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On the Trail
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On the Trail
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JUNE 20
CARPENTER CUP CLASSIC
FIRST ROUND
Inter-Ac/Indy 14, Public League 4
(At Richie Ashburn Field)
So, are you ready for the last Only in the Pub moment of the
school year? Minutes before the start of the game, a woman approached the
dugout and handed a bag to assistant Cliff Hubbard, with instructions
to please give it to GAMP jr. RH Jacob Kurtz. Soon, I happened to
look in the dugout and, whoa, there was Jacob, wolfing down what appeared to
be a burger. A pretty big one, too. He was about halfway through when
assistant Art Kratchman, GAMP's coach, said to him, "Jaaaacob, the game's
ready to start!" Jacob smiled, stationed the half-eaten burger on the bench
-- on top of the bag, of course -- and soon commenced his warmup pitches. If
he'd stormed through the I-A/I lineup, his pregame routine could have become
a national craze! (smile). He didn't. Helped by three walks, the winners
posted a four-spot and the capper was an inside-outed, two-run double down
the leftfield line by jr. RF Steve Scornajenghi (Haverford School).
So much for suspense. This is year No. 28 for the CCC and the Pub still owns
one measly win, which came in 1990. Since this squad included just three
underclassmen, I can't imagine what will occur in 2014. Unlike in some
(many?) years, at least the Pub's conqueror worked for its victory; 11 of
the 14 runs were earned. Malvern jr. 1B Dan Grandieri (the DN inkman),
Haverford School soph 2B Kevin McGowan and SCH Academy sr. DH Matt
"Squeeze" Kozemchak thirded six hits while Scornajenghi added a third
RBI on a sac fly in the fourth inning. Gtn. Academy jr. CF Zeke Zabinski
(double in third) and Malvern jr. 2B Matt "Oxford Valley" Maul
(triple in eighth) hammered extra base hits for RBI. Just one pitcher went
more than one inning and that was Episcopal jr. RH Russel "Just One L"
Rhoads, who worked the first three. Impressively, at that. Though he
allowed one hit in each frame, he avoided problems by posting six
strikeouts. The other six pitchers gave up at least one hit apiece. The
Pub's best inning was the fifth, when Masterman sr. CF Harry Taggart
thumped a double a shade to the right of the 405-foot sign in center and
Frankford sr. 1B Kevin Montero followed two spots later with, whoa, a
blast in the same direction that came within inches of hitting the 405 sign
on a very short hop. Let's say the ball traveled 401 feet (smile). He
settled for a double. Meanwhile, Taggart and sr. middle infielder Peter
Piccoli (Prep Charter) stroked two hits apiece. By the late part of
game, I was on the 3B side. As the I-A/I guys headed out to their positions
for the bottom of the ninth, with the score at 14-4, someone said, "Let's
end this game right here!" Ya think?
JUNE 17
CARPENTER CUP CLASSIC
FIRST ROUND
(At Richie Ashburn Field)
As infield-outfield wound down, two of the CL coaches asked for
thoughts on how things had gone. I didn't go overboard with praise because
spotty plays had been mixed in with good ones, and the guys said they
understood. So, what happened in the first inning? The CL crew committed two
errors while allowing three runs (two unearned). The earned one was a solo
homer to right that got SOME help from the wind, but was struck pretty darn
well nonetheless. Ugh. Overall, Our Guys experienced a one-and-done in
rather quiet fashion, seeing as how they were held to two runs through eight
innings and wound up being outhit, 18-9. Headliners were few. Sr. RH
Chris Elmes (Ryan) worked two shutout innings; soph 2B Mike Christy
(Lansdale) went 2-for-2 and scored two runs; sr. C Tim Rafter (SJ
Prep), playing on his school's home field, made two nice catches on foul
popups and stroked an RBI single to center; sr. RH Dan Furman (B-P)
worked one perfect inning (two-thirds in one; one-third in the next); sr. DH
Matt Hull (Lansdale) led off the ninth with a triple over the
centerfielder's head and jr. RF Chase Standen (SJ Prep) delivered an
RBI single to left. The most amazing element was that SOL Amer/Cont sent
seven groundball singles up
the middle! As the game went on, the coaches convinced the middle infielders
that they needed to "pinch" to try to prevent even more. So what happened in
the sixth? The winners bagged an RBI single that scurried through the
infield a shade to the left of the diving 2B, Ryan jr. Bobby Romano.
You KNEW that would happen, right? (smile). The Other Guys' starter was sr.
RH Ricky Dennis, of Central Bucks South. Because he was tall, I'll
make a wild guess and say he's the son of former Lincoln basketball star
Rick Dennis, who earned first team All-Pub honors in '79 while averaging
24 ppg. Rick's brother, Joe, was the Pub's leading scorer in '74
(25.4, also for Lincoln), but had to settle for second team laurels. For
assorted reasons, seven first team All-Catholic honorees were not on the CL
roster. Hard to thrive when that many goodies are unavailable.
JUNE 5
TEDBIT
The Pub is not alone when it comes to first-round frustration in
the PIAA baseball playoffs. Thanks to yesterday's 0-3 performance, the Cath
now owns a losing, first-round record through five years of PIAA
competition. The Cath is 6-7 and has been outscored, 64-54, and its record
over the last three years is 2-5 (38-28 disadvantage). As for the Pub . . .
brace yourself. Its first-round record is now 3-31 from 2005-13 and the runs
disadvantage is 383-69.
JUNE 4
CLASS AAA FIRST ROUND
West York 9, Bonner-Prendie 6 (8 inn.)
(At La Salle High)
Well, after much thought, I’ve decided there can be only ONE good
thing about falling into a 6-0 abyss: If you do it right away, as in the
visiting first. That, of course, gives you seven chances to erase the
deficit and . . . that’s what happened! Showing major grit, the Friars kept
hanging around and hanging around and the resolve paid off in the form of
two-spots in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Alas, the Friars left TEN
guys on base in those frames plus the seventh and then sr. RH Dan Furman
(Pitt), who’d begun the game at 1B, became momentarily miswired in the
eighth, walking the first two guys on the minimum eight pitches. Two miscues
later took place and the visitors posted three runs even though the ball
never left the infield. Come to think of it, it didn’t leave the infield in
the top of the first until the sixth hitter came to the plate. Let’s revisit
that frame first. B-P’s starter was sr. RH Pat Vanderslice, who had
flat-out trouble finding the strike zone. Not side to side. We’re talking
top to bottom. ‘Slice was not driving downward and wound up leaving most of
his pitches high. He walked four of the six guys he faced and, like everyone
on the squad, he was probably disheartened/stunned by a wickedly bad call.
The second batter bunted a ball to sr. 3B Frank Saviski, whose throw
sailed to the HOME side of the 1B bag. Furman made a great catch-and-tag a
full foot, at least, in front of the bag, but the ump called the runner
safe. Say what?!?! Coach Joe DeBarberie came exploding out of the
dugout and was told the tag occurred after the runner passed the bag.
Oh, baby. An all-time blunder. ‘Slice walked the next three guys, making it
2-0, then RF Brett Kinneman curled a three-run triple down the
rightfield line. Furman was greeted by an RBI bloop single off the bat of 3B
Carson Fries, but then retired the Bulldogs 1-2-3 and was impressive
all the way until his eighth-inning hiccup. He also got some nice defensive
help. His brother, Steve, the frosh C, threw out two would-be theft
artists and got a DP started with a throw to Vanderslice after a strikeout.
The runner on second tried to advance to third and ‘Slice wasn’t havin’ it.
Also, in the sixth, with a man on third and the infield up, a shot to SS
bounced off the glove of sr. Jim Haley (Penn State). Not far, though.
Haley recovered and Steve Furman made a great block/tag combo at the plate.
Oddly, three of B-P’s runs were scored on sac flies; D. Furman, sr. DH
Brandon Gaal (both in the fourth) and Haley (in the sixth) did the
honors. Back-to-back singles by Saviski and D. Furman scored the two markers
in the fifth. A groundout by jr. 2B Danny Healey got home run No. 5
in the sixth. B-P had a great chance to score in the seventh as Haley came
to the plate with the bases loaded. He hit a BOMB to deep
center/left-center, let’s call it, but the CF made a nice running catch.
This turned out to be a Tale of Two Ballclubs kind of season for the Friars.
By going 12-0, they were the first baseball team in school history to finish
perfect in the CL regular season. They underperformed, however, in the
double-elimination tourney and now have been ousted in the first round of
the state free-for-all. They were haaaarrrrdly alone, folks. For the second
time in three years, D-12 suffered a first-round wipeout. Prep Charter and
Franklin Towne fell yesterday, then B-P today was joined in
Disappointmentville by La Salle and Frankford in AAAA, Neumann-Goretti in AA
and GAMP in A. Hard to believe. And quite disappointing. Among the
spectators was Bobby Della Polla, our Best Teammate ’09 for St.
Joseph’s Prep and freshly added to the graduation database at Scranton.
Congrats, Bobby, and it was great to see you! His cousin, soph Richie
Tecco, started at 2B for the Friars. Also on hand, as the game manager,
was Barry Strube, West Philadelphia’s athletic director and the
incoming Pub baseball chairman for 2014. He also handled PA duties and was
Dan Baker-esque! Smile. No National Anthem sound track was available,
so Barry led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance. And you’d better believe
it meant the world to him. He’s a veteran member of Delaware’s Air National
Guard, has served multiple overseas tours of duty and is slated to do so
again early next school year. Thanks, as always, for your service, Barry!
JUNE 3
PIAA CLASS AA FIRST ROUND
Delone Catholic 13, Prep Charter 4
(At Northern York High)
Letdowns are one thing. It’s when they mushroom from big to gigantic
that tight games become quite messy. Yes, PC lost by a 13-4 score. But as
the bottom of the fifth rolled around, the Huskies trailed by only 2-1 and
came oh-so-close to tying the score or perhaps even seizing a 3-2 lead. With
two away, sr. 1B Steven Miraglia singled hard to left and yielded to
pinch-runner Andrew Rohrbach, a frosh. Sr. LF Kyon Anderson
then milked a walk. Soph SS Keegan McKoskey then scalded a groundball
JUST outside the leftfield line. Truly, it missed being fair by inches.
Rohrbach would have scored and, who knows, perhaps the frisky Anderson would
have zoomed all the way around the bases from first; depending on a lot of
factors, of course. Instead, McKoskey had to return to the batter’s box and
the end result was a popup to second. Disaster struck right away. A poor
throw followed a grounder and DC had a man on second. The next guy popped
out, but 2B-RH Brett Smith made it 4-1 with a shot to right-center
that became a two-run, inside-the-park home run. More struggles ensued and
the Squires, against relievers, added two more runs in the sixth and seven
(ouch) in the seventh, thus adding extra padding to the number on the left
of the hyphen. DC went to the bullpen in the seventh and PC managed a
two-spot on a balk and groundout by McKoskey. Sr. CF-RH Mike Lyons,
the recipient of DN ink, had collected the Huskies’ first two RBI on a
fourth-inning sac fly and a sixth-inning single to right-center. With one
away in the fourth, sr. RH-SS Peter Piccoli broke up a perfect game
by drawing a walk. Soph 3B Joe “Cupa” Suppa – his older brother, sr.
RH Frank, is “Bowla” Suppa (smile) – inside-outed a ground-rule
double down the rightfield line, thus setting up Lyons’ sac fly. In the
sixth, Cupa walked, advanced on a mishandled pickoff throw and scored on
Lyons’ hit. Piccoli, working on three days’ rest after Thursday’s City Title
loss to Neumann-Goretti, forced the Squires to strand SEVEN guys in scoring
position (and eight total) through five frames. He again threw a lot of
pitches, however, while mixing in what seemed to be 25-30 pickoff attempts
(at a minimum). Dude is obsessed with baserunners (smile). DC’s starter was
RH Devon Craig and he allowed three apiece of hits/walks in his six
innings. The day’s coolest defensive play was made by Anderson. A ball was
hit right at him and, at first, he broke in. He then noticed what was
happening, screeched on the brakes, leaped and . . . oh, baby! . . . made a
sensational snag. Northern York HS – commonly called just Northern – is
roughly 20 miles from Gettysburg and the journey required almost exactly 2
1/2 hours. The field is nice and there are several levels of a natural
hillside behind/beyond the third base dugout, so I’m assuming the spectators
like it, too. There was a strange occurrence as “Bowla” replaced Piccoli on
the mound. It had been cloudy throughout, and then it began to rain ever so
slightly for maybe 30 seconds. I’m tellin’ ya. Twelve drops at the most.
Then the sun came out, and remained out. Very weird. Anderson’s mom had a
funny line after her son was called out looking in the third. “Even the
young ump can’t see!” she hollered. Actually, two of the four guys looked
like maybe 10th-graders. In the fifth, when Kyon drew a walk, she sang, very
briefly, “Walk this way . . . Walk this way.” No idea who sang that song.
Time for a Google search. And the answer is: Aerosmith. Whoever/whatever
that is. Gimme Motown/Philly Sound or gimme earplugs! Ha, ha.
MAY 31
TEDBIT
At yesterday's City Title game, N-G football/basketball player
John Mastrando mentioned that he wanted to see his name on the website
again. So there it is . . .
MAY 30
CLASS AA CITY TITLE
Neumann-Goretti 5, Prep Charter 2
(At Ashburn Field)
Ever hear of the Ted-run rule? Before today, neither had I. I'd
been quite the jinx (supposedly) this season to N-G and sr. RH Joe Kinee
said he made up the "rule" because three of the Saints' four Ted-in-da-house
losses had come by a 5-4 score. Once they scored run No. 5 today, the game
should have ended, he figured (smile). Or maybe if Prep Charter had gotten
to run No. 4 while still trailing by one. Anyway, the Saints guys were again
pretty clever at busting chops before, during and even after the game.
After? Yup, while I was interviewing Kinee, folks maybe 10 yards away wanted
him to pose for a group shot. As they called for Joe to join them, one of
them said, "Ted, you mess up EVERYTHING!" Hey, that's what my wife and kids
say (smile). Though Kinee (Maine) allowed just three hits, he again
experienced control miseries (six walks, two HBPs) and fell short of a
complete game. With one away in the seventh, he walked soph SS Keegan
McKoskey and sr. RH-2B Peter Piccoli and went to 2-0 on soph 3B
Joe Suppa. Out came coach Mike Zolk's hook. Out came, also, a
hint of Kinee's disappointment. While standing in left field, however, he
was very supportive of soph RF-LH Pat Doudican, who recorded a popup
and flyout to end it. Having played for N-G as a frosh, Piccoli went into
this one with major motivation. The Saints did a good job of maintaining
pressure and broke through just enough, thanks in part to some PC messups.
The only ribbies went to frosh CF Brian Verratti on a single and to
sr. 2B Joey Glennon on a sac fly. Sr. LF-RF Charlie Jerla went
3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored. McKoskey plated the Huskies' runs
with a two-run single down the leftfield line in the second. There was
controversy in the seventh as jr. Chris "Chillllllll" Ciliberto, who
last year played for PC and is the step-brother of PC jr. 2B Justin
Bocelli, pinch-hit and got drilled. The PC folks wanted him to be called
out because he hadn't been reported as a sub. PA man Mark "Froggy"
Carfagno did announce Ciliberto's name, but only because he saw a
different number walking to the plate. While the controversy mushroomed,
plate ump Perry Petrongola became overwhelmed by dehydration/heat
exhaustion and had to be carried off the field. Hope you're OK, Perry!
Marlon Tatom, who'd been at second, strapped on the gear and moved
behind the plate. Derrick Segers, still on the premises after umping
in the La Salle-Frankford AAAA tilt, replaced Tatom at second. There was
also an attempt at trickery/cheating (your choice) in the sixth. As PC
changed pitchers from Piccoli to sr. RH Frank Suppa, Verratti was
standing on second base. When Suppa finished his warmups and prepared to
face Kinee, Verratti, oh baby, was on THIRD base. Steve Kupsov, the
nearest ump, was oblivious, but Tatom (still at second at that point,
remember) noticed the shenanigans right before a pitch would have been
thrown and ordered Verratti back to second. What did Brian do? Promptly
stole third, then scored on a passed ball. The state playoffs will start
Monday. We'll link to the brackets on the home page when the multiple
decisions on sites/times have been made.
MAY 30
CLASS AAAA CITY TITLE
La Salle 8, Frankford 0
(At Ashburn Field)
Here's guessing sr. LH Tom Cockill never expected to see
his name in the same sentence as George Riley's. And here's guessing
he has no idea who George Riley is (smile). In '74, Riley, a fireballing
lefty for Southern High, was drawing major scouting attention and he did
wind up spending some time in the major leagues. He also pitched the last
shutout in the first go-'round of City Title games -- the series lasted from
1945 through '79, matching the Pub and Cath champs; no classification stuff
back then -- and Cockill now owns the first blanking at the glamour level (AAAA)
since the CTs were given a second wind in 2009. Pretty cool, right?
Especially since Cockill began the season not expecting to play much of a
role except for non-league games. Tom scattered six hits, walked NONE and
struck out ONE, but used a fastball/changeup mix to get 15 outs via
grounders (with the help of one doubleplay). His most difficult inning was
the first. If not for BIG help from a bad call, things could have gotten
dicey. Frankford managed three hits in that frame, then sr. RH Carlos
Ramirez was retired for out No. 3. One problem: He was likely a
half-step past the bag. The call was made by Derrick Segers, who
later worked at second base. Why was he at first? Because Marvin Doughty
did not arrive on time! Oh, baby. Cockill faced only one other scare. In the
sixth, following a balk, the Pioneers had runners on second and third with
two away. Sr. 2B Josiah Cedeno sent a grounder to sr. 1B Chris
Melillo and that was that. La Salle scored two in the second (on a
two-run single by the No. 9 hitter, jr. 2B Brad Schneider), two more
in the third (messy, no RBI), one in the fourth (messy again, no RBI) and
three in the sixth (two-run double by sr. LF Joe Picard, sac fly by
Melillo). The bottom of the order was clutch. Schneider went 2-for-2 with a
walk and two RBI while soph 3B AJ Grezeszak went 2-for-2 with a walk
and three runs scored. This one started at 11 a.m. and La Salle's seniors
missed an awards ceremony and graduation practice. Frankford had almost NO
support. The two sets of stands closest to its dugout remained empty
throughout. Phew! Spoke with coach Joe Parisi before the game about
La Salle's amazing sports accomplishment. The Explorers have won titles in
10 of the 14 official CL sports. The misses: cross country, bowling,
basketball and crew. Joe was coaching third base early in the game and
blurted out TWO sets of you-kidding-me!?!? exclamations when one of the
Explorers became involved in baserunning misadventures. Classic stuff!
Later, assistant Bob Peffle was down in the third-base box. Hmmmm.
Did Joe demote himself? Smile.
MAY 29
PUBLIC LEAGUE FINAL
Frankford 9, Franklin Towne 2
(At Ashburn Field)
Due to crappy weather, with Memorial Day weekend in between, the
semis and final were played nine days apart (May 20 and 29) and you can
never be sure what kind of scenario such a dead period is going to create.
This time? Well, honestly, Frankford looked fresh and Towne came off as
stale. That was especially so in the field. The Pioneers were guilty of NO
errors while the Coyotes committed six, leading to five unearned runs. I
won't get into all the gory details, but a tone was assuredly set, well,
right off the bat. Frankford sr. SS Kidanny Cumba crunched a liner
right at soph SS Stephen Callahan, who has been quite the bulwark
this season. The ball glanced off his glove and hit him in the face and
Cumba found himself on first base. Later, Callahan told teammates the ball
had come toward him in knuckleball fashion. Cumba moved to third on a passed
ball worth two bases and scored as sr. CF Tim DiGiorgio grounded out
to first. Just like that, with a cheapie, the Pioneers were up, 1-0. Hart,
outstanding in the two previous rounds, was not himself, witness that he
managed just one whiff in 3.1 innings. He got hit around, slightly, and the
miscues assuredly caused consternation. Frankford's two runs in the second
inning, plated on Cumba's two-run, groundball single to center, were also
unearned, as were two of the five runs in the fourth. Callahan (1.2 innings)
and sr. RH Damian Padilla, who began the game in center field,
followed Hart on the mound (two frames). Cumba finished 2-for-4 with three
RBI while DiGiorgio bagged his three ribbies on the groundout and a two-run
single in the fourth. Sr. 1B Kevin Montero and sr. RH Eduardo
"Cheese" Sanchez collected two hits apiece. Coach Juan Namnun sent five
pinch-hitters to the plate in the seventh and one was jr. Smith Alvarez,
who bagged an RBI on a groundout. The guy he replaced? His twin brother, jr.
3B Chafil! Legendary! Sanchez, who hadn't pitched against Towne
during the regular season, went all seven innings. He allowed four hits and
walked five while striking out 11 (six in a row from the first to third).
He's the fourth guy in Pub history to record 11 punchouts in the
championship game and the first since Washington's Kevin Higgins in
'87. The record is 13 by Roxborough's Mike Miller in '90. No one has
managed 12. Jr. 3B Brian Bradley was the only Coyote with two hits.
One of his singles produced an RBI, as did one by Hart. Both teams will be
at it again tomorrow. Frankford will meet La Salle, 11 a.m. at Ashburn
Field, for the AAAA City Title. Towne will travel to La Salle HS to tackle
Bonner-Prendie, 3:30 start, for the AAA City Title. The second game at
Ashburn Field will feature Prep Charter vs. Neumann-Goretti for AA honors;
the Saints today beat Springfield Montco, of District I, by a 4-3 score. As
mentioned in recent stories, etc., Frankford finished the regular season at
5-8 (one game canceled). The previous five Pub champs notched eight losses
COMBINED. Pretty amazing! Eight losses by a champ is not the record,
however. GAMP went 5-9 in '02, then won four playoffs by six runs total.
This meeting did set a new record for most combined league losses by teams
involved in the final. GAMP beat 10-4 Northeast in '02 (13 total). Frankford
and Towne (8-6) had 14 total setbacks. For the record: Four Towne players
have parents who attended Frankford and/or now-closed North Catholic. Towne
coach Kyle Riley is part of the club, too. He began his high school
days at North, then transferred to Frankford. A decent chunk of the DN story
dealt with the fact that funeral services were held today for former
Frankford star OF Edwin "Tito" Rohena, who died two Fridays ago of
injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident. I'm guessing 15 of his former
teammates were in attendance. RIP, Tito. Everyone who knew you will forever
treasure the memories.
MAY 27
TEDBIT
Talk about insanity. Neumann-Goretti, in South Philly, and
Springfield Montco, in Oreland (basically), are scheduled to meet tomorrow
in a Class AA District 1-12 preliminary. The site? Great Valley HS, in
Malvern. What possible sense does that make? Depending on the route, the
journey from N-G to Great Valley requires 32 to 43 miles. It's anywhere from
25 to 27 miles from Springfield to Great Valley.
How far is it from N-G TO Springfield? Fifteen to 20 miles. This game could
be played at Central's field or Germantown's field or Frankford's field or
La Salle University (though I realize that would likely cost some money).
Heck, even Inter-Ac schools such as Penn Charter, SCH Academy or Germantown
Academy might be willing to host it, if asked nicely. I'll even take things
this far: I'm guessing N-G would not mind meeting the Spartans at La Salle
High's field, even though it's footsteps from Springfield's. But again, a
trek all the way to Great Valley?! Senseless. Only in the prelim!
MAY 26
LA SALLE'S CL PLAYOFF STATS
Defeated Judge (6-4), Wood (11-8), SJ Prep (10-3) and SJ Prep again (10-0)
| BATTING | |||||
| Name | AB | R | H | BI | .AVG |
| Joe Picard | 12 | 9 | 9 | 8 | .750 |
| Jimmy Herron | 14 | 6 | 8 | 1 | .571 |
| Pete Auteri | 14 | 2 | 7 | 7 | .500 |
| John Fabriziani | 13 | 2 | 6 | 7 | .462 |
| AJ Grezeszak | 11 | 3 | 4 | 1 | .364 |
| Chris Melillo | 14 | 4 | 5 | 4 | .357 |
| Nick Dermo | 10 | 3 | 3 | 0 | .300 |
| Dominic Cuoci | 14 | 2 | 4 | 2 | .286 |
| Brad Schneider | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | .250 |
| Adam Arcadia | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .200 |
| Pat Morrissey | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| 111 | 37 | 48 | 30 | .432 | |
| 2B: Arcadia, Picard, Herron, Cuoci, Grezeszak, Melillo. | |||||
| 3B: Picard, Melillo, Auteri. | |||||
| HR: Picard. | |||||
| SB: Melillo 3, Picard 2, Auteri 2, Herron 2. | |||||
| PITCHING | |||||||
| Name | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| Nick Paglione (2-0) | 5 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1.40 |
| Dominic Cuoci (2-0) | 17 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 16 | 2.47 |
| Tom Cockill | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7.00 |
| Pete Auteri | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 9.33 |
| 26 | 23 | 15 | 12 | 17 | 22 | 4.04 |
MAY 25
CATHOLIC LEAGUE FINAL
La Salle 10, SJ Prep 0 (5 inn.)
(At Widener University)
Any moment, I expected someone to yell, "Every guy with six
letters in his last name!" Or maybe, "Every guy who ate at McDonald's this
morning!" The players, coaches and supporters spent a LONG time on the field
after claiming La Salle's first CL baseball crown since 2005 (and the
school's 10th CL sports title this school year) and hundreds of pictures no
doubt were snapped, if not into the thousands. Players in one class here.
Residents of the same hometown there. This group. That group. At one point,
one player posed for a pic with the sister of a teammate and some of the
guys were saying, "Whoa. Is that his girlfriend?" Then they turned to the
player and playfully asked him, "What's going on? Did you know this?" Smile.
He shrugged and waved off the inquiry. The celebration lasted seemingly
forever and, hey, why not? This was a pretty special title in light of the
fact that La Salle returned just two starters from the squad that went on to
capture the 2012 Class AAAA state championship after losing the CL final to
Neumann-Goretti. Those two vets were jr. RH Dominic Cuoci and sr. 1B
Chris Melillo and, not surprisingly, they were among the prominent
stars. Also important was soph CF Jimmy Herron, who made late
contributions last season. With the help of rain, both teams were able to
start their aces on three days' rest. Cuoci, who on Tuesday hurled five
innings of no-hit ball vs. the Prep in the winners bracket final, was again
supremely effective. He yielded just one hit, a hard single to left by sr.
LF Shane Williams to open the fourth inning, and induced the amazing
total of 13 groundballs. One was bobbled, but the other dozen were handled
cleanly and the only other outs came on a popped-up bunt and a pair of
strikeouts. The best and most important play was made in the fourth by
Melillo, who backhanded a scorched, two-out, one-hopper off the bat of soph
1B Colin Cunningham to keep the game scoreless. The energized
Explorers hustled and bustled toward the dugout and maintained the momentum.
Well, after Cuoci was retired on a groundout. Sr. RH Tom Mullin, also
working on three days' rest, free-passed jr. C Nick Dermo and soph SS
AJ Grezeszak lofted a bloop single a shade beyond first base and
barely inside the line. Jr. 2B Brad Schneider followed with a
grounder to Cunningham, who whipped the ball to sr. SS Pat O'Dell for
a forceout. Out No. 3 allllllmost came five pitches later as sr. LF Joe
Picard was given credit for a check swing on a 2-2 pitch. It was VERY
close. A walk then followed, thus loading the bases, and Herron sent a
chopper TO third. And we do mean TO third. The ball bounced off the bag and
popped high into the air and jr. 3B Chris Martin had no chance to
make a play. Two more RBI infield singles -- by Melillo and sr. DH John
Fabriziani, with a run-scoring wild pitch in between -- continued the
streak of crazy-good luck and sr. RF Pete Auteri made it 5-0 with a
hard single to right. The Explorers dropped another five-bomb in the fifth,
against soph RHs Dom Nunag and Dino Cattai, and this one was a
lot more legit from the hard-hits standpoint. It began with strolls,
however, as Cuoci and Dermo drew walks and jr. 2B Brad Schneider,
following a 6-4-3 doubleplay, was plunked. Picard (single), Melillo (double)
and Fabriziani (single) later smoked hits to assorted locales (also, Herron
reached on an error) and the Explorers rushed onto the field to form the
Humanity Pile right in front of the plate. Because the Red Division included
just six teams, the schedule called for three games against each opponent
during the regular season. Also, La Salle bested Prep this past Tuesday in
the winners bracket final, so the arch-rivals met FIVE times this season. La
Salle carved out a 3-2 edge. La Salle's other CL titles this school year
have come in football, soccer, golf, swimming, wrestling, lacrosse, tennis
and indoor and outdoor track. It also won the Flyers Cup (hockey is not
officially a CL sport). Congrats to coach Joe Parisi and his
assistants -- Bob Peffle, Mike O'Connor, John Reifsnyder and Harry
Carr. Kudos also go out to Prep boss Joe Falcone and his
sidekicks -- Dennis Hart, Bob Blake and Mike McGrory -- for a
wonderful season. Falcone formerly assisted at La Salle and was even the
head man in '04 when Parisi enjoyed a sabbatical. Despite the loss, Falcone
was able to keep things in perspective and even playfully bust an
ex-colleague's chops. After the game, he said one of La Salle's assistants
told him, "We're glad we won, but we wish we didn't have to beat you." He
said he shot back, "So, what's that mean? You didn't want us to get this
far?"
MAY 24
CATHOLIC PLAYOFF, ELIMINATION GAME
SJ Prep 10, Ryan 3
(At La Salle University)
It's not too often you hear this at a baseball game in late May:
"My ears are stinging." Those words were spoken, in the dugout, by several
Ryan players shortly before the game. They'd just finished having a catch in
wicked wind and a hint of rain. In an attempt to beat major raindrops, the
game started 15 minutes early (at 11:45) and we made it to the home fifth
before plate ump John Harrington -- right after the rain began coming
down at a 45-degree angle -- chased everyone into the dugouts. Hey, that
didn't last long. The players and coaches from both teams had to serve as
groundskeepers, first to place tarps and weights on the plate and mound
areas and later to remove them near the end of a delay that lasted 36
minutes. Prep sr. CF Jawan McAllister was batting when the delay
began and then, as the home SIXTH began, there he was leading off? Huh? Can
you figure it out? When the bottom of the fifth resumed, soph backup SS
Tyler Clark tried to steal second and was thrown out to retire the side.
The Prep seized control of this one with an eight-run second against jr. RH
Connor Golden, who showed his ever-present grit but hurt himself with
several boo-boos. Five of the eight runs produced RBI. Sr. 2B Frank
Santore lashed a two-run single down the rightfield line, sr. LF
Shane Williams sent a one-run single to left and jr. RF Chase Standen
absolutely blasted a two-run triple up the left-center alley (and came home
on an errant relay throw). Prep scored one run apiece in the fourth (Standen's
groundout to sr. SS Dan Stahl, who made a great, sprawling stop) and
sixth (a dropped sac fly to left off Williams' bat). Soph RH Colin
Cunningham went six innings for Prep and all three runs he allowed were
unearned. They scored on a wild pitch, error and groundout (by soph DH
Shane Smith). The Raiders were limited to five hits and only one, a
double by sr. C Dylan Egan, went for extra bases. In the sixth, with
one away, Ryan had hopes of storming back into contention when Egan's double
and a walk to jr. 3B Tom Derer provided two runners. A wild pitch and
steal even moved them up. But on a check swing that was probably NOT a full
swing (repeat: probably not, impossible to be certain without video), sr. RF
Justin Price was rung up by Harrington, who declined to ask for help
from base ump Bruce Martin, and Stahl then grounded out. Honestly,
some vicious comments were yelled toward Harrington from the dugout and
either his ears weren't working, or he chose to ignore them. However, as the
Raiders headed back onto the field, their anger/frustration continued to
mushroom and three people -- assistant Jerry Eck, Egan and sr. 1B
Matt Graber -- wound up being ejected. Not a good moment. The CL tourney
is now down to two teams. Prep and La Salle will meet tomorrow, 1 p.m., at
Widener in what COULD be the championship game. A Prep win would set up
another meeting Tuesday, 3:45, at Widener.
MAY 21
CATHOLIC WINNERS BRACKET FINAL
La Salle 10, SJ Prep 3
(At Immaculata University)
First, the ballpark is beautiful. Second, Immaculata is PAST
Malvern. Scheeeeez. Makes Wood seem like a trip around the corner. Smile.
Third, not surprisingly, La Salle pitching coach Mike O'Connor had
the legendary comment of the day. When another Explorer assistant, Bob
Peffle, asked the ever-entertaining Mike where a bathroom could be
found, Mike told him, "The building with the orange roof." Bob said later,
"Look over there. Every building has an orange roof!" Indeed. Ha, ha, ha.
Fourth, major props to five members of La Salle's 2012 AAAA state title team
for showing up to support these guys. Fifth, jr. RH Dominic "Dom to
Everyone Except His Mom" Cuoci sniffed a no-hitter! He faced the minimum
15 guys through five innings and the guy who did reach base, sr. SS Pat
O'Dell, had no time to get involved in a convo with sr. 1B Chris
Melillo. O'Dell set sail for second on the next pitch and was gunned
down by jr. C Nick Dermo. As the sixth opened, Cuoci again had to
face three lefties. This time, he allowed the count to get to 3-2 against jr.
DH Alex Stewart, who then sent a clean groundball single up the
middle. Balloon, say bye-bye to air. The Hawks would finish the game with
six hits and make things borderline uncomfortable for Cuoci. He did log a
complete game, however, and though he notched just six strikeouts, every one
opened or closed an inning. The Prep's starter was sr. RH Tom Mullin,
the Red MVP. At times, his stuff was electric, but his pitches did not
appear to have as much movement as in earlier outings and his sidearm
deliveries were a shade harder to command. After stirring in each of the
first three innings, La Salle broke through in the fourth. Sr. RF Pete
Auteri singled hard to left, then Cuoci beat out a would-be sac and
yielded to jr. courtesy runner Ryan "The Pride of Oreland" Coonahan,
perhaps the only defensive end/CR in world history! Smile. Alas, on a
would-be wild pitch, he was gunned down at second trying to advance (as
Auteri made it to third). Soph SS AJ "No Periods" Grezeszak then
ripped an RBI double to left-center. With one away in the fifth, soph CF
Jimmy Herron posted his second of three infield singles, broke for
second and made it all the way to third as Melillo inside-outed a
hit-and-run single to right. Melillo then thieved second and sr. DH John
Fabriziani ripped a two-run single to center. Next? Oh, baby! Auteri
absolutely crushed a run-scoring triple to center. Soon, he was receiving
credit for a steal of home when Cuoci missed a squeeze and the pitch was a
little too low for sr. C Tim Rafter to handle it cleanly and make the
tag. The Explorers had more fun in the sixth against two relievers, soph RH
Tyler Clark and jr. RH Dom Nunag. The highlight was Auteri's
two-run single to center. Auteri finished 4-for-4 with three RBI. Fabriziani
also notched three ribbies. As for Prep, sr. LF Shane Williams zipped
a two-run single to center in the sixth and soph 1B Colin Cunningham
earned the seventh inning RBI with a groundball single to right. Jr. 3B
Chris Martin started that uprising with a line-drive double off the
glove of sr. 3B Adam "University" Arcadia. Or should that be
"College"? I forget. Here's what happens next in this new, goofy,
double-elimination tourney: Thursday, Prep vs. Ryan, 3:45, at Immaculata;
Saturday, that winner vs. La Salle, 11 a.m., at Widener; Tuesday (if
necessary), the Widener combatants, 3:45, back to Immaculata.
MAY 20
PUBLIC LEAGUE SEMIFINAL
Frankford 3, Prep Charter 2
(At Richie Ashburn Field)
Frankford coach Juan Namnun arrived at the field wearing
sunglasses and, to my knowledge, never took them off. He experienced a very
rough weekend, he sobbed a few times today and the pain will never quite go
away. Namnun's first season as Frankford's head coach was 2008 and his No. 3
hitter was a talented young man named Edwin "Tito" Rohena. Tito
starred again in '09 -- first team All-City honoree in both seasons -- and
player/coach developed a very strong bond. Friday night brought terrible
news: Tito lost his life as the result of a motorcycle accident on Roosevelt
Blvd. To honor Tito's memory, Namnun wore a white No. 19 jersey (borrowed
from assistant Pete Gabriele) and hung his blue No. 19 in the
third-base dugout. A loss would have left the coach and players feeling even
worse heading into a gathering set for Wednesday, 6 p.m., at the Juniata
Park Boys & Girls Club -- to celebrate Tito's life and raise funds to assure
proper services -- but sr. RH Carlos Ramirez was able to tough out a
close win. Ramirez changed speeds well and got mostly great fielding from
his teammates, especially smooth-as-silk sr. SS Kidanny Cumba. Only
one of Frankford's runs was earned. In the first, Frankford scored Cumba
singled, moved up on sr. CF's Tim DiGiorgio's sac, and came around on
sr. 1B Kevin Montero's single up the middle. It added unearned runs
in the third and fourth, though sr. C Eduardo "Cheese" Sanchez and
sr. rf Chagito Almodovar did provide important hits. PC tallied twice
in the second. jr. C Christian Coppola singled, sr. CR Kyon
Anderson and sr. 1B Steven Miraglia scalded an RBI single to
center. A throw trying to prevent Miraglia from advancing to second sailed
into center and he came all the way around. Miraglia came up in the sixth
with two away and runners on first and second. He chopped the first pitch to
Ramirez and was gunned down. PC's pitching broke down like this: sr. RH
Frank Suppa for five innings and sr. CF-RH Michael Lyons for two.
As Lyons went to the mound, Anderson replaced him in center and directed a
double into right-center to open the home seventh. Jr. LF Justin Bocelli
popped up a bunt and Anderson, unsure whether it would be caught, had to
hold at second even though Sanchez' throw was poor and Bocelli was safe.
That would prove to be large. On a chopper by soph 2B Keegan McKoskey,
jr. 3B Chafil Alvarez was able to lunge and barely tag out Anderson.
With McKoskey on first, sr. SS Peter Piccoli sent a hard grounder to
Cumba and a game-ending DP was turned. The Pioneers then got pretty darn
excited and, considering everything that has happened, such a response was
fitting. In Game Two, Franklin Towne sr. RH Tim Hart merely . . .
spun a no-hitter!! He'd
pitched four innings Friday in the AAA final vs. Franklin (one hit, 10
whiffs) and he mowed down 10 more today. Hart also spun a no-no in a 2012
playoff (vs. U. City in a AAA quarterfinal; not exactly an overall semi --
smile) and he's the ONLY guy in the 14 seasons this website has existed to
throw multiple playoff no-hitters. Not bad, eh? In this tilt, he also bagged
three of Towne's four RBI thanks to a sac fly and two-run double.
MAY 18
TEDBIT
Congrats to La Salle's Joe Picard, who yesterday became the
first Catholic League player to hit for the cycle in a postseason game!! How
do we know? Well, first a word search for "cycle" was made through all
recaps. It didn't appear. That would be the hope, folks, that if a guy did
hit for the cycle, it would be reported/celebrated at that time and "cycle"
would be listed in the recaps. But just to be safe, the next step was to
check the list of guys who posted at least four hits in a postseason game
while ALSO hitting a homer. Two guys did that: North Catholic's Tom
"Tucker" Kalpokas in the mid-'80s and Carroll's Jay Aquilante in
the mid-'90s. However, neither guy added the three other necessary
ingredients. So . . . Joe Picard stands alone! As provided by La Salle coach
Joe Parisi, Picard's day went like this: double, triple, single,
intentional walk. homer. He also bagged six RBI and that ties him for the
top spot with St. James' Art Gorga in '65, North's Art Cauto
in '77 and Bonner's Tom "Tush" Millison in '86. Oh, and check this
out: So far in this year's playoffs, Picard is 7-for-7!!
MAY 17
PUBLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL/AAA FINAL
Franklin Towne 10, Franklin 3
For my money, this one was decided when Franklin sr. RH
Emmanuel Young, also a talented football and basketball player, smoked a
leadoff triple into rightfield to open the fourth inning, with the Electrons
trailing by just 1-0, and died there as sr. RH Tim Hart struck out
the side (while mixing in two walks). While one of his teammates was
batting, Young muttered, "Don't leave me on third base, man!" And it was
easy to tell he was highly frustrated/disappointed as he headed back to the
mound for the bottom half of that frame. Boom!!! Frosh DH Zackery Beltran,
a lefty swinger, crushed a triple to VERY deep right-center (it would have
left Yellowstone) and I could bet with supreme confidence that "Manny" was
thinking, "I doubt they'll strand HIM at third." Hardly. The Coyotes posted
six runs in that at-bat and it wasn't very pretty. There were three
inexplicable errors -- no need to provide detail -- along with two walks and
two HBPs. Two RBI did not come on hits -- sac fly by soph SS Stephen
Callahan; groundout by jr. 3B Brian Bradley -- and Beltran earned
the last two with a very low liner that ate up sr. SS Khalil Coles.
It could have been scored an error, I guess, but I gave Coles the benefit of
the doubt since Beltran is a lefty and the ball was probably doing tricks as
it headed that way. Towne added three more runs in the fifth, with the RBI
going to Bradley on a groundout, to sr. 1B Chris Hartman on a bad-hop
grounder through the middle, and to sr. LF Tyler Keller on a sac fly
to Coles in shallow left. Hart, who showed decent juice and a biting curve,
pitched the first innings. Young's triple was the only hit he allowed.
Franklin also milked two walks, but whiffed 10 times. Coach Kyle Riley
replaced Hart with sr. RH Damian Padilla, and he hopes Tim will be
able to bring it Monday when Towne hosts GAMP in a 4 o'clock semifinal. The
other semi will feature Frankford at Prep Charter with a 1 p.m. starting
time. Towne's senior prom was held tonight and lots of fun was had with that
in the story. I hope Tim and his date, Samantha Morrison, had a great
time! And that he didn't step on her toes more than thrice. Ha, ha. The
Electrons were able to leave the field with their heads held semi-high
because they prevented a mercy rule outcome. Their first run was unearned,
but the last two came on a double to right-center by sr. 1B-RH Jose
Santiago. It would have been great to see Coles match arms with Hart,
but Khalil had pitched five-plus innings in relief two days earlier and thus
was ineligible to take the mound. In his first at-bat, when the count
reached 3-0, Young mumbled, "C'mon, throw me a strike once in a while,
babe." Ha, ha. Franklin's CF was soph Christian "Tre" Sullivan. His
brother, Christopher R. II, a k a "Duce," was one of last year's top
Electrons. They have a little sister named Chrisette. Click
here
for a photo set from last year. Ump Jim Carpino hung out for a while.
He's currently inactive due to an infected toe.
MAY 16
TEDBITS
So, I'm sitting in the front row of folding chairs at SJ Prep,
awaiting the start of a special ceremony involving basketball megastar
Stephen Vasturia (his No. 32 has been retired), and football star
Paul Johnson is two seats away. I happen to mention I'll be attending
tonight's Non-Public practice for the City All-Star Classic and Paul shoots
back, "We don't have practice tonight." Uh, oh. That's not what I'd been
told by an All-Star bigwig. The interview subject is going to be Roman QB
Michael Keir and I'm thinking, "OK, I'll drive over to Roman from here
and talk to him at the end of the school day, if not before." Numerous calls
are placed to various people at Roman. No one's answering. Not even the main
office. Uh, oh. Contact is finally made with C.J. Szydlik, the
Non-Public coach
(Neumann-Goretti), and he provides a cell phone number for Keir. Call is
placed. No answer. Text is sent. No response. The mind races. What if he
went somewhere for the rest of the day? Having interviewed Michael before, I
know he's from South Philly. Daily News sports staffer Ed Barkowitz
knows some members of Keir's family and remembers that those folks lived on
the Schuylkill Expressway side, not down by 2nd Street. To kill time, I head
to a shopping center off 24th and Passyunk and walk around aimlessly,
figuring that if I do hear from Michael at least I won't be far from his
house. Maybe an hour after I first tried to reach Michael, he calls back and
said he'd be available for an interview. I'm not far from N-G's baseball
field. Ditto for Michael, who lives near 29th and Tasker. We'll meet at the
field. I get there first and -- oh, baby -- the baseball team is practicing.
Remember now, I've seen the Saints four times this season and they've yet to
win. They lost by 5-4 the first three times, then 7-2 yesterday in a playoff
game vs. SJ Prep. A few seconds after I walk in, some of the players start
hollering, playfully (I think -- smile), "Leave! . . . Go home! . . . Get
outta here!" One even mutters, "Now we're gonna lose a practice." Ha, ha,
ha. I explain to coach Mike "Big Zoom" Zolk and the nearest players
why I'm there and just then, Michael walks into the complex. We head to the
batting cage area and do the interview. Then I come up with a goofy idea. BZ
plays along. He calls in the players and tells them to gather for a picture
meant to show their displeasure with my presence (smile). To be safe,
someone comments, "Just don't give him the middle finger." Click
here
for the pic and
here
for the giant-sized version . . . Oh, and just before I left, one of the
players, mindful that the CL tournament now features double elimination,
cracked, "If we make it to the championship game, stay home and watch it on
TV!!" Ha, ha, ha.
MAY 15
CATHOLIC PLAYOFF, FIRST ROUND
SJ Prep 7, Neumann-Goretti 2
In true website tradition, let's start with the off-the-wall
stuff. First, there were no errors and that's pretty cool for any level of
baseball, but especially high school. Second, N-G's two pitchers -- sr. RH
Joe Kinee and soph LH Pat Doudican -- made two appearances
apiece and how often do you ever see that? Next, we'll mosey on over to the
great-accomplishment department and mention that Prep sr. RH Tom Mullin
(Penn State), the Red MVP, owns the school record for most whiffs in
postseason action with 12. All scoring was done in two half-innings. N-G
posted its two-spot in the second as jr. DH Joe McGinley looped a
one-out single to center, soph C Tommy Nardini (erased two guys from
the bases; one on a pickoff) got plunked, jr. LF-RF Charlie Jerla
tagged an RBI double to deep left-center and sr. 3B Nick Simon lofted
a sac fly to center. Now for the Prep . . . In the first three innings, the
only guys to reach base against Kinee were the lefty swingers as sr. LF
Shane Williams and soph 1B Colin Cunningham drew walks and sr. 2B
Frank Santore stroked a single to left. Then, in the fourth, the
Hawks loaded the bases with two away and again the lefties led the way as
Williams walked and jr. DH Alex Stewart got drilled (jr. 3B Chris
Martin, a righty, drew a walk in between). Coach Mike "Big Zoom" Zolk
scurried to the mound. With two more lefties waiting in line, he called upon
Doudican and Cunningham was retired on a huge adventure of a popup. The ball
didn't go THAT high and sr. 2B Joey Glennon wound up catching it
during a tumble. As the fifth began, Kinee was back on the hill. But in this
stint, it was mostly the righties who did him in. With one away, jr. CF
Jawan McAllister singled hard to center, sr. SS Pat O'Dell
matched that feat and Williams took a pitch off his foot/ankle to load the
bases. Next up was jr. RF Chase Standen and he made a statement for
DN ink by smashing a three-run double toward the leftfield corner. With
that, Kinee again left the mound and Doudican returned. He issued
back-to-back walks to sr. C Tim Rafter and Martin and, bing!, Stewart
rifled a three-run triple into the rightfield corner. Soph Dino Cattai
batted for Cunningham and bagged an RBI with a sac fly to right. In its
other five at-bats, the Prep managed just one hit. Soph RH Bay To
worked the sixth for N-G and faced just three batters; plunkee O'Dell was
caught stealing. N-G got a big performance out of jr. 1B Josh Ockimey,
who went 3-for-3 with a triple (first-quality rocket over McAllister's head;
he misjudged it slightly) and a walk. His hits came with five total outs and
no one on base. The Prep now visits B-P on Friday afternoon in the second
round of the winners bracket. N-G hosts O'Hara (2 o'clock start; O'Hara has
a prom) in the losers bracket. Major thanks to Huck, Frog and Wood
assistant Kevin Rosini for providing the boxscores on the other three
CL playoffs. And to DN scoreboard page whiz Bob "Boop" Vetrone for
getting them paper ready. Also to former Ryan website writer Anthony
Magallanes, who offered to come out of retirement (smile) and run to up
Wood for web-report purposes. Friday will be nuts as well because six games
will "deserve" boxscores -- two in the CL and four in the Pub. Not sure
we'll get them all into Saturday's paper because Ed Barkowitz will
have to handle all scoreboard pages himself, but any missing links
will be published Monday.
MAY 14
PUBLIC CLASS A SEMIFINAL
GAMP 15, Saul 0 (3 innings)
When is a 15-0 score really not a 15-0 score? In the Pub, baby!
(smile) With two away in the home third, soph 3B Ben Leggerie, the
No. 9 hitter, sent a two-run double to right-center to make it 15-0 and end
the game due to the mercy rule. Oops, check that. The Razorbacks remained on
the field and GAMP guys kept marching up to the plate and soon the score was
18-0. During all of this, I was stationed beyond first base for pic-taking
purposes, but then I finally had to commence a walk behind GAMP's dugout
toward the plate area. Once there, I asked plate ump Anthony Pastore
why the game was still going on, seeing as how the 15th run should have
ended it. Pastore, the football coach at Furness and liked by everyone who
knows him, took a walk down the third base side to speak with GAMP coach
Art "Arch" Kratchman and, just like that, handshakes were beginning.
Anthony said later that he got mixed up on the ins and outs of the rule and
thought Saul had to bat one more time. Hey, it happens. Maybe he hadn't done
a 15-runner all season. Beforehand, Saul coach Rich Eanes had
explained that his team is very young and tends to show its inexperience,
especially in bunches if something goes wrong early in an inning. Though the
Razorbacks were not guilty of many actual errors, there were numerous
messups resulting from hesitation, bad choices, etc. The only Saul player
able to leave the 7th and Packer premises with a good feeling was jr. CF
Bob Tinneny. He bagged the only hit, a double down the leftfield line in
the first inning, and also made a tag near third base to complete a rundown
that was looking dicey until he opted to run in from the outfield and get
involved. GAMP's pitcher was sr. RH Joe Brinkman, who's bound for
Penn and ranks second in the class. Very cool!! He fanned five and faced
just 10 batters. The Pioneers scored three runs in the first, five in the
second and millions in the third (smile). Seven, officially. Ten, really.
The key men were sr. LF Jeff Bonvicin (3-for-3, double, four RBI),
Leggerie (3-for-3, double, two RBI), sr. C Jeremy Castellanos (three
RBI), jr. 1B Jacob Kurtz (two-run single) and soph 2B Dylan
Anderson (2-for-2, walk, double). Do you really need play-by-play
details? Didn't think so. Pastore reported that Furness' football team, due
to the fact that Bok is closing, will be completely based at the South
Philly Super Site from now on. The Falcons will occupy Bok's old locker room
and share the field with Southern for practices. Among today's spectators
was GAMP '12 grad Desmond Drummond, who played this season at
Philadelphia University. He was sitting in the stands, working on a laptop,
and I kiddingly asked him, "Are you doing homework or looking for ladies?"
Castellanos was standing right there and said, "He's looking for ladies . .
. But I usually help him with that." Ha, ha, ha.
MAY 13
CATHOLIC PRELIMINARY PLAYOFF
O'Hara 6, Lansdale Catholic 5
They're not called omens for nothing. And we had one at the very
beginning when soph 3B Kyle Diseroad, LC's leadoff batter, was
drilled by a pitch from jr. RH Will Latcham. How'd the game end? You
got it. There were four HBPs in the wacky seventh inning -- two in each half
-- and all played a part in the scoring. However, there was major contrast.
In describing these babies, we could have used some different initials on
the scoresheet, as in BTTD for those in the top half and RDTD for those in
the bottom. Explanations: Barely Touched the Dude and Really Drilled the
Dude. In the top half, in both cases, if the ball had gone just a quarter of
an inch in another direction, the hitters would have kept on batting. The
three-run outburst, giving LC a 5-4 lead, began when jr. C Sean Becker
singled hard to right-center. Latcham was hooked -- he didn't appear to be
too happy; I sympathized -- and his replacement, soph L Chris Fusaro,
barely nicked the next two guys, lefty swingers Patrick Duggan (sr.
LF) and Diseroad, to load the bases. Fusaro fanned soph SS Mike Christy,
but sr. 1B Ian "Egan" Conwell got one run home with a sank-fast shot
to left and sr. CF Tom Gibbons bagged two RBI with a groundball
single down the leftfield line. Sr. RF Bob Ieradi, who'd made a great
catch in the sixth inning to start a doubleplay, took to the mound and got
the last two outs on a whiff and popup, stranding two runners in scoring
position. LC's pitcher to start the bottom half was jr. RH Matt Kress,
who would have been the starter if not for an admitted cardinal sin by coach
Rick Norwood. Overall, Rick just felt his best chance to make lengthy
headway in this year's double-elimination tournament was to use an
unorthodox approach. In the fifth inning, pinch-hitting in the No. 9 spot,
O'Hara jr. Nolan Cummings had launched a first-pitch, two-run homer
to left-center that traveled roughly 355 feet. But in the seventh, via the
re-entry rule, sr. 3B Kevin Clark was in that spot and took a
fastball off the helmet. Jr. SS John Banes then ripped a double into
the leftfield corner and O'Hara had serious life. Latcham, also a re-entry
guy, sent a sac fly to right and we were tied at 5-5. Since Banes was now
standing on third base, having also advanced, Norwood opted to issue
intentional walks to sr. CF Nick Donovan and Ieradi while setting up
a five-man infield. The drama was as short-lived as possible. Kress drilled
sr. DH Scott Grinnan (2-for-3 beforehand) with a first-pitch fastball
in the lower back and that was that. Grinnan wound up with DN ink and his
story is rather interesting. Due to a shoulder injury suffered while playing
hockey, he has not thrown a ball all season (not even to have a playful
catch) while performing only-DH duties. Pretty amazing. Soph 1B Chris
Salvey also was important to the Lions' cause. He had an RBI single in
the second and scored in the fifth in front of The New Matt Stairs
(smile) after reaching first on an ever-popular HBP. LC scored one run
apiece in the first (on an error) and fifth (RBI single to center by
Christy). Sr. RH Dan Carney, a semi-sidewinder, started for LC and
went 4.2 innings. His replacement, sr. RH Ben Lippincott, notched
four outs and helped himself in the sixth inning with a pickoff. Among the
spectators was O'Hara sr. hoops star Mike Louden, and he offered some
very cool news. He'll be playing his college ball at Philadelphia University
and, as oldheads know, that's where his father, also Mike and
likewise an O'Hara grad, played well enough to earn induction into the
school's Athletic Hall of Fame. Niiiiice!
MAY 12
TEDBIT
Here's one from the better-late-than-never file. Since there was
nothing that HAD to be done for the website tonight, I decided to post
playoff boxscores from 1995. That involved taking pics of the original Daily
News clippings, cropping them, etc. Anyway, on one of those days we also
published the Coaches All-Catholic Team. Then, the next day, guess what . .
. We ran a correction! Incorrect info had been provided on the first basemen
for the Southern Division. O'Hara's Jim Geraghty should have been the
first-teamer and West's Shawn Kelly should have been the
second-teamer. And that's the way you'll now see their names on this list.
BASEcoachallcath.htm
MAY 10
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Malvern 6, Gtn. Academy 0
Part of me -- OK, all of me -- wanted Malvern sr. SS Joe
Poduslenko (Seton Hall) to fly out deep to left in the seventh inning.
Know why? That would have completed one of the all-time freaky,
exact-opposite sequences (over two days). Thursday, en route to receiving DN
ink, Judge's Marc Berlanger flied deep to right, launched a three-run
homer to right, then walked in his final two plate appearances. Today, also
bound for Inksville, Poduslenko walked twice, hammered a three-run homer to
left and then . . . ah, he popped out to the right side of the infield
instead of flying out deep to left. The opposite-fields thing would have
been acceptable because Berlanger is a lefty swinger and Poduslenko is not.
Pretty cool, right? Except for Malvern's fifth, this was a very competitive
game! GA soph RH Ryan DeWalt pitched pretty darn well through four
innings (one run) and his successors, jr. RHs Sean Weiss (1.2
innings) and Nick Popolizio (1) combined to retire all eight batters
they faced. Meanwhile, Malvern jr. RH Gardner "Mayor/Nut" Nutter spun
a two-hitter with nine whiffs and owned a no-no until two were out in the
fifth (jr. SS Logan Sneed sent a hard shot through the left side; sub sr. LF
Michael Hanamirian got the other hit with an infield single to start
the seventh). Nutter walked one and hit one. It was the same guy, actually (soph
DH John Aiello). While on deck in the sixth, Aiello had his own
freaky/cool moment. In GA's plate area, there's netting maybe 20 feet above.
Twice in a row, sr. CF Robert Gorman sent spinning foul balls off the
netting, and off the fence not far from GA's dugout where Aiello, and right
into Aiello's bare hand! Amazing! In Malvern's fifth, soph RH Chris
Butera beat out an infield single, jr. 1B Dan Grandieri sent a
line single to left and sr. OF Brandon Gentile laid down a good sac
that was followed by a throwing error, enabling Butera to score. "Pods" then
followed with his homer. Jr. 2B Matt "Oxford Valley" Maul hopped a
double off the leftfield fence, moved up on a balk and came around as soph
3B Mark Gentilotti greeted Weiss with a sac fly to left. An RBI
single by sr. C Steve Robinson (Penn State) was Malvern's only other
hit. Though my hope was to take a six z's pic of Malvern sr. sub Jay
Zazzera and GA jr. RF Zeke Z Zabinski, things did not quite work
out. Zeke arrived late because he was taking an advanced placement test.
Hearing that, Malvern parent Jim Gentile exclaimed, "Only in the
Inter-Ac!" Ha, ha. I did meet Zeke's parents and one of his brothers, so
that was cool. Also on hand was the GA mom who came out with priceless
comments during the recent game at Haverford School. She knew better than to
stand nearby today because more tidbits would have wound up in this report
(smile). Hanging out for a while, in a golf cart, were GA's basketball
coach/AD, Jim Fenerty, and Chestnut Hill's former baseball boss,
Stan Parker. GA's football coach, Matt Dence, served as an
assistant to baseball coach Tyler Stampone because the other two guys
were unavailable. From what Dence said, Matt Zielinski is getting
another shot in pro ball. Cool!
MAY 9
CATHOLIC RED
Judge 7, SJ Prep 2
Well, today we had an all-time first, folks! Regular season games
were played simultaneously on identical turf fields (the only dirt surrounds
the pitchers' mounds). Ashburn Field, in South Philly, was too soggy, so
this one was switched to Judge's new digs across the street from the school
in Ramp Playground. La Salle's field was also messy, so the Explorers moved
their tilt vs. Roman to La Salle University. The Prep and La Salle entered
the afternoon tied for first in Red and a win for each squad would have
enabled the Hawks to claim the title, thanks to their 2-1 record vs. the 'Splorers.
Instead, while the Prep was dropping this one, La Salle was dumping Roman,
8-0, behind sr. lefty Tom Cockill's six strong innings. DN ink went
to sr. CF Marc Berlanger, who came close to launching a two-run homer
to dead rightfield in the the first (ball reached the warning track), then
DID bag a three-run dinger in the third frame to almost precisely the exact
same area. It was too freaky! Jr. 2B Bill Romano got a run home in
the second with a groundout and earned another RBI in the third with a
groundball single to right that just escaped being smothered by the diving
second baseman, sr. Frank Santore. In the seventh (yes, Judge was
officially the visiting team), Berlanger worked a two-out walk, sr. C
Ryan Mackiewicz singled hard to left and soph RF Ryan "Of Course I'm
a Lefty" O'Neill sliced a two-run single down the leftfield line. Judge
used two pitchers, sr. RH Josh Teson (four innings) and frosh RH
Dan Hammer "Time". Teson was reached for seven hits, all singles, and
got good help from his fielding posse. Sr. LF Mike O'Hanlon gunned
down a guy at the plate in the first and sr. SS Jeff Seigafuse, also
a hoopster, made a leaping snag of a liner in the fourth (stroked by soph 1B
Colin Cunningham) and was able to turn it into a doubleplay. The
Hawks' second run came in the fifth as Santore crunched a double to
left-center and later came around on a sac fly by sr. CF Jawan McAllister.
He, O'Dell and sr. C Tim Rafter thirded six hits. The pitchers were
soph RH Tyler Clark, jr. RH Dom Nunag and soph RH Dino
Cattai. This was the second time this season the Hawks played a "home"
game away. They won the first one, 10-7, over La Salle. Kudos to first-year
coach Joe Falcone for agreeing to move the game. Ashburn would not
have been unavailable Friday and asking Judge to play Saturday would not
have been especially cool since the Crusaders face a preliminary playoff
Monday. The one downer was this: the Hawks had to experience Senior Day on
the road. After the game, in the area right outside the entrance to the
field portion of Ramp, the players, coaches and loved ones enjoyed a picnic.
Well, maybe "enjoyed" is not exactly the correct word. The food would have
tasted better after a win. Each senior Hawk received a home plate. Among
those guys was megamanager Mike Garuccio, who hit some wicked (smile)
groundballs to the first basemen during infield-outfield, handled the
pregame prayer and also passed along this tidbit . . . Basketball star
Stephen Vasturia lost yesterday! The Prep has intramural tournaments for
each grade and Stevie V suffered an L for the first time (in the senior
championship game) after triumphing as a frosh, soph and junior. His
conqueror was a team that included point guard P.J. Kelly. Vasturia,
by all indications, is one of the most popular kids in Prep history. I bet
someone could make a killing selling black armbands in the
hallways/cafeteria (smile).
MAY 8
TEDBITS
This might sound outrageous, but here's a rule I'd love to see in
Division D of Public League baseball. Maybe in C, as well: No more than one
stolen base per inning (unless you're going from third to home; those
scenarios are always cool). In most games, when a guy reaches first via a
hit, walk (plenty of those) or error (ditto), almost immediately he easily
proceeds to second, if not third. Too many games turn into a circus. And
here's another thought: How about making five balls necessary for a walk?
OK, probably too over the top? . . . Meanwhile, here's a rule change I think
would be cool for every level, even the major leagues: A limit of two
unsuccessful pickoff attempts to the same base on the same guy. If you go
after a guy a third time and don't get him, he automatically advances. Think
of the drama that would create. After two failed pickoff attempts, the
runner would probably take a longer lead, just DARING the dude to try it one
more time. No stepping off by the pitcher, either. The crowd would be into
it, big time, right?
MAY 7
PUBLIC D
University City 3, Randolph 2
One of the true joys associated with this job (more like a hobby)
is watching an oft-downtrodden program slap together a major accomplishment.
That happened today and it was extra special for two big reasons: UC will
close next month and the team's best player, sr. RH Brandy Morel, had
to settle for a spectator's role after suffering a concussion (something
much worse was feared) in the first inning of yesterday's game against West
Philly. This is UC's 40th school year of Pub membership. Only three of the
120 teams in the three major sports have posted a perfect mark in league
play and this marked baseball's first venture into Blissville. First to do
so was the '95 basketball squad (11-0 in the C-D combo division), which went
on to win the Pub title thanks in large part to superguard wing guard
Rasheed Brokenborough. The Jaguars edged Gratz, 44-43, in the final
thanks to Brokenborough (14 points, eight rebounds, three assists),
Anthony "Chop" Harris (12, 13 boards) and Alfonso Wilson (eight,
12). In the Blue Division, the football team went 4-0 in 2008. These guys
finished 12-0 and the pitcher was . . . Frosh RH Anthony Morel,
Brandy's brother! He fanned a lifetime high of 15 batters and allowed just
two hits, a pair of singles by Randolph's No. 2 hitter, sr. 2B Derrick
Ramseure, a lefty swinger (and thrower!) He had a quick, level swing and
his base knocks came on nice shots. Randolph scored its runs on botched
pickoff plays. On the first, 3B Aaron Gadson momentarily got
distracted and the throw whizzed past him. On the second, Morel fired the
ball into center and sr. 3B Monserate "Monti" Martel had no trouble
scoring his second run of the game. UC scored once in the first as Morel
milked a walk, stole second and third and came in on an error. In the sixth,
down by 2-1, UC posted a two-spot in wild-and-crazy fashion. It's the Pub.
You expected something else? (smile) Catcher Demetrius Rivers started
the uprising against Justo Rodriguez, a sr. righty and fireballer
who'd no-hit UC on the same field three years ago (he had 21 Ks!; there were
22 total outs), by drawing a walk. He thieved the next two bags, then scored
on a sacrifice fly to shallow left-center (caught by jr. SS Devante
Johnson) off the bat of SS Nakell Green. RF Ricardo Romero
then singled to center, managed two more steals and raced home on a wild
pitch. His second steal was controversial because Martel kept insisting he'd
made the tag on Romero after snagging an off-line throw. In the seventh,
with UC's subs displaying major energy and the six-seven Randolph fans
cheering as if they were watching a football/basketball game ("Let's go
Randolph, let's go!), sr. RF Michael Murray was plunked on the hip.
He stole second and third as Rodriguez and jr. DH Justus Bridgen were
fanning, then died there as Johnson swung and missed on a 1-2 pitch. The
Jaguars, naturally, went crazy! The coolest visual was when the first guy in
line for handshakes told Brandy to come over and lead the way. During the
game, Brandy had signaled location for the pitches called by first-year
coach Marc Holley, a former Overbrook player. After arriving right
before the home second, that is. I feel bad that Brandy missed the team pic,
but he was included in many others so hopefully he won't be mad at me
(smile). The plate ump was Jeff Ellison, a former athlete at
Germantown. The base ump was Dion Smith, who received DN ink during
his soccer days at Franklin in 1982. Early in the game, a Jaguar took a wild swing at
a bad pitch and a teammate called into him, "You too hungry, man!" Another
guy added, "It's not a buffet in there!" Ha, ha. Six of UC's starters have
already been mentioned. The others on this momentous occasion were 1B
Haneef Williams, LF Ramir Rochester-Cottle and 2B Brandon
Williams. (The roster doesn't list what year the guys are in. Sorry for
not noticing that while I was at the field). Practicing on an adjacent field
at 48th & Woodland was West Catholic's junior varsity. A few pics of those
guys are in the photo set.
MAY 4
TEDBIT
Thursday, Bonner-Prendergast defeated Lansdale
Catholic, 9-7, to finish perfect (12-0) in Catholic Blue; the Friars will
have byes next in the seven-team division. At the end of his report, Ed
"Huck" Palmer wondered whether the Friars had ever gone unbeaten in
division play and suggested some guy named Teddy S. might want to dig
up the info. Shovel time, baby! . . . If so, it hasn't happened since '77.
Standings for that season are unavailable, but Bonner did win the old
Southern Division. A playoff story mentioned that star lefty Tom Stauffer
owned an 8-1 record; no mention of whether that record was just for division
games or overall. The '70 and '74 Friars also won the South, so it's
possible one of those squads went unbeaten in division play. Meanwhile, the
'98 squad finished 17-1, which was the best mark before this year's 12-0
took the top spot over at least a 36-year period. Congrats to coach Joe
DeBarberie and his players/assistants. If someone knows Bonner's
division record in '77, '74 and '70, please send the info to
silaryt@phillynews.com.
**UPDATE:**
Received a note from a little birdie familiar with that black & gold school
in Warminster. Bonner's league loss in '98 was to Wood. So, the Friars did
post a perfect mark against South foes that season, but, as in some other
seasons, there were cross-division games that counted in the standings and
that was one of 'em.
***LATEST UPDATE***
From Joe Smagala, a manager for St. James' team in 1970 . . .
Monsignor Bonner's 1970 team definitely did not go unbeaten in the Southern
Division. The May 26
edition of the Delaware County Daily Times
shows the Catholic League South final standings with Bonner's record at
13-3. I
was in my junior year at St. James that year, and was one of the team
managers. I remember that coach John Mooney
pulled all of the managers out of school after the 3rd period that day so we
could work on getting a very muddy Deshong Park field in Chester ready for
the game against Bonner. Unfortunately (for us), Bonner won that game,
and Bishop Neumann beat us, 5-0, in our next game at FDR park in South
Philly to knock us out of the first-place tie and open the way for Bonner to
take the division title.
We
beat Archbishop Carroll in our last game to finish 12-4, one game behind
Bonner. Two of our four Southern Division losses were to Bonner, by scores
of 3-1 and 6-4.
***LATEST
UPDATE***
From Joe Smagala,
a manager for St. James' team in 1970 . . .
Based on the attached article from the May 16, 1974 edition
of the Delaware County Daily Times, it's safe to say that Bonner's baseball
team didn't go undefeated in Southern Division play in 1974, either.
According to the story that day, Bonner had just suffered its
second consecutive loss after opening with ten straight Southern Division
victories. Still researching 1977. Will let you know what I find.
http://delawarecolib.newspaperarchive.com/PdfViewer.aspx?img=84929037&firstvisit=true&src=search¤tResult=7¤tPage=0
***FINAL UPDATE*** From
Joe Smagala, a manager for St. James' team in 1970 . . . No unbeaten
1977 season for Bonner, either. Bonner and Carroll both finished
Southern Division play with identical 11-3 records (Delaware County Daily
Times, May 25, 1977).
http://delawarecolib.newspaperarchive.com/PdfViewer.aspx?img=91070575&firstvisit=true&src=search¤tResult=3¤tPage=0
The Friars and Patriots met four days later in a game
to decide the Southern Division championship, which was won by Bonner, 7-1
(Delaware County Daily Times, May 31, 1977).
http://delawarecolib.newspaperarchive.com/PdfViewer.aspx?img=91070646&firstvisit=true&src=search¤tResult=2¤tPage=0
MAY 3
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Haverford School 6, SCH Academy 0
Not long before the game, one of SCH's players, not far from
where I was standing, said, "I can't wait to get in the paper for the two
bombs I'm gonna hit today." I laughed and told him, "That's why I'm here."
Then the game got rolling and the Blue Devils' bats mostly bombed out.
Matt Galetta, a sr. LH and the brother of our 2007 Player of the Year,
Mike, breezed through the first three innings in perfect fashion
while striking out five. The 5-8, 165-pounder, who'll be attending college
right next door at Haverford (Mike will be an assistant), finished with a
four-hitter and seven whiffs/no walks and only one guy advanced beyond first
base. That was jr. CF Zach Jancarski, who opened the fourth by
sending a rocket of a groundball down the leftfield line. Though the first
base coach wanted Jancarski to stop, he was having none of it and easily
made it to second. I liked the brass because the Blue Devils needed some
juice at that point. However, jr. 1B Owen McAdoo fouled out, sr. DH
Matt Kozemchak went down looking and, after Jancarski thieved third,
sr. 3B Matt Rowland was retired on a deep fly to center. The BDs'
other hits, all up the middle, were singles by frosh AJ LaBella,
Jancarski and Rowland. The last two guys were erased in doubleplays in the
sixth and seventh, respectively, thanks to jr. SS Chris Sukonik and
soph 2B Kevin McGowan the first time and the opposite order the
second time to end the game. The Ford scored four times against sr. RH
Michael Hayes and twice against his replacement, sr. RH Tim Menninger.
Half of the runs against each guy were unearned. The fourth inning was
particularly freaky as HS scored twice without getting the ball out of the
infield. Sukonik (chopper to SS), jr. CF Steve Scornajenghi (on a
bunt) and sr. LF Drew Field (roller to 3B) had consecutive singles
and a wild throw after the last one allowed two runs to score. Field
finished 2-for-3 with a walk and one RBI (on an infield single in the
fifth). Sukonik and McGowan also managed two hits while McGowan collected
two RBI. SCH's new coach is Chris Lubanski, the former Kennedy-Kenrick
megastar who last year completed his pro career. He's a lefty thrower and
hitter, but when he wrote down his lineup . . . You got it. Righthanded. Yet
another quality athlete with mixed dominance. Especially in baseball,
they're everywhere! Yesterday, the BDs played game No. 1 on their new field,
which rumor has it is absolutely beautiful. Before this one they did not
take infield-outfield, even though HS' whole field is turf except for the
pitcher's mound. Congrats to Fords coach Bob Castell, who recently
captured career victory No. 300. The base ump that day was Gene Otto,
who handles umpiring assignments (and many other duties) for the Inter-Ac
and Catholic leagues. He was also on hand today and asked me to snap a pic
featuring him and Bob. A coach and umpire acting all friendly, and stuff.
Hey, isn't that against the law? (smile) Oh, guess what? The game started on
time! Feel free to faint. SCH's roster was emailed to me earlier today and
seeing one name provided a brief bout with the chills. Tom Trullinger,
a catcher, is a freshman sub. In '79, his dad, also named Tom, was
playing leftfield for CHA when he chased a well-struck ball up the hill and
out onto Willow Grove Ave. He was hit by a car. I didn't witness this scary
occurrence, but wound up writing a story. I spoke with Tom Jr. a little
while well before the game and he said his dad has suffered no major ill
effects through the years. That's great to hear! Of course, pretty quickly
after that incident happened, a fence was installed in deep leftfield.
Coolest moment of the game: Kozemchak's nickname is "Squeeze." In the
seventh inning, he was retired on a groundball to sr. 3B Trevor Atkins,
who goes by "Cheese." Oh, and Atkins made the play with the greatest of
ease, making sure to please a nearby group of bees . . . Long night. Sorry
for being so silly. (The website was down for several hours and I had no
idea what to do about it. It's back online now, thankfully. Apologies to
anyone who was likewise VERY frustrated.)
MAY 2
PUBLIC B
Phila. Academy 13, Phila. Electrical 3 (5 innings)
Single, single, single, single. That’s how this one started for PAC jr.
LH Travis Zink, who’s sorta built like Babe Ruth. Zink then
settled in and pitched like an early-career Babe Ruth, facing FEWER than the
minimum 15 batters thereafter. Hmm, how’d that happen? Well, the first out
of that initial inning came when sr. C Jim O’Connor gunned down a
would-be basestealer. Two strikeouts followed. Zink did walk a guy in the
third, but O’Connor sent him back to the bench, too, with another strong
throw to second on a try for a theft. As for PAC’s first inning . . .
Rockets red glare! (With some help). The home Chargers (that’s also PE&T’s
nickname) sent 14 men to the plate and scored 10 runs. O’Connor (single) and
sr. CF Mike Sullivan (double), the recipient of DN ink, crushed hits
worth two RBI while the other four safeties went to jr. LF Bailey
Broomhead, Zink, soph 3B Tim Zink (Travis’ brother) and jr. SS
Eric Heisler (HIS brother, Nike, pronounced Nick despite the
spelling), played 2B for PET). And Bailey’s brother, Wyatt, a soph,
played rightfield for PAC. That’s six bros, if you’re counting, and we’ll
offer two more. PAC’s starter at 2B was frosh Tyler Sharp. His
brother, Corey, who plays for Washington, enjoyed an off day and came
to watch Tyler. I don’t have a brother. If so, I would have called him and
told him to get his butt to Roosevelt Blvd. and Conwell Ave. (smile). PAC
scored its other three runs in the second. Tim Zink bagged one RBI on a hard
groundball down the leftfield line and Sullivan got two more on a popup to
left-center that fell when no one took charge. Jr. RH James Saunders
did pitch hitless ball in the third and fourth. Yesterday, PET dropped a
12-11, 12-inning decision to Kensington. The final run scored on an error in
the fourth frame. The first eight had been played earlier in the season.
PE&T’s hits were posted by sr. 3B Ray Guinther, sr. 1B Tom Hicks,
sr. SS Rob Payne and jr. RH-OF Justin Brown. Payne and Brown
had RBI and Hicks thieved home on the back end of a double-steal. For pic
purposes, I stood near first base for a while and had a chance to find out
why Hicks’ name hasn’t appeared in pitching lines. He has a frayed bicep
tendon and will tough it out through the spring and summer before getting
surgery in the fall. Best of luck, Tom! Playing on the upper field, in a
non-league game, were Esperanza and host Swenson. There was enough time to
get team pics of both squads, thankfully. An ump for that game was Joe
Stanley, Bodine’s former coach and a long-time chairman for Pub
football/baseball. Great to see you, Joe! It would have been nice to see the
base ump at PET-PAC, too, but he never arrived. Ugh. PAC coach Jack “PAC
Jack” Smith said the guy texted to “say” he thought he’d been assigned
to another game, and thus was there. Luckily, there were no hairy calls to
create unfair pressure for the plate dude.
MAY 1
CATHOLIC BLUE
Lansdale Catholic 3, McDevitt 1
In some ways, today's MVP is LC coach Rick Norwood. He's not my
boss, of course, but I felt he deserved an explanation on how, and why, the
Daily News story would be handled the way it was. The game's most productive
player, by far, was McDevitt sr. RH Tim O'Neill, and we'll list his
feats in a moment. When I told Rick that I'd be writing the story on Tim, he
said he completely understood and finished with this comment: "Go get him.
With my blessing." Thank you, sir. O'Neill went all seven for the Lancers,
allowing just one hit -- a solid single to right-center by sr. LF Patrick
Duggan (also the football QB) with two away in the second -- and struck
out eight while walking none; he did plunk one. Early in the game, a
Lansdale batter took a nasty off-speed pitch for a strike and utterred,
"Oh!" As in, "Damn, that pitch was nice. I had no prayer of hitting it."
O'Neill's changeup was probably the best individual pitch I've seen out of
anyone all season, and his curve was often decent, too. Fastball? Not
tremendous. But it complemented his other pitches well and was all part of
the master plan. Alas, the Lancers committed six errors and O'Neill had two
of them. LC scored one run in the third and two more in the fourth and there
were no RBI. Not even close. O'Neill, who's headed for La Salle and might
walk on, retired the final 11 batters in order. Out of the No. 8 hole, he
went 3-for-3 with two doubles (one sailed over the CF's head) and a
single/error combo. That last hit came in the seventh with one away and sr.
1B Gabe Dwyer (two singles) followed with a groundout. Soph SS
Zach "Socks" Coates (he doesn't mind if you spell his first name Zack; I
pinned him down and he finally went with the Zach version -- ha ha) cracked
an RBI single to left-center. A groundout off the bat of sr. C Jake
Meizinger ended it. Meizinger, by the way, batted second, not exactly a
common spot for catchers. Jake said, "I'm not fast, but I do like to think I
know how to run the bases." He did have a steal! Some of the worst
baserunning you could ever hope not to see -- and we'll leave it at that --
kept McDevitt scoreless in the fifth. Phew! LC's pitchers were soph RH
Andrew Melsheimer, a JV callup (four innings), jr. RH Chris Wallace
(1 1/3) and sr. RH Dan Carney (1 2/3). Kevin Scott, LC's jr.
SS, suffered a wicked wound on his leg while tagging out Dwyer on an
attempted steal in the third. Ultimately, to be safe, he was carried down to
the street from LC's bench and driven to a nearby hospital. Best of luck,
Kevin! Also to sr. 1B Ian "Egan" Conwell, who appeared to absolutely
crush a dribbler to O'Neill off his foot/ankle in the fifth. Neither ump saw
it, so the out stood. Oh, the umps didn't walk onto the field until 3:48 and
the game started 11 minutes late. Please, just once, make sure the game
STARTS at 3:45, OK guys? Thanks. Before the game, as McDevitt prepared to go
through infield-outfield, sr. Gerald Amodei was told to go to right
field. "Watch this," he said. "Within two minutes, they'll be calling me
back in here to warm up (O'Neill)." Soon, someone indeed was calling out,
"Jerry, get in here!" While trotting in, Amodei said, "See, I told you! . .
. Not EVEN a minute!" Ah, maybe 64 seconds (smile). It was good to see LC's
backup catcher, jr. Nick Mandarano, who covers the Crusaders in fine
fashion for this website. Many times, he was asked to warm up pitchers down
the leftfield line. He said with a laugh, "It's tough to do writeups when
you don't get to see much of the game." The tilt ended at 6:02. An LC mom
exclaimed, "Wow, the kids are going to get home when it's light!"
APRIL 30
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Malvern 5, Penn Charter 1
His name is Nutter and perhaps someday he'll be the Mayor of Malvern; he
lives real close to the school. Gardner Nutter is a jr. RH and the
last thing I remember about him is taking a pic that showed him performing "gardnering"
duties on the field. Guess what? Now he's a quality pitcher and the week's
first starter. I won't go into his side story -- pretty amazing -- but it's
linked
here.
As for hurling . . . "Nut" was hardly a speedballer today, but did (mostly)
throw strikes and got consistent help from his quality fielders (no errors)
to record gotta-have-'em outs. Vitally important was sr. SS Joe
Poduslenko, a Seton Hall signee. He was in the middle of a 4-6-3
doubleplay that helped to assure the first inning would not turn into a
mess; he performed catch-it, step-on-second, fire-to-first duties for
another DP in the sixth; and then he ended the proceedings with a
sensational catch in shallow center. PC frosh CF Kenny Bergmann sent
a pop that way and "Pod" made the over-the-shoulder catch while
lunging/sliding. SportsCenter, anyone? The Quakers owned a run after just
three batters as jr. SS Steven Cohen rapped a double to right-center
and Bergmann thumped a hanging curve into left. Thereafter, PC advanced just
one guy as far as third base. Coach Jon Cross' starter was soph LH
Zach "Wiggles" Wielgus, a hard thrower with decent size and a delivery
that's occasionally whiplashy. Like almost every young lefty in baseball
history, he does not yet have the control thing down pat. He free-passed
eight (one intentional) in five frames and two of those strollers scored
runs. One did so on a passed ball, but the runs wound up being earned
because sr. C Steve Robinson (Penn State) cracked a single to left
that would have plated two runs, rather than one. PC's other pitcher was
frosh righty Joey Lancellotti. He retired the first two batters, then
sr. CF Brandon Gentile kept the inning alive with a looping single to
center. From there the Quakers self-destructed their way into surrendering
three unearned runs. Robinson finished 2-for-3 with a walk and the RBI.
Poduslenko walked twice, stole a base and scored twice. Jr. 2B Matt "King
of Prussia" Maul was important with a sac and infield single that was
compounded by an error. Sr. Billy "Moose" Ford, bound for West
Chester to play QB (and maybe baseball), was limited to DH duties. He's
coming off arm tenderness, though he did pitch effectively last weekend in
his first mound outing of the spring. Jr. 1B Dan Grandieri is the
last member of a very productive family; he follows Fran (hoops,
O'Hara, Widener), Chris (hoops, O'Hara, Gettysburg), Brian
(hoops, Malvern, Penn) and Tom (baseball, Malvern, Penn). Cross was
an assistant at Penn when Tom played there and he said, "This one reminds me
of Tom exactly. The way he stands. The way he swings. Exact copy." Thanks to
coach Freddy Hilliard for allowing
our latest goofy pic
to be taken before the game. What are the chances? In the same season, we
have a player with the initials ZZZ (Germantown Academy's Zeke Z Zabinski)
and another with three z's in his surname (Malvern's Jay Zazzera).
Crazy! When I texted a buddy about today's find, this response came back: Iz
Zat Zo. Ha, ha, ha!! Heading to the parking lot, had a nice talk with Jim
Gentile, a West Catholic product who supplied Malvern's team pic for the
website. Another son, Jimmy, is also a senior Friar and he's battling
his way back from injury. Malvern jr. Mike Higgins, a website
stalwart, keeps a mean scorebook! (But you knew that already -- smile.)
APRIL 25
PUBLIC A
Washington 6, Prep Charter 4
There was a strange moment as the home fifth began. As PC sr. RH Pete
Piccoli finished his warmups and prepared to deliver his first pitch, a
couple of his infielders called him playful nicknames. Piccoli even smiled,
but after his first pitch was a ball, he turned around and told the guys, in
effect, to knock it off and get serious. The Huskies led at the time, 4-1,
but Washington would explode for three runs in that frame and then add two
more in the sixth to claim the stirring win. Sr. 3B Aaron Goldberg,
the No. 9 hitter, started the fifth with a groundball single to right. Jr.
CF John Santos then drew a walk. With jr. SS Gilad Metro
having quad problems, coach Ken Geiser sent up pinch-hitter Eddie
Tingle, a frosh. He fanned, then sr. LF Corey Sharp grounded into
a fielder's choice for out No. 2. That brought sr. 2B-RH Jake Wright
to the plate and, bang, immediately there went the ball down the leftfield
line for an RBI double. Jr. 1B Scott Siley, who'd been absolutely
plastered in the early going (more on that later), followed with a two-run
single to left-center. Sr. DH-2B Mike Honick also hit the ball well
-- shot to center -- but sr. Mike Lyons ran it down. In the sixth,
Piccoli breezed to two consecutive strikeouts. But again, Goldberg
thorn-in-the-sided him, sending a medium-hit ball to left for a single.
Santos then sent a blast to pretty much straightaway center. The ball
carried and carried and carried and Lyons kept chasing and chasing and
chasing, all the while giving the impression he was confident he'd catch it.
Didn't happen. The ball had extra juice and it sailed over Lyons' head for
an RBI double. Via the re-entry rule, Metro stepped into the box and thumped
an RBI single to right, making it 6-4 and causing Piccoli to move to second
base. Sr. RH Frank Suppa, in from left field, put out the fire. The
win, as well as DN ink, went to Wright, who's bound for Valley Forge MA en
route to Army. Jake, also a star kicker-punter, got the win thanks to two
perfect innings. All six outs came on groundballs -- his curve was working
like a charm -- and he even barehanded one of 'em. Sr. RH Aaron Keen
pitched the first five frames for G-Dub. The first two innings were messy,
mostly due to errors, but Keen maintained his resolve and allowed just one
hit over the third-fourth-fifth. Sharp helped him with a great,
sprawling-forward catch in left. Two of PC's runs scored on errors. RBI went
to jr. 2B Justin Bocelli (double in first) and Piccoli (single in
second). Back to Siley's scary moment: A bad throw pulled him three-four
feet off the bag toward the plate and, pow!, Lyons gave him a direct hit.
Scott was down for maybe two minutes (not sure), but then got up and was
able to continue. In the sixth, Siley had to snag another off-line throw and
this time he was able to make the tag while avoiding Part II of Crushjob.
For whatever reason, Piccoli seemed to be obsessed with trying to erase
baserunners. Even in the home first, with a 3-0 lead, thrice he tried to
pick off Santos after plunking him. Though he did pick off a runner in the
second, he was also guilty of an errant pickoff toss to first that allowed
Siley to score from third. Today's base ump was Andy Miller,
Bartram's former baseball coach and one of our stat-crew guys for football
in the 2011 season. I'm 99.9999999999 percent sure, if not more (smile),
that Andy got one call wrong (back end of a doubleplay; even Siley
indicated the call had been a gift), but I liked how he handled the
complaint from Foster McKoskey, the first base coach. Andy told him,
"Listen, from the angle I had where I was, it looked like an out, so that's
what I have to call. Simple as that." Makes sense. Randy Seidman,
long-time website stalwart and the father of two former Eagles (Corey &
Eric), was in attendance. Great to see you, Randy! One nutty moment
right before the game began: the PC guys went down toward the leftfield
corner to get psyched and finished by huddling closely together, jumping up
and down, then yelling, "Huskies!!!!" At Washington's bench, one of the kids
asked, "What'd they say?" Someone else said, "Huskies. That's their
nickname." Sr. Sean Kearney, a backup pitcher, said, "Oh. I thought
they were saying, 'We're rusty!!!' " Ha, ha, ha.
APRIL 25
TEDBITS
It was 5:51 yesterday afternoon when N-G coach Mike Zolk,
with a quite-stern look on his face, said to backup pitcher Paul
Cavanaugh, a senior, "If you leave here now, you're off the team." Zolk
was kidding, and Cavanaugh knew that was the case, because before the game
the coach had spoken to "Paulie C" (and others) in glowing terms about the
young man's special talent and why it would likely cause an early departure
(the game ended at 6:06). Cavanaugh, you see, is quite the saxophone player
and he had to hustle back to South Philly to appear last night in a special
school concert. Before gathering his stuff and heading to the parking lot,
Cavanaugh spoke a little more with Zolk and teammates and the coach told
him, "Have a great concert, Paul! Love you, man! . . . Like a stepdaughter."
Everyone cracked up over that one.
Click
here
for a pic that shows Paul.
Before the game, meanwhile, Zolk asked if I knew who came up with the
baseball phrase "can of corn" (for a popup/flyball that's easily caught; you
don't hear it much anymore). Ummmm. No. Turns out the guy was named Mike
Zolk and he first used those words in 1936 while playing for Frankford
in a game against Northeast. Know where the N-G coach played his high school
baseball? Exactly. Frankford. As far as this Mike knows, the two are not
related. His family was not in Philly during that time frame. Go to Google
and type in "Mike Zolk" and "can of corn". The mentions are numerous, and
they include the explanation for the phrase's inspiration.
APRIL 24
CATHOLIC BLUE
Carroll 5, Neumann-Goretti 4
On a beautiful day that follows some crappy ones, everybody feels
hitterish and high scores are not uncommon. Also today we had this X factor:
N-G sr. RH Joe Kinee and Carroll sr. RH Eric McGough had been
struggling, especially with control. So, what happened? The game was NOT
dominated by the bats, even in Carroll's still-bandboxy field (the wind was
blowing in), and N-G wound up suffering its third 5-4 league loss of the
season with yours truly in attendance (also road games at B-P and Wood).
Weird. The first half-inning took 26 minutes and it was impossible not to
think car headlights would be required to play the seventh inning. If not
the sixth and/or fifth. McGough walked one, two, three, four, five guys and
came within one pitch of free-passing a sixth. Google Steve Blass
and/or Joe Cowley. Not that he has wanted to, but McGough has been
imitating them this season after an impressive junior campaign. He threw 50
pitches in the first inning (just 20 strikes), but the last good one was
gigantic because it resulted in a called third strike to end the inning
(after two runs). "Guff" didn't sail thereafter, but at least he didn't blow
up and no doubt he'll feel better going forward. He moved to shortstop after
five innings and 118 pitches (59 strikes) and jr. RH Richard Funchion
got the save. Carroll sent 10 men to the plate to post its five-spot in the
fourth. The outburst began with a popup to shallow right by jr. RF Matt
Maerz that should have EASILY been caught. This guy thought that guy had
it, and that guy thought this guy had it and . . . plop. Base hit. Soph C
JT Evangelist got plunked and sr. LF Sal Bello send a hard
groundball to left to load the bases. Oops. The ball skidded past the LF and
Maerz scored. Soph 3B JJ Cicalla grounded out to get another run
home. Jr. CF Joe DiWilliams, the most energetic No. 9 hitter you
could ever hope to find, crunched an RBI double to right-center. Sr. SS
Dan Bier grounded to SS, but a throw to third went awry to make it
second and third. Jr. 2B Matt Lafferty chopped a grounder to sr. 2B
Joey Glennon, who gunned down DiWilliams at the plate. McGough milked
a walk and sr. 1B Evan Harvey, the recipient of DN ink (McGough got a
sliver, also) lasered a two-run double to left. If the ball had left the
yard, Carroll sr. K Jake Keszczyk would have owed him $20. Not that
he would have kept his promise (smile). N-G had no hits for RBI. The ribbies
went to jr. C Joe McGinley on a sac fly and to sr. 3B Nick Simon
on a difficult suicide squeeze; he did a good job getting down a high/tight
pitch. The centerfielders, DiWilliams and N-G frosh Brian Verratti,
made great plays to follow base hits. Verratti gunned down a guy at the
plate and DiWilliams did so at second. When DiWilliams neared Carroll's
dugout, he lofted his body into a bump-de-dump with coach Chris Dengler.
And almost knocked Chris out onto Matsonford Road! Ha, ha. In the visiting
fourth, Carroll assistant Bill Tomoshuck was ejected by base ump
Dave Cohen after complaining that a check swing had not been called a
strike. (Two batters earlier, Dengler had gone after plate ump Jim
Carpino for missing what he thought was a barely-fouled-off ball.)
Anyway, Tomoschuk did his complaining from the bench area, then came onto
the field to exchange non-pleasantries with Cohen AFTER the ejection.
Tomoshuck said, in part, "Do your job next time! And stop spitting sunflower
seeds over here!" (Patriot folks later claimed Cohen had spit the seeds
toward them in disgust. Rumor also had it that Carroll's principal, who was
sitting right behind the screen, would protest the ejection with the PIAA.)
When the inning ended, Cohen drank some water out of a bottle he'd stashed
behind a pole in foul territory near first base. Some Carroll kids were
perched in lawn chairs a short distance away up the incline. One of them
asked Cohen, "Can I get some seeds?" Cohen was in no mood. He responded,
"You can go, too, if you want." As in, shut the heck up or you're outta
here. The kid was just trying to have some fun. He told his buddies, under
his breath with a laugh, "I should have thrown my chair at him." Carroll's
digs are now called Alumni Field. Fr. Ed Casey, Carroll's
president/baseball assistant and best known as "Fred" (for Fr. Ed), earlier
today put up an 8x80-foot banner on the fence in right-center. Looks nice!
APRIL 23
CATHOLIC RED
SJ Prep 3, O'Hara 0
When it's still kind of early, it's impossible to be sure whether
a game has a chance to be terrific. But roughly halfway through this one, it
appeared as if we all had a chance to see a world record! A goofy one, of
course. With one away in the visiting fourth, O'Hara jr. RH Will Latcham
latched on (what else?) to a grounder up the middle and fired to second to
start a doubleplay. It was his third assist of the game and Prep sr. RH
Tom Mullin owned four by that point and unless I'm really losing it
(entirely impossible), that makes SEVEN. Six were direct comebackers and one
(fielded by Mullin) was a chopper toward the 3B side. Pretty cool, right?
When was the last time you saw seven assists by pitchers in a game's first
20 outs? Just like I thought. Never (smile). Anyway, there was an even
cooler development. As we reached this juncture -- one away in the visiting
sixth -- the teams owned just ONE total hit. That was a hard single to right
by O'Hara sr. CF Nick Donovan with two away in the first. Latcham bid
adieu to his no-no when sr. SS Pat O'Dell, the No. 9 hitter, sent a
groundball single exactly up the middle of the field; no chance for anyone
to dive and knock it down. O'Dell was caught stealing and jr. CF Jawan
McAllister tried to bunt for a hit and was gunned down by . . . you got
it, Latcham. That finalized the assists-for-pitchers total at eight. DN ink
went to Mullin, a Penn State signee who throws a decent amount of his
pitches with a sidearm delivery. He's effective either way, but the sidearm
pitches seem to really JUMP on the hitters and they often feature
dips/dives. He allowed just two hits (Donovan had No. 2 with a groundball
single to center in the sixth; he was erased on a K/DP combo) while striking
out seven and nobody advanced past second. Plus, he walked none, though he
did suffer one HBP. The Hawks scored one run in the first and two in the
seventh. No. 1 occurred when McAllister absorbed the game's first pitch,
moved up two bases on a non-caught pickoff throw and groundout, and scored
on a sac liner to left by sr. LF Shane Williams. McAllister appeared
to be stunned that sr. LF Matt Masi was able to scramble into
position to make the catch. He did not tag up right away, but then had no
trouble scoring. In the seventh, after roaring through the first two
batters, Latcham issued walks to sr. C Tim Rafter and jr. 3B Chris
Martin, the football QB. (Great to see a guy who plays such an important
position in one sport making contributions in another! Gimme a multisporter
any day of the week!) The DH, soph Dino Cattai, then laced a two-run
double to right-center. A scratch single by soph 1B Colin Cunningham
and bunt single by sr. 2B Frank Santore followed, but the Hawks were
unable to break things open as O'Dell went down swinging. In the story, we
had some fun with the fact that the guy driving the Hawks' bus almost took
them to Bonner-Prendie. The guys had to speed-date their way through
infield-outfield and thanks to coach Joe Falcone for allowing the
team pic to quickly be snapped. A slight mist fell before the game and maybe
for the very beginning, then thankfully vamoosed. The Prep's scorekeeper is
Mike Garuccio, who was also the basketball squad's chief manager. In
fact, he was honored by the Markward Club for being the city's No. 1
manager. Very cool. Congrats, Mike! Nice to see John Coyle, O'Hara's
former coach and now an assistant to John Grossi, and Phil
Cardella, also on the Lions' staff after an earlier stint at Neumann-Goretti.
Among other people, of course.
APRIL 22
PUBLIC C
Boys' Latin 5, Furness 3
Southern basketball played a big part in this one! How so? Well,
BL's pitcher was jr. RH Antonio Harris, whose dad, also Antonio,
was one of the six, city-record lefties on the Rams' 1981-82 squad. Batting
fifth for Furness was jr. 1B Khaid Jones, whose uncle, Jason
Waters, was the starting PG for the Rams' Pub champs in '87. Both guys
were in attendance and they were pretty nervous in the visiting seventh.
Ultimately, one pitch after catcher's interference almost certainly should
have been called -- it would have drawn Furness within 5-4 and moved the
tying run to third -- Jones sent a decent shot toward right-center and the
catch was made by jr. CF Darron Mitchell. Ballgame! And a pretty good
one it was! BL got a big-time break from the umps in the sixth, when it
scored thrice to reverse a 3-2 deficit. Here we go . . . Harris looped a
single to center (and yielded to a courtesy runner). Sr. 1B Malik
Saunders got drilled in the tummy while trying to bunt and was awarded
first base. (Shouldn't have happened. DN lensman Steve Falk got a pic
of the ball inches from Saunders' outstretched bat. Oh, well.) Frosh 2B
Nate Morris drew a walk to load the bases. Jr. 3B Marcus Peele
sent a line drive single to center for one RBI. Frosh SS Abdur Mujahid
got another one home with a fielder's choice. Mitchell clothes-lined an RBI
single down the leftfield line for one more run. Here's a recap of Furness'
seventh: Soph PH Steven Perez drew a walk. Sr. SS Omar Asid
singled hard to left. Soph LF Jose Perez sent a looper to right. Soph
RF Asa James not only made the catch, but fired to Mujahid for a
doubleplay. Soph 2B Marshall Drummond worked a full-count walk. After
the runners executed a double steal on the first pitch, sr. RH Augustin
Gil (six-hitter, 12 whiffs), the cleanup hitter, was issued an
intentional walk. The aforementioned at-bat by Jones came next. Except for
the occasionally sloppy play and the fact that pretty much every stolen base
went unchallenged, this one would have been appreciated even in Division A.
Gil has the better build and throws harder (as hard as anyone I've seen so
far in the Pub this year), but Harris is an effective pitch-mixer and since
he still looks young and his body is nowhere close to complete, he'll add
velocity. He also allowed six hits and came within one mow-down of matching
Gil's total. Harris also had two base knocks and his CR scored twice. J.
Perez singled twice for Furness. The catchers had rough days. Perez took one
on the hand. Furness soph Ben Sinaken took one on the left shoulder
(foul ball) and foot (warmup pitch). This game was played at Shepard (nee
Haddington) RC, a few short blocks from Wilt Chamberlain's childhood
home (401 N. Salford) and it's a LONG way from home plate to a big pavilion
in dead CF. I'm thinking roughly 420 feet? If not more. BL assistant Tom
Hagerty, formerly an assistant at Roman, said Fernandez last week put
one on the roof, and almost cleared it. Hay-zooooooos! That's a blast and a
half! Furness coach Eric Weinstein relayed a funny tidbit about jr.
Nick Collis, who today played 3B. In an earlier game, playing in the
outfield, he broke COMPLETELY the wrong way on a flyball. When he came to
the bench after the inning, he said, "I told you I can't see! I need
contacts!" That's now his nickname: "Contacts." How weird is Furness'
overall athletic situation? The Falcons no longer have a basketball team and
the kids play for Southern; they represented roughly three-quarters of the
team! Now, in baseball, only five Furness kids are on this squad. The rest
attend Palumbo, which also supplies many players for Furness' football team.
If you'd like to see it, click
here
for a link to a page that shows Southern's six lefties from 1981-82. It's
about four-fifths of the way down that page.
APRIL 20
TEDBIT
After watching Episcopal's stirring win over Penn Charter
yesterday -- a five-run home seventh erased a 7-3 deficit -- I began
wondering how often I'd seen the Churchmen win, especially during the
website era. Baseball reports began in 2000 and I've covered Episcopal 10
times; never more than once in a season and four times not at all ('04, '05,
'09 and '10). The record: three wins and seven losses. Just short of 10 full
years had passed since the previous win -- 8-2 over on May 13, 2003. The
winner that day, a soph named Chris Sherwin, was very similar to
yesterday's winner, sr. Bennett Smith, in that he didn't throw hard
and had to rely on location and his fielders. The Churchmen also won in my
'02 visit. Their victim? Penn Charter. How it happened? With a gigantic
rally in the seventh! PC led, 14-12, in the sixth, then EA exploded for
seven in the top half of that last inning. Ted Oberwager fueled the
outburst with a grand slam. That day was crazy. Malvern was supposed to play
Haverford School, at Eastern University, in a game that could have decided
the title. But one ump was late and the other never showed up and the game
was postponed at 4:55. I then tried to catch at least part of a Catholic
League game being hosted by St. Joseph's Prep, which at that point was
playing its home games in Andorra. As I pulled into the parking lot,
everyone was leaving. The game had just ended. I then remembered that PC was
hosting EA and arrived at 5:55, with the game in the sixth, so I got to see
the wild seventh. EA's other win in the website era, 5-4 over Germantown
Academy, occurred in '01. In that one, the Churchmen turned a tripleplay!
Sr. LHP Mike McGillian (two-hitter) scrambled forward to catch a
popped-up bunt, then whirled and fired to jr. SS Adam Murray, who in
turn fired to jr. 1b Tucker Huckscher. Guess what? I'd seen
Roxborough one day earlier and the Indians had also turned a tripleplay.
Crazy! That one happened in the second inning as sr. SS Brian Lavala,
moving to his left, caught a liner at his shoetops, stepped on second and
threw to jr. 1B Chuck Richardson.
APRIL 19
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Episcopal 8, Penn Charter 7
Our Daily News photographer left in the fifth-sixth inning
feeling very confident that he'd captured numerous photos that would
illustrate Penn Charter's win. One problem: PC did NOT win. Though Episcopal
managed just two hits through six innings, it stormed to five runs in the
home seventh and triumphed in dramatic fashion. Oh, baby! Before that rally
began, for whatever reason, I was wondering how many stories I'd even
written about EA baseball players over these numerous years. The Churchmen
have often struggled and I'm guessing they've won fewer than one-third (if
that) of the games I've ever seen them play. Before that rally, the DN story
would have been about PC jr. RH TJ Pagan. He'd maintained strong
control of the game, getting 11 of his outs on grounders and allowing just
four balls to reach the outfield -- a liner and flyout in addition to the
two base knocks (both by the No. 8 hitter, soph LF Michael Nickolas).
Here's how the home seventh unfolded: jr. DH Anthony Feliziani
singled to right. Soph 3B Ben Burman drew a walk. Soph C Austin
Morgan managed a scratch infield single, loading the bases. Nickolas
drew another walk, forcing in a run. Jr. RF Jack Keffer hit what
could have been a doubleplay ball; there was a bobble, a run scored and the
bases remained loaded. Sr. Anthony Perretti (Marymount) hit into a
fielder's choice, getting another run home. A wild pitch moved Keffer to
third and Perretti to second. Frosh 2B AJ Lotsis, a lefty swinger,
slashed a base hit through the left side to bring in Keffer. Perretti
briefly stopped at third, but then dashed home after witnessing the
leftfielder's bobble. Crazy! The Churchmen went nuts, as if they'd just won
a championship. They swamped the last three heroes -- Keffer, Perretti and
Lotsis -- and then every guy congratulated every other guy. It was quite a
scene and since this was my first baseball visit to "The New Episcopal,"
it's doubtful I'll forget it. Perretti, impressive SS Doug Trimble
(has the "look"; bound for Delaware) and RH reliever Bennett Smith
are the only three seniors on coach Aaron Barras' squad and the last
guy received the DN ink. Smith, a k a "The Silent Assassin," is in his first
varsity season and this was his initial triumph. Pretty cool, right?
Especially taking into consideration how he earned it. Smith replaced jr. RH
Adam Seibert (6-5, still thin, nice potential) with one away in the
fourth. Seibert had just issued three consecutive free passes. Smith was
greeted with a two-run double to left-center. Though the ball was decently
hit by frosh C Kenny Bergmann, it probably should have been caught.
Next, off Pagan's bat, came a popup that sailed only to the edge of the
outfield grass right beyond first base. Soph 1B John "Moose" Minicozzi
made the catch with his back to the plate and, zip, jr. 2B Demetrius "Meech"
Isaac broke for home. And he made it, thanks to a great slide! Frosh RF
Joey Lancellotti followed with an RBI single to left. Smith got the
third out on a liner to center by soph 1B Dillon Malandro, then
strolled through the final three innings (just two baserunners). The Quakers
did hit a few balls hard, but an out's an out. EA's first three runs were
unearned and the last was no doubt particularly disturbing to coach Jon
Cross and his assistants. Nickolas singled, moved to second AND third on
wild pitches, then scored on an errant pickoff throw from Bergmann. Don't
fault him, however. The third baseman momentarily lost focus and wasn't
paying attention. The ball streamed past everybody down the leftfield line.
Meanwhile, in the seventh, aside from the bobbles, quite evident was the
fact that Pagan allowed himself to be thrown off course by a few tough calls
on balls-strikes. After the walk to Nickolas, Pagan could be heard
muttering, "C'mon, blue." Shortly into Keffer's at-bat, after another close
pitch did not go his way, PJ could be seen shaking his head from side to
side. This was one of those lesson days. Going forward it's expected that PJ
will maintain better composure and find a way to tough out anything that's
thrown his way. Bergmann finished 2-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI.
Jr. LF Zach Kurtz (he was not in that spot in the seventh) started
the six-run fourth with a one-out triple, jr. DJ Jordan Della Valle
followed with an RBI single and jr. SS Steven Cohen helped out by
drawing his third consecutive walk. It was dark and VERY windy throughout
the game -- the field sits up on a hill and the wind almost always blows in
from center or right, rumor has it -- but Episcopal's field is a treat.
Great sightlines and a beautiful grass/dirt combo. You could EASILY play pro
tilts at this place. Wonderful job, EA folks. Today's coolest spectator, by
far, was Dave Burman, Ben's uncle (dad is Marty). Dave is the
most passionate Chester High basketball fan, also by far, you could ever
hope to meet and is a big-time radio sports personality in the Lewistown,
Pa., area for his play-by-play work on WCHX, 105.5 FM. Dave is an active
Facebook poster and long has gotten others to capture him in photos with
legends of all description. Today he lowered himself and asked ME to join
him for a pic (smile). Thanks, Dave. Very cool to see you and meet some
members of your ample posse. Also, thanks to former O'Hara star Marco
Menna (second team All-City DH in '07) for his help in making sure we'd
be able to get an EA team pic. One-two players were late for pregame stuff,
so no pic was taken beforehand. After infield-outfield was finished, Marco
quickly drill-sergeanted these dudes into three lines and, snap, we were
good to go. Ha, ha.
APRIL 19
TEDBIT
Whatever happened to nice, clean baseball? So far this season,
I've seen 10 games involving Cath (five), Pub (four) and Inter-Ac teams
(one). The total number of innings has been 68. Know how many have been
"clean"? As in, three up/three down in the top half and three up/three down
in the bottom half . . . TWO! Both were fourth innings (Kensington vs.
Lincoln and Germantown Academy vs. Haverford School). Beyond that, there
have been only 24 "clean" half innings. The high water mark was six in
Neumann-Goretti at Wood. Six games had two or fewer and Central at Prep
Charter had none. Admittedly, a few times there have been "semi-clean"
innings, meaning only three guys batted but someone reached base and then
was erased (attempted steal, doubleplay, etc.) . . . So, how were things
back in the day? I have old scoresheets in envelopes, year by year, going
back to my first season covering Philly baseball for the Daily News, in
1978. I pulled out the sheets for 10 random games -- five Cath, three Pub
and two Int. There was no mercy rule back then and one of the tilts went
eight innings, so we're talking 71 innings. Guess what? There were four
completely "clean" innings and 28 "clean" half innings. Honestly, I thought
the difference would be bigger. I guess high school baseball has long been
"dirty." Ha, ha, ha.
APRIL 18
CATHOLIC BLUE
Bonner-Prendie 12, Wood 9
Well, that didn't take long. For the Ted Jinx to rear its ugly
head, that is. Bonner sr. RH Pat Vanderslice (Temple) this season had
allowed no runs (of any kind) through 19 innings. But in the recent
basketball season, he never seemed to play too well, especially
shooting-wise, when yours truly was in attendance, so when Wood owned a run
just three batters into the game thanks to a single to left by jr. 2B
Matt "Matty Ice" Mandes (his other sport is hockey), a stolen base and a
single to right by sr. CF Joe Santospago, well, here's a strong guess
that all 'Slice family members were muttering, "Will he PLEASE get the heck
out of here?!" (smile) Honestly, Vanderslice offered nowhere close to his A
game, witness that Wood reached him for seven hits, three walks and eight
runs (six earned) in 6 1/3 innings while getting victimized for just three
strikeouts. Nevertheless, he did pick up the win and at 6-6 he does show a
nice downhill trajectory along with a decent heater. Also, his early
struggles no doubt could be blamed, in part, by the umps' late arrival.
Booooooo! They didn't show up at the plate for ground rules until 3:59, 14
minutes late, and the game didn't start until 4:06. The coaches were livid,
but of course didn't show that. Wonder how this negative development was
handled by Ari Bluestein and the SFBN crew, which live-streamed the
game from the hill beyond centerfield? Nothing like making the Cath look
Pubish, blue crew! Ugh! Hey, speaking of only in the Pub . . . We had an
all-time Only in the Cath moment! B-P's field has foul poles, but there are
no fences and guys have to run out any homers to left and right. In the
fifth, sr. CF Tom Crumlish smoked an RBI triple down the rightfield
line. Eventually, the ball veered into foul territory BEYOND where the foul
pole (see
what it looks like here) is located. Sr. RF
Brett "Bert" McCrosson picked up the ball, tried to throw it back in
and, clang!, it hit off the "fleshy" portion of the foul pole. Some folks
thought it hit the bottom rail; others said it hit right above that. Either
way, Crumlish kept going and scored easily. Legendary! Also today, B-P sr.
SS Jim Haley (Penn State)
crushed/hammered/buried/pummeled a drive to
WAY-out-there left-center.
It would have cleared the Grand Canyon, folks. If not for a wild pitch
moments earlier, it also would have been a grand slam. The Friars' other
hitting stars were jr. RF Brad Scull (3-for-4, triple, three RBI) and
sr. LF Chris Goggin (two-run double in the sixth). For Wood,
Santospago went 3-for-4 with three RBI while sr. LF Benji Abercrombie
added two hits, including a double, for three more RBI. Abercrombie is a
lefty and he sent his double down the leftfield line. As he ran toward
first, he yelled, "That's fair! That's fair!" Sure enough. Somehow, it
didn't have much slice. In th seventh, his two-run single through the right
side greeted sr. RH AJ Camarota. McCrosson milked a walk and coach
Joe DeBarberie called upon hurler No. 3 of the inning, sr. RH Frank
Saviski (summoned from 3B). Soph DH Tommy Rosenbaum rapped into a
fielder's choice, then sr. 1B Jack Hilferty lined an RBI single to
center, bringing the tying run to the dish. Sr. 3B Colt Smith sent a
low liner toward soph 2B Rich Tecco. He came forward slightly, leaned
over a lot and made the game-ending snag at 6:23. I can only imagine what
time the Wood players got back to school and/or home. At least 8, right?
Crazy. Maybe another reason lacrosse is making such inroads. In the third,
Haley was hit by a pitch (maybe). As Jim arrived at first, sitting nearby on
a stoll was Wood's coach Jim "Dege" DiGuiseppe Jr. Dege asked Haley,
"Did that hit you?" Jim responded, "It grazed me." Dege then said, "I know
he told me the truth." Huck was in attendance and had "Slice" for 102
pitches; 82 going into the seventh. He said the Vikings swung and missed at
his offerings just seven times. Extremely rare stat! The other stat I'd love
to know -- how many texts/tweets were sent out by Huck (@huckpalmer)! Smile!
(Huck said he tweeted 11 times . . . all updates on the game. Texts total
remains unknown . . . )
APRIL 17
PUBLIC A
Central 11, Prep Charter 9
Good thing: Today's four Division A games were decided by a total of
five runs. Bad thing: This one took 27-plus minutes for each inning! (As in,
it lasted 3 hours, 12 minutes.) Hey, who needs dinner anyway? (smile) The
teams combined for eight runs in the seventh (four apiece) and PC left 'em
loaded on a called third strike. Delivering that pitch was jr. RH Anthony
DeVito, who'd spent the first 6.2 innings at first base. But in the
seventh, after posting 1-2-3 relief in the sixth, sr. RH Tom Benek
experienced some struggles and was replaced by DeVito after allowing two
hits and two walks. Soph 2B Keegan McKoskey gretted DeVito with a
two-run groundball single to center, advancing PC within 11-8. Sr. SS
Peter Piccoli (snappy footwork, strong arm) milked a walk to load the
bases and soph 3B Joe "Bowla" Suppa followed with a chopper toward
third that went for an RBI infield single. Oh, man. That meant this: A
simple single through the infield will likely tie the game! Alas, sr. C
Mike Lyons, the cleanup hitter, took a 1-2 curve for strike three and
the game was over. Central won the hits battle, 13-11, and the walks
skirmish, 12-4. It also absorbed two plunkings to none for the Huskies. DN
ink went to sr. 2B-CF Kyle "Nuke" Newcomb, who went 4-for-4 with a
double, three RBI, two runs scored and a drill-job. Two of his hits were
bloopers, but let's assume he won't be asking to have them changed to outs
(smile). In the fifth, Newcomb and jr. RF Louis Lobron delivered
back-to-back RBI doubles. Benek, who started at 3B and finished at 1B,
clubbed a two-run homer in the seventh; the ball cleared the fence in dead
left as cars whizzed by toward the Walt Whitman Bridge. The Lancers' No. 6
hitter, soph C Tyler Barreto, managed only one official at-bat in
five plate appearances. He walked thrice, grounded out and took a pitch on
the foot. His dad, Javier, was in attendance and it was great to see
him! He was a first team All-City outfielder for North Catholic in 1986 (as
was Mastbaum's Jose Dones, whose son now plays for Ryan). Central's
starting hurler was jr. RH Andrew Foronda, who looked good through
four thanks to a decent curve and occasionally snappy heater. He allowed
three runs in the fifth and departed after an error and RBI double by sr.
2B-CF-RH began the sixth. Off the bench, McKoskey went 3-for-4 with a double
and two RBI. His brother, Foster, a former star at GAMP, is now an
assistant with PC boss Shawn Magee, just like Benek's brother, Jim, a
former star at Central, helps Lancer ruler Rich Weiss. Jr. RF Rob
Freer went 2-for-4 with three RBI. Great defensive plays. Central jr.
Andrew Cesario made a terrific running-away catch in CF; Foronda made a
sprawling snag of a lower liner to his right after moving to SS; Piccoli
made an impressive recovery after a brief bobble; Freer made a semi-dive for
a liner in right. (Apologies if I'm forgetting any others.) When the game
began, the shadow cast by the equipment shed/press box right behind the
plate was barely reaching the catcher. By the end? It was within inches of
the pitchers' feet! Worst Teammate '13 (ha ha) might go to Central jr.
Zack Pownall. Before the game, he was kiddingly calling sr. CJ Walsh
by the nickname "Labrum." Walsh recently felt a pop while making a throw
from SS and is awaiting word that the labrum is likely torn. Hang in there,
young man. Weiss reported that in a college game Tuesday, University of the
Sciences' Mark Gervasi managed a base hit off Chestnut Hill's
Micah Winterstein. They're recent Central stalwarts!
APRIL 15
PUBLIC A
Frankford 7, Washington 3
In all these years of covering games, this wasn't a first. But it
has never happened in many of the individual seasons and, who knows, along
the way maybe the break was as long as a decade. What, you ask, is the deal?
Well, today we saw a guy play five innings at catcher and then move to the
mound for two innings of relief (with the original pitcher taking over
behind the dish!). Talk about arm stress (smile). Frankford's first hurler
was sr. RH Carlos Ramirez, who allowed three runs and six hits.
Following him was sr. RH (you were expecting a lefty?) Eduardo "Cheese"
Sanchez, who was touched for just one walk. Sanchez, almost exclusively
a catcher in '12, said he had started three-four games on the mound this
season, but had yet to make a relief appearance. Coach Juan Namnun
had prepared him for the double dose, though, and since all went great,
here's thinking we'll see it again. Batting third, The Cheesester went
2-for-4 with one RBI and a way-outta-there foul home run down the leftfield
line. Ramirez, in the cleanup spot, managed two scratch RBI. The very top of
the order also fared well: sr. SS Kidanny Cumba (love his
approach/focus) went 2-for-3 with two walks and one RBI while the No. 2 guy,
sr. CF Tim DiGiorgio (yes, of QBing fame) went 3-for-5 with one RBI.
A lefty thrower, DiGiorgio also swats lefthanded and made respectable
contact in all five trips. He also showed an ability to make smooth reads
off the bat in CF and antelope his way over to balls in quick fashion. Alas,
in the seventh, he was involved
in a collision with
sr. RF
Chagito Almodovar
-- they whirlybirded in opposite directions after making contact; Tim held
onto the ball -- and had to leave the game. Let's hope he's OK because
Frankford is already missing star sr. 1B Kevin Montero (ankle ding).
Starting in the Pioneers' infield were the jr. Alvarez twins, Chafil
at 3B and Smith at 2B. Yes, even though he's Hispanic, his first name
is Smith. Gotta love that, right? For Washington, sr. RH Aaron Keen
worked the first five innings -- though he walked five, none of those guys
scored -- before giving way to franchise sr. Jake Wright, who started
at 2B and played RF after his relief stint. Not sure why, but Wright never
looked comfortable and/or confident on the mound and Frankford broke a 3-3
tie with a three-spot. DiGiorgio drove home the fourth run and the fifth run
scampered in right behind after an outfield bobble. Ramirez plated No. 6
with a groundout. Cumba had the seventh-inning RBI vs. sr. RH Sean
Kearney. Washington got two bad umpiring breaks (at least -- smile).
Frankford was handed a safe call on an obvious out (pic
here) and there was a strange sequence right
before frosh PH Michael Hollinger opened the sixth with a single.
Right before/as Wright was delivering the 3-1 pitch, the base ump yelled
"Time!" The ball was fouled off, but then the ump said the pitch didn't
count because Wright did not have both feet in contact with the rubber as he
started his windup. Can't say I've heard of that one, and coach Ken
Geiser was not exactly thrilled (far from it, actually), especially
since he'd been burned by the earlier messup. Assisting Namnun this year is
former Frankford legend Joe Farina ('04), who competed in football,
wrestling and baseball. His assorted teams went 97-2 in Pub competition,
including playoffs, and his first loss was not experienced until his senior
baseball season! During the game, news began to spread of the terrible
goings-on during the Boston Marathon. There are no words -- none that I can
put on a family website, anyway -- but aside from rage there is definitely
sadness mixed with numbness.
APRIL 12
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Germantown Academy 8, Haverford School 7
It was chilly and windy, depending on where you were standing,
and certain amounts of mist made occasional visits. In the sixth inning, I
wound up perched a shade beyond third base behind a low wall and the mom of
a GA player was maybe 10 feet away. After watching HS jr. RH Connor Burke
make several unsuccessful attempts at a pickoff, the woman muttered, "For
the love of God, just pitch the ball!" Ha, ha, ha. Wait, it gets better. A
GA kid -- repeat, a GA kid -- was caught stealing shortly thereafter and she
said, "That's OK. I'm looking for outs. I just want this to be over." Ha,
ha, ha, ha. If my wife had been in attendance, she would have come out with
the exact same comments. Even on a bright, sunny day, probably (smile) . . .
Anyway, this turned into something close to an all-timer and the man in the
middle was frosh RH Emmett Harkins. He started his relief appearance
in the fifth and got through two innings unscathed. The home seventh began
with GA ahead, 8-4. Bang! Sr. CF Steve Fitzgerald launched a homer to
right-center. Pitching coach Matt Zielinski strolled to the mound,
offered some advice/encouragement and headed back to the dugout. Soph SS
Kevin McGowan walked. Sr. LF Drew Field laced a double into the
rightfield corner. Starting pitcher Matt Galetta, a sr. LH and idle
since the third inning, came to the plate via the re-entry rule and inside-outed
a blast down the leftfield line that came within inches of being a
game-tying, three-run homer. Two runs did score, advancing the Fords within
8-7. Oh, my goodness! Burke got plunked. Frosh 3B Frank Cresta
managed an infield single, loading the bases with -- have you been following
along? -- nobody out. Frosh C James "Mac" McConnon looked at a third
strike. With the infield up, jr. 2B Chris Sukonik hit a shot that
soph SS John Aiello was not quite able to catch. The ball stayed
nearby, though, and he gunned home for the force. Harkins then struck out jr.
RF Steve Scornajenghi to complete the amazing sequence. As
Scornajenghi missed the ball, the bat went flying out of his hands . . . and
the Patriots rushed to Harkins for a major-joy moment. Just moments earlier,
it appeared the Fords would win in walkoff fashion, or at least force extra
innings. Then, suddenly, every last hint of air was out of the balloon and
the Patriots were going nuts. Big-time props to Harkins for pulling off THIS
feat. With help from his teammates, of course, and whoever decided to make
HS' fence 10 feet instead of 9 feet, 8 inches (or whatever the height is --
smile). Quite the crazy inning. And quite the fun story was typed out maybe
90 minutes later. At one point in the early going, Zielinski, our Pitcher of
the Year in 2005 for La Salle, was standing close by in the first base
coach's box. I kiddingly said to him, "In your first year as a coach at GA,
I find it curious that a kid named Zabinski is batting third. You're taking
care of the Z guys, huh?" He chuckled, then pointed out he'd been an
assistant with last year's JV (or freshman team?). He then mentioned some
cool stuff about Zabinski and his brothers, how their first names all start
with Z (the others are Zane and Zak) and that Zeke's middle
inital is Z (with no period). Legendary! Zeke went 3-for-3, also got plunked
and scored two runs and you can read about him online or in Saturday's Daily
News. I had fun with THIS one! In my next life, I want triple initials!
(smile) Aiello had an interesting afternoon. In the first inning, as GA
scored four runs, he made two outs in the leadoff slot. In the third inning,
he crushed a two-run homer to dead center and out onto Lancaster Avenue.
Later, of course, he made the huge aforementioned defensive play in the
seventh (along with some other smoothies). No wonder he's already earning
national acclaim. Sr. LF Mike Hannamirian highlighted the four-run
first with a two-run single down the leftfield line. The two runs in the
second were sent home by sr. RF Robert Gorman (single) and frosh DH
Bill Brittingham (fielder's choice). The Fords tallied two apiece in
the first and second. Field (walk) and Galetta (sac fly) bagged RBI in the
first; Scornajenghi poled a line-drive, two-run homer in the second. Also on
GA's staff is Chez Angeloni, who like Zielinski pitched at La Salle.
The head coach is Tyler Stampone, a GA grad and former first team
All-City infielder. All three played in the minors. Also nice to see HS'
coaches - boss Bob Castell; assistants Larry Shane, P.J. Vanni
and Kurt Kebaugh. Oh, by the way, this game cost me $28. While first
arriving at HS, I noticed the camera had no memory card. I'd left it at
home. Ugh! There's a CVS right down Lancaster Avenue from HS and they had
some.
APRIL 11
PUBLIC A
Masterman 7, Franklin Towne 3
Before the game, I took
a fun pic of Masterman soph
Greg Whitehorn standing atop a
gigantic "mound" of dirt while having no idea whether he'd start, let alone
pitch. The soph began the game in centerfield and then, as the second inning
began, there he was, beginning his warmup pitches even though sr. RH Jack
Christmas (goes about 6-6; also played basketball) had worked a
scoreless first with a pair of strikeouts. Hmmmmmmm . . . In the top half,
turned out, Christmas had pounded a foul ball off the ground into the upper
reaches of his left thigh. He agreed to stay in the game and play 1B, but
pitching was going to be too much. Whitehorn was not eye-poppingly good, but
he did keep "Towne" off the board until the fifth, when a steal/error combo
allowed a run and sr. CF Chris Hartman, a lefty swinger with a quick,
explosive stroke, raked an RBI triple down the rightfield line. Whitehorn
issued a walk to start the sixth and coach Vic Otarola strolled to
the mound. I was certain he'd unveil a hook. Didn't happen. "I told him I'd
give him one more batter," O said later. "But when he went to 2-0 right
away, it was time." On came sr. SS Joey Powell, who fanned three over
his two innings. He, too, was victimized by Hartman for an impressive triple
down the rightfield line. The game ended in meek fashion, however, thanks to
a pair of comebackers. Towne's hurler was sr. RH Damian Padilla and,
man, did he struggle early. His body language got worse and worse as his
pitches continued to miss the strike zone. The inning opened with BB, BB,
HBP, BB (to Christmas for an RBI), then soph C Jacob Nelson followed
with a misplayed grounder that brought in two runs (one would have scored
anyway). To his big-time credit, with disaster on the doorstep, Padilla
regrouped to whiff the next three batters (en route to 11 Ks for the game).
Masterman added one in the second (Whitehorn blooped a double to left, sr.
INF-OF Harry Taggart fired an RBI single to center), one in the
fourth (frosh LG Seamus Gleason walked, stole second, was bunted over
by soph 2B Gil Haven, came home on Powell's sac fly to CF), one in
the fifth (Taggart singled, advanced on a wild pitch and steal, scored on
Nelson's groundout) and one more in the seventh (Powell reached on an
infield single, raced to third on a steal/error combo, scored on Christmas'
groundout). Towne is now playing at the playground off Torresdale and
Devereaux and it's a pretty cool venue because the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge
looms not THAT far behind dead centerfield. Alas, the wind was blowing in
pretty hard from left and/or center (not that anyone would have peppered the
bridge with a long drive -- ha ha). DN ink went to Taggart, a
baseball/soccer star who also started in basketball (and almost never took a
shot; had some fun with THAT in the story -- smile). The Penn-bound Taggart
and Powell and two soccer teammates have also begun dabbling in selling
T-shirts and since he was nice enough to give his time for an interview,
we'll be nice enough to
link to the website
where the products are available. Makes sense, right?
APRIL 10
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Wood 5, Neumann-Goretti 4
The end made the difference, so we'll jump right to it. The
Vikings trailed by 4-3 entering the home seventh and had 7-8-9 coming up.
Hmmm. Reason to be excited? Well, soph DH Tommy Rosenbaum worked a
full-count walk, then sr. 1B Jack Hilferty and sr. 3B Colt Smith
followed with effectice sacs that became even better when N-G guys were
guilty of bobbles, thus loading the bases. N-G's pitcher was sr. RH John
La Motta, who's very good at mixing pitches, working the lower half of
the strike zone and keeping guys off-stride. However, in this one, he'd only
notched two strikeouts and one of those had been a gift (a fastball 3-4
inches too high). With that in mind, escaping with a win would likely be
dicey; even a surge into extras, honestly. So, what happened? After taking a
curve for a ball, jr. 2B Matt Mandes jumped on a fastball and smacked
a two-run single into left-center, thus giving Wood a walkoff, er, dashoff
victory. As in almost every high school game, there was some sloppiness. But
overall, this was a goodie on a very hot day for early April. Gobs of sweat,
anyone? Ugh. Mandes received the ink because he hit the ball hard in all
four at-bats and also crunched an RBI single up the middle in the fifth. The
lefty swinger also plays ice hockey, so that circumstance wound up being
highlighted. The Vikings also scored one run apiece in the second and fourth
thanks to the brothers-not-twins Santospagos, srs. John "Beef" (C)
and Joe "Not Beer, But It Sounds Good" (CF). John took a pitch on the
helmet to open the second (momentarily scary), stole second, moved to third
on an infield single by sr. LF Benji Abercrombie and scored on a
fielder's choice off Rosenbaum's bat. Joe started the fourth with a sinking
single to center and came all the way around on a hit/error combo off John's
bat. Wood's pitcher for the first six frames was sr. LH Justin Babb,
who allowed just five hits but also walked four and plunked three. Sr. RH
Brian Wojtko, by far the day's hardest thrower, powered his way through
a perfect seventh. N-G's leadoff hitter, frosh Brian Verratti, went
2-for-2 with a walk, drill-job and two RBI. He also moved effortlessly and
quickly from his CF spot to run down some liners. Jr. 1B Josh Ockimey,
an Arkansas commit and lefty swinger, could have taught Ryan Howard a
thing or three with his first at-bat; he inside-outed a groundball single
through the left side for an RBI. Yes, Howard hits homers the opposite way.
But does he ever get a regular base hit in that direction? (smile). "Ock"
was also erased in a rundown on what was going to be a squeeze play. Coach
Mike Zolk took the blame, saying he erred in telling Ockimey to leave
so early; Babb had time to step off the mound. Jr. C Joe McGinley and
frosh SS Nicky D'Amore bagged ringing doubles for the Saints. While
stealing third, D'Amore might have suffered a broken finger and he was
forced to the bench while trying to play defense in the fifth. His
replacement was soph Vince Vaccone. So, what happened? Exactly! The
ball immediately found Vaccone, who made a nice play semi-deep in the hole.
The next ball went to him, too, and he made the play to end the inning.
Among the spectators: ex-Wood coach Paul Ellis (now the boss of the
frosh squad), AD Joe Sette,
former North Catholic star Joe Gillespie (his son plays for Ellis), football stars Fran Walsh and Nick Visco
(among others). We took N-G's team pic again because Zolk missed the first
one before the recent Bonner-Prendie game. He was standing on the left when
we began the lining-up procedure, then decided to walk to the right side
behind the back-row guys. I clicked away and no one even noticed what was
going on. Not even Mike! He is ever-so-slightly visible in
this pic.
See if you can find The New Waldo. Ha, ha.
APRIL 9
PUBLIC B
Lincoln 14, Kensington 4 (6 inn.)
When the wind's not blowing at Lincoln's 2-year-old field behind the new
building, the Railsplitters should change their nickname to Gnats. Those
little buggers are everywhere! (smile) They're especially prevalent on
Lincoln's third-base side because trees and brush are nearby. Another tidbit
about the field, which overall is very nice: foul territory covers about
three zip codes (smile). Put it this way: I'm almost certain the distance
from the plate to the back screen is greater than the 60 feet, 6 inches from
the plate to the mound. When asked about that, sr. LH Dylan Burke,
the recipient of DN ink, said he doesn't mind because the large area makes
him REALLY concentrate to avoid throwing wild pitches. Makes sense. The
hope, of course, is to never see a game ended by the romp rule (10 or 15
runs), and this one would have gone to the seventh if not for Lincoln's
four-run sixth. The game-ender was a shot over the CF's head by sr. RF
Chris McGovern that went for a two-run double (and completed a 3-for-5,
two-double, four-RBI performance). McGovern's first "double" was an
all-timer. In the second inning, he lofted a popup about 40 feet up the
first base line. The pitcher and catcher did not exactly master the
communication process and the ball fell into fair territory despite the
former's late lunge. McGovern was the leadoff hitter. The second batter, sr.
SS Kevin Johnson, contributed an RBI double in the first and an RBI
single to cap a six-run fifth. That outburst broke a 4-4 tie and was fueled,
in part, by a two-run triple off the bat of frosh C Nick Houser. This
one also included an asterisk. Though the ball was slicing, it probably
should have been caught if not for a mixture of a late start and wicked
sunshine. Otherwise, jr. 3B Justin Carlson ripped an RBI double deep
down the leftfield line in the sixth and sr. 1B Matt Dougan did his
part at various junctures with three walks and as many thefts. Burke also
singled twice and finished with a 10-whiff, four-walk three-hitter. He
racked up nine of his Ks on fastballs and each one was thrown with a shade
extra velocity. His breaking pitch was slightly off and all three hits were
smoked -- the leadoff man, jr. LF Mike Sanchez, went 2-for-2 with a
walk, two steals and three runs scored. Jr. RH Cesar Vargas, the
second pitcher and later the SS, popped into the No. 2 spot and blasted a
two-run double to dead left that almost reached the fence; the dimensions
are 310 down the lines and 390 to center. Sr. 2B Alberto Rodriguez
made a nice, over-the-shoulder catch of a popup into right-center. Lincoln's
starting leftfielder, soph Cody Ulmer, is the grandson of all-time
softball pitching legend George Ulmer. Every old head knows about
him! Cody's cousin, Mike Ulmer, previously played for Lincoln. A
Lincoln pinch-hitter was jr. Tom Clarkson. His brother, Ron,
was our City Co-Pitcher of the Year in 2001. Had a nice chat with Lincoln's
football coach/AD, Ed McGettigan, about assorted goings-on. There was
one quite disturbing comment uttered by a Kensington player and Greg
Bloom, the Tigers' coach, was unaware. He was none too happy when told
about it later and I'm sure he discussed it with his players on the bus ride
back to Kenzo, or at some juncture. Kensington was called for four balks
(all legit) and two of them brought in runs. Late in the game, a foul ball
crashed off the plate ump's right arm and the guy was in obvious pain. A
Tiger yelled, "That's what you get for cheating!" Not good . . . But we'll
end this on a bright note. Bloom said most of his players are doing very
well in school and that some have been accepted at four-year schools. So has
the scorekeeper, Jessica Castner. Definitely good.
MARCH 30
CATHOLIC BLUE
Bonner-Prendergast 5, Neumann-Goretti 4 (8 inn.)
Did he? Or didn't he? Trap or non-trap? The play ended the game and,
as you can tell by the score line, B-P benefited. Deservedly so? Not sure.
Though I'd probably go 51 percent "yes" and 49 percent "no" if really
pushed. N-G forced extra innings with a four-run visiting seventh (more on
that stirring rally later) and went 1-2-3 against sr. RH Frank Saviski
in the eighth. In the bottom half, Saviski fired a single to left, sr. PH
Vince Tomasetti contributed a perfect sacrifice and Saviski, due to an
infield-responsibility lapse, was able to motor all the way over to third.
N-G coach Mike Zolk opted to issue intentional walks to sr. 1B Pat
Vanderslice and jr. RF Brad Scull and then, of course, moved up
his infielders and outfielders. B-P coach Joe DeBarberie called upon
jr. PH Jesse Basden, who sent a low liner right at sr. 2B Joey
Glennon. How low? Ground level. With a hint of hesitation mixed in,
Glennon caught the ball and threw to jr. 1B Charlie Jerla for what he
hoped would be an inning-ending doubleplay. Nope. The base ump ruled the
ball had taken a slight bounce before entering Glennon's glove. Glennon,
natch, thought he'd made the play cleanly. "That's why I threw to first," he
said, in trying to plead his case. Indeed, he would have had time to get the
forceout at the plate. The plate ump did not overrule the base guy and that
was that; B-P, now in the Blue Division because its enrollment has dropped,
owned a two-game sweep of the Saints. In the earlier contest, Vanderslice, a
Temple signee, spun a shutout, the first against N-G in league play since
April 27, 2009 (by Joe Harvey of now-defunct Kennedy-Kenrick). If N-G
had been blanked in this one, it would have owned a two-game scoreless
streak in CL play for the first time since April 30/May 1 of 2007 (both vs.
SJ Prep; Matt Dolan and then Kyle Mullen). The respective
starters were Bonner sr. RH Dan Furman (Pitt commit) and N-G sr. RH
John LaMotta. Furman went six-plus and was replaced by Saviski, who'd
been at third base, after issuing back-to-back, one-out walks in the
seventh. In all, he fanned seven and allowed just two hits while showing a
bulldog mentality. His catcher, by the way, was his frosh brother, Steve.
LaMotta, who's bound for Marymount University, in Arlington, Virginia, went
the distance for N-G. He was excellent at changing speeds and keeping the
ball down. LaMotta, perhaps you remember, was the guy who last year, as
basically an unknown, went nine great innings in relief as the Saints bested
Bonner, 8-7, in a 14-inning semifinal. B-P scored one run apiece in the
third and fourth and two in the sixth. Scull started the third with a hard
single to left, moved up on a bunt by sr. DH Brandon Gaal and scored
on a single to right that sailed over the head of the leaping first baseman,
jr. Josh Ockimey (Arkansas). Sr. SS Jim Haley (Penn State)
beat out an infield single to start the fourth, stole second and scored on a
strikeout/wild pitch combo. Haley also opened the sixth with a single. An
infield bobble followed and two outs later the miscue bit the Saints in the
butt as Scull hammered a two-run groundball single to center. N-G's four-run
seventh went like this: Sr. 3B Nick Simon, the No. 9 hitter, drew a
one-out walk; Jerla also walked and Furman was lifted in favor of Saviski;
Glennon laid down a perfect bunt single halfway up the third-base line,
loading the bases; Ockimey got an RBI with a first-to-second fielder's
choice; jr. C Joe McGinley sent a groundball single to center to get
another run home; frosh Brian Verratti, a pinchrunner for Ockimey,
raced home on a steal/E-2 combo; sr. 3B Joe Kinee (Maine) crushed a
liner to left-center (looked like a golf shot) for an RBI triple; soph RF
Pat Doudican then tried to bunt up the third base line for a hit, but
Kinee was caught in a rundown and was rung up when he ventured pretty far
out of the baseline. In the third, Ockimey came to bat with two away and a
runner on third. A Saints coach noted, "They're not going to pitch to him.
If they do, they're nuts." Furman did go after him and Ockimey responded
with a rocket . . . that was caught by the leaping Saviski. Former N-G
catcher Nicky Nardini, who finished his career last season, is now on
the staff. His brother, Tommy, a soph, was the DH. Website legend
Ed "Huck" Palmer was on hand to serve as B-P's official scorer. His best
buddy's dad, John "Blade/Lefty" McCauley, is a B-P assistant.
Roger Gordon, my ol' Penn Charter classmate and a baseball
teacher/enthusiast of the first order, is now helping out the Friars.
Roughly 200 spectators were on hand for this Saturday game (12:30 start).
Food and T-shirts, etc., were sold and there was also a sound system. Good
atmosphere! Heading back up to the parking lot, I was happy to see Colin
Liberatore strolling over to say hello. He was our Best Teammate in 2006
and later served as Villanova's basketball manager. He's getting married
this July. Best of luck, Colin! Bonner football all-timer Ed Monaghan
was also on hand. Among many, he's hoping that Vaux basketball superguard
Rysheed Jordan will opt to stay home and attend Temple.
MARCH 27
CATHOLIC RED
Ryan 9, La Salle 2
In the first two innings (sometimes three, depending), I usually
stand right by the cage to get pics of the batters. Today there were two
distinctly different sounds made by the impressive fastballs of the starting
pitchers, La Salle jr. RH Dom Cuoci and Ryan sr. RH Chris Elmes.
Cuoci's went ziiiiip. Elmes' went zuh-zip. Not sure that explains it, but
Elmes appeared to be throwing a very "heavy" ball and often that means guys
just don't make good contact. La Salle did hit into at least two hard outs,
but it also popped out four times, whiffed seven times and managed just
three hits against Elmes, who worked quickly and showed good mechanics/mound
presence. When the game began, no one had any idea what would happen. Why?
Everyone was pretty much disgusted that the start was delayed 33 minutes by
a not-exactly-on-time umpire. The base ump said the guy who wound up doing
the plate was stuck in traffic. Likely story!!! Ha, ha. Guess what? He was
telling the truth. There was a pretty bad pileup on the turnpike and the
mother of a La Salle player said she'd been stuck on the turnpike, as well.
OK, dude you're off the hook. Still frustrating for everyone, however. La
Salle's lone hits were a sinking single to right in the second inning by sr.
LF Rob Picard and a pair of safeties in the third. With one out, sr.
C Chris Melillo walked and sr. 1B Pete Auteri, a former
lacrosse starter who has returned to his true love, baseball, sent a hard
single to left. Cuoci crushed an RBI double into left-center and sr. DH
John Fabriziani got the second run home with a sac fly to right. The
double was chased hard by jr. CF Jason Dones, who made a late dive in
an attempt to catch it. Close, but not quite. After the game, Jason's dad,
Jose, a first team All-City CF for Mastbaum in '86, said, "Tell Jason
his dad said he would have caught it." Since he's a shade taller, he might
be right! (smile). La Salle went quietly the rest of the way. Thanks to a
walk and error, it did slap together a first-and-third, two-away mini-rally
in the sixth. But Elmes induced a popup. Ryan's big inning was the second.
With one away, sr. LF Gage Galeone crushed one deep over the
leftfielder's head and steamed into third with a triple. Sr. C Dylan Egan
stung an RBI single to left, two infield bobbles followed and Dones provided
the other highlight by sending a two-run groundball single through the right
side. Cuoci went just three frames. Sr. LH Tom Cockill (two innings)
and jr. LH John Scheffey finished up. Jr. 2B Bobby Romano
greeted Cockill with a shot to left that became a homer when the LF spun his
wheels and fell. Romano also started Ryan's sixth with a hit (a single),
then came around on a stolen base, wild pitch and sac fly by sr. DH Matt
Graber. Graber had experienced a rough afternoon, twice getting called
out on strikes in the second, then pounding into a doubleplay in the fourth.
At least he went home on a positive note. Like yesterday at Judge, it was
pretty dang cold when the sun wasn't out. There was also, briefly, some
drizzle in the latter moments. After the game, La Salle's entire team was
headed to the USS New Jersey, in Camden, for an overnight bonding experience
with the lacrosse squad. "Seemed like a good idea at the time . . . We put
this together three-four months ago," quipped coach Joe Parisi, the
king of dry humor. Assistant Bob Peffle noted, "The ship has no
shower facilities. Things could get a little ripe." Ha, ha. One of the
spectators was Joe Derer, father of Tom, Ryan's jr. 3B. Great to see
him! Joe played for Central and used to work at our company. He's still in
the newspaper industry, but has to perform pit-stop duties at different
papers all over the country. Meanwhile, one of my suspicions proved to be
correct. La Salle soph CF Jimmy Herron, who's also already a
prominent football player, is one of those mixed-dominance guys, as are many
quality athletes. Though he throws lefthanded, he writes righthanded. (He
also bats righthanded.)
MARCH 26
CATHOLIC RED
Judge 8, Roman 3
Roman lost the war, but won the battle. How so? Well, the Cahillites
did not succeed on the scoreboard, but they did storm to victory in the
funny-comments skirmish. In the first inning, two Judge batters looked at
third strikes and one guy in Roman's dugout bellowed, "Can I help you?"
Another quickly followed with, "No, I'm just looking!" Later I asked one of
Roman's players if those guys had stolen those intertwined lines from
somebody else, and he insisted they hadn't. Hmmmm. Also prominent was this
combo: "He's throwing up again . . . Get the bucket ready!" Those gems were
directed at Judge sr. RH Josh Teson, who indeed left a decent number
of pitches above the strike zone. But guess what? He proved to be very
clutch. Though he allowed nine hits in 5 2/3 innings, he also whiffed nine
and caused the Cahillites to strand lots of guys in scoring position. He
showed that clutch touch in the very first inning, recording two Ks after a
double steal gave Roman second and third with one away. Judge scored three
runs in the second and sixth and one in the third and fourth. The best of
only five Crusader hits was a three-run, second-inning homer to dead right
field by sr. RF Brandon Mau. After sr. C Ryan Mackiewicz
walked and jr. 2B Bill Romano reached on an infield bobble, Mau, a
lefty swinger, launched one over the fence. The swing was nice and
effortless and the ball just kept soaring. Good pop! In the fifth inning,
Mau inside-outed a shot off the fence in left. Alas, the ball was foul. Only
one other Judge run scored on a hit as Mackiewicz sent a groundball single
to center in the seventh. Roman jr. RH Kyle Rogalski hurt his cause
by issuing walks to start off four of Judge's at-bats and some errors proved
to be harmful. I won't get specific, but one guy made two in the same
inning. What I DID like about the sequence was what happened immediately
thereafter. From his spot at first base, sr. Matt Simon, of
trey-drilling fame, yelled encouraging comments to the young man. One of
them was something like this, though I didn't write it down. "They're gonna
hit the NEXT ball to you, too, and you're gonna make a good play!" The
Cahillites also remained lively heading into the seventh, though they were
facing a five-run deficit. Roman did load the bases against Judge's third
pitcher, sr. LH Chris Thompson, and that brought sr. CF Nick
"Every Roman Team Has to Have a" Stoffere to the plate. He scalded a
liner right up the middle! . . . Directly into Thompson's glove. Ballgame.
Stoffere, jr. SS Joe Myers (double) and sr. RF Matt Huntowski
bagged two hits apiece for Roman. Sr. DH Justin Baeringer singled and
drew two walks. The best defensive play was made by jr. 1B Mike "Salt
Water" Taffe, who sprawled while stopping a grounder and threw from a
sitting position to get the out. He also was involved in No. 2. Off an
infield hit, he threw to sr. 3B Drew Maenner and Maenner gunned it
home to Mackiewicz to erase a Roman runner. Teson departed after using a
high fastball to whiff Myers, who'd slapped together a frisky at-bat, for
the second out of the sixth. Against sr. RH Kevin McAdams, soph 3B
Connor McKenna came within maybe 18 inches of posting a two-run hit down
the RF line. He then walked and Simon was retired to end the threat. Sr.
Michael Keir, Roman's star quarterback and bound for D-II California
(Pa.), made a pinch-hitting appearance. One of Judge's subs was soph Ryan
O'Neill, and he laid down a quality sacrifice bunt. Ryan also trotted
out along the RF line a few times between innings to warm up Mau. His
father, Shawn, pitched Judge to the '76 Catholic League championship
and his brother, also named Shawn, is now pitching well at La Salle
University after an earlier stop at Richmond. He's a La Salle High product.
Guess what. All three guys are lefties! What are the chances? Mom Patty
was also in attendance. Rumor has it she's righthanded (smile). From
what a Roman parent told me, roughly seven of the Cahillites' baseball
players
can be found in this vintage
pic from basketball season. Lots of fun that
night. At least two former CL head basketball coaches were in attendance --
Dave Mulholland and Brother Jim Williams. This was today's
only game. It snowed/rained yesterday, but Judge's new field is turf (even
the plate area and baselines) and the ONLY dirt area is the mound.