Puck would give Chris assists if he so much as breathed on the ball. Years after his playing days ended, Chris told me, "Hock gave me assists in games I didn't even play in." -- ha ha) Anyway . . . McConlogue certainly performed as if the temps were in the 80s and the calendar read June. Biting cold? What biting cold? In five innings, while using a motion that was only slightly more involved than a simple stretch, he allowed just one hit (a semi-liner to left for a third-inning single by the No. 9 hitter, jr. SS Doug Ammon) and two walks, along with one hit batsman, and out of the cleanup spot he went 4-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI. All four balls were hit hard. Not a bad day, eh? The team has two other players bound for D-I programs, sr. 3B-P Mike Galetta, a lefty swinger, and sr. CF-RHP Jared Cohen, a righty. Galetta, previously a semi-chunkster, has done a GREAT job of reshaping his body. He did no pitching today, but went 2-for-4 with the highlight being a two-run double. It came in the second on a ball that tailed away from jr. LF Sean Cohen. Cohen lunged and got a hint of leather on the ball, but the solid effort was not quite successful. J. Cohen (no relation) led off and reached base just once (on a walk). He pitched the last two innings and was bringin' it! He's not real tall, either (then again, neither is Galetta), so it was surprising to see him gassing so hard. He also displayed an impressive knuckle-curve, which he said was responsible for his scholarship to Vanderbilt. Nevertheless, Cohen was unable to complete the shutout. In the seventh, soph C Mike "Nuts/Nutty" McNulty, in the No. 8 hole, powered a one-out single to center for just the Churchmen's second hit. A walk and fielder's choice followed and that brought to the plate soph CF Vince Russomagno. He responded with a looping single to center for an RBI and at least Episcopal, having avoided the shutout, was able to leave with a hint of good feelings. Two other Fords collected two RBI. Sr. RF C.J. Frederick got his on a sac fly (bullet, actually) and a solo homer to right-center that landed above the small incline. Sr. 1B Nick Genuario countered with a double for one and a single for another. Outstanding defensive plays? Can't say there were any. Episcopal did not have a printed roster. (Didn't have one last year, either.) It's comforting, I guess, to learn that Public League ills (not as widespread as they used to be, thankfully) can even be found in the Inter-Ac. Thanks to the manager for providing all of the first names and classes, and for helping to identify everyone in the photo. Haverford started a freshman, Will Katzka, at SS. He hit three balls hard and successfully got down a bunt. He moved to second as McConlogue finished at SS. One final thought: anyone have a cup of hot chocolate?

APRIL 10
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Ryan 6, La Salle 2
   Decisions, decisions. Where to go. Which teams to see. I thought all day about this one or C-E/Judge and was undecided even as the car approached Northeast Philly. So, I grabbed the cap from the bottle of diet Pepsi and flipped it onto the floor in front of the passenger seat. Blue would have meant Judge. Gray (the underneath color) sent me to Ryan. This was not a great day for baseball with chilly temps and occasional stretches of no sun mixed with wind. Overall, though, the conditions were hardly horrendous. Early, you would have predicted that La Salle sr. RH Greg Frantz (of fumble return fame in the CL Red title game) would get the best of Ryan sr. LH Kevin McGovern, a transfer from Dougherty (and the brother of 4,000-yard career passer Sean McGovern; Dougherty 2002). While Frantz retired the first seven batters in order and pitched no-hit ball for 3.1, La Salle's first four batters reached base against McGovern and two of them scored. Goes to show, early looks can be deceiving. The 6-3, 215-pound McGovern went the distance (and earned some Daily News ink) and Frantz was hit hard in a two-run fourth, then a four-run fifth. McGovern allowed six hits and as many walks and plunked a guy as well. He struck out seven, though, and received great support from his fielders, himself included. He picked off two guys and sr. C Mike Kovacs nabbed one. All three times, sr. 1B John "Ross!" Ross (his teammates constantly call out his name, making it sound like they're barking out "Ruff!" like a dog -- smile) got the second assist on the rubouts and sr. 2B Seth Magagna did the tagging. Magagna is one of those feisty, spit-and-grit guys and appears to mean a WHOLE lot to his ballclub. He made a nifty charge play on a slow roller with two outs and a man on third in the fifth, keeping the score at 2-2. La Salle's first went like this: bad-hop single to SS for sr. CF Mike Martinelli; bunt single for sr. RF Matt Howard (McGovern bobbled what was meant to be a sac, but the speedy Howard would have beaten the play anyway, in my opinion); HBP for sr. C Sean Saverio; walk for jr. DH Andrew "Aluminum" Wood to force in a run. Uh, oh. Does not look good, right? Well, McGovern regrouped in a hurry, going strikeout-sac fly-strikeout to end the inning. Coach Joe Parisi twice ordered squeeze bunts during that sequence, but the job went undone. The Explorers' other great chance was in the sixth. With one out, sr. 1B Frank Deluccia walked, jr. LF Jason Raschiatore looped a single to left and soph SS Tyler Freeman sent a semi-liner to CF for a single, thus loading the bases. (Freeman's at-bat featured some by-play. Ryan coach Ron Gerhart and plate ump Nick Chichilitti, a tremendous fielding SS during his playing days at Ryan, barked at each other briefly and two borderline pitches were called balls. After Freeman singled, an adult standing down the rightfield line bellowed, "How many times do you have to strike a guy out?!?!") McGovern then fanned jr. 2B Frank Pierson and Martinelli lashed a sinking liner to left. Off the bat it looked like a hit. But the ball was also hooking back toward sr. LF Mike Siravo. Siravo wound up making a sprawling, right-at-grass-level catch and was subsequently engulfed by his giddy teammates. In Ryan's fourth, McGovern sent a sinking liner to left for a one-out single and then gave way to courtesy runner Jon Schmidt. Ross, also a lefty swinger, followed with a bolt into right-center for an RBI triple. Next, jr. SS Nick Ferdinand ripped a shot to CF that became a sac "fly." In the fifth, the bottom third of the order experienced joy with great help from the sloppy Explorers. Kovacs' leadoff single was clean. Soph 3B Anthony "Les" Keiter dropped down a sac. Frantz badly misfired to first and that put runners on second and third. Siravo followed with a groundball to second. Deluccia could not make a clean catch at 1B and sr. courtesy runner Jim Edelman scored. Lacovara then sent a blast off Frantz' upper body for an RBI single and sr. RF Rob McArdle followed with a shot to left that would have been a one-run single except that a bobble brought in another. To his credit, Frantz went into shutdown mode from there, recording three consecutive popouts. Jr. LH Matt Day was impressive in the sixth, making a strong play on a hot comebacker and notching two Ks. Ryan's infield, a mess last season, has been resodded. The turf still looks like straw, but it'll come around in time. Ryan's Tom Neely, a recent JV callup, read the pre-game prayer. At least I think he did (smile). Talk about a low-talker (something I've been accused of). I showed Tom the pic and told him, "If you become a politician, you'll always remember this day as the first time you delivered a great 'speech.'" He laughed. Kids that are good sports are always appreciated (smile).

MARCH 31
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Bartram 19, Franklin 1 (3 inn.)
  Played a hunch. Got burned. It happens. Way back in the day, Bartram boasted the Pub's strongest program for a half-decade (three titles in four seasons, beginning with 1960; after a title-game loss in '59) and Franklin in '83 became the first all-minority team (seven African-Americans, two Hispanics) to win the championship. I hadn't seen Bartram in a few years and hadn't seen Franklin in forever and when I saw this game listed on the schedule, something just told me to go. The game lasted just short of 90 minutes. In the bottom of the third, sr. 2B Michael Divers drove in six of the frame's 10 runs and the game was halted with just one out due to the 15-run, three-inning rule. Ouch. Jr. RF Desmond Casselle, the No. 9 hitter, opened the third with a walk and Divers followed with a shot to right that skipped past the rightfielder and yielded a two-run homer. Four more runs scored and the bases were still loaded when Divers stepped up again. Clang! Divers sent a shot to right-center. The ball skipped hard and proceeded down the hill and Divers came all the way around with a salami. To cap things off, though the ball was nowhere nearby, he slid into the plate and a few moments later he was being carried off the field by a teammate. Divers' first two plate appearances yielded walks. In the field, he made what was likely the game's best play in the top of the third. After jr. 3B Malique Sherrill (5-foot, 105 pounds) drew a walk out of the No. 9 hole, jr. 2B Romar Green sent a grounder toward second. Divers tagged Sherrill and then fired to first for the DP. The Braves scored their 18 runs on just SIX hits. They milked 12 walks from jr. RH Angel "Chuleta" Roman and stole 11 bases. Sr. Stephen Brantley, a star DE last fall, was making his first appearance at catcher and appeared to be fighting a sore arm. Also, Roman was not too skilled at keeping runners close. Bartram's big hitter aside from Divers was sr. SS Martin Akers, in the No. 3 hole. He walked, ripped a three-run double to left-center and mashed an RBI double to the same area. He's a solidly built kid. Jr. 3B Kyle Johnson collected three RBI on a looping single to CF and a pair of grounders that were misplayed (he still got RBI because the runners were going). Jr. Michael Alexander, a star rusher, did the pitching for Bartram. (Like a lot of good athletes, he has mixed dominance -- he throws righthanded, but writes lefthanded). He allowed one hit in his abbreviated three-inning stint, an RBI double in the second by sr. LF Frank Bagley. When I saw that name, I had a suspicion and it turned out to be correct. Frank's dad, Frank Bagley, who played for Bok, was the Pub's leading basketball scorer in 1981 along with Frankford's Anthony Chennault, our City Player of the Year. (He's the dad of rising Neumann-Goretti frosh Tony Chennault. Also, another son, Sean, played hoops for Franklin last school year.) As it turns out, Bagley Jr. also has a famous step-dad -- former U. City basketball-baseball star John DeLeon. John's best sport was baseball and he spent some time in the Orioles' farm system as a 6-7 first baseman. Franklin coach Ken Geiser, a quality catcher at Washington, and Big John, now a city fireman (and a favorite of everyone who has ever met him, no doubt) were seniors in '79. Franklin's CF is frosh Shawn Penn. His brothers, Chris ('06) and Brandon ('08), have played hoops for Franklin. Brandon has a chance to be one of the Pub's top players next year. Rarity: Bartram's catcher, soph Tom Lloyd, is a lefthanded thrower. The Braves' scoring by inning -- three, six and 10. Hey, the city's major TV stations should have sponsored this one (smile).

MARCH 28
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Frankford 11, Edison 1 (5 innings)
   Baseball is a game of hours, and hours. Sometimes, anyway. This one only took two, but that was because it was halted by the 10-run rule. If there were such a thing as the 10-error rule, Edison could have threatened it if not for the early stoppage. Edison always has a few decent players, and does again this season, but this was quite an uneven performance and it's never a good idea to come undone against Frankford. The Pioneers' headliner was jr. OF-RHP Jeffry Bru. In the No. 2 hole, he went 3-for-3 with a walk, two doubles, two RBI and three runs scored. He showed pretty good speed in the very first inning while getting to third after his hard smash into the right-center gap was bobbled. But where he really impressed was on the mound. Bru was strictly an OF last season, but coach Bob Peffle said he's been grooming him to pitch and that he hit 83 mph during indoor sessions. This was his first official appearance and he was bringin' it. He relieved jr. LH Jose Burgos with one out and two on (due to walks) in just the second inning. Bru mowed down five of the next six batters; he plunked the other guy. Edison reached him for one single apiece in the fourth and fifth innings, but each time was quickly bailed out by his fielders. Fourth: sr. CF Luis "Ricky" Marquez sent a groundball single to center. One out later, jr. LF Carlos Carrasquillo sent a liner wide of 1B. Sr. Kevin Roche made the snag and, despite Marquez' best efforts to evade him, made the tag for a DP. Fifth: Jr. 3B-RHP Alex Reyes fired a one-out single to center and sr. RHP-SS Javier Lafuente drew a walk. Jr. Alexis Lajara blasted an absolute rocket toward SS. Jr. Esteban "Shortie" Meletiche made a great one-hop stop and jr. 2B Jon Bracero was also impressive while turning the DP. Ballgame. Lafuente, a crafty veteran, lasted just 2 2/3 innings. His breaking ball was not as sharp as it usually is and five errors in the first two innings did not help his cause. He'll certainly be a solid factor, or perhaps even a force, depending on support, as the season progresses. Meletiche, batting leadoff, had a pair of sac flies. Peffle and assistant Juan Namnun said Shortie was the best player they saw last week while in Florida. In a weird occurrence, two other Frankford runs also scored on sac flies (with Burgos and jr. 3B Dave Doggett doing the honors). Roche went 2-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored. Frankford's leftfielder was sr. Sean "D" Henderson. He appeared in a legendary Special Photo two years ago (smile). Click here to see it (first one on page). Midway through the game, Edison sr. C John Fuentes yelled out to one of his outfielders to pay attention. He then shook his head and muttered, "No wonder. Bunch of ugly-ass girls walking' by." The gals were out on Pratt Street. From VERY far away, admittedly, they didn't look TOO bad (ha ha).

MARCH 27
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Olney 5, Kensington 3
   First game of the season and the temperature reached 80 degrees. Incredible. First game of the season and the play wasn't TOO bad. Just as incredible. Even Division A is a shell of its former self these days, so when you venture below, all fingers must be crossed and even some toes. As I've mentioned in previous years, Olney is always a fun place to go because the field is situated right against the streets and people always yell goofy stuff while passing by. Before the game even started, a Kensington player was standing near the bench when a passerby hollered down to him, "Yo, what you play?" The kid answered, "Bench." Gotta love the honesty. Later, Olney coach Barry Strube drew a chuckle when someone asked him how he was doing. He said, "I just found out my catcher doesn't know that the batter can run to first on a dropped third strike, so I'm not doing too great." And Kensington coach Joe Egenolf noted at one juncture, "It's 3 to 2. Good game . . . or at least you'd think it was." Fundamentals are sorely lacking these days, troops. Three times, catchers threw to 1B after dropping/not smothering third strikes with that base already occupied. Early, Kensington had an inning ended abruptly for batting out of order. On the bright side, the kids competed and everyone behaved and the game was close through all seven. The pitchers were smallish RHs -- sr. Felix Madera for Olney and Agustin "Macho" Santos for Kensington. Madera is more advanced, understandably, and it's a shame Olney lacks an experienced catcher because that really appeared to affect his approach/concentration. Madera allowed five hits and four walks while striking out 13; Kensington jr. 1B Andrew Montanez twice reached first on catcher's interference. Jr. 3B Jonathan "Papi" Trinidad, the No. 4 hitter, was the only true thorn for Madera, going 2-for-4 with a double. His best bolt was a rocket straight to soph CF Deivis Santana that ended the fourth with the bases loaded. Soph LF Ralph Collins, at No. 8, sent a pair of groundball singles into LF. Olney collected just three hits and fanned 14 times. The Trojans drew six walks, though, and two came to start the home first. Madera followed with a looping RBI single to right and frosh 3B Jose DeLeon was given an RBI when his topper was misplayed for an error. Madera (2-for-2, double, walk) tallied run No. 3 on a wild pitch. With the score 4-3, Olney added an insurance run on a sixth-inning doozy. With runners on first and second, frosh LF Elvis DeJesus fanned for out No. 1. The third strike bounced free and soph C Jose Cuevas threw to 1B. Uh, boy. Not necessary! Frosh 2B Andrew Guerrero was caught at second, but while that was happening jr. 1B Felix Llanos kept running and made it safely home. Could have been the all-time tripleplay. Oh, well. Olney had just 10 players in uniform (Strube said he basically holds his breath all day to see who's going to make it through to gametime; three kids are already gone from his original roster). Juan Paulino spent the first 5 1/2 innings standing outside the fence on Duncannon Street, retrieving foul balls. He pinch-hit in the sixth and grounded out. DeJesus speaks very limited English. When DeJesus reached second base in the fourth, Strube summoned another Trojan from the bench to the area close to the coaching box. He wanted the kid to yell baserunning instructions -- in Spanish, of course -- out to DeJesus. Plate ump Bill Hall had to order the kid back to the bench. The Pub never ceases to entertain (smile).