 |
Time Out
With Special Ed Ed
Morrone is a senior at Penn Charter with an interest
in writing. He has asked to file reports for this website and since we take anyone with a
pulse, he's part of the ballclub now! (smile) Ed covers Philly sports for PC's school
paper, The Mirror. |
MAY 29
PA. INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL
Gtn. Academy 3, Penn Charter 2
After
three meetings this season between these two Inter-Ac rivals, I’m going to go out on
a limb and say that “six” is a lucky number for GA, who won all three games. They have six D-I players in their starting
lineup, and the sixth inning has been pretty good to them in all three contests thus far. On May 11, the Patriots scored 5 times in the
sixth to run away with a 9-0 lead. A week
later, they blew the game open with 6 runs in the sixth en route to a 14-0 laugher. In the semifinals of the State Playoff Tournament
on Saturday afternoon, GA scored the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the sixth,
clinching their spot in the championship game later that night (I don’t know who they
played or what the final score was, but I’m going to take a wild guess and say they
won). Even after GA blew the Quakers out
twice, this was definitely the type of game I expected.
I won’t dare make the mistake of saying GA didn’t earn the first
two games for fear of another hissy fit, but the Quakers made a lot of stupid mistakes
that really took them out of the game. In
this one, they played a crisper, sounder game and almost walked away with the victory, but
then the bottom of the sixth came, and the rest is history.
PC frosh LHP Mark Adzick got the start, something the Quakers were
very comfortable with because he’s been the team’s most consistent pitcher
lately, and would have shut GA out last time he faced them had it not been for 5 unearned
runs that he was charged with. The Patriots
countered with sr. RHP Matt Bruderek (Rhode Island signee), who three-hit PC the
last time the two teams met. GA almost jumped
out to a very quick start in the bottom of the second, but for the first time in three
games against PC a few breaks didn’t go their way.
With one out, jr. RF Matt Brown (more on him later) singled to left. With Brown taking a decent size lead off of first,
Adzick threw over in an attempt to pick him off. Brown
got back safely, but 1B Corey Thomas mishandled the throw and it squirted by him. Brown jumped up and raced for second, but Corey
got to the ball and launched a perfect throw to second to just barely nab the runner. In the first two games, that throw would have
landed in left field and GA would have scored 28 runs in the inning. After Brown was called out and C Alex Kaplan (Dartmouth)
followed with a walk. DH Joe Matteo
(Lehigh) then ripped a double down the left field line, and Kaplan’s courtesy runner
attempted to score from first. However, LF Mike
Parrilla quickly got to the ball and fired a perfect strike to 3B Dave Skinner,
who was the cutoff man. Skinner received the
ball and threw a bullet to C R.J. Hollinshead, who tagged the runner out. These were two huge breaks that the Quakers never
would have caught against GA earlier in the year, and they kept the game scoreless for the
time being. However, GA finally struck in the
bottom of the third. SS Andrew Hanson
drew a one-out walk and moved to second on a passed ball.
CF Sean Grieve (William & Mary) grounded out to second to move
Hanson over to third before Kevin “Windshield/Dirk” Gordon
(Lehigh) ripped a double to left, a ball that Parrilla probably should have caught. Instead of getting the third out and getting out
of the inning, the Patriots took a 1-0 lead and the “here we go again” thoughts
started popping up again for the Quakers. But
Adzick got out of the inning and held GA in check for the next couple innings. From here on out, the Quakers mission became
simple: score a run. They hadn’t done so
in 2+ games, and it seemed to be their kryptonite, especially because they had some
chances in the early going today but couldn’t cash in.
In the third they left runners on first and second and in the fifth they had
a runner on third with one out with a chance to tie the game, but Bruderek got RF Sammy
Zeglinski and Parrilla to strike out to end the threat.
But after 19 miserable scoreless innings, PC finally got some runs in the
top of the sixth. SS Zack Zeglinski
led off the inning with a double down the right field line, and up to that point he had
both of his team’s hits. Skinner struck
out for the first out, but Hollinshead came through with an RBI single up the middle to
tie the game at 1. As if this wasn’t
good enough for the Quakers, CF Ryan Nanni followed with a ground rule double to
right that scored Hollinshead, giving PC their first lead of the season against GA. Unfortunately for the enthusiastic Quakers, the
improbable lead and hope for an upset was short lived.
Bruderek led off the bottom of the sixth with a slow squibbler that somehow
found its way between Thomas and 2B Marc Spagnoletti into right for a leadoff
single. Brownie (Matt Brown’s
little brother, I’m not sure of his first name so we’ll call him Brownie to
avoid confusion) came in to pinch run, and found himself in the same exact situation his
brother was in earlier. Adzick attempted to
pick him off and Corey again mishandled the throw, but this time the runner made it safely
to second. Matt Brown then came up and
crushed an opposite field double into the right-centerfield gap, scoring his bro and tying
the game. Kaplan came to the plate and
blooped a single to left just out of the reach of a diving Chris Brock, who had
replaced Parrilla. Many on the PC bench
thought he had it but he came up just short, allowing Brown to score and give GA a 3-2
lead that they would not relinquish. The
Quakers did threaten in the seventh, though. Adzick
greeted new pitcher and GA’s closer Peter “Paco” Vernon (William
& Mary) with a single up the middle, and he got to second on Sammy Z’s sacrifice
bunt. Brock then hit a grounder back to the
pitcher, and Adzick raced for third a little too eagerly, allowing Vernon to throw over
there for the force out. With the Quakers
down but not yet out, Zack Z followed with his third hit of the game and second double of
the game, a bullet into the gap into left-center. A
GA miscue almost tied the game on the same play too.
With Brock running hard to third, Grieve picked the ball up and fired it
into the infield. It got by 3B Dan
Overcash and started to roll toward GA’s bench.
A frantic Kaplan dove for the ball and saved it just before it went out of
play, even though it looked like it had crossed the line into dead territory. This kept Brock at third, and brought Skinner to
the plate with a chance to put his team in front. However,
he uncharacteristically struck out for the third time in the game and the Quakers were
left stunned with a heartbreaking loss. This
was a game they thought they had, and it was well within their grasp too. Bruderek (6IP, 2R, 4H, 7K, 2BB) picked up the win,
and he did just enough to outduel the feisty Adzick (6IP, 3R, 7H, 3K, 3BB). In the end, this was quite an intense game. Even though the Quakers lost, they proved they can
indeed play with the mighty Patriots. After
the game when the teams were shaking hands, GA backup catcher Avi Meyers grabbed my
hand and said, “Hey I’m Avi!” in lieu of my comments about him in my May 18
report. I guess he was trying to be funny,
but you know what the real funny thing is Avi? I
still don’t care what your name is.
Special Ed’s Game Ball: Even
though a bunch of guys deserve it, I’m giving the prize to Matt Brown. He finished 3-3 with that huge RBI double, and he
just always seems to hit the ball hard. He’s
the epitome of a tough out, and he got his team back into it today. I also want to give out two game balls to members
of my own team, and they go to Sammy Zeglinski and Alec Hanna. As it turns out, these two were the only ones on
the team not to get a game ball this year, and this is my way of showing them their much
deserved and overdue respect. In my mind,
Sammy is the team’s defensive MVP for his stellar play in right field, and he also
improved a lot as a hitter as the year progressed. Hanna
is the team’s backup 3B, but he’s been inactive for most of the season because
of a broken thumb. Still, he continued to
come to games and practices to show support for his team, which was really invaluable. He also came up with some very funny comments on
the bench during games. So for Sammy and Al,
consider yourselves recipients of the two most valuable game balls I’ve given out
this year.
Unfortunately,
this loss marks the end of the Quakers season. Overall,
they finished with a record of 16-6-2 (6-4 in the league) and finished second place in the
Inter-Ac, which was a huge accomplishment because they were predicted to finish no higher
than fourth before the season began. With
this being the end of the PC baseball season, it’s also probably my final report for
tedsilary.com, and I just need to say a few things and thank a few people before I sign
off. First and foremost I need to thank Ted. Had it not been for him, I never would’ve had
this opportunity. I enjoyed the times we sat
together at basketball games, and I learned a lot from your dedication and work ethic. I owe you a lot Ted, more than you know. I need to thank my baseball teammates as well. I didn’t think writing about baseball could
be as fun as basketball, but you guys really made every report exciting. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better
group of guys to spend the past 3 months with and it makes me sad knowing I won’t be
around when we go out and win that Inter-Ac title next year. I’ll miss all of you guys. Except you Teuber.
Just kidding (smile). Finally,
I need to thank all of my readers. All of you
made this such a great experience. I never
envisioned the encouragement and kind words I got from so many people, and you’ve
made these past 6 months completely worthwhile. As
ZB said when he wrote his last basketball report, I just hope all of you enjoyed my
articles half as much as I enjoyed writing them. In
6 months, this never felt like work to me. Rather,
I looked forward to writing every basketball and baseball report because it made me happy
and as I found out, made others happy too. This
has just been an unbelievable experience for me, and I’m truly saddened that it has
to come to an end. So for all of you that
sent me e-mails with kind words of support or talked to me at a game or just plain read
all of the crap that I wrote, thank you. And
in the words of my idol Ryan Seacrest, “Special Ed, out!”
(Ted's note: A gigantic thank-you to Ed! He churned out large amounts of
quality, entertaining copy and became a go-to guy on the site. We know he's bound for big
things in the communications industry and wish him every success!! Ed, you truly have been
"Special.")
MAY 27
PA. INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINALS
Penn Charter 3, West-Mont Christian 2
It’s
any baseball team’s mission not to fall behind early, especially when it is a
“win or go home” situation and the opposing pitcher is in a groove. However, the Penn Charter baseball team seems to
feed off of this type of adversity, and they showed that again today in the second round
of the Independent Schools State Playoff Tournament.
West-Mont Christian is a team that PC knew little about, except that they
had an overall record of 21-3 coming into today’s game. Sean Rust got the start for PC, and he was
opposed by Phil Rummel of West-Mont, a tall, lanky pitcher with a decent fastball
and some above average breaking pitches. Rummel
also bats cleanup, and he helped himself out in the early going as his offense struck
first. He led off the second with an infield
single to short and moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt. 2B Clayton Cook then followed with a
2-out, RBI single to left that plated Rummel and gave West-Mont the early 1-0 lead. West-Mont added another in the top of the fifth
when C Ryan Smith led off with a double over the head of LF Chris Brock, who
almost was able to run it down. Two batters
later, 1B John Bauer followed with a double of his own to left field that gave
West-Mont a 2-0 lead. With the way Rummel
was pitching, this definitely seemed like it would be enough. The Quakers had only two hits through the first
four innings, both off the bat of SS Zack Zeglinski.
They were making contact and hitting the ball on the ground, but right at
people. Rummel certainly wasn’t
overpowering anyone (only 2 K’s in 8 innings), but his somewhat side armed delivery
was enough to throw the Quakers off. However,
as I mentioned before, this is not a team that panics when trailing in the late innings. The Quakers have been in this situation many times
before this season and have become pretty good at rallying when the game appears to be
over, and they finally began to put something together in the fifth inning. They rallied by doing what they do best, and
that’s scrapping and playing small ball. DH
Corey Thomas led off with a walk and got to third when 2B Marc Spagnoletti
dropped a perfect bunt single. 1B Mark
Adzick then came up and hit the ball hard on the ground but right at SS Al Roupe
for a 6-3 double play. Even though he
doesn’t get an RBI on the play, Adzick did what his team needed him to do and that
was put the ball in play, as Thomas came onto score on the play, cutting West-Mont’s
lead to 2-1. In the bottom of the sixth, 3B Dave
Skinner led off with an infield single but was doubled off first base when C R.J.
Hollinshead ripped a 1-0 pitch right at Cook for a 4-3 DP (the third double play
West-Mont turned on the day). With two outs,
it looked like the rally was killed, but the Quakers started another one with the help of
a little luck. CF Ryan Nanni got
jammed by Rummel and lofted a routine pop up to Cook that should’ve been the third
out. However, he must’ve lost it in the
sun because the ball dropped and Nanni was aboard. He
then stole second as Thomas came to the plate, and he’s a guy who’s really been
clutch this year and come up with some big time hits.
This time was no different. Corey
knocked Rummel’s 3-1 pitch into left for a base hit, scoring Nanni from second to tie
the game. If Cook catches that ball, this
would probably be a completely different story, but luck was on the Quakers’ side and
the miscue gave them new life and allowed them to tie the game. After the two doubles that he gave up in the
fifth, Rust really settled down on the mound and gave his offense the opportunity to get
back in the game. After Bauer’s double,
Rust didn’t allow another hit, retiring 11 of the final 12 batters, with the only
baserunner being a sixth inning walk to CF Matt Roth. Rusty has really come up big on the mound this
year for the Quakers, especially in late game situations such as these. After PC failed to score in the bottom of the
seventh, we were looking at another extra innings battle, the fourth of the season for the
Quakers. West-Mont went quietly in the top of
the eighth, setting the stage for a dramatic bottom half.
Hollinshead avenged his sixth inning double play by reaching on a one-out
single to left. After Rummel threw over to
first about 985 times, R.J. stole second. Nanni
popped up to the pitcher for the second out, which brought Thomas up again. Lady Luck must have been in attendance today,
because Corey hit a routine grounder to third that 3B Cody Lloyd bobbled, allowing
R.J. to move up to third on the play and keeping the inning alive. This was all the Quakers needed, as Spagnoletti
came up and ripped Rummel’s first pitch into right-center for the game winning hit. As Spags trotted back from first base, some of his
teammates gave him the Phillies treatment whenever somebody wins one of their games with a
big hit, which is pummeling the living crap out of him for a good 30 seconds. Spags took a beating, but it was one I’m sure
he was happy to take. The come from behind
win set the stage for a semifinals meeting with mighty GA on Saturday afternoon, who in
two meetings this season outscored the Quakers by an unpleasant score of 23-0. I’m hoping that my recent comments about GA
in the last PC-GA report won’t carry over to this game and hopefully they won’t
get in the way of what should be an intense battle between two bitter rivals. Seriously, this is starting to become like the Red
Sox-Yankees rivalry of high school baseball, and as usual the Yankees (GA) have caught
most of the breaks this year. Nevertheless,
it should be a great game. The winner of
PC-GA will meet the winner of Perkiomen/Mercersburg in the championship game on Saturday
night.
Special Ed’s Game Ball: In the end, Sean Rust threw in a
phenomenal pitching performance and outdueled a previously undefeated Phil Rummel, but I
have to give some love to Spags, giving him his first game ball of the season. He’s quietly had a very solid season for the
Quakers, both offensively (he was the team’s third leading hitter in league play) and
defensively at second base.
MAY 25
PA. INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS TOURNAMENT
Penn Charter 5, Shipley 3
Even though the Inter-Ac season is finished, there’s still a lot of baseball
to be played. Penn Charter is taking part in
the Pennsylvania Independent Schools State Playoff Tournament with 15 other teams,
including GA, Malvern, Perkiomen, West-Mont Christian, and the team PC was matched up with
today, Shipley. The tournament is single
elimination, and the higher seed (The Quakers are #4) in each game hosts the visiting team
at its home field. This is a tournament that
PC takes great pride in, especially because they’ve won it the past two years, so
even though they took second place in the league they see this as a way to end their
season on top.
The Quakers got a quick jump on Shipley pitcher Pat Dufrayne (as far as I
know, no relation to Tim Robbins’ character in The Shawshank Redemption). In the bottom of the second, SS Zack Zeglinski
(usually the leadoff hitter but batting fifth today in a cool new order coach Rick
Mellor was trying out) led off with a single. Zack,
who without a doubt leads the team in stolen bases this season, stole second and advanced
to third on a wild pitch. Usual clean up
hitter/CF Ryan Nanni was called out on strikes, but RF Sammy Zeglinski
followed with a squeeze bunt that allowed Zack to score, giving the Quakers an early 1-0
lead. They got another one in the following
inning when 1B Mike Cohn (I think that’s his first name, sorry if I got it
wrong but I lost the Shipley roster with the first names on it) dropped a pickoff attempt
from Dufrayne. He kind of picked the ball up
in lackluster fashion and PC C R.J. Hollinshead, who was on third, saw this and
tore for home, scoring without a throw to give the Quakers a 2-0 lead. They blew the game open in the top of the fourth,
or at least it seemed that way at the time being. With
one out, Sammy Zeglinski walked and 1B Mark Adzick, a notorious slap hitter,
followed with a very rare double, a blooper that fell in down the left field line that
moved Sammy to third. LF Mike Parrilla then
crushed Dufrayne’s first pitch WAY out to left field for a 2-run triple. It was a good hit for Mike, because he’s been
struggling at the plate a little bit lately. The
Quakers added another run in the inning on an RBI groundout by P Corey Thomas,
giving his team a commanding 5-0 lead. Meanwhile,
Corey was baffling Shipley on the mound. Besides
a few walks and a hit batsmen, the senior lefty was literally unhittable. Through the first 5 innings he held Shipley
without a hit, and the talk of a no hitter began to build on PC’s bench. However, it wasn’t meant to be. With one out in the sixth, LF Caleb Balderston
lined a single to right-center over the glove of 2B Marc Spagnoletti. Everybody teased Spags and told him he
should’ve laid out for it, but it was probably going to be a hit either way. After the hit, a bizarre sequence began. Corey is a lefty and has a pretty good move over
to first, already having picked off two Shipley baserunners prior to the inning. The Shipley players and coaches complained that
Corey was guilty of a balk each time, but as far as I saw it didn’t look like he was
doing anything out of the ordinary. So
anyway, I think you see where this is going. Balderston
was picked off of first, causing an already irate Shipley team to call for another balk. The call stood, and an outraged Balderston threw
something when he got back to his bench. The
umpire saw this and warned him, but he was allowed to stay in the game. SS Joe Stampone (another first name I had
to guess on) followed with Shipley’s second consecutive single, but you all know what
happened. He was picked off first and was so
frustrated that instead of getting in a rundown and trying to get back safely he just
threw his arms up in the air in disbelief before being tagged out. He then flung his helmet across the infield and
was ejected from the game. Instead of going
home, Stampone just packed up his bag and sat on the hill in right field behind the
outfield fence. This way he got to see the
rest of the game and work on his tan. But
that ended the unbelievable inning where the last of four batters was picked off
during the game. With the no hitter broken
up, Shipley decided to make things interesting in the top of the seventh. With one out, Dufrayne got to second when Nanni
dropped a fly ball. The next two guys
followed with a walk and a single to load the bases.
C Eli Branzburg stroked a 2-run single and Sean Rust then came
in to try to save the game for Corey. He
allowed an RBI groundout to make it 5-3 before striking out the final batter of the game. This was a pretty strong showing from PC, despite
what the close score might indicate. Corey
was unhittable for most of the game and the bottom of the order all delivered big hits.
Special Ed’s Game Ball: Despite losing the no-hitter, Corey Thomas
still gets the prize. He went 6 1/3 innings,
giving up 3 runs (1 earned) on 4 hits while striking out 4 and walking 3.
MAY 22
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Penn Charter 4, Malvern 3
After
Penn Charter’s 3-2, 10-inning win over Malvern on April 20, both teams knew that it
would be hard to top that game in this Saturday morning contest. They didn’t, but it was still an intense game
with a lot on the line, and like the last one it came down to the very last at bat. With sole possession of second place in the
Inter-Ac on the line, the Quakers outlasted Malvern on the Friars home field. They did so by defeating Malvern ace RHP Will
Romanowicz, who is probably one of the, if not the best, pitcher in the area. Romanowicz throws a high 80s fastball as well as
mixing in a very good curve that keeps hitters off balance.
In the two teams' last game, Romanowicz pitched 7 strong innings while
giving up 2 runs and striking out 14 en route to a no decision, so the PC hitters knew
they had a tough task ahead of them. He
started out strong today, fanning 5 of the first 9 batters he faced (4 of which were
called third strikes). His offense quickly
got behind him as well, as leadoff hitter/CF Dan Plunkett took PC frosh P Mark
Adzick’s first pitch of the game over the fence in left center for a home run,
giving the Friars a quick 1-0 lead. Adzick
settled in big time after this and held the Malvern hitters in check while his offense
began to produce some runs. In the top of
the third, RF Sammy Zeglinski (1-2, run scored) led off with a bloop single over
third base and advanced to third on two low pitches that got by Malvern C James
Spinelli. Sammy then scored two batters
later as his brother, SS Zack Zeglinski (2-4, RBI, 2 runs, 2 stolen bases) smacked
a single up the middle to tie the game at 1. Zack
then stole second and advanced to third as an extremely frustrated Spinelli threw the ball
into center field. 3B Dave Skinner (1-3, RBI) then lofted a high fly ball to right
that began to curve foul. Since there was
only one out, the Friars screamed for RF Jack Logue to leave it go so that Zack
wouldn’t tag up and score. However,
Logue laid out and made a nice play, but Zack scored on the play to make it a 2-1 game in
PC’s favor. While we’re on the
topic of Skinner, I have to mention a funny story about him before I move on. He was in Center City on Friday night and locked
his keys in his car, which was bad luck for him because his uniform was in his car. As a result, he had to borrow my cleats, reserve
3B Alec Hanna’s uniform, and an extra hat from C R.J. Hollinshead. It was vintage Skinner, and anyone who knows him
understands. The Quakers added another run
off of Romanowicz in the top of the fourth and another in the fifth. In the fourth, 1B Corey Thomas smacked a
one-out single after a long battle with Romanowicz and later scored an RBI single to right
by 2B Marc Spagnoletti. In the fifth,
Zack and Skinner led off with singles and advanced to second and third on a wild pitch,
which allowed Zack to score on an RBI groundout by Hollinshead. Just like that, the Quakers had built a 4-1 lead
after falling behind early. Malvern added one
in the bottom of the sixth, which set the stage for a wild seventh. SS D.J. Reagoso reached on an error from
Skinner and moved to second on a grounder back to Adzick.
Plunkett then ripped Adzick’s first pitch past a diving Skinner down
the line for an RBI double, cutting the lead to 4-3.
Plunkett then advanced to third on a groundout to second, which brought
Spinelli to the plate with a chance to send the game into extra innings. He took a first pitch strike from Adzick before
blooping the next pitch into center. It
looked like it was going to fall in, but CF Ryan Nanni tracked it down and made a
spectacular diving catch to end the game, shocking the Friars and an obviously dejected
Spinelli, who seemed like he had bad luck all day. The
win was huge for the Quakers, who really wanted second place. After four straight league losses had dropped them
to 4-4 in the league, there was no telling where they would finish. But they regrouped and won their final two games
of the season to finish 6-4. It says a lot
about the team that before the season was predicted to finish no higher than fourth place. For Malvern, it was a disappointing finish to an
otherwise strong season. They were 5-1, but
stumbled in the last two weeks of the season to finish 5-5 and claim third place in the
league in front of Haverford, Episcopal, and CHA, all of whom finished 3-7. With Malvern graduating most of its starters and
GA doing the same, look for the Quakers to be early favorites next season to win the
Inter-Ac. They graduate only 5 seniors (and
only 2 of those seniors—Skinner and Thomas—start), so it could be a great year
for them but I’m sure all of the teams will field strong rosters just like this year,
which was one of the most competitive league seasons in recent memory. This game was just the beginning of one of the
most exhausting days of my life. I woke up at
7:30AM to be there in time for the 10 o’clock game, and just as I was getting out of
my car at Malvern I pulled a Skinner and locked my keys in my car. With only one car in the family and me being an
hour away from home, I was forced to call Triple-A and have them get my keys out. From there I drove home (75 total miles round
trip) and began to get ready for my senior prom later that night. I unsuccessfully tried to take a nap, which meant
I was looking at pulling an all-nighter. Despite
fighting to stay awake through the post-prom party, I made it, getting home at around
5:30AM, meaning I was awake for almost 24 straight hours.
But the prom was fun and we won the game, so I suppose it was all worth it.
Special Ed’s Game
Ball: What can you say about Mark Adzick. The
kid has amazing poise and great stuff for a freshman (even though he is like 23 years
old). Despite pitching numerous great games
this year, he picked up his first win of the season today, doing a great job in keeping
Malvern’s potent lineup (aside from Plunkett) relatively quiet. He went the distance, giving up 3 runs (2 earned)
on 7 hits while striking out 5 and walking none. I’m
going to be bold and say that he has a chance to be one of the best pitchers in the
Inter-Ac by next year as a sophomore. His
stuff is that good.
Next Game: And you
thought the season was over. Well you
aren’t getting rid of me that easily. Penn
Charter will be participating in the PA Independent Schools State Playoff Tournament
(which is single elimination) along with teams such as GA, Malvern, and Perkiomen. The Quakers are the #4 seed and will play at home
on Tuesday against Shipley.
MAY 20
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Penn Charter 9, Chestnut Hill 6
With
hopes of a league title long gone by now, the Penn Charter baseball team still had some
business to tend to on Thursday afternoon against CHA.
Back on May 4, the Blue Devils won a 2-1 thriller on PC’s field in 9
innings, giving the Quakers their first league loss of the year. This was kind of the turning point for Penn
Charter’s season, as they went on to lose 4 straight league games to fall out of
title contention. The loss left a bitter
taste in the Quakers' mouths, and they looked forward to getting the chance to avenge it.
CHA had just defeated Malvern on Tuesday, so PC knew they had their hands full, but they
were able to get the job done. Unlike their
recent 6-5 loss to Episcopal (where they jumped out to an early 5-0 lead), the Quakers
were able to grab an early lead against the Blue Devils and hold on, despite some close
calls. The win was PC’s first league win
since April 20, when they defeated Malvern. Ironically,
this win and two recent Malvern losses sets the stage for a Saturday morning showdown
between the two league rivals, with the winner taking sole possession of second place in
the Inter-Ac.
In
CHA’s and Penn Charter’s last game, CHA frosh P Anthony Cafagna got the
start and shut the Quakers down for 7 innings. Fortunately,
Cafagna started against Malvern on Tuesday so the Quakers were able to avoid him (at least
the first 5 innings—Cafagna would later pitch in relief), instead drawing #2 starter Mike
Manzione. The Quakers jumped on him
early. With one out, 3B Dave Skinner and C R.J. Hollinshead smacked singles. CF Ryan Nanni singled to right to score
Skinner and DH Chris Brock followed with an RBI double, scoring Hollinshead. LF Mike Parrilla beat out an RBI infield
hit and a throwing error by C Chris McInerney scored another run, giving the
Quakers an early 4-0 lead. However, CHA came
right back in their half of the first. McInerney
led off with a single and RF Brett DiFelice walked and they stole second and third,
respectively. This double steal allowed the
runners to score on RBI groundouts from 2B Anthony Biello and Cafagna, who was
DH’ing. In the bottom of the second, CF Mike
Braverman led off with a long double to left, and he eventually scored on a wild pitch
from PC P Sean Rust (CHA is probably the only Inter-Ac field where you can always
score on a wild pitch, because there’s about 15-20 feet between the plate and the
backstop). This brought CHA to within one
run, but PC added another in the third on an RBI groundout by Brock after Hollinshead
singled and Nanni doubled. Rust took care of
business for the next three innings, allowing the Quakers to build a 9-3 lead going into
the las thalf of the seventh. Before the game
could end, this came SO close to being the first ever bench clearing brawl in a high
school baseball game (well I’m sure it’s happened before, but I’ve never
seen it). Here’s what happened: I
believe it was in the top of the third and Hollinshead was at the plate. He took an inside pitch from Manzione that
apparently grazed his jersey. RJ told the ump
that he was hit by the pitch, but McInerney disagreed when he said, “Excuse me my
good man but I respectfully disagree with your observation” (translation: “Shut
up and get the bleep back in the box), to which Hollinshead replied, “I
appreciate your keen observation Christopher but the pitch did indeed strike my body”
(translation: “Watch your mouth before I knock your bleep out). Don’t you like how young men peacefully
resolve their conflicts these days? (smile). But
anyway, after jabbering at each other, McInerney sprung out of his crouch and got into
RJ’s face. They were quickly separated,
but the fun didn’t stop there. PC
assistant coach Mike Ryan, who was coaching first, ran down and began jawing with
some CHA players. CHA’s outfielders then
ran into the infield and all of the PC players got up off of the bench, ready to come onto
the field if necessary. However, a brawl was
avoided and Nanni gathered the team and settled everyone down as both teams got back to
business, despite some new hostile feelings toward each other. With a 9-3 lead going into the seventh, CHA began
to start a rally. DiFelice and Biello drew
leadoff walks and Cafagna singled for his third hit of the game, loading the bases with no
outs. PH Kris Kimball, who had the
winning hit in the teams’ previous meeting then followed with an RBI single to left. Mark Adzick then came in to relieve Rust,
who really didn’t have a bad game despite being charged with 6 runs. Adzick surrendered an RBI single to LF Brian
Miglianico, and the bases were still loaded with nobody out and PC now clinging to a
9-5 lead. However, Adzick got Braverman to
ground into a huge 4-6-3 double play and struck out Scott Redpath to end the game
and preserve the win. This sets the stage
for Saturday’s game against Malvern, which should be a thrilling end to the season. Personally, it’s going to be a tough day for me. I have to wake up at 7:30 to be at Malvern by 9,
play the game in the 90-degree heat, drive an hour back home and hopefully catch a nap
before my senior prom later that night, which goes from 7-4:30AM. And yeah Special Ed is rolling up to the prom,
with that picture on the top of my page how the hell can the females resist?
Special Ed’s Game
Ball: A lot of guys contributed today. Chris
Brock went 1-4 with 2 RBI, Hollinshead had 2 hits and scored 3 runs, and Skinner was on
base 3 times (2 hits, walk, 2 runs scored). But
give the game ball to Ryan Nanni, who went 3-3 with 2 singles, a double, 2 RBI, 2 runs,
and a sac fly on the day. He also showed good
team leadership in settling everyone down when they were ready to rush the field and start
throwing punches.
Next Game: Like you don’t already know. Saturday morning at Malvern.
MAY 18
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Gtn. Academy 14, Penn Charter 0
As
Penn Charter coach Rick Mellor described it after the game, this was a good
old-fashioned ass whooping. Nothing at all
went right for the Quakers, and with the victory GA clinched its second consecutive
Inter-Ac title, and they have a chance to do it in undefeated fashion if they win their
final game against Malvern. About a month
ago, the Quakers had championship title hopes of their own as they raced out to a 4-0
start, but after 4 consecutive losses they can no longer achieve that goal. But as 3B Dave Skinner said,
“it’s all about pride now”. This
team has come too far and done too well to quit now, and they have two league games left
to prove that this season was not a fluke. As
for GA, hats off to them. They made it look
easy this season and with the talented players they have, it shouldn’t really come as
a surprise. Unlike the Yankees (who I compare
them to), they used that talent to their advantage and put it all together, which is why
they’re champions now.
Errors
killed Penn Charter, just like they did in GA’s 9-0 triumph over PC last week. Right off the bat, GA got a run courtesy of a
Quaker fielding blunder. Kevin
“Windshield/Dirk” Gordon drew a walk and starting pitcher Matt Bruderek
singled to left. The ball then rolled right
through LF Mike Parrilla’s legs, allowing Gordon to score from first. The Quakers threatened to come back in the bottom
of the first as Skinner doubled down the right field line with one out. C R.J. Hollinshead hit a sharp grounder to
third and was thrown out by 3B Dan Overcash. However,
the threat ended when Skinner hesitated on whether he should run to third or return to
second, and as he was thinking it over 1B Pete Vernon threw to second to complete
the double play. GA added 3 more in the
second, aided by an error from Skinner. Just
like that, it was already 4-0. On the day, PC
made 6 errors, which doubles their hit total on the day.
Frosh P Mark Adzick deserved more than what he got. None of the 5 runs he gave up were earned, and at
times GA looked befuddled at the plate against him. He’s
got quite a career ahead of him. The young
lefty went 5 innings, giving up 5 runs (0 earned) on 7 hits (all singles) while striking
out 3 and walking one. After he was relieved
in the sixth, GA just blew it open. They sent
11 men to the plate, scoring 6 times on 7 hits. The
Patriots just always seem to hit the ball where there’s a hole, as Bruderek, RF Matt
Brown, DH Joe Matteo, and 2B Tyler Stampone all stroked RBI singles in
the inning. They added three more in the
seventh, including a 2-run, inside the park home run to sub Jason Davila. The ball rolled all the way to the other side of
the field, and even though it took Davila about 2 hours to run around the bases, he just
made it as he slid in head first to home, making it a 13-0 game. Quite a special moment for him, I imagine. On the flip side of things, Bruderek turned in a
masterful performance on the mound. He went
the distance while giving up only 3 hits, walked one and struck out 3. He also helped himself out at the plate by going
2-4 with 3 RBI. Gordon (3-3, 2 RBI), CF Sean
Grieve (2-4, RBI), Stampone (2-4, run, RBI), and SS Andrew Hanson also had
multi-hit games for the Patriots. Zach
“ZB’s Zone” Berman, even got in on the action, pinch running in the
seventh and scoring on a single.
And
now I have to vent some anger. I guess a lot
of the GA players were mad about some things I said in my last report in their 9-0
triumph. I said by virtue of PC’s
mistakes (7 walks, 3 hit batters, 4 errors, various base running blunders), they were
handed the game more than earning it. I then
went on to say nothing but good things about their team.
However, instead of being happy with the win and moving on, GA decided to
carry it over to this game. They shouted
“Come on, earn it!” throughout the game, and I thought this was weird but
brushed it off as a coincidence. But when
they were pouring it on in the sixth inning, the backup catcher (sorry pal, guess you
aren’t important enough for me to know your name) shouted for everyone in attendance
to hear “ASK EDDIE IF WE EARNED IT, ASK EDDIE IF WE EARNED IT!”. Now that’s where I draw the line. The game was clearly over, and instead of winning
with class they decided to rub it in our faces. Well
while we’re on the topic of rubbing in past events: what happened during football
season at PC-GA day? How about the 3 games
during basketball season? Remember those? I’m sorry, but that was totally
unsportsmanlike and uncalled for. You might
have earned your league title, but you lost all the respect I had for your team
right there.
Next Game: Thursday vs. CHA
MAY 15
NON-LEAGUE
Penn Charter 9, Ryan 3
Coming
in, each team knew this was not going to be a real serious game. It was a game where each team could lick its
wounds in between more important league games, and as a result the reserve players on each
time got some playing time and players were substituted freely throughout the game. However, it was a much more important game for
Penn Charter. Coming off three consecutive
losses, this was a game the Quakers had to have, especially with a rematch against GA
coming up on Tuesday. They needed to know
that despite the recent losing streak, they can still play with any team, and in this case
that team was Ryan (ranked #4 in Southeastern PA). It
obviously wasn’t the same Ryan team that has beaten teams such as GA and Conwell-Egan
because most of the starters got the day off for the Raiders, but nevertheless it was a
good game to win for PC. Things have been
going so bad lately and they just needed one of these games. Chris Brock got the start for the Quakers
and despite some control problems here and there, he was solid in picking up the victory,
moving to 4-0 or 5-0 (I forget which) on the season.
He also added 3 singles at the plate. R.J.
Hollinshead, Zack Zeglinski, and Marc Spagnoletti also had multiple hits
for the Quakers. Spags also pitched 3 innings
of shut out ball on the mound, and he’s not a solid job pitching in non-league games
for the Quakers this year. After the win was
pretty much secured, some of the guys who usually don’t get many at bats got up and
produced. Sr. backup C Dan Mozes hit
an RBI single and walked and soph 2B Mario Incollingo knocked in a run and scored
in one of his two at bats. Overall, this was
a complete team effort and a big win for the Quakers, who need this kind of game to carry
over to next week, where they will play their final three league games of the season
against GA, CHA, and Malvern.
The Special
Ed Watch: It finally happened for me today. It
wasn’t the way I pictured my first ever varsity hit, but it did happen. With two outs and two men on in the top of the
fifth, I stepped to the plate looking to do some damage. I worked the count to 3-2 and not wanting to go
down on strikes, took a hack on the next pitch. I
got jammed on my hands and sent a grounder down to first base. Ryan’s first basemen fielded it but then fell
down and by the time he flipped it to the covering pitcher, I hustled it out for an
infield hit. Brock, who was on second base,
came into score, allowing me to get my first hit and RBI in one fell swoop. Hey, it wasn’t a shot, but a hit is a hit. After that, I got a little greedy. Coach Rick Mellor asked me if I wanted to
bat again or go out on the top of my game, and I chose to bat again. Unfortunately, I K’ed up, but make no
mistake, Special Ed finally got one today.
Special
Ed’s Game Ball: Everybody told me to give this to myself after finally getting a hit,
and I’m going to do just that. Zack and
Sammy Zeglinski’s dad even got the ball I got the hit on and gave it to me, it was
that much of a milestone. But since I want
to avoid being arrogant and selfish, I’ll reward multiple game balls. Besides myself, give a game ball to Dan Mozes,
Mario, Jon Brock, and Brian Teuber. I
gotta look out for all my boys who chill on the bench with me during games, and all these
guys got in on the action today.
Next
Game: Tuesday, a much anticipated rematch at home vs. GA.
MAY 14
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Episcopal 6, Penn Charter 5
Now
this one hurts, and for many reasons. This
was the league game where Penn Charter had hoped to bounce back, and for two innings it
looked like they were going to do just that. They
opened the game by scoring the first 5 runs, and it looked like they were going to cruise
to victory and get right back in the hunt for the Inter-Ac crown despite losing the
previous two games. However, the Quaker bats
fell silent and the Churchmen showed an amazing resiliency in rallying from a 5-0 deficit
to win it. This game hurts obviously because
the Quakers blew such a big lead, but it goes beyond that.
Two weeks ago, the team stood at 4-0 in the Inter-Ac, tied with GA. After three tough losses, Malvern (5-1) and GA
(7-0) have both passed PC in the standings and unless a monumental collapse occurs for one
of these teams (particularly GA), a title may be out of reach. It just shows how fast things can go downhill. All of the little things that were going right for
the Quakers in the first half of the season have gone in favor of the opposition in these
last three games. However, this team
isn’t throwing in the towel yet. They’ve
surprised a lot of people this year and want to finish strong with wins over GA and
Malvern, as well as try to get some revenge against CHA, who defeated the Quakers in 9
innings earlier this year.
This
was the start of the game that the Quakers envisioned.
Before the game, everybody talked about how a “bust out” win would
be nice, because all of the wins thus far have been nail-biters. For two innings, it was just that. Sr. RHP Alex Hay got the start for the
Churchmen, and he ran into all kinds of trouble. He
opened the game by plunking SS Zack Zeglinski and
yielded a single to center off the bat off 3B Dave Skinner. C R.J. Hollinshead beat out an infield hit
to short, scoring Zack and giving PC a 1-0 lead. CF
Ryan Nanni, who before the game told me he was “feeling it” today,
drilled Hay’s first pitch over the fence in right-center for a L-O-N-G three run
homer, his first of the year. This gave the
Quakers a 4-0 lead before EA could even record an out.
Hay then walked P Sean Rust, and coach John Stefanik had seen
enough. He came out and yanked Hay without
even getting an out, bringing in jr. RHP Chris Sherwin. Sherwin got them out of the inning, but the
Quakers added 1 more in the second, again courtesy of Nanni. Hollinshead reached on his second infield hit of
the game, stole second, and moved to third as the throw from C Fran Grunde ended up
in center. Nanni then lined a bullet into the
gap for an RBI double, just out of the reach of diving CF Brian FitzPatrick. After this inning, Sherwin really settled in and
allowed his offense to gradually climb back into the game.
Enter Joe Rosati. In the
top of the third, RF Charlie Barks (more on him later) walked and Fitzpatrick was
hit by a pitch, bringing Rosati to the plate. Already
an accomplished player as a junior, Rosati whiffed bad on two of Rust’s pitches. However, he caught up to the next one and hit a
bomb the other way over the head of LF Mike Parrilla, which was good for a stand up
triple. If he hits it anywhere else,
it’s a home run, but he gladly settled for the triple, which made it 5-2. Rosati scored on an RBI groundout from SS Dan
Williams, making it 5-3. To start the
fifth, Fitzpatrick popped up to first, but Rosati followed with a first pitch homer to
right-center which was actually a bit longer than Nanni’s shot. The home run made it 5-4 and really energized the
Episcopal team. Rosati provided a huge lift
for his team today, and if not for his offense (he finished 2-4 with a triple, homer, and
3 RBI), I don’t think Episcopal would have had much of a chance. Episcopal added 2 more in the same inning, but
they did so in a rather unglamorous way. Williams
followed Rosati’s home run with a walk, and Grunde singled to right. He and Williams moved up a base as RF Sammy
Zeglinski bobbled the ball when it got to him. 1B
Matt Finnegan, who was the goat in PC’s 3-2 win over EA earlier in the year,
smacked a hard grounder at third. Skinner
fielded it cleanly, looked Williams back to third and fired over to first, but his throw
was low and got by 1B Mark Adzick, allowing Williams to score and tying the score
with 1 out. The way the Churchmen scored the
winning run still puzzles me. With one out
and runners on first and third, Finnegan took off for second, probably not expecting a
throw down with the go ahead run on third base. However,
Hollinshead sprung up and fired the ball down to second.
Zack caught the ball on a low throw and tagged out Finnegan, but Grunde came
home and scored what would eventually be the winning run.
Maybe the thought was that with 3 innings left, the Quakers could sacrifice
that run and make up for it on offense. Unfortunately,
they weren’t able to. Sherwin did a
nice job shutting down the Quaker offense, going 5 innings on one run, 5 hits, 2K’s
and no walks. PC did have its chances,
though. In the top of sixth, they loaded the
bases with two outs but Parrilla popped up Brinty Markle’s first pitch to end
that threat. They did a similar job in the
last half of the seventh, and the Quaker bench was thinking about another last inning
victory. With one out, 2B Marc Spagnoletti
singled to right and Sammy drew a walk. Zack
dropped down a bunt that advanced the runners to second and third with two outs, so a well
placed single wins the game. Skinner battled
Markle and eventually worked a walk to load the bases.
This brought Hollinshead to the plate, who is definitely the guy the Quakers
want up in these situations. He’s the
team’s leading hitter in the Inter-Ac and he had reached base in all four of his
plate appearances today (2 hits, walk, HBP). He
worked the count in his favor and lofted a high fly ball to right field, and if I had to
close my eyes at that point and guess what was going to happen, I would’ve said that
it was going to fall in. However, Charlie
Barks tracked it down and at the last possible moment made an unbelievable diving catch to
end the game, stunning the Quakers beyond belief. You
gotta give the kid credit, because that was a hell of a catch in that type of situation. But it really never should have come to that. Any team should be safe with an early 5-0 lead,
but that’s baseball for you. The Quakers
have seen leads like that evaporate all season, they’ve just usually been the team
making the comeback. It was a tough loss, but
there’s still a lot of baseball to be played and nobody is quitting yet.
Special
Ed’s Game Ball: Give it up for Joe Rosati and Charlie Barks. Rosati supplied the offense that fueled the
comeback and Barks made the catch to seal the victory, ending Episcopal’s Inter-Ac
season with a victory.
MAY 11
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Gtn. Academy 9, Penn Charter 0
The
first inning pretty much set the tempo for the kind of game both teams would have in this
unexciting Inter-Ac game. Penn Charter
started the game with 3 strikeouts, courtesy of Patriots sr. LHP Sean Grieve. Meanwhile, the first 2 pitchers PC sr. Corey
Thomas threw in the bottom of the first plunked Grieve and LF Kevin
“Windshield/Dirk Nowitzki” Gordon, and they just ran away with it from
there. As Ted said, this game was definitely
a disappointment. I think everybody in
attendance, including both teams, expected a close battle between these two teams vying
for the Inter-Ac championship. Instead, the
Quakers (4-2) stumbled and gave GA (6-0) a 2-game lead in the league. If anything, GA was handed this win rather than
really earning it. Thomas issued 7 walks and
hit 3 batters while PC’s usually sound defense committed 4 costly errors, so you can
say the Patriots didn’t need to work hard to capture this one. I will say this about them, though: they are the
most fundamentally sound team I’ve seen this year.
They simply don’t make mistakes, or at least they didn’t today. They didn’t make an error, they make smart
decisions at the plate (7 walks to just 1 K), and their lineup 1 through 9 is as solid as
they come. PC and Malvern both have their
work cut out for them if they want to steal the title from GA, but they will have
opportunities as PC plays GA once more and the Patriots and Friars still have to go at it
twice, so the next two weeks should be rather interesting.
The Patriots jumped on PC right away. After
Grieve and Gordon got hit, 1B Matt Bruderek sacrificed them over and Grieve scored
on an RBI single from RF Matt Brown (2-3, RBI).
Gordon attempted to tag up on C Alex Kaplan’s fly ball to right, but
frosh RF Sammy Zeglinski threw a bullet to the plate and just barely nabbed Kaplan
for a nifty 9-2 double play. In the second,
2B Tyler Stampone (2-3, RBI) singled, stole second, and scored on an RBI single to
left by Grieve. The Patriots added two more
in the third on an RBI single by CF Joe Matteo and another RBI from Grieve as he
was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. The
Quakers were down 4-0 after three, and it might have been much worse than that if soph LF Mike
Parrilla had not robbed Stampone on a beautiful diving play. Good defensive plays like these from Zeglinski and
Parrilla were keeping the Quakers in it, but their bats certainly weren’t helping
them out. Grieve shut PC down, allowing just
2 hits over 5 innings, striking out 8 and walking 4.
He wasn’t as sharp as I’m sure he would have liked to be, but on this day
it didn’t matter. He hit his spots when
it mattered and showed why he’s a D-I product of William & Mary (I’ll be
seeing a lot of him and P Peter Vernon over the next 4 years, as W & M is in
the same athletic conference as the school I’ll be attending, Hofstra). Grieve also helped himself out at the plate. He went 1-3 and knocked in three. He’s quite a leadoff hitter, as he always
seems to find ways to get on base. Today he
reached 4 out of 5 times on a single, two hit by pitches, and a groundball that turned
into a two base error on 3B Dave Skinner. The
Quakers did have their chances against him, but quickly threw them away (2B Marc
Spagnoletti was picked off second base in the third and Parrilla was caught stealing
on a strike him out-throw him out in the second). However,
PC was still hanging in there as the score was still 4-0 heading into the sixth. Grieve was relieved by Vernon, who the Quakers
tried to start something off of. C R.J.
Hollinshead and CF Ryan Nanni singled to start off the inning and moved to
second and third on a sacrifice bunt by DH Sean Rust. However, a wild play killed the rally. Vernon bounced a pitch up there to Parrilla and it
got by Kaplan, rolling back to the backstop. Hollinshead
saw this and tore from home. Kaplan picked up
the ball and flipped it to the covering Vernon and Hollinshead was called out. This was an awful call, and everybody who saw it
knows it. The drivers in the cars passing by
on Morris Road could tell you he was safe, that’s how clear it was. So with 2 outs instead of one, Parrilla grounded
to short to end the inning (Nanni would have scored from third had Hollinshead been called
safe), so instead of a 3-2 score it remained 4-0. GA
followed with a 5 spot in the sixth off jr. Chris Brock, who deserved better. He was killed by bad bounces and another error
from Skinner, which allowed 2 runs to score. GA
obviously coasted from here, as Vernon struck out the side in the seventh to end it. And good call on the pretty ladies, Ted. How many numbers did you get? (smile)
Special Ed’s Game Ball: Sean Grieve, no explanation needed.
Next Game: The Quakers look to
bounce back and end a 2-game league losing streak when they host Episcopal on Friday.
MAY 4
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Chestnut Hill 2, Penn Charter 1
(9 innings)
As has been the case most of the season, the Quakers fell into an early hole. With two outs in the top of the first, jr. 2B Anthony
Biello singled to right and went to third on another single to right by frosh P Anthony
Cafagna. Jr. 1B Scott Dziengelski
then stepped in and quickly fell behind 0-2 to PC frosh P Mark Adzick (both
starting pitchers were freshmen, which is pretty rare for a high school varsity game). Adzick’s next pitch was a beauty and it
looked like he had rung up Dziengelski, but the ump called it a ball. He used his new life and lined the next pitch down
the line for an RBI double, giving CHA an early 1-0 lead.
It was one of many questionable calls by the umps today, but I’m not
going to blame them for anything because umpires don’t win or lose games, teams do. Cafagna responded by retiring the first 7 PC
batters before frosh RF Sammy Zeglinski drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the
third. Jr. 2B Marc Spagnoletti
followed with a single to left, putting a runner in scoring position and the scrappy
Quakers used this situation to get a run. Cafagna
bounced a pitch in the dirt to SS Zack Zeglinski, causing the runners to bolt for
the next base. Sr. C Chris McInerney
(2-4, 2 singles) picked up the ball and fired wide to third and the ball squirted through
into left field, allowing Sammy to score. From
here on out, it was a pitcher’s game all the way.
Adzick rebounded from the first inning by retiring the next 10 in a row (6
of which were strikeouts). Adzick, still on a
pitch count of about 55 as he returns from an elbow injury, took the no decision in four
solid innings (1R, 4H, 6K, BB). Cafagna was
masterful for CHA, and I definitely agree with Ted that he is an impressive propsect. The Quakers couldn’t solve him all day and
were constantly fooled by his late breaking curveball.
He took the no decision as well, going 7 innings on 1 run, 3 hits, a walk,
and & 7 Ks. Both he and Adzick have big
careers ahead of them. There was not much
action on offense because of the fabulous pitching on both sides. That is, until the ninth inning. Pitching in his fourth inning of relief, Sean
Rust retired the first two batters before sr. CF Mike Braverman (who had struck
out in his 3 previous at bats) dropped a bunt single.
He stole second base on a close play and scored the winning run on an RBI
single to center off the bat of jr. DH Kris Kimball. The Quakers might have had a
play at the plate, but CF Ryan Nanni’s strong throw was cut off by Adzick (now
at first base) and the ball deflected off the top of his glove, allowing Braverman to
cross the plate. PC, who had been in this
situation many times before, felt confident going into the last of the ninth. However, soph. reliever Mike Manzione (who
got the W) got Zack Z to ground to second, sr. 3B Dave Skinner to strike out
looking, and Nanni to fly to center to end the game.
When it was finally over, the stunned Quakers watched in silence as the Blue
Devils celebrated like they had just won the World Series (a little over the top there,
fellas). Now that the winning streak is over
(the Quakers only previous loss was March 23 to a still undefeated O’Hara team), PC
just needs to regroup and get ready for Malvern and GA, who they will play 3 times
(Malvern once, GA twice) in the next week and a half.
Special Ed’s
Game Ball: I guess it goes to Cafagna, who shut down PC for seven innings.
Next Game: 5/5 vs.
West Chester East (at 12-1, the #5 team in southeastern PA). After this game, the team will travel to Malvern
on Friday, looking to rebound in league play and sweep the season series between the two
teams.
APRIL 30
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Penn Charter 10, Haverford School 7
Another game, another win for the newly titled “Comeback Kids” of Penn Charter. For about the 368th time this season,
the Quakers entered the sixth inning trailing. As
you can see from the score above, they left victorious.
There’s just something about this team. They
refuse to give up, and today was no different. Trailing
5-0 early on, PC stormed back for 10 unanswered runs to win 10-7, and at least for today
they sit atop the Inter-Ac with a 4-0 record (not bad for a team that was picked to finish
no higher than fourth, huh?). Besides being
the comeback kids, the Quakers are working on becoming the scrappiest team ever to start
out 10-1. For example: they scored four runs
in the top of the sixth to take the lead, and they did so without getting a single hit! Impossible, you say? Well if you did you’d be wrong, but I’ll
get to that in a little bit.
This
game was dangerously similar to PC’s first game against Haverford, which the Quakers
won 7-4 (not surpringly by scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the sixth). Haverford had jumped out to an early 4-1 lead
before PC battled back to tie it in the fourth and win it in the sixth. Things went pretty much the same way on Friday,
except that the early Haverford lead was bigger. It
was surprising too, because the Quakers sent to the mound sr. LHP Corey Thomas, who
had been pretty much untouchable this season, giving up only 2 runs in 20+ innings. Corey hadn’t pitched since an April 20 win
over Malvern and it was his first game since being hit on the left wrist by a pitch
against Central a week ago, so he was a little rusty coming in. He worked around a one-out double to Haverford sr.
CF Noah Cooper in the first but ran into a bunch of problems in the second. Corey started off the inning by plunking soph. 1B Eric
Pender in the head (he wasn’t injured), and then he dropped the ball on the mound
for a balk, allowing Pender to advance to second. Sr.
C Dan Wilson laid down a nice bunt that Corey fielded and threw wide of frosh 1B Mark
Adzick, allowing Pender to score and Wilson to get to second. Fords frosh 2B Jared Cohen then followed by
launching a 3-2 fastball way over the fence in left field for a 2-run bomb. Soph. RF Nick Tom reached on an infield hit
and sr. LF Ben Vincent took Corey’s first pitch over the fence in left-center
for another 2-run home run, giving Haverford an early 5-0 lead. Corey was just having all kinds of trouble out
there. His fastball seemed flat and he had
difficulty with Haverford’s mound, which looked to be higher than other mounds
I’ve seen this year. In 3 2/3 innings
Corey surrendered 5 runs on 5 hits, walked 2, struck out 1, and hit two batters. Hey, he’s human. He had a bad game but he should rebound, which the
team needs him to do with the schedule not getting any easier in the coming weeks. With the score 5-0 in Haverford’s favor, the
comeback kids had another tough job to do. They
were up for the challenge, as they gradually chipped away at the lead. Sr. 3B Dave Skinner singled home jr. 2B Marc
Spagnoletti in the third, and the team added two more in the fourth on an RBI infield
hit from Adzick (2-3, 2 runs) and a sac fly by frosh RF Sammy Zeglinski. The stage was now set for the wild sixth inning,
which I’m going to describe in detail because it’s so absurd. Fords jr. starter Ben Fineman (5IP, 3R, 7H,
3K, 2BB) was relieved by frosh 3B/P Mike Galetta.
Galetta throws gas up there, but today he had all sorts of control problems. Adzick led off the inning with a walk, Sammy
sacrificed him to second and was safe on Galetta’s throwing error, and Spags
sacrificed them over with a bunt of his own for out #1.
SS Zack Zeglinski (2-4, RBI, 2 runs) was hit by a pitch as was
Skinner (scoring Adzick). CF Ryan Nanni
reached on a fielder’s choice/error by Cohen as he attempted to turn a double play
but flipped the ball wide, meaning everyone was safe and Sammy came onto score. C R.J. Hollinshead (3-4, 3 singles) was hit
by a pitch (scoring Zack) and then P/DH Sean Rust grounded out to second base
(scoring Skinner). Galetta was relieved by
sr. LHP Tom Close (1 1/3 IP, 3R, 4H), who struck out LF Mike Parrilla (2-4,
2B, run) to end the threat. But the damage
was done, as PC now led 7-5 by scoring 4 freakin’ runs on 0 hits in the inning. I swear I’ve never seen anything like it
before, but if any team can pull it off it’s the Quakers. They added three more in the seventh off of Close
on an RBI hit by Zack Z and a 2-run single by Skins.
These runs proved to be huge because the Fords tacked on two more in the
last of the seventh. I think they were
trying to set a trend because they scored both runs without any hits just like PC, but
thankfully the bases loaded rally fell short because if there was one more hit batsmen or
walk or error or fielder’s choice in this game I was going to rip my eyes out of my
head (just kidding…). Rust came up big
again for the Quakers on the mound as he relieved Corey and kept Haverford off the
scoreboard as his team slowly but surely climbed back into it. He pitched the final 3 1/3, giving up 2 runs on 2
hits, struck out 4, and walked 3. The only
real trouble he ran into was in the seventh when Haverford tried to be funny and break
PC’s “record” that they had set in the top of the sixth. Out of the 10 PC wins, Rusty has won half of them
and is putting together quite a year as he is 5-1 with a month remaining in the season. As previously mentioned, the win moved PC to 4-0
in league play as they continue to do their best to silence the critics. Haverford fell to 2-4, which is a shame because
all 4 losses were close ones. PC moves ahead
of the idle New York Yankees, er I mean GA team, who takes on Episcopal Saturday
afternoon.
Ramblings:
-
Special thanks to Scott and Sandy
Adzick (Mark’s parents), who had the team over for a post-game dinner. Anyone has the guts to open their home to 15
hungry teenage boys plus coaches and parents is very brave, so on behalf of the team,
thanks Mr. and Mrs. Adzick.
-
This game had to set the record for most hit batsmen with eight (four
for each team). Half of them occurred in the
sixth inning and Galetta himself hit three guys in 1/3 innings of work. Thankfully, nobody was ejected and there were no
bench clearing brawls. Actually no I take
that back. I’ve never seen a bench
clearing brawl in high school and I’d very much like to be a part of it. Who am I kidding, I’d probably run and take
cover behind a tree somewhere. I’m all
talk.
- Haverford had some student rooters
sitting along the third baseline and from what I hear they were a little too chatty with
some of the PC players. Zack said something
to them and they were gone by the fourth inning. Thatta
boy, Z.
- Chris
Brock’s Word of the Day: Apparently Brock thought we were having Italian at
the Adzicks' place because after the game he said, “I’m so hungry that I can
just taste the succulent sausages.” He
better do well on the SAT’s tomorrow using words like that.
Special Ed’s Game Ball: I credit
myself for this one. Before the game I went
up to Dave Skinner and said, “Yo Skins I’m telling you this is your day for a
game ball”. Everyone contributed today
so it’s hard to give just one game ball, but give Skins his first of the year. He was on base 4 times, finishing 2-3 with 4 RBI
and a run scored. He also threw a runner out
at the plate on a ground ball in the third inning.
APRIL 27
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Penn Charter 3, Episcopal 2
“This
is Penn Charter baseball at its finest.” These
were the words uttered by Penn Charter jr. C R.J. Hollinshead when the Quakers
scored the game winning run on a fielding error in the top of the sixth inning of
Tuesday’s league game. Guess what ladies
and gentleman, he couldn’t be more right. All
season long Penn Charter coach Rick Mellor has told the team that it’s going
to need to do all of the little things right to win games, including being flawless on the
base paths and running hard to first every time the bat touches the ball. Perhaps this was just a lucky break for the
Quakers, who had been stymied by Episcopal’s defense all day. But as soon as PC jr. P Sean Rust grounded
the ball to third base, he took off like a madman for first base. Rusty, who has battled knee injuries, is probably
the slowest person on the team but he busted down that baseline at 110%, and maybe this
affected the throw or caused Finnegan to bobble and drop the ball. If he catches that ball, it’s the third out
and you’re looking at a tie; instead, he drops it and it ends up being the winning
run What I’m trying to say is it was
just another example of the fundamental soundness of this baseball team. It’s a team that knows it won’t power
its way to victory, so it has to do every single little thing correctly, which is more or
less what happened today. Let me try to break
it down into more detail so that it makes more sense…
After reading former tedsilary.com reporter and Episcopal OF Andy Barks’s
report on the PC-EA game last year, I was expecting a dogfight, which is exactly what this
game was. As the game progressed, I noticed
how similar these two teams are. They’re
both scrappy, fundamental, overachieving squads, so it was clear that whoever made the
least mistakes was going to win this game. The
Churchmen started off on a higher note, quickly jumping on PC frosh P Mark “The
Belt Bandit” Adzick, who was making his first start of the season after returning
from an elbow injury. With two outs in the
bottom of the first EA sr. SS Dan Williams sent a 1-0 pitch into the gap in
right-center for a double. He ended up at
third when CF Ryan Nanni bobbled the ball and scored on sr. C Fran Grunde’s
single to left. PC got the run back in
the following inning, but it should have been much more.
Hollinshead led off with the first of 4 singles for him on the day, LF Mike
Parrilla reached on an error, and Adzick singled to left, loading the bases with
nobody out. Jr. RF Chris Brock
followed with a sacrifice fly to tie the game, but 1B Brian Teuber lined out and SS
Sammy Zeglinski popped out to end the threat.
In a bases loaded nobody out situation you would hope to get two or three
runs, but PC did tie the game and that was good enough for now. The Churchmen added another in the third on an RBI
single from Williams, and for awhile it looked like the 2-1 EA lead was going to hold. Part of this was because of some extremely good
defensive plays and even though I hate to complain, some questionable calls by the umps. I (and I know I’m not alone) saw at least two
and possibly three occasions where the home plate umpire failed to call a third strike on
an EA batter, which was big because each of these batters would eventually reach base (one
of whom scored). Adzick, who was on a pitch
count of about 50, gave the Quakers a solid outing of 3IP, 2R, 6H, 4K, and no walks. He left trailing, inherting the close game to
Rust, who has been on fire of late. While PC
had trouble scoring runs, Rusty kept the game close until the Quakers struck again in the
top of the sixth. Nanni led off with a DEEP
fly out to center field, a ball that would have been a home run had he hit it anywhere
else before Hollinshead and Parrilla followed with singles.
Adzick lined out to left and with two outs, Brock came through again with a
two-out, RBI single that scored RJ. RJ
deserves tons of credit for hustling his ass off to get from second to home in order to
beat the throw to the plate. Rust then
slapped a ground ball to third (mentioned above) that was fielded pretty cleanly. The throw to first was a little wide and brought
Finnegan off the bag, but he still had ample time to catch the ball and tag Rust. Instead, he dropped it and Parrilla scampered home
to score the go ahead run. Rusty then went
out to the mound and finished the Churchmen off. There’s
not much I can say about this kid that I haven’t said already. He’s been dominating lately, and today was no
different. He had some control problems (four
walks in 4IP) but for the most part he was throwing straight gas and overpowering hitters. He picked up his fourth win of the year, going
four shutout innings on 3 hits and 1K. For
Episcopal, sr. RHP Brinty Markle (he’s now tied with Malvern’s Wyatt
Roland for the coolest name in the Inter-Ac) went the distance. He scattered 3 runs on 10 hits, walking none and
striking out one. He also made two or three
great defensive plays on the mound. Usually a
pitcher has some trouble fielding his position, but not him. Overall, I was really impressed with Episcopal. They dropped to 1-4 in the Inter-Ac but this could
easily be 4-1 if they had caught a few more breaks. They’re
just as good as any other team in the league, so it will be interesting to see how they
finish out their season. For the Quakers, it
was all about perseverence. They were making
a few mistakes and catching a ton of bad breaks all over the place, but they never gave
up. As a result, they now are 9-1 overall and
3-0 in the league, tied for first with mighty GA.
Special
Ed’s Game Ball: Brock and Rust both came up big for PC today, but they both have game
balls on their mantlepiece. Instead I’m
rewarding it to R.J. Hollinshead, who finished the day 4-4 with 2 runs scored. His hustle is infectious out there, and he’s
also a phenomenal defensive catcher. I can
think of maybe 3-5 guys who have successfully stole a base off of him this entire season,
so this is long overdue.
Next Game: PC won’t get it’s shot to end Perkiomen’s 33-game
win streak on Wednesday because the game has been cancelled for some reason. League play will resume Friday at Haverford.
APRIL 24
NON-LEAGUE
Penn Charter 13, Abington Friends 0 (5 innings)
The last time I was at Abington Friends, it was to do a basketball report. I remember it distinctly because the Quakers (who
cruised to an undefeated Inter-Ac season) turned in a surprisingly lackadaisical
performance and ended up losing a stunner 69-68. The
PC baseball team turned in no such performance, easily handling the Abington baseball
squad 13-0 in just 5 innings of play on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. For me it was kind of an important win, because
that basketball game stuck with me for a while, and I’m not even on the team. I know this has nothing to do with baseball, but
in a weird way I got some closure out of it. Anyway,
the Quakers’ hot streak continued today as they moved to an impressive 8-1 (actually
8-1-1, but I hate writing that extra 1 in for the tie so I’m just going to stop from
now on), and in two games this weekend the team outscored its opponent 20-0. It was definitely a good weekend, because those
runs act as a confidence builder, and the Quakers will need that as they enter an
extremely difficult stretch on their schedule. Next
week includes games against Inter-Ac opponents Haverford and Episcopal (both having very
good seasons) and also one against Perkiomen School, who I believe has a 33-game win
streak on the line. Next week is followed by
some more league games and a game vs. West Chester East (the current #2 team in
Southeastern PA) before capping it off with two gigantic away games at Malvern and GA in
the first week of May. So it is definitely
good to have a few offensive explosions now because the upcoming games will most likely be
tight and the Quakers need to, as previously stated, be confident going into these.
I
was contemplating not even writing about this game because, as you can see by the score,
it wasn’t pretty. However, there are
some things to talk about, and it
wouldn’t be my style to miss a report. Before
they could even blink, Abington Friends found themselves down 3-0. In the top of the first, PC SS Zack Zeglinski was
hit by the first pitch of the game by AFS P Gavin White. 3B Dave Skinner and DH Ryan Nanni
followed with walks, loading the bases for sr. backup catcher Dan Mozes. Mozes worked the count full before lining a 2-run
single into right for his first hit of the year. It
was good to see “Moz” get that hit because even though he doesn’t play
much, he’s one of the hardest working players at practice every day. He also added a sacrifice fly to center in the
second inning, finishing his first start of the year 1-1 with 3 RBI. In addition to Mozes’s sac fly, the Quakers
added two more in the second on an RBI single from Zeglinski and a sac fly by Nanni (1-1,
2 runs, 2B). In the third inning PC, after 10
games this season, got its first triple of the year off the bat of soph. LF Mike
Parrilla. I guess it shows that a team
doesn’t need tons of power to win games, but it sure didn’t hurt today. PC really blew it open in the fourth. Nanni led off with a double and scored on a single
by jr. C R.J. Hollinshead, frosh 1B/LHP Mark Adzick reached on a
fielder’s choice, which again brought Parrilla to the plate with one out. What Mike must have been thinking was, well I took
care of our first triple of the season so I’ll do the same for our first home run. Parrilla took a 1-0 pitch from Kyle Dolinsky
WAY out to left field that landed over a fence and onto a basketball court set up in the
outfield. Parrilla calmly circled the bases
and was greeted at home plate by his teammates, giving the Quakers a 10-0 lead. Zeglinski followed three batters later with the
team’s second triple of the game, a two run shot to deep right-center and he scored
on an infield hit from sr. OF Jon Brock. That
my friends, is how you score 13 runs in 4 innings. On
the flip side of things, the PC pitching staff was busy recording its second consecutive
shutout, and in the last three games Quaker hurlers have given up just 2 runs in 21
innings. Jr. RHP Chris Brock got the
start, pitching two scoreless innings for his third win of the year. Adzick, who opened eyes last year making
significant contributions as a pitcher on the varsity team as an eighth grader, followed
Brock with his first two innings of the season. He
had been kept off the mound this year due to an elbow injury, and let me tell you I got to
see firsthand how good his stuff is. He
doesn’t throw hard (fastball tops out somewhere in the 70s), but he has outstanding
offspeed pitches. His curveball drops off of
a table and he mixes in a knuckleball and a splitter too.
In two innings he struck out four (including the side in the fourth) and walked
none. It’s good to have him back. Jr. Marc Spagnoletti completed the shutout
with a scoreless fifth despite giving up a one-out double to 1B Jake Perch. The team also received some great news regarding
sr. LHP/RF Corey Thomas, who was hit by a pitch on the left wrist in Friday’s
win over Central. Once thought to be as bad
as a fracture, Corey showed up to reveal that it’s only a minor injury that should
keep him out no more than a week.
The Special Ed Watch: Why, why, why?!?!? After Brock’s infield hit in the fourth, I
came to the plate hoping to keep the inning going.
I didn’t, but I don’t think I can come any closer to a hit. I crushed an 0-1 pitch to center that would have
been a double, but it was right at CF Drew Wallace for the third out. I was upset, but the team congratulated me on a
solid hit and hopefully next time it will fall in. I
would’ve got another chance, but I was on deck when the game ended. I also got my first action of the year in the
field, catching the final out of the game in right field.
As the saying goes, “every dog has its day”, and I plan to be one
of these dogs sometime before this season is over. Wow,
that was really unfunny.
Chris Brock’s Word of the Day:
This is a new feature I’m trying out. In
the end it might be stupid, but it also could be randomly funny and even educational. During the course of a game, there are many
interesting conversations that occur on the PC bench.
Often these casual conversations include a completely unnecessary,
“where-the-hell-did-that-come-from-word?” from Brock. Since it happened for the third time today, I had
to make a mention of it. The first two words
were parched and ostracized, and today the word of the day came when he
said, “The grass is so long out there, it’s like a thicket”. Now come on, what junior in high school uses those
words? If anything, at least by mentioning
this I’m trying to help my readers increase their vocabulary…
Special Ed’s Game Ball: After the game PC coach Rick
Mellor and other members of the team suggested I reward this to myself for the solid
hit. Though tempted, it’s going to
Parrilla, who finished the day 2-3 with 2 runs, a triple, a homer, and 2 RBI. Give Dan Mozes an honorable mention for his 3 RBI
day as well.
Next Game: League play resumes Tuesday
at Episcopal.
APRIL 23
NON-LEAGUE
Penn Charter 7, Central 0
This
was a big win for the Quakers, especially myself, and I’ll explain why. Quite frankly, ever since PC’s dramatic,
10-inning victory over Malvern on Tuesday, baseball has been rather terrible to me. With the Phillies opening up a 3-game set
against the Florida Marlins on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park, I liked the Phils
chances to win this series, especially since they were on a 4-game win streak. My buddy and PC sr. Lee Saltzman thought
otherwise, so we made a bet: if the Phillies sweep the Marlins, he shaves his head, if the
Marlins sweep the Phils, then I shave mine. Well,
you all know what happened. I tried to argue
my way out of it, but my persuasion must have lost a step because as of Friday afternoon I
look like I should be in the army rather than on a baseball team. The buzz went over pretty favorably with everyone
and I got a lot of positive comments on it (PC jr. P Sean Rust even rubbed it for
good luck before the game today), but I have learned one very important thing: DO NOT EVER
BET ON THE PHILLIES! If you show the
slightest bit of faith in them, they’ll make your life miserable in the end. Frankly, I should’ve known better, but you
live and learn I guess. So after all that
agony, it was good to be out on the diamond today and feel positive about being around
baseball again. This win was nowhere near as
thrilling as the win over Malvern, but a win is a win.
The Quakers stayed hot and put Central away without much of a fight, but
these are the kind of wins a team needs every now and then, especially after playing a
recent stretch of extremely close games. I
will say this, the confidence of this team is sky high.
They haven’t lost in a month (a March 23 loss to undefeated
O’Hara—PC’s only loss of the season thus far), and after the Malvern game
the team feels like they can play with just about anybody.
I
guess it worked when Rusty rubbed my almost bald head before the game, because he got the
start and dominated the Central lineup. Central
got just one man in scoring position the entire game, sr. LF Kurt Haberle’s
one out double in the bottom of the sixth. By
this time the game had already been blown open, and the Quakers always felt comfortable
with the lead, mainly because the team is just flat out comfortable with Rusty on the
mound. He went 6 innings of shutout ball,
gave up 5 hits, struck out 8, and walked none. Not
too shabby. As for the offense, the seven
runs were good, but it wasn’t the smoothest offensive performance of the season. There were some baserunning mistakes and the
Quakers swung at some bad balls. They were
aggressive though, as not one PC player drew a walk.
Jr. C R.J. Hollinshead gave Rusty an early lead with an RBI single in
the first and got another one in the fifth. He
would’ve got on base all three times up had it not been for a bizaare sequence. The first pitch he saw from Central jr. P Andrew
"Harry Potter" Reynolds in the third inning grazed the front of his jersey,
but instead of taking his base, he pretended not to notice so that he could get a hit. He eventually worked the count to 3-2 and on the
next pitch dropped his bat and started walking to first in anticipation of a walk only to
be called out on strikes by the ump. Guess
you wish you took that base, huh R.J.? Central
allowed PC two freebies in the second by making 3 errors on routine grounders to third and
short. Frosh 1B Mark Adzick added a
2-run single in the sixth to make it 7-0, capping off what was a relatively easy win for
the Quakers. However, the team was dealt a
very big blow in that same sixth inning. Sr.
LHP/RF Corey Thomas, arguably one of the team MVP’s so far this season, was
hit on the wrist by sr. reliever Craig Baumbach.
He wasn’t even going to play, but PC coach Rick Mellor decided
to get everybody an at bat. The diagnosis is
unclear, but I heard it could be as bad as a fracture, which would be awful for the
Quakers and for Corey. He’s had a
breakout season as a senior (mainly on the mound), and it would be terrible if he has to
miss an extended period of time, especially since he spent most of last season sidelined
with an ankle injury. The good news is that
Adzick, who made an impact as a pitcher on last year’s team as an eighth grader, has
been cleared to pitch after being kept off of the mound this season thus far due to an
elbow injury. He and Corey have similar
pitching styles, getting their outs with finesse and offspeed stuff rather than trying to
overpowering batters. So if the team is going
to lose Corey, at least they get Adzick back, in addition to already getting solid seasons
from Rust (3-1 record) and jr. Chris Brock (2-0), who went 2-3 at the plate in his
first start of the season in right field.
The Special
Ed Watch: After two unproductive at bats in PC’s lopsided 13-2 win over West
Catholic, I got a chance to redeem myself in the top of the seventh. I looked at a strike and badly missed a curveball
on the next pitch, and with the count 0-2, I was thinking “oh no, I’m gonna get
rung up again.” I got an 0-2 fastball
and took a hack, making contact and hitting the ball hard on the ground toward the right
side of the field, but it was right at the second basemen for an easy putout. It’s a small victory for me, because at least
I didn’t strike out.
Special Ed’s Game Ball: Many said that since wasn’t really a
special game, it doesn’t warrant a Special Ed Game Ball. I beg to differ!
Rusty earns his third game ball of the year (tying him for most on the team
with Corey) for a dominating performance on the mound.
APRIL 20
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Penn Charter 3, Malvern 2 (10 innings)
“In
26 years of coaching, that was the best game I’ve ever been involved in.” Those were the words Penn Charter coach Rick
Mellor said to his team after the Quakers rallied from a late 2-0 deficit to knock off
Inter-Ac rival -- and one of the top teams in the area -- Malvern Prep. I second that statement, coach. It was the second consecutive game where the
Quakers went to extra innings over a highly ranked opponent and it ended in the same
result. However, this one had much more drama
and emotion involved, mainly because these two teams are bitter rivals who set out to
prove their league supremacy each year. PC
beat Malvern in both contests last year, so the Friars were hungry for a win. It looked like they were going to get it too,
especially with ace flamethrower Will Romanowicz holding a 2-0 lead going into the
bottom of the sixth. But the Quakers never
quit, and they won their unprecedented fifth game (out of 6 wins) in their last at bat. It shows that this team, though lacking power
hitters, possesses that never-say-die attitude, which can go a long way. PC matched Romanowicz, who is considered to be one
of the best pitchers in the area, with the most pleasant surprise of the year, sr. LHP Corey
Thomas. Coming into the game, Corey had
gone 15 consecutive innings without surrendering a run, good for a nifty 0.00 ERA. That streak would eventually end, but it
didn’t stop Corey from turning in one of the most gutsiest pitching performances ever
. . . but I’m getting ahead of myself. Corey
retired the first three Friars without a problem, but then he ran into some trouble in the
second inning. 1B Joe Illgas started
the second with a single to left and DH Joe Rawlings (no relation to the glove, at
least I don’t think he is) walked. While
at first, Rawlings wandered too far off of first base and was gunned out by jr. C R.J.
Hollinshead, which proved to be a big first out.
LF Dan Pall reached on an infield single and 3B Wyatt Roland
(yes his name is Wyatt, how cool is that? I
wish my name was Wyatt…Time Out with Special Wyatt—OK not quite the same ring to
it but cool name anyway, dude) singled to left to load the bases. Sr. SS D.J. Reagoso then came up and hit a
sharp grounder to third. It should have been
an out, but the ball got under sr. 3B Dave Skinner’s glove and allowed Illgas
to score, which finally ended Corey’s scoreless streak at 16 1/3 innings. With the bases still loaded, Corey settled down
and got RF Ryan Burton to ground into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. Corey shook off the run and held Malvern scoreless
in the next three innings, but the Friars added one more in the sixth. Tom Grandieri (brother of basketball stud
Brian) and Pall struck out to start off the inning, but Roland beat out an infield hit and
advanced to second on jr. 2B Marc Spagnoletti’s throwing error.
Reagoso then lined a 3-2 pitch to left for his second RBI single of the
game, putting his team up 2-0. Meanwhile on
the mound for Malvern, Romanowicz was living up to the hype. He topped out at 87-88 MPH (don’t trust me,
ask the scouts who were there to see him) and had little trouble with the Quakers' lineup
for the first five innings. He got out of one
minor jam just about as fast as he got into it. Surrending
back-to-back singles to Thomas and soph. LF Mike Parrilla, Romanowicz was in a
first and third jam with just one out. However,
he got frosh 1B Mark Adzick to hit into an inning ending 1-6-3 DP and kept his team
on top by a score of 1-0. After that, he just
began to overpower PC. “Wilbur”, as
his team called him, recorded a strikeout In each inning he pitched, including striking
out the side in the third and fourth innings. However,
he finally ran into a little trouble in the later innings.
In the bottom of the sixth, Skinner drew a one out walk (Romanowicz’s
first of the game) and jr. CF Ryan Nanni reached on an error by Illgas. Hollinshead struck out, but jr. DH Sean Rust
came up clutch with a 2-out, RBI single, cutting Malvern’s lead in half. Corey walked to load the bases, but Parrilla
struck out to end the threat. Corey got
through the top fo the seventh, bringing PC to their last chance. In what was probably the biggest play of the
game, soph. IF Mario Incollingo pinch hit for Adzick. Since Mario is about 5’6’’, Mellor
was hoping his small strike zone would draw a walk, but Romanowicz threw him two quick
strikes. Mario then choked up and hit a high
chopper, deflecting off Romanowicz’s glove. 2B
Darren Herke fielded the ball but threw it wide of Illgas, allowing Mario to get to
second with no outs. What an at-bat it was by
the little guy. Brian Teuber came and
pinch ran for Mario, and he made a great baserunning play by advancing to third on a
dropped third strike from C James Spinelli. Jr.
SS Zack Zeglinski then came to the plate and did what he had to do: he lofted a
high fly ball to left that was deep enough to allow Teuber to score, tying the game. Corey, still going strong, pulled a Jack
Morris in the 1991 World Series, pitching into extra innings. Even though his pitch count was soaring, he
recorded scoreless eighth and ninth innings without much trouble. On Malvern’s side, Romanowicz was done. He went 7 innings, giving up 6 hits, 2 runs,
walked two, and struck out 14!. It was
a great game for him, and you could tell why he’s D-I bound. He was relieved by Malvern’s other ace/D-I pitcher, sr. LHP Mike Lorentson. Lorentson also came in throwing heat, and he
worked around a leadoff double by Nanni in the eighth.
After nine innings, Corey finally was relieved by Rust. I don’t know what Corey’s final pitch
count was, but most likely it was around 140. Rust
worked a scoreless tenth and pumped his fist emphatically when he recorded the third out. Now with it getting closer and closer to 7
o’clock, somebody had to win it. The
Phillies game was starting and I was supposed to be there, so enough was enough. Zeglinski and Skinner reached on errors, and they
both advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. This
brought up Nanni, who had been Mr. Clutch for the Quakers as of late. He worked a 1-2 count before lofting a fly ball to
deep right-center. Zeglinski ran back and
tagged and beat the throw to the plate, setting off a wild celebration from the Quakers
bench. It was the only occasion where it was
acceptable to hug other men, that’s how emotional and dramatic the win was for PC. Bottom line is this was a game many would have
penciled Malvern in as an easy W, but they just couldn’t hold up against the complete
team effort by the Quakers. Honestly one of
the best baseball games I’ve ever seen. I
can honestly see the Inter-Ac being a five or six team dogfight this year. Malvern is insanely talented as is GA, and all of
the other teams are scrappy squads looking to pull out the upset, so it should be a great
season.
Special
Ed’s Game Ball: I’m giving out two for this one.
First and foremost Corey Thomas obviously gets a game ball. What can you say about this kid? He was just a waarior out there. Here’s his final line: 9IP, 2R, 9H, 3BB, and
7K on about 140-150 pitches. By the sixth
inning it looked like he was out of gas, but he kept going out there trying to win it for
his teammates. I guess you really can play
successfully on adrenaline, because that’s what Corey did today. Even though Rusty got the official W, Corey was
the real winner to everybody. It was getting
to the point where guys were trying their hardest to get hits so that they could win it
for the pitcher. The other game ball is long
overdue to Mr. Clutch himself, Ryan Nanni. He’s
been on a tear recently, putting the ball in play and getting his team in a position to
win. He finished 2-4 with a double and the
game winning RBI.
Next Game(s):
Friday @ Central, Saturday @ Abington Friends before going back to league play on Tuesday
at Episcopal.
APRIL 17
NON-LEAGUE
Penn Charter 9, Carroll 8 (8 innings)
Leave
it to me to miss an extra innings thriller. At
home with a lack of sleep and some killer migraines, I missed PC’s battle with the
number five team in Southeastern PA, Archbishop Carroll.
Needless to say I’m quite upset that I missed this big win, BUT since
it was such a great game I’m going to write on it based on what I’ve been told
from players and coaches, so blame them and not me if it’s not entirely accurate
(just kidding). But this was a game the
Quakers had to have, mainly to gain some respect from all of the naysayers out there
saying the team has no chance to win the Inter-Ac. After
two wins in two days over top 10 teams in the area, some respect is deserved, but maybe
I’m biased because I’m from Penn Charter. Nevertheless,
this was a team that was supposed to struggle after losing four seniors, including studs Taylor
Baum and Matt Ryan. These were
tough losses to overcome, but the Quakers have fought hard to an early 5-1-1 record. The one loss was against O’Hara (last time I
checked they were 10-0) and that tie vs. La Salle should have been a win. Bottom line is this is a team that is going to
surprise some people, and I’d say the same thing if I was a casual observer instead
of a player on the team. But now that my
period of praise for the Penn Charter baseball program is over, let’s move onto more
important things, such as the game.
In
the early going PC was getting by strictly on pitching, but now the bats are beginning to
wake up a little bit. The Quakers took an
early lead on an RBI single from sr. Corey Thomas, who continues to do it all for
his team. Corey also got the start for PC and
pitched 2 more scoreless innings, moving his streak to 15 innings pitched this season
without giving up a run. Keep in mind this
year is his first real experience pitching consistently at the varsity level, as he spent
freshman and sophomore year on the JV team and was injured for most of the 2003 season. Corey gave up basketball this winter to improve
his baseball game, and it’s definitely showing right now. Carroll came right back and tied the game on the
first of two doubles by SS Chris Cashman. Just
a warning: this contest was on the seesaw the entire game, so if you don’t like nonstop action, frequent lead
changes, and nonstop excitement, please leave now. Still
here? Good.
The Quakers responded with two more in the bottom of the third on an RBI
single from sr. 3B Dave Skinner and an RBI groundout from jr. C R.J. Hollinshead.
Not allowing PC to enjoy their lead, Carroll
scored 3 more in the next inning, highlighted by Cashman’s second double and an RBI
single from Brian Rorick. As if life
depended on scoring runs in each inning, PC added two more in the bottom of the fourth on
a two run double from jr. SS Zack Zeglinski. Carroll
came right back in the next inning (getting pretty crazy, huh?) and tacked on three more
runs on three straight singles, an error, and Cashman’s third hit of the game. If you lost track, it was now 7-5 in
Carroll’s favor going into the bottom of the fifth.
No runs were scored (gasp!) in the next two innings and it appeared that Carroll
was going to escape with a W. However, the
Quakers, who always seem to use that last at bat to their advantage, rallied in the last
half of the seventh to tie it up at 7. Zeglinski
was hit by a pitch, Skinner got his second single, and Hollinshead reached on an error to
load the bases, bringing up jr. CF and in this game clean up hitter Ryan Nanni
(Nanni and Hollinshead have gone back and forth in the batting order). Nanni delievered another clutch hit, a 2-run
double that I’m told was almost a grand slam but instead hit the wall and stayed in
the park. Sean Rust nearly won the
game on a sharp liner to center, but Carroll CF Frank McDonnell caught the ball and
gunned down Hollinshead at the plate, which killed PC’s rally and sent the game into
extra innings. Carroll scored one in the top
of the eighth on a sacrifice fly, but as you can tell by the final score at the top of the
page, this was not enough to win the game. In
the bottom of the eighth, PC jr. 2B Marc Spagnoletti singled, advanced to second on
a wild pitch, followed by frosh utilityman Sammy Zeglinski’s bunt single and
stolen base. This put runners on second and
third for Zack Zeglinski, who decided baseball is fun but he had had enough of it on this
day. Zack lined a 2-run single to right,
scoring Spags and Sammy (who just got under the tag at the plate), finally ending the
drama and the craziness as Charter escaped with a victory.
I was told Rust wanted me to title this article “Getting Ziggy Wit
It Not Once But Twice”, but to save Zack and Sammy some embarrasment I decided to
just mention it down here (but good one Rusty—smile).
Jr. 2B/P Mario Incollingo (another guy who spent most of last season
on JV but is contributing a lot this year) pitched to one batter in the eighth and got his
first varsity win. Spags went 3.2 innings,
giving up an unearned run and one hit while striking out three and walking one. I wasn’t even at the game and I’m
already exhausted from all of this. But this
was another big win for the Quakers and they look to keep it going as they host one of the
I-A frontrunners in Malvern Prep on Tuesday.
Special
Ed’s Game Ball: Now this is another thing that’s hard to do since I wasn’t
there, but since I wrote this much on a game where I was sleeping while it was being
played, I think I can handle it. The general
consensus was the game ball belonged to Zack Zeglinski, who had 4 RBI and 2 big two-run
hits to help the Quakers to their fourth consecutive win.
Nanni gets an honorable mention for the tying two-run double in the seventh, as
both he and Zack are beginning to heat up at just the right time. Keep fighting Ry, you’ll get one of these
(or hopefully three…wink wink) sooner than later.
Next Game:
Tuesday vs. Malvern Prep.
APRIL 16
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Penn Charter 7, Haverford School 4
This
was a great way for the Penn Charter baseball team to open up league play. In a very intense game, the Quakers rallied from a
3-run deficit and knocked off the Fords of Haverford in a game played by two teams who are
out to prove that they have a shot to win the deep and extremely talented Inter-Ac. Haverford had a leg up on the Quakers coming in
because they had already played their first league game, a 2-0 win over Episcopal behind a
complete game shutout from sr. ace LHP Tom Close.
The Quakers were set to open up Tuesday at CHA, but the rain obviously had
other ideas. So with Close starting at first
instead of on the mound, PC went out with confidence and had one of their best offensive
performances of the young season, scattering a season high 11 hits and 7 hard-earned runs.
Each
team tacked on a run in the first on RBI groundouts and neither scored again until the top
of the third, where the Fords had a big inning off PC jr. starter Sean Rust. Sr. LF Ben Vincent reached on an error by
PC SS Zack Zeglinski and then got to second when 1B Mark Adzick dropped an
attempted pick off throw from Rust. Sr. CF Noah
Cooper singled to center before frosh 3B Mike Galetta singled to left, scoring
Vincent. Close then came up and socked a
two-run double to deep right-center, giving the Fords a big 4-1 lead. However, the Quakers, who came into the game
hitting just .130 as a team, responded with a big inning of their own in the bottom half
of the fourth. Haverford jr. starting
pitcher Ben Fineman had just been removed in favor of jr. Mike Fitzgerald,
and the Quakers were happy to see Fineman leave. In
the first three innings he had given up 2 hits and 1 run and showed good poise out there. Anyway, Adzick led off with a single to center
and got to second when jr. 2B Marc Spagnoletti (2-2, walk, 2 runs) poked a single
to right. Zeglinski struck out and sr. 3B Dave
Skinner grounded to second to move the runners to second and third with two outs. Jr. CF Ryan Nanni then came up and
delivered a huge 2-run single to right, stole second, and scored on a bloop double to
right by jr. C R.J. Hollinshead. Just
like that, the Quakers had tied it up 4-4. Each
pitcher settled down a bit as the score remained knotted at 4 going into the bottom of the
sixth, but the Quakers were not interested
in having to win the game in their last at bat (they did against Judge and Roman and had
the chance to do it vs. La Salle). Spags
started the sixth off with another single and Zeglinski came up showing bunt, attempting
to sacrifice Spags over to second. Zack got
the bunt down perfectly and beat out the throw to first for his second hit of the game. Skinner followed suit and dropped a bunt to
advance the runners, bringing Nanni up in another second and third situation. Fords coach Bob Castell had his infield up
to protect against another bunt, which worked to PC’s advantage as Nanni drilled a
sharp grounder to second. Soph. 2B Nick
Tom had trouble handling the ball and by the time he picked it up and threw it home,
Spags got under the tag and everybody was safe, putting PC up 5-4. Hollinshead (RBI groundout) and sr. RF Corey
Thomas (RBI single) added two insurance runs, allowing the Quakers to take a 7-4 lead
into Haverford’s last at bat. Rust,
still on the mound, pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, picking up the win and his first complete
game of the season.
As
previously stated, this was a big win for the Quakers and just the way they wanted to
start off league play. The Fords were coming
off a big win over their rivals from Episcopal, meaning their confidence was sky high
(especially since they came in ranked as the #8 team in Southeastern PA). PC got behind by three early but showed the same
kind of resiliency that they’ve been showing all season, scoring six unanswered runs
en route to the team’s fourth win of the season (against one loss and one tie). Despite giving up 4 runs, Rust was the star of the
game. He really only ran into trouble in the
third inning, where the Fords tagged him for three runs.
Other than that, they couldn’t solve him. Rusty went the distance (98 pitches), giving up 4
runs (3 earned), 6 hits, walked one, and struck out 4.
He responded to the rough third inning by retiring 12 of the last 14
batters, including 9 in a row to end the game. He
also helped himself out at the plate by going 1-3 and driving in a run. Nanni, Hollinshead, Zeglinski, and Spags all had
two hits, with both of Nanni’s being RBI singles.
This was just what the team needed from its powerful three-hole hitter. Sometimes when guys are on base, Nanni tends to
press at the plate and tries too hard to hit a home run, which often results in a pop-up
or a flyball. Today was a different story, as
all he tried to do was make contact and it resulted in two huge hits that helped PC win
the game. For Haverford, Close had the big
two-run double, Cooper went 2-4 with an RBI and sr. C Dan Wilson (no relation to
Dan Wilson, who is the starting catcher for the Seattle Mariners—weird) went
2-3 with a double. Fitzgerald had a hard time
out there, giving up six runs and nine hits in three innings. Haverford is obviously a very good team,
especially with Close on the mound, so they should make things interesting in the
Inter-Ac. Everybody knows about how good GA
and Malvern are, but don’t count out the other four teams in the league because all
have the potential to put together a big game and hang in there with the heavyweights.
Special Ed’s
Game Ball: Nanni and Hollinshead both had big games at the plate and any other day would
probably be sharing the game ball, but I think they’ll both agree when I need to give
the ball to Rusty. Like I said before, he was
great out there for 7 innings and hung tough even after he fell behind 4-1 early.
APRIL 10
NON-LEAGUE
Penn Charter 13, West Catholic 2
With league
play set to start on Tuesday, this was the kind of game that the Quakers needed. In the first four games of the season, PC was
having a lot of trouble getting on base. They
had no such trouble today, getting on base in every possible way: hits, errors, walks, hit
batters, you name it. It was the kind of
offensive outburst and confidence builder that the Quakers needed going into
Tuesday’s league opener at CHA, mainly because most people are picking the team to
finish no higher than fourth place in the Inter-Ac. It
was definitely a sloppy game, especially for West, which committed 6 errors and allowed PC
to score 13 runs on just 8 hits. Pretty much
everybody on the team got involved and on base. PC’s
four junior leaders: SS Zack Zeglinski (1-2, 2B, 2 runs), CF Ryan Nanni
(1-3, 2-run single, 3 RBI), P/DH Sean Rust (1-2, 2 RBI, 2 runs), and C R.J.
Hollinshead (1-3, 2 RBI) led the way for the Quakers, and everybody else in the order
pretty much followed suit. PC scored in every
inning it batted: 2 in the first, 2 in the second, 1 in the third, 6 in the fourth, 1 in
the fifth, and 1 in the sixth. But
here’s the kicker: In three of those innings where the Quakers scored, they did it
without getting a hit! It was that kind of
day for the Burrs, but it was also a testament to PC’s hard work and doing whatever
it takes to score runs and get guys on base. Coach
Rick Mellor tells the team that they have no real power hitters or home run
threats, so they’ll have to do all of the little things right to win games and as it
turns out, all of those little things fell into place today. On the flip side of the offensive burst, PC’s
pitching was as good as ever. Once thought
to be a possible road block to the team’s success, great pitching has carried the
Quakers so far this season and it was a major factor in the game today as well. The only two runs that West scored were from a
bases loaded walk in the third and on rare errors from Nanni and Zeglinski in the fourth,
so the game had the potential to be a shutout. Jr.
Chris Brock got the start and he dominated. The
Burrs couldn’t solve him and kept swinging through his low-mid 80s fastball and nasty
curve. The only trouble Brock got into was in
the third, where he gave up his only hit of the game and then walked three straight
batters, leading to the first Burrs run. His
final line looked like this: 4IP, 2 runs (one earned), 1 hit, 3 walks, and 6Ks. Not bad for someone’s first varsity start. In addition to Brock, sr. Corey Thomas pitched
a scoreless inning to raise his season total to 13 consecutive innings without
surrendering a run and jr. Marc Spagnoletti went two shutout innings. It was just an all around solid team effort by the
Quakers, and this kind of win was just what the team needed as they head into the second
and most important phase of their season next week: Inter-Ac play.
The Special Ed
Watch: Special Ed himself even got in on the action today, putting down the pen for
a change and picking up a bat. Sadly to say,
I was relatively unproductive in my first two varsity at bats. The first was a four pitch walk and I’d
rather not talk about the second. I was rung
up with the bases loaded by a short and rather stocky fellow on West that drew some laughs
from PC’s bench. Even Mellor poked some fun at me when he said, “You just got
rung up on a Nolan Ryan-like curveball”.
Let them laugh, the home runs will come, p-p-probably…..
Special
Ed’s Game Ball: It’s kind of hard to give one of these out on a day like this
when everybody produces, but I’m going to give it to Chris Brock. Brock, who was mostly a JV player last year,
dominated on the mound and moved to 2-0 on the season.
Next Game: As
previously mentioned, PC opens up league play on Tuesday @ CHA, that is if the weather
allows the teams to play.
APRIL 8
NON-LEAGUE
Penn Charter 3, La Salle 3 (tie after 7 innings)
Ties
are pretty rare in baseball, but with the way both teams kept battling, I guess neither
one of them was destined to win it. Because
of increasing rain and darkness gradually creeping in, the umps decided that this thriller
wouldn’t go extra innings and sent both teams home with a tie. Both teams definitely had their chances to win,
though. Penn Charter held what looked like a
secure 1-0 lead until the top of the sixth, which is when things began to go crazy. In the final two innings, there were two ties and
two lead changes. Each team had a bases
loaded opportunity in the late innings (La Salle in the sixth, PC in the seventh), but
neither team could capitalize. Nevertheless,
it was an exciting game.
For
a while, it looked like Quakers sr. P/RF Corey Thomas was going to pick up his
second consecutive win. He pitched the first
four innings and held the Explorers scoreless on 3 hits, 3 walks, and 1 K. Corey is starting to compile quite a streak too:
In four games so far this season, he’s pitched a total of 12 innings and hasn’t
given up one run yet. The only real jam he
got into was in the top of the fourth. La
Salle jr. 3B Mike Pennington walked, and then advanced to second on a single by jr.
DH Zack Hess. Hess got picked off
first base, but sr. C Nick Brechbill singled (moving Pennington to third) and soph.
1B Steve Ullrich was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with just one out and
putting Corey’s scoreless streak in jeopardy. However,
he got sr. 2B Pat McCusker to ground into his second 6-4-3 double play of the game
and got out of the inning scoreless (thanks to soph. 1B Brian Teuber, who saved a
run by applying a spinning tag to McCusker as the throw from second had pulled him off the
bag). Meanwhile, Corey provided the only
Quakers run and hit until the sixth inning. In
the bottom of the second, fr. 1B/OF Mark Adzick drew a leadoff walk and then stole
second. After Teuber struck out, Corey lined
a single up the middle that plated Adzick and gave the Quakers a 1-0 lead. It looked like PC had a shot to win its second
consecutive 1-0 game until all of the madness started in the last two innings. Until then, it was a pitchers duel. Thomas pitched the first four scoreless and jr. P Chris
Brock followed with a scoreless fifth for the Quakers.
For La Salle, jr. P Chez Angeloni was almost perfect. He went the first five innings for the Explorers
and gave up one run and one hit while striking out three and walking two. Brock was relieved by jr. Sean Rust and
Angeloni was relieved by soph. T.J. Foley in the sixth inning, and both of the new
pitchers ran into some tough luck. In the top
of the sixth, Pennington lined out to right before Hess stroked his second single of the
game. Brechbill flied to DEEP center on a
fine running catch by PC jr. CF Ryan Nanni before Ullrich followed with a two-out
single. With runners on first and second,
McCusker smacked a routine grounder to jr. 2B Marc Spagnoletti. Spags fielded the ball fine but then delivered a
wild throw that got past Adzick, allowing Hess to score.
Sr. CF Kyle Bidus walked to load the bases, but Rusty got out of the
jam by getting sr. RF Dave Achey to ground to short.
PC retook the lead in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI single by jr. C R.J.
Hollinshead. This was the first hit for
the Quakers since the second inning as Angeloni and Foley combined to hold 13 straight
batters hitless. Things were looking good for
the Quakers as they took a 2-1 lead into the last inning, but unfortunately they ran into
the heart of La Salle’s order. Soph. LF Jeff
Liberatore walked and Pennington singled, which brought the red hot Hess to the plate. He waited patiently and delievered a two-run
double to right-center that looked like it was going to be a home run. La Salle didn’t score again, but the damage
appeared to be done as they took a 3-2 lead into the last of the seventh. But the Quakers refused to go away, as Adzick led
off and got to second on a throwing error by Pennington.
Fr. Sammy Zeglinski sacrificed him over to third with a bunt, which
brought Rust to the plate for his first at bat of the season (he had been being DH’ed
for since a knee injury has kept him from batting). Rust
worked a great at bat against Foley, fouling off four pitches and working the count to
2-2. After one of the foul balls Rusty
remarked, “Dude this is my first at bat of the year and it’s a long ass
one”. But he finally put the ball in
play, driving Foley’s 2-2 pitch up the middle for an RBI single that tied the game,
again. The Quakers, not satisfied with the
thought of extra innings, definitely had the chance to win it. Spags and jr. SS Zack Zeglinski drew walks
to load the bases, bringing up the meat up the order with just one out. However, as I previously mentioned, it just
wasn’t meant to be. Sr. 3B Dave
Skinner worked a 3-2 count before striking out and Nanni just missed a 3-1 pitch that
he popped up to second base to end the threat and the game.
With the Quakers about to take the field for inning number eight, the umps saw the
rain getting worse and decided to call it off. Party
poopers.
Special
Ed’s Game Ball: A lot of people said I can’t give these out, but hey it’s
my column, so I guess I can. Since it was a
tie, I’m going to give a game ball to one player on each team. After much thought, the recipients are Zack Hess
of La Salle and Sean Rust of PC. Hess went 3
for 4 with the huge two run double that kept his team in the game. Rusty, although he gave up that double, came in
and had an outstanding at bat before tying the game on an RBI single.
Next Game:
Saturday 4/10 vs. West Catholic. This will be
a make up game from March 12, when PC was originally supposed to play West. However, the Burrs didn’t show up because
they thought the game was the next day. So
after all of the confusion, the game will be played tomorrow, that is if both teams show
up…
APRIL 6
NON-LEAGUE
Penn Charter 1, Judge 0
There’s
no use wasting time on a clever opening, because we’ve got a lot to talk about here. The Penn Charter baseball team have just recently
returned from a 10-day trip in Clearwater, Florida, where they played a whole lot of
baseball all day long. Unlike GA’s trip
to Florida, we didn’t play in any games (which would explain why our rivals have
played 14 games and we’ve played 3), but the team still learned a lot down there. Every morning the team would rise at 7:30 and
basically attempt to cover as much fundamentals as possible for 2-3 hours, and what
wasn’t done in the morning was simply carried over to the afternoon practices, which
were held at the Carpenter Complex (the Phillies practice facility). I think the afternoon practices were where we
all really got better. Half of the team would
do situational drills or play live scrimmages while the other half would go to the
outstanding indoor batting cages and take a few hundred swings at four different stations
(2 machines) that were set up. It was
repetitive yes, but the repetition allowed each player to find out what he was doing wrong
and fix it. I have to say I do wish we
played a few games, but since we brought 8-10 JV guys down with us it would be impossible
to work everyone in, so in the long run I think the hours and hours of practice were a
blessing in disguise. Besides playing
baseball, some other interesting stuff happened down there.
Phillies assistant GM and PC grad Ruben Amaro Jr. took some time out to come
talk to the team and he told us how important it was to hustle all the time and be
thankful for the opportunity to get to play at the facilities we played in because not
many teams are as lucky as we were. Vicente
Padilla also stopped by a practice and signed balls for us and we sat next to Phils CF
Marlon Byrd one night while eating dinner at Hooters (and I’m sure
Marlon was there for the delicious food *wink wink*).
We also got a chance to attend a game at the Phillies new spring training game,
where I almost caught a home run ball off the bat of Ricky Ledee. PC 3B Dave Skinner really had the ball in
his grasp, but me being the unselfish person that I am, grabbed Skins and threw him out of
the way and tried to get the ball for myself. In
the end, neither of us got it, so I guess teamwork is something we still need to work on
(smile). All in all, it was a successful
trip, and the Quakers are really ready to get the season underway, which brings us
to…
…Today’s
game vs. the Crusaders of Father Judge. This
was just the third game of the season for PC (now 2-1), but it was by far the most
encouraging. The team made very few mistakes
(especially on defense) and all of the extra swings taken in Florida definitely was
evident. Even though the Quakers only scored
one run, they hit the ball hard all day, whether it was for a hit or an out. There are a lot of things to take note of, so
let’s start with the pitching for both teams. For
Judge, sophs. Justin DeCristofaro and Matt Compton pitched five shutout
innings before the winning and only run was scored by PC in the bottom of the sixth, which
I’ll get to in a moment. But these two
guys deserve to be applauded because they got hit hard at some points and got into some
jams but they worked out of them. As for the
Quakers, the two headed monster of jr. Sean Rust and sr. Corey Thomas was
almost unhittable. After two mediocre
outings, we finally got to see the real Rusty out there and he showed why he’s the
staff ace. He pitched four innings of shutout
ball, giving up three hits while walking two and striking out five. If he went the whole game I’m not sure the
box score would look any different. This was
the first game where Rusty was overpowering, and if he continues to pitch like this then
PC may be able to surprise a lot of its doubters. Thomas
then came in, picking up his first win and continuing his dominance (in 8 innings so far
this season he’s surrendered 0 runs). Today
he went three scoreless, gave up two hits while striking out and walking one each. He also made some great plays on offense, such as
staying in a rundown to allow a runner to advance in the second inning or laying down a
sacrifice bunt in the sixth that put the winning run on second base. As for the offenses, well there wasn’t much
but that’s largely due to the great pitching. Judge’s
only real standout was soph. Jason D’Ambrosio, who went 2 for 3 with a double
and a single, but they did have some guys hit the ball hard. The Crusaders are off to a rough 0-6 start, but
they have a young, talented team and they gave the Quakers a run for its money today. For the Quakers, though it doesn’t look like
it, the offense was improved today. In the
first two games against Roman and O’Hara, PC combined for 6 hits. They got six alone in today’s game and may
have got more if some hard hit balls had fallen into grass instead of gloves. Skinner had the best day on offense, going 3 for 3
with a trio of singles. Jrs. Ryan Nanni and
Zack Zeglinski also added hits, but none was bigger than the one by the youngest
guy on the field, frosh 1B Mark Adzick. Adzick
played varsity last year as an eighth grader, and today was his first start of the year as
he’s still coming back from an elbow injury. He’s
really one of the team’s top pitchers, but his injury should keep him off the mound
until the end of April, so he will most likely split time between 1B and the OF like he
did today. With the score still 0-0 in the
last half of the sixth, PC soph. LF Mike Parrilla reached on an error for the third
time of the game, and then he was sacrificed to second on a perfect bunt by Thomas. Soph. 1B Brian Teuber grounded to short,
which allowed Parrilla to advance to third base. Adzick
then lined an 0-1 pitch up the middle that was just out of the reach of Judge 2B Jim
Curtis. It was the only run of the game,
but it was all the Quakers needed. He also
caught the last out of the game in RF. When
PC coach Rick Mellor put Mark into RF in the fifth, I asked him when the last time
was he played the outfield and he replied, “I don’t know, I think little
league."
Special Ed’s Game
Ball: If we keep having games like this then these things are going to be hard to give
out. But as I did during basketball season,
I’m going to give out more than one today. Adzick
gets one for the clutch hit in what was really his first game back, and Corey gets his
second one for the previously mentioned all-around effort.
Next Game: Thursday at home vs. La Salle.
MARCH 23
NON-LEAGUE
O'Hara 8, Penn Charter 2
Well,
at least the weather will be warmer in Florida than it was on this day. In another game played in cold temperatures, the
Quakers succumbed to the Lions of O’Hara in their final game before the team trip to
Florida. PC will be down in Clearwater from
March 25-April 3, picking up on a lot of the game’s most fundamental skills. Above all, it should be good playing baseball in
good weather for a change. But before we can
go there, we had to go up against the defending CL champs of O’Hara, who are a very
solid team. Even though the score looks
lopsided, the Quakers really weren’t beaten as bad as it looks. If anything, we beat ourselves, making four costly
errors that allowed the Lions to run up the scoreboard.
That, paired with P Kyle Reynolds shutting PC down for five innings
led to the first loss of the young season. Most of
the damage was done in the second and fifth innings.
In the second, RF Don Werner walked and then scored after LF Dan
Thiel’s ground out turned into a three-base error on PC jr. P Sean Rust. Thiel scored on a grounder to short, 2b Nick
Longmore singled and later scored on a single by C John Coyle. When the damage was done, O’Hara was up 4-0
aftter 1 ½ innings. The Lions managed no
hits in the third and fourth innings, thanks to the continuing dominance of sr. P Corey
Thomas. Corey has now pitched five
innings this season and given up no runs, one hit, walked one and struck out seven. But the flood gates opened in the fifth. DH John Titchenell started the inning off
with a single to center and scored on a single by Werner.
Werner and Thiel (who reached on a fielder’s choice) then scored on a
sharply hit grounder by SS Matt Catania that went under the glove of soph 2B Mario
Incollingo, who was playing shallow and protecting against a possible bunt. Catania then scored on a routine force out at
third base that sr. 3b Dave Skinner uncharacteristically dropped. When it was over, O’ Hara had scored four
more in the inning, three by the way of errors. PC
is usually very sharp in the field, so this was just one of those days when everything
just didn’t go their way. O’Hara
had sent 10 guys to the plate in the fifth and when the inning was over the score was 8-0,
putting a damper on the Quakers hope of another come from behind victory. Besides the unfortunate fielding blunders, PC had
a hard time solving Reynolds’ quirky side armed delivery at the plate. They didn’t get their first hit until the
bottom of the fifth on a single by jr. 2B/P Marc Spagnoletti. The bats picked up after Reynolds left in the
bottom of the sixth. Zack Zeglinski walked
and then scored on a single by C R.J. Hollinshead, a ball that got by the left
fielder and allowed R.J. to advance to third. R.J.
then scored on an RBI single by jr. P/OF Chris Brock, but Brock was tagged out
trying to stretch the single into a double and frosh Mark Adzick grounded out to
end the threat. It was just too little too
late for the Quakers. This was just a game everybody wanted to forget as soon as it was
over. Rust had a tough outing, surrendering
four runs (three earned), three hits, and three walks in two innings. He’s such a good pitcher, I just think
it’s going to take him a little time to get back into the flow of things (he’s
coming off a knee injury and still isn’t batting in games yet). On the other side, Reynolds was masterful. He shut PC out for 5 innings, allowing just the
one hit to Spags along with two walks, two hit batters, and two Ks. He wasn’t overpowering, but he used that side
armed delivery to jam just about every hitter up there.
The loss drops PC to 2-1 overall, and games will resume after the team returns from
Florida.
Ramblings:
-
I just knew things were going wrong when I attempted to spit in the
sixth inning, but instead of the saliva landing safely on the ground in front of me it
landed right on the book that I was keeping. It
was just one of those days for all of us.
-
Before the game, a bunch of us had a meaningless but awesome
conversation. We all agreed that high school
baseball and sports for that matter would be so much better if teams had general managers
and front offices that had the right to trade players, fire coaches, sign free agents, and
everything else that happens in the pros. And
if a player gets traded to another school, he has to enroll in that school as well. Come on, how awesome would that be?
Special Ed’s Game Ball: Kyle Reynolds, who shut PC down with his Byung-Hyun Kim
impression.
Next Game: 4/6 vs. Judge.
MARCH 13
NON-LEAGUE
Penn Charter 5, Roman 4
As
Penn Charter coach Rick Mellor said after the game, “Baseball is a game of
luck." This proved to be true for the
Penn Charter Quakers, defeating Roman in the first baseball game of the season. This was actually the second scheduled game for
PC, with the first one supposed to be played on Friday afternoon against West Catholic. But West never showed up, forcing the Quakers to
play an inter-squad game. Roman, however, did
show up and for a while it looked like the Cahillites were going to leave with an easy
win. But the Quakers proved that a game is
never over until the last out is recorded, as they rallied from a 4-1 deficit with 2 outs
and nobody on base in the bottom of the seventh to eventually win the game on a 2-run
single from soph. LF Mike Parrilla. However,
the win definitely didn’t come easily to the Quakers.
A lot of things didn’t go their way for the first six innings, either
because of base running blunders or receiving unfortunate breaks (two definite hits were
instead turned into double plays thanks to some great defensive plays by Roman). But no matter how lucky it may have seemed in the
end, a win is still a win, and it’s definitely much better to start the season off
with a win rather than a loss.
In
a game dominated by cold, swirling winds, PC fell behind early. Jr. pitcher Sean Rust walked Roman catcher Brian
Cooper and then surrendered an RBI triple to center to 3B Lee MacInerney (a hit
that was obviously aided by the wind). The
Cahillites scored another run on a fielder’s choice before Rusty got out of the jam. Down 2-0, the Quakers looked to get those runs
back, but were plagued by one of the previously mentioned unfortunate double plays. Jr. SS Zack Zeglinski walked, sr. 3B Dave
Skinner singled, and jr. C R.J. Hollinshead was hit by a pitch, loading the
bases with nobody out. Jr. CF Ryan Nanni
then blooped a ball in to short right field that looked like it was going to fall for a
hit, but Roman 2B Chris Gallagher made an over the shoulder catch. Since Gallagher's back was turned, Mellor decided
to try and score Zeglinski. Zack quickly
sprinted for home and made a great slide around the catcher to graze home plate with his
hand, but he was called out by the ump. Just
like that the rally was killed and the Quakers were still down 2-0. Roman scored another run in the third on an RBI
single by pitcher Pat Dunn, who also did a good job on the mound silencing the
Quakers’ bats. In his first outing, Rust
went three innings, giving up three runs on five hits, walked two and struck out two. After the first inning Rusty definitely seemed to
settle down, but with this being his first game he was only slated to pitch the first
three innings. Sr. RF/P Corey Thomas
relieved Rust in the fourth, and Corey absolutely shut Roman down. He struck out the first five batters he faced,
using pinpoint location and a nasty curveball to fool just about every batter that stepped
to the plate. Corey’s final line looked
like this: 3IP, one hit, no runs, one walk, and six Ks.
He was awesome out there, and if he can give the Quakers consistent outings
like this one than PC shouldn’t have to worry about pitching at all. While Corey was shutting down the Roman offense,
he also provided the only offense for the Quakers on an RBI groundout in the fifth that
plated frosh Sammy Zeglinski. Roman
added an unearned run in the top of the seventh when Zack Zeglinski lost sight of a ground
ball after a Cahillite base runner ran in front of him.
So with the score 4-1 in Roman’s favor and not much offense being
supplied by the Quakers, things were looking a little grim in the last half of the
seventh. Soph. 1B Brian Teuber started
the inning with a ground out to second and Sammy struck out, leaving the Quakers with only
one more out. This is when things began to
get interesting. Soph. 2B Mario Incollingo,
Zack, and Skinner all drew walks, loading the bases with two outs. Hollinshead then came to the plate and lofted a
routine fly ball to right field that should have ended the game, but Roman RF Mike
Krimm either misjudged it or lost it in the sun because he didn’t make the catch,
allowing Mario and Zack to score and giving the Quakers new life. Nanni drew another walk, which again loaded the
bases. Parrilla then stepped to the plate and
took two pitches before hitting a sharp liner up the middle that deflected off the
pitcher’s glove and rolled into left field. Skinner
and RJ scored and somehow the Quakers escaped with a win.
This
was a great win, even though some luck was involved.
If Krimm catches that ball, the Quakers lose 4-1 and we wouldn’t be
having this discussion. But he did drop it,
so who the heck cares if we got lucky. There
were definitely some good things and bad things that emerged from the game. The pitching was more stable than previously
thought, as the 1-2-3 punch of Rust, Thomas, and jr. Chris Brock (who pitched the
seventh to earn his first career varsity win), despite a few slip ups here and there, all
pitched great. Nanni saved some runs on two
fabulous catches in the outfield. Mellor was
upset with the team after the game for poor base running, which we had spent over an hour
before the game going over. The other thing I
noticed was that PC needs to be a little more aggressive at the plate. Five of the team’s eight strikeouts were
caught looking, and there were 9 walks. These
guys are all good hitters, it’s just a matter of confidence up there that will turn
the caught looking’s into base hits. The
confidence and aggressiveness will surely increase over time because with this being the
first game, everybody was a little rusty (no pun intended Sean) out there. These problems will be ironed out before long,
and above all this was a great win to start off the season (actually I think it’s 2
wins, because West’s failure to show up is a forfeit in my book, so technically the
Quakers stand at 2-0).
Special Ed’s Game Ball: This is a tough call with Parrilla winning it in the last at
bat and Brock getting his first varsity win, but I’m rewarding my first game ball to
Corey Thomas. He really kept us in the game
and you just can’t pitch better than this kid did today.
Next Game: Tuesday at home vs.
Neumann.
MARCH 13
PENN CHARTER TEAM PREVIEW
A
year removed from going 16-10 overall and 6-4 in the Inter-Ac, the Penn Charter Quakers
will look to absorb the loss of four graduated seniors and challenge frontrunners GA and
Malvern for the league title. Gone from the
lineup are 1B/P Taylor Baum, SS/P Matt Ryan, and outfielders John Samuel
and Mickey Maley. These losses will be
hard to recover from, mainly because of the leadership these four players brought to the
field every day. Baum, a 6-4 215 lb first
basemen, will be especially missed because of the power he supplied. Last season he hit .565 with 7 home runs and was
probably the most feared hitter in the Inter-Ac. Ryan
hit over .450 in league play and provided a lot of valuable innings on the mound when Baum
injured his elbow in the first week of the season. Maley
and Samuel brought great defense to the corner outfield spots and were solid at the plate. Without these guys, the Quakers of 2004 don’t
have a lot of power and most likely won’t hit many homers, but all is not lost. There is a lot of young talent on the team,
especially from four rising juniors that have the potential to help bring a league title
back to Penn Charter.
Even
though the loss of these four seniors is tough, there is still a lot of confidence within
the team. The previously mentioned four
budding stars are: SS Zack Zeglinski, CF Ryan Nanni, catcher R.J.
Hollinshead, and pitcher Sean Rust. Let’s
start with Zeglinski. We all know Zack,
either from his dominance on the football field or from his skills on the basketball court
(or perhaps both). In the last two years,
Zack has played integral roles in the football and basketball teams, and not so
coincidentally both teams have won back to back league titles. Above all, Zack will be relied on for his
leadership ability. This is his fourth year
on the baseball team and most of the players look up to him and try to imitate his
success. He will be the leadoff hitter and
should be a consistent threat to get on base, but opposing pitchers beware: despite
batting out of the leadoff spot, Zack did belt a couple of home runs last season. Hollinshead has come into his own behind the
plate. After serving as a backup to Player of
the Year Aaron Greenfield in his freshman year, R.J. has learned a lot and like
Zeglinski and Nanni, he was second team All Inter-Ac last season. He’s also a much improved hitter and will
most likely be hitting from the 3 hole this year. With
some recent injuries to the pitching staff, Rust will need to step up and become the team
ace. He has great stuff, armed with a mid-80s
fastball, a nasty curve and a changeup (I witnessed this firsthand when Rusty blew me away
during practice earlier in the year). He can
be a scary guy to face, he just needs to come in with confidence and know that he get
anybody out. Co-captain and centerfielder
Nanni probably has the most potential of all four players.
Like Zeglinski, this is Nanni’s fourth year on varsity and he has
improved his game dramatically. He can run
down any ball in center and is a much better hitter than he was in recent years (Nanni
will bat cleanup this season). The team was
hoping to have Nanni as one of its top pitchers, but an arm injury sustained last year
from too much wear and tear will keep him off of the mound this season. Besides these four juniors, there are some other
players to take note of. The other captain,
sr. 3B Dave Skinner has spent a lot of time in the off season to improve
offensively and defensively. Skins was an
All-Inter Ac honorable mention last season and will be batting second in the order. He’s not a power hitter, but he rarely
strikes out and gets on base a lot. Skins may
also spend some time on the mound this year in hope of contributing some innings. Rounding out the starting lineup are sr. RF/P Corey
Thomas, jr. 2B Marc Spagnoletti, soph. 1B Brian Teuber, and soph. LF/P Mike
Parrilla. Corey will most likely be the
team’s #2 pitcher behind Rust. He
doesn’t throw extremely hard but he has above average control and he’s a lefty. “Spags” has a lot of potential, he just
needs to relax on defense and at the plate. When
he hits his comfort zone he can be a great 2B and if he gets on base he’ll be a
threat to steal some bases. Teuber spent a
lot of time on JV last year but he did get some varsity experience and with Baum gone, he
is now the starting first basemen. He needs a
little work at the plate but he’ll get better with time. He’s already a very good defensive player. Parrilla like a lot of other guys has unlimited
potential. He’s an improved hitter and
will be counted on for some innings at pitcher. There’s
also some depth on the bench, with the reserves being: sr. outfielders Jon
“Jebby” Brock and Ed Morrone, sr. catcher Dan Mozes, jr. P/OF Chris
Brock, soph. IF/P Mario Incollingo and Alec Hanna, and freshmen utility
man Sammy Zeglinski and P/1B Mark Adzick.
At the moment, the younger of the Brock brothers is probably the one to pay closest
attention to. He’s got superb stuff and
will probably be the #3 pitcher. The young
Zeglinski can pretty much play anywhere, Mario is a rising star, Mozes is a solid backup
catcher, Hanna can eat up some innings at pitcher if needed, and Jebby and yours truly
have a lot of experience in playing the outfield. Adzick,
who pitched a lot on last year’s team as an eighth grader, will be
sidelined for at least another month due to an elbow injury. This kid has so much ability and he will be
welcomed back with open arms to the pitcher’s mound when he is healthy again. Overall, this isn’t a team that will hit a
lot of home runs, but there are a bunch of very solid players that are looking forward to
playing the role of underdogs in the Inter-Ac.
The
two biggest concerns are pitching and getting on base.
Without Nanni and Adzick on the mound, Rust is the only true staff ace, and
even he will need to get used to that role since he pitched behind Matt Ryan and Nanni
last season. Thomas and Chris Brock have
great stuff, it’s just a matter of using it with confidence that will get them over
the hump. If they can put together some
consistent outings, this team will have a very deadly 1-2-3 rotation, and the Quakers
should also get some innings from some other guys in between. The other issue is hitting. The Quakers ability to get on base consistently
will be crucial to the team’s success since they don’t have a Taylor Baum or an
Aaron Greenfield in the lineup. What they do
have is a lot of solid hitters (Zack, Nanni, R.J., Skins) that can put the ball in play. Time will tell on how they respond to the
challenge at hand. The squad also needs some
work on fundamental issues such as base running and various situational plays, but
we’ll get a lot of work on these things when we travel to Clearwater, Florida from
March 25-April 4. Last but not least, the
Quakers are blessed with a very good coaching staff.
Head coach Rick Mellor has been coaching at PC for over 20 years and has a
very extensive knowledge of the game. He’s
adamant on teaching the various fundamentals that are necessary to win games and he knows
that if we do all of the little things right then we’ll steal some wins away from
unsuspecting opponents. Coach Mellor is
aided by assistant coach Mike Ryan, who is Matt’s older brother. Mike played baseball/football at Malvern a few
years ago so he has the experience and can definitely relate to what we as players are
going through out there. Also on the staff is
pitching coach Gerry Sasse, who works carefully with each individual pitcher to
make sure he’s making good pitches and not doing anything to affect his performance
out there on the mound. The coaches believe
in the players and the players believe in the coaches, and that combination should allow
the Quakers to challenge Malvern and Germantown Academy, who many consider
to be the favorites to win the Inter-Ac this season.