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On the Trail With Ted
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 Observations, notes, etc., on games I've seen during the 2004 season . . .

 


JUNE 19
CARPENTER CUP QUARTERFINAL
Lehigh Valley 9, Catholic League 8
  
Man, oh, man, what a comeback! This would have been an all-timer and almost was. After seven innings, the CL trailed, 9-0, and was going very meekly. At that point I decided to leave the press box and sit in the stands, so I'll take credit for changing the luck (smile). C-E sr. C Matt Fischer, the subject of my DN story for Monday's paper, led off with a smash that hit the rubber and caromed toward SS for an infield single. From there: O'Hara jr. 2B Brian Giacobetti walked, C-E sr. OF Kurt Bruehl singled to load the bases, C-E sr. 1B Gene Stricker drew a walk to force in a run and La Salle jr. 3B Zac Hess (a 1B for the Explorers) rocketed a grand slam to left-center. It was a shot, folks! Went about 380 feet. The rally fizzled as the next three guys made outs. In the ninth: with one out, Fischer (who went 3-for-3 in gunning down would-be basestealers) fired a solo homer off the scoreboard. It hit right next to GUEST and went about 360 feet. Giacobetti walked, but Bruehl fanned for out No. 2. Stricker got plunked, Hess walked and K-K jr. 1B Lenny Del Grippo looped a two-run single into left-center, causing the already stirred-up CL fans to go crazier. C-E sr. CF Tim Carroll walked and LV brought in its third pitcher of the inning. In a lefty-to-lefty situation, sr. RF Tom Dolan hit a pretty good shot toward the rightfield corner. It was caught to end the game. It was the top of the ninth, so LV would have had a chance to come back, but what brass the CL guys showed. The CL's pitchers were Carroll jr. RH Brian Rorick, C-E jr. LH Chris David, C-E soph RH Brian Herman and SJ Prep sr. LH John Coury. Coury had a mixed-bag outing. Though he fanned five, he yielded four hits. The two runs scored against him were unearned due to a dropped popup. LV's seven other runs were earned . . . Well, another school year is history. It was loads of fun and we thank you for paying attention in the Daily News and/or on the website. Enjoy the summer and best of luck, especially, to the graduates. May all your dreams become reality.

JUNE 18
CARPENTER CUP QUARTERFINAL
Mercer Co. 8, Bicentennial/Inter-Ac 5
   Some surprises are larger than others. I truly figured this squad had the pitching, along with the other ingredients, to make a deep run in this tournament. But it wasn't to be. No excuses. GA coach Craig Conlin had his own four headliners available and three of them gave up runs. In just two-thirds of an inning, RH Matt Bruderek surrendered two walks, four hits and five earned runs. That made the score 7-0 and the deficit was just too much. The most effective pitcher, again, was sr. LH Sean Grieve. He relieved Bruderek and went three total, allowing one hit and striking out three. He yielded one hit and no runs in six Cup innings. Thus, he finished the spring having allowed just one earned run. Amazing! The hitting hero was Malvern sr. C James Spinelli, who clubbed a 345-foot HR to dead LF and added two singles. Penn Charter jr. CF Ryan Nanni and Haverford School sr. RF Tom Close had doubles high off the CF fence. Gtn. Academy jr. 3B Danny Overcash went 2-for-3 with an RBI. The best fielding play was turned in by Episcopal sr. SS Dan Williams. He made a difficult chance look easy, ranging to his right and throwing, in part, across his body to record the out at 1B with no problem. GA LH Pete "Paco" Vernon picked off three runners, though one got to second when the rundown was unsuccessful. Spinelli and PC jr. C R.J. Hollinshead gunned down would-be basestealers.

JUNE 16
CARPENTER CUP FIRST ROUND
Catholic League 7, Delaware South 3
   This festival is in its 19th year and now there are FOUR players who've smashed two HRs in a game. The newest member of the club is North Catholic sr. OF Stan Orzechowski. He hit a two-run shot to dead leftfield in the first and a three-run blast to CF -- maybe 40 feet to the right of the 380-foot sign -- in the fifth. I mentioned in an earlier report that scouts should have been checking out "Stash." Now they should be kissing his feet. His running speed and arm strength are significantly above average and he displays that quick-wrists power. As he gets older and fills out, who knows how strong he could be? Plus, in terms of temperament and how he's viewed by those who know him best, he's pretty much a high school version of Jim Thome. Stan is headed to Gloucester County (Jr.) College. Some of my scouting friends are insisting they'll follow his progress. Hope so! His big day could have been even more amazing. With two out in the sixth inning, K-K jr. OF Lenny Del Grippo, Carroll jr. 3B Brian Rorick (3-for-3, double, walk) and C-E sr. OF Tim Carroll stroked singles. But as Del Grippo stopped at third, Rorick kept going and HE also wound up on third. Rorick eventually back-tracked and was tagged out. Thus, Orzechowski missed out on a chance for a grand slam. Weird happening: "Orze" was the only Falcon to make an out. Sr. Craig Kubis, who was forced to play SS, went 2-for-2. Jr. 2B Chris Wenger went 1-for-1 and made a strong relay throw to get an out at the plate. Making the smooth block and tag on that play was C-E sr. C Matt Fischer. He also went 2-for-2 with an RBI. In all, the Catholic Crew banged out 19 hits. More than two per inning. Phew! Another legendary development on offense: Bonner jr. 1B Kevin Ward, not exactly built like a distance runner, beat out a roller to SS and then stole second. The CL used three pitchers for three frames apiece. O'Hara jr. LH Josh Rickards (one, unearned) and C-E soph RH Brian Herman (two, both earned) went first and third. Ryan sr. LH Tom Dolan pitched one-hit, shutout ball in between. Rickards and Dolan notched pickoffs.

JUNE 16
CARPENTER CUP FIRST ROUND
Tri/Cape 9, Public League 5
  
Why can't games be deemed official at WHATEVER point they're suspended by rain? If that rule existed, the good, ol' Pub would be advancing to the next round for only the second time in the tourney's 19-year history. As it was . . . oh, well. With the score 3-3 in the sixth, a Tri/Cape player launched a three-run triple against Northeast sr. LH Andrew Lihotz and another followed with an RBI single. If you look below, you'll see what happened in Part I of this game. Pub run No. 3 scored on a sacrifice fly by Northeast sr. LF Bryan Adamson. The Pub's other two runs came in the sixth. Northeast jr. C Brandon O'Malley singled and Central sr. DH Kurt Haberle, fresh from his graduation, followed by smoking a double to left-center. Frankford sr. INF Cory Shaeffer and Olney soph 1B Juan Torres got the runners home with consecutive groundouts. O'Malley had a strong performance. He went 2-for-3 (his out was a deep fly to RF), threw out a would-be baserunner and also made a nice recovery of a loose pitch, flipping to sr. RH Joe Farina for an out at the plate. Brandon made significant improvement from his sophomore to junior year and has a chance to be a stalwart in '05. The Pub turned two doubleplays. The first came on a 6-4-3 groundout sequence, with Mastbaum jr. SS Luis Alicea and Frankford jr. 2B Carlos Rosado doing the honors. The second came when Frankford soph 2B Richard Jimenez dove to his left to catch a liner and then flipped to Shaeffer at the second-base bag.

JUNE 15
CARPENTER CUP FIRST ROUND
The Pub 2, Tri/Cape 0!!!!
   OK, the game was suspended in the bottom of the first after a vintage display of lightning and SERIOUS rain. But still, The Pub, a winner just once in the tournament's first 18 years, has an early lead. How cool is that? The game will be completed Wednesday morning, starting at 9:30. In the top half, sr. RH Joe Farina (Frankford) had a little bit of a rough time as T/C got runners to second and third with one out. But Joe humped up to record a strikeout and the final out came on a grounder. In the bottom half, jr. SS Luis Alicea (Mastbaum) lined a single to left-center, sr. CF Brian Morgan (Washington) cracked a single to RF and sr. RF Brandon Watson (Central) powered a two-run double over the CF's head. He wound up at third base thanks to an errant relay. The umps then cleared the field, just 15 minutes into the game, when they spotted lightning. It took a while for the rain to begin, but when it did -- phew!!!! It came down in oversized buckets. I took cover in The Pub's dugout -- as I arrived, one of the players said almost immediately, "Only in The Pub, right Ted?" -- and the water came cascading down the steps, eventually reaching a level of about 6 inches on the dugout floor. The appearance of a small, thin snake (see photo) caused some excitement, as did the sight of Lincoln sr. C Rick Bates allowing himself to be drenched. Earlier, Farina feigned fear when lightning crackled nearby and sr. LH Andrew Lihotz (Northeast) gave him a comforting hug (ha ha).

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Here's the snake that caused panic (ha ha) in The Pub
dugout. It's just about to be washed down the dugout steps.

JUNE 14
CARPENTER CUP FIRST ROUND
Bicentennial/Inter-Ac 11, Olympic/Colonial 1
   It's not without good reason that some people are saying the B/I-A boys could make major noise in this festival. This is the CC's 19th year. I wonder if this squad was the first to trot six pitchers committed to D-I programs??? One, Malvern LH Mike Lorentson (Temple), was drafted last week by the Padres in the 38th round and he was the focus of my DN story. Lorentson was greeted by a single, but just one guy reached base thereafter in his two-inning stint (via an error). GA lefty Sean Grieve (William & Mary) worked the first three innings. They were hitless and scoreless. Sean did walk two and plunk one. The only pitcher roughed up (loose definition) was LH Pete "Paco" Vernon (also W&M). O/C hit three rockets off him to start the eighth -- a double off the RF fence, a liner to 2B and a drive deep to left-center that was caught by Malvern sr. CF Dan Plunkett. Haverford School LH Tom Close (Marist) surrendered an RBI single. GA righty Joe Matteo (Lehigh) pitched the ninth. He hit 88 on radar guns, pretty much right out of the box. Phew! Jr. 1B Joe Rosati (Episcopal) had a two-run, inside-the-park homer en route to three RBI. The LF slightly misplayed the ball, but there's a weirdly-angled section of fence out that way and it can make things tricky. Rosati's homer followed a two-run single by jr. 2B Zack Zeglinski (Penn Charter) and an RBI double to CF by jr. 3B Danny Overcash (GA). PC jr. CF Ryan Nanni was the hitting hero in the early portion of the game. Batting leadoff, he lashed a triple to LF and then added a groundball, RBI single to RF in the second inning.

JUNE 3
PUBLIC LEAGUE FINAL
Frankford 6, Northeast 4
  
This one was entertaining, but for the wrong reasons. The play was WAY too loose for a title game as the teams combined for nine errors and most were of the inexcusable variety -- on simple throws. Northeast had seven alone. Ugly! Making two of the bad throws, after showing nice reactions to get to grounders away from the mound, was sr. LH Andrew Lihotz. I've been impressed with Andrew over the last two years and he has usually been the picture of aplomb. I'm not sure what happened; it was just unfortunate that it happened in the championship game. His teammates had already made two miscues by the time Andrew made his first, so maybe he just caught the fever. The winner -- as if this'll surprise you -- was sr. RH Joe Farina. He allowed seven hits and struck out 10. He had a huge moment in the fifth. Jr. 3B Chris Steinke had an RBI single and then a walk to jr. C Brandon O'Malley (2-for-2, two walks) and a single by sr. LF Bryan Adamson loaded the bases. Farina struck out Lihotz and jr. 1B Chris McNamee on three pitches apiece. The first two pitches to Lihotz were curves that appeared to be high. He then took a fastball. McNamee, for unknown reasons, tried to bunt on the first pitch and it wasn't even a drag. He wound up looking at strike three, also. To start the seventh, a poor throw to 1B by sr. 3B Jeff Newman allowed sr. 2B Joe Cross to reach base. Steinke hit into a fielder's choice. Next, O'Malley crushed a ball to CF. Sr. Matt Romanusky got twisted around a little en route and the ball sailed over his glove for an RBI triple. NE had what it wanted: the tying run at the plate. But Adamson was retired on a foul popup and Lihotz grounded out, Newman to sr. 1B Geoff Minetola, and that was that, folks. Frankford had only one RBI attached to a hit, a single by soph 2B Richard Jimenez. Jimenez and sr. SS Cory Shaeffer had sacrifice flies and Farina picked up an RBI with a bases-loaded walk. Jr. C Carlos Rosado went 2-for-3 with a walk and double. Farina, a transfer from Northeast, finished his three years at Frankford with seven titles (three wrestling, two in baseball and football) and an overall PL record of 97-2, including playoffs. His only losses came in baseball -- to GAMP in a 2002 semifinal and to NE in this regular season. Joe's brother, R.J., a former NE star, said Joe was told while at Northeast to concentrate on playing the outfield and forget about trying to become a pitcher. R.J. is still fired up about it (smile).

JUNE 3
CATHOLIC LEAGUE FINAL, PART II
Carroll 7, Ryan 3
   The resumption lasted just 12 minutes and not much happened. With runners or second and third, and with jr. RH Rob Fisher having moved to the mound from 1B, sr. CF Ryan Stewart sent a hard grounder toward sr. 2B Shawn Costello. Costello, like all of the infielders, was up and the ball took a wicked hop over his shoulder for a two-run single, making it 7-3. The next two batters went out, and jr. C Nick DiEnno gunned down Stewart on a stolen base attempt, and sr. reliever Brandon Gribbin, a righty, matched his perfect sixth from Wednesday with a perfect seventh and Carroll had its sixth title in nine years (fourth under coach Fran Murphy). See right below for Part I.

JUNE 2
CATHOLIC LEAGUE FINAL, PART I
Carroll 5, Ryan 3
  
Well, a whole lot happened and nothing was fully resolved. Rain halted play in the top of the seventh and the game will be completed tomorrow, starting at noon. If you were paying attention, you noticed that Carroll rallied from deficits of 3-0 and 6-1 in the first two rounds of the playoffs. The Patriots started their comebacks rather early in those two affairs. Today? They waited until the top of the seventh, which began with Ryan on top, 3-1. Sr. LHP Tom Dolan, up over 100 pitches, moved to CF after issuing walks to sr. C Matt Lisowski and jr. RF Dave Puliti to start the inning. Sr. RH Mike Szelagowski came on and his first pitch hit jr. 2B John George. Szelagowski then went 3-0 on sr. SS Chris Cashman. As a big rolling sound of thunder hit the region, strike one was called. Cashman fouled off the next pitch high toward Carroll's dugout (third base side). Szelagowski made the call and no one called him off, but he dropped the windblown, still-foul popup close to the third base line and Cashman had new life. He didn't waste the opportunity. Pow! Cashman crushed the next pitch to dead leftfield for the first grand slam in a CL final! The ball landed on the loading dock of the building pretty far beyond the leftfield fence. The clutch salami reversed the Patriots' 3-1 deficit. The rain intensified as the next two batters put the ball in play. Sr. 2B Shawn Costello misplayed a grounder by jr. P-3B Brian Rorick. The next ball, hit by sr. 1B Colin McHale, also went Costello's way. Rorick blocked his vision and it went through for a single; McHale took second on the throw. With the rain absolutely cascading down, the umps halted play at 4:32. It was only drizzling within 8 minutes, but the dirt portion of the field was a mess and -- lousy timing, eh? -- La Salle's groundskeepers had finished their workday at 4:30. Ryan scored three unearned runs in the third. Jr. OF Kyle Unger scored the first after running through a stop sign at 3B. Carroll had him dead to rights, but McHale threw the ball away and Unger waltzed home. Jr. 1B Rob Fisher (single) and jr. SS Anthony Carter (double) added RBI hits. Rorick shifted to 3B after issuing a one-out walk in the fifth. Soph Andrew McDonnell went to the mound from 3B and threw one pitch: Fisher creamed a liner to George for an inning-ending doubleplay. Sr. RHP Brandon Gribbin worked a perfect sixth. He'll be the winning pitcher if Carroll can hold Ryan in the bottom half. He won the C-E game in relief. George (single) scored Carroll's third inning run as Carter bobbled a grounder. Cameraman Joe Malizia and I were doing a videotape from the top of scaffolding near Carroll's dugout. We got drenched. Luckily, there was almost no lightning. And nothing remotely close. Being up there was NOT a comfortable feeling, though. All kinds of metal and equipment. Being said by Joe and Ted: all kinds of prayers.

MAY 29
CATHOLIC LEAGUE SEMIFINAL
Ryan 10, O'Hara 3
  
Under normal circumstances, one would be surprised by this result because O'Hara was the South champ and Ryan was the North runner-up (on tiebreakers, admittedly). But late in the regular season, Ryan pinned a 12-2 loss on the Lions. Meanwhile, just before that game, one can't help but think O'Hara somehow suffered irreparable damage when, after riding high and crushing pretty much everyone, it was shocked by lowly Kennedy-Kenrick, 9-8. We'll never know. Just a theory. O'Hara led this one, 2-0, but Ryan broke through with a five-spot in the fourth and rolled from there. Thus, the championship game -- Ryan vs. Carroll on June 2, at 2:30 -- will feature teams that were NOT division champs for the first time since 1997. Jr. LH Josh Rickards experienced not even a hint of trouble through 3.1 innings and even had a no-hitter. Jr. C Nick DiEnno worked a walk and jr. 1B Rob Fisher smacked an RBI double high off the RF fence. Jr. SS Anthony Carter followed with a drive to deep centerfield for an RBI triple (jr. CF Steve Cook came close to flagging it down). Jr. RF Nick Klein worked a walk and jr. LF Anthony Turco collected an RBI with a groundball single to left. Just like that, Rickards was hooked and the call went out to sr. RH Kyle Reynolds, a sidearmer/submariner. Jr. 3B Ed Kovacs reached on a fielder's choice error (while still receiving credit for an RBI) and sr. RHP Mike Szelagowski punched a groundball single to right for Run No. 5. Amazing. Ryan wasn't done. It added two in the fifth (on Fisher's ground single -- admittedly not a rocket -- to right), two in the sixth (on Dolan's way-outta-here homer to right) and one in the seventh (on DiEnno's infield single). Szelagowski went six innings. O'Hara definitely had its chances, but "Szel" mostly received good fielding support (two doubleplays) and he forced O'Hara to strand nine guys, with four at third and three at second!! Dolan, a lefty, worked the seventh on two days' rest. Sr. LF Don Werner led off by clobbering a triple to left-center. Dolan humped up to strike out sr. 1B Paul Titchenell and jr. RF Sean Barksdale sent a hopper to the mound. Dolan tossed to DiEnno to start a rundown and Kovacs eventually made the tag. Dolan then ended it by striking out jr. pinch-hitter Mark Concannon.

MAY 29
CATHOLIC LEAGUE SEMIFINAL
Carroll 9, Conwell-Egan 8 (8 inn.)
  
C-E coach Rich Papirio is universally liked and respected and he puts out solid teams year after year. But, man oh man, do his teams ever have late-inning problems in playoff games. It's unbelievable. The Eagles self-destructed in this one -- making crucial errors in the sixth, seventh and eighth -- and it was difficult to watch. Then, to make matters worse, the game ended when a runner was thrown out at the plate trying to take TWO bases on a wild pitch. We'll start there: Down by 9-7 in the bottom of the eighth, C-E got a leadoff double to left-center by ever-impressive sr. CF Tim Carroll (3-for-4, also a triple, two RBI). Sr. RHP Brandon Gribbin, who'd been on in relief, moved to 1B and jr. RH Brian Rorick shifted to the mound from 3B. Sr. C Matt Fischer singled to left and Carroll held at third. Backup sr. 1B Alex Szathmary grounded into a forceout, scoring Carroll. Rorick fanned soph P-3B Brian Herman for out No. 2. Sr. PH Chris David blooped a single to make it first and second. On an 0-1 pitch to sr. reliever Jon Squire, Rorick fired one past sr. C Matt Lisowski. As Szathmary got to third, Lisowski was still having trouble locating the ball, which was against the bottom of the backstop. As Lisowski's frustration/desperation mushroomed, Szathmary broke for home! Rorick had already run toward the plate, and beyond. In an incredible sequence, Rorick recovered the ball and Lisowski drifted to the plate, where he took a throw from Rorick and tagged out Szathmary to end it! The play did not appear to be close, but C-E's first base coach went nuts and stormed down the line to the plate. According to those much closer, the guy bumped into plate ump Paul Fricker and there could be repercussions. C-E owned a 6-1 lead after four innings. Ouch! Carroll's RBI triple highlighted a two-run first and a two-run double by sr. LF Kurt Bruehl (3-for-5) highlighted a four-run fourth. Carroll's climb back began with a sac fly by sr. LF Dave Puliti in the sixth. Continued with two in the sixth as sr. RF Matt Smith (on fielder's choice error) and soph RHP Andrew McDonnell (single) got the RBI. Climaxed with three in the seventh as sr. 1B Colin McHale provided the memory-maker with a two-run double to right.

MAY 27
PUBLIC LEAGUE SEMIFINAL
Northeast 2, Central 1
  
There's nothing like the home seventh in playoff baseball, especially when the score is tied. There's just a different aura and it mushrooms when the leadoff hitter gets on. In this one, the hitter was sr. LHP Andrew Lihotz and he smacked a single to center. Lihotz convinced coach Sam Feldman not to insert a courtesy runner and promptly stole second. Pinch-hitter Dan McGill fanned after failing to get down a bunt but then, zoom!, Lihotz lit out for third and stole that, too. Central coach Bob Barthelmeh had no choice but to bring up his infield (and outfield, for that matter). Sr. CF Jason Zitman, the No. 9 hitter, sent a blooper behind fresh SS Jared Farbman. Even though the ball made it only as far as the back of the dirt, the play resulted in a no-sweat hit and Lihotz was able to make a successful mad dash for home. If ever a kid deserved a win, it was Lihotz. He tied a semis record for strikeouts, with 14, and recorded his first 11 outs via whiffs. Amazing! Only a caught stealing broke the streak. (The Ks did not come one right after the other. Three singles were mixed in.) Lihotz, who's bound for Rutgers-Camden, finished with a six-hitter. Andrew also made a contribution to the Vikings' first run. Jr. 1B Chris McNamee reached base with two out in the second after he bunted and no one covered the bag as sr. RHP Andrew "Harry Potter" Reynolds fielded the ball. Lihotz followed with an infield single and McNamee came around on a steal-error combo. NE could have scored in the fifth. But after coming around on a single by jr. 3B Chris Steinke, sr. 2B Joe Cross failed to touch the plate and was belatedly tagged out by sr. C Ron Daukaus. Sr. CF Brandon Watson, who also went 3-for-3 with a double, made a terrific throw. Earlier, he'd made a memorable sprawling catch on Zitman's deep drive. Central's run came in the fifth on an error, sac by sr. 1B Mike "Wally Cleaver" Johnson and a double high off the fence in left-center by sr. 2B Mark Gillman, the No. 9 hitter.

MAY 27
PUBLIC LEAGUE SEMIFINAL
Frankford 5, Washington 2
   This one was deceiving. It didn't seem as though sr. RHP Joe Farina was at the top of his game, but yet he struck out nine and allowed just three hits (two of the infield variety). By now, do we perhaps expect too much from him??? Similarly, it seemed as though Frankford was coasting as the game neared a conclusion. But then, a one-out infield throwing error and a hard groundball single to center by sr. 2B Adam Eisman brought the tying run to the plate. Sr. CF Brian Morgan, the top Eagle, absolutely creamed a ball up the middle. However, soph 2B Richard Jimenez caught the liner and stepped on the bag for a game-ending doubleplay. Jimenez, a recent arrival from the Dominican Republic with MUCH potential, was an all-around factor. He had an RBI double in the first and a run-scoring single in the fifth. Frankford had four runs in the first as jr. RH Marc Tankel had trouble settling in. Jr. C Carlos Rosado also had an RBI double and sr. RF Carlos Masip lined a two-run single to right. My DN story focused on sr. 1B Geoff Minetola, who hammered a triple and double. Geoff formerly was the drummer in a heavy metal band and his hair is quite long. At the request of coach Bob Peffle, Geoff bunches his mop into a ponytail and tucks it up under his cap. He also sports a full beard. Joe Lieberman umped at 1B. His son, Ivan, handled third. "Peff" told a great story before the game about how, during Frankford's Florida trip, he conned his players into thinking he'd gotten a tribal tattoo on his arm. Assistant Juan Namnun was in on the gag. 

MAY 26
CATHOLIC LEAGUE SECOND-ROUND PLAYOFF
Carroll 8, SJ Prep 3
  
The Patriots long have prided themselves on crisp play and coming through in difficult situations. But in the fourth inning, they were guilty of two bad infield errors -- simple bobbles, really -- and The Prep took advantage to post a three-spot. Carroll went meekly in the bottom half and it was impossible not to think, "Hmm. Are we looking at an upset here?" Not quite. Carroll is headed to the semis for the ninth consecutive year. Prep sr. RH Joe McElwee inexplicably imploded in the fifth, hitting or walking five of the first six batters. With two runs in and McElwee showing no signs of regrouping, coach Chris Rupertus had no choice but to make a change. Soph RH Matt Leddy was greeted by a two-run single from sr. Matt Smith -- it was a HARD groundball down the rightfield line -- and a passed ball brought in run No. 5. One of the hardest things about being a sports writer is watching a kid, especially one who's usually reliable, struggle badly at the most inopportune moment. Joe will recover, of course, and here's hoping he's able to look at the season as a whole. The highlight of a three-run sixth was a two-run, groundball single to center by sr. CF Ryan Stewart. The PLAYING highlight. The overall highlight was an ejection. While covering the plate after uncorking a wild pitch, Leddy was caught throwing an elbow at the runner, jr. 2B John George. Plate ump Bill Haines immediately, and with flair, told Leddy he was gone. The Prep people contended George had also thrown a 'bow. I didn't see any of the extracurricular activity and neither did anyone sitting where I was (looking straight along a line from 1B to 2B). Jr. 2B Steve Vassalotti moved to the mound and he was the one to serve Smith's two-run single. Carroll's starter was jr. RH Brian Rorick. He routinely hits 84 to 86 mph and makes the occasional visit to 88Ville. He maintained his composure during the fourth-inning misadventure and went six innings total, allowing four hits (two on the infield). He's 8-0 in CL play with two saves and 9-0 overall. Carroll sr. 1B Colin McHale walked in all four plate appearances. Two of the free passes were intentional. For Prep, sr. SS Rob McDonnell and Vassalotti turned a classy doubleplay.

MAY 25
CATHOLIC LEAGUE FIRST-ROUND PLAYOFF
La Salle 22, North Catholic 8
  
Let's start with the numbers: 43 players, 9 pitchers, 31 hits, 14 for extra bases, 11 walks, 6 errors and and ZERO 1-2-3 half-innings. La Salle jumped to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first and frolicked from there while setting a record for most runs scored in a CL playoff. In a nine-run third, the Explorers drew five consecutive walks as sr. RH Craig Kubis tried gamely to find control that just wouldn't appear. No need for play-by-play details, troops, so we'll go right to some headliners. Sr. 3B Pat Riley went 3-for-6 with two RBI. Jr. 1B Zac Hess, blasted a triple and double in his first two at-bats and later had a sac fly. Sr. 2B Pat McCusker, the only La Salle player aside from Riley to go the distance, had a sac fly and sac bunt in his first two trips and later stroked an RBI single and RBI double (three RBI total). The most impressive sub was sr. RF John Trainer, who went 2-for-2 with a pair of rocket-like doubles and two RBI. Soph RF Steve Ullrich made a spectacular diving catch. VERY spectacular, actually. Sub sr. SS Matt Malloy made a tough grounder deep in the hole look easy. I was impressed with soph LH Matt Zielinski. He already has nasty stuff and should only get better. I liked how North kept swingin' and having fun despite the mammoth proportions of the deficit. Sr. CF Stan Orzechowski -- pro teams should be ON this kid NOW!! -- has a great bat and impressive speed. He easily legged out a triple on a ball that for most guys would have been a double. He tripled and doubled to sandwich a two-run homer way out to left-center. North teacher Larry Conti, the former coach at La Salle University (and North, for that matter), could not say enough nice things about Orzechowski as a person. He's a focused, humble kid with a great work ethic (Larry has him in class) and there's no denying his baseball skills. Sr. RF Mike Berretta was robbed by Ullrich and had a deep drive caught at the fence. He later doubled OFF the fence. Sr. 1B Ed Jaskowiak hit a homer straight down the leftfield line. After the game, North's seniors one by one took a slow trot around the bases and were greeted at the plate by the underclassmen. Nice touch.

MAY 20
PUBLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL
Central 7, Edison 6
  
I didn't have time on a VERY busy night to look up this fact until after midnight, so it won't appear in my Daily News story. But here it is: Edison has advanced to the quarterfinal round 15 times since 1978 and is still looking for a win. Unbelievable. This loss was especially difficult for the Owls (nee Inventors) to accept because they frittered away a 5-2 lead. Also, the game ended on one of the game's hardest hit balls -- a screamer by jr. RF Carlos Maldonado directly to sr. LF Kurt Haberle with one run in (on a 395-foot sac fly to CF by sr. 3B Gilbert Boria, no less) and two men on in the visiting seventh. Phew! Hard to take! Three of Edison's 15 quarterfinal losses have come in close fashion to Central; the others were 9-8 in eight innings in '96 and 6-5 in nine innings in '93. Phew again! I wouldn't say Central deserved to lose, but the Lancers were quite untidy at times and messed up simple plays. They were clutch when they needed to be, though, and who can't appreciate that? We'll go to the sixth, with Central down, 5-3. Sub soph 3B Joe Magdovitz and sr. 2B Mark Gillman opened with singles vs. sr. LH Jonathan "Loco" Gonzalez and were bunted up by sr. SS-P Andrew "Harry Potter" Reynolds. Sr. OF Joe Gallagher had a terrific, battling at-bat and finally worked a walk to load the bases. On a 2-2 count, after fouling off a couple of pitches, sr. P-OF Brandon Watson lined an outside pitch to RF for a two-run single. After Haberle went down looking, sr. C Ron Daukaus ripped another two-run single just out of the reach of the diving Boria. It was a classic half-inning and Central deserves much credit for putting it together. Watson, a 6-2 RH, departed while facing the fourth batter of the fifth, Boria. He experienced tightness in his shoulder while throwing back-to-back curves. I couldn't believe it when he went to CF and thought, "What if he has to make an important throw?!" It never happened and he said his shoulder only hurt while throwing curves. Sounds weird, but injuries can be strange. Reynolds wound up getting the win, holding Edison to one unearned run. Danny Camacho, Edison's sr. LF, rocketed a 370-foot solo homer into the trees above the leftfield wall in the third. There were several outstanding defensive plays: Central frosh 3B Jared Farbman scooped a wicked one-hopper toward the line and made a strong throw to first; Edison sr. 2B Carlos Perez and frosh SS Javier Lafuente turned an impressive 4-6-3 doubleplay with the bases loaded in the first; Boria easily handled two difficult plays; and Reynolds hold on to a popup after colliding in shallow LF with Haberle. After "Potter" made that play, an Edison rooter hollered, "He's using his magic! He's cheating!" I heard Central sr. 1B Mike Johnson being called "Wally" by his teammates. He does kinda look like Wally Cleaver, Beaver's brother, especially from the side. Wonder if that's the reason? The start of the game was held up briefly when plate ump John Jackson noticed one of thoses plastic hospital ID bracelets on Perez' left wrist. Jackson made Perez get it cut off. Someone near and dear to Carlos had delivered a baby in the last day or so.

MAY 18
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Gtn. Academy 14, Penn Charter 0
  
After five innings, I was thinking, "Baseball should make a rule that winning teams have to score at least one earned run." GA had a 5-0 lead at that point and none of the runs was earned. The Patriots then exploded for six in the sixth and three in the seventh to make it a blowout and clinch the I-A title (at 9-0) for the second straight year. All nine were earned and some of the Patriots strongly made that point to PC sub Ed "Special Ed" Morrone, of website writing fame. I don't think Ed quite appreciated that (smile). GA's pitcher was sr. RH Matt Bruderek, who's bound for Rhode Island. He allowed three hits and one walk and faced the minimum number of batters through four (sr. 3B David Skinner doubled in the first but was erased in a double play when he wandered too far off base during a groundout). Bruderek retired the last five batters in order, and one of the outs came on a nifty sliding catch in CF by sr. Sean Grieve. Some batting stats: Grieve went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Sr. OF Kevin Gordon went 3-for-3 with a walk and two RBI. Bruderek went 2-for-4 with two RBI. Jr. RF Matt Brown lined a two-run single. Sr. C Alex Kaplan, sr. DH Joe Matteo and jr. 2B Tyler Stampone lashed RBI singles. In the seventh, coach Craig Conlin went heavily with subs and soph Jason Davila crushed an inside-the-park, two-run homer to left-center. Via the re-entry rule, the starters returned to the field for the bottom half and were able to celebrate together when a grounder by soph 2B Mario Incollingo ended it. PC's starter was frosh LH Mark Adzick, who's 6-3 and slim. He was a force as early as last year, but a tender elbow held him back this season and this was only his second start. There's much to like. He shows a good demeanor and a tailing fastball and, of course, he'll throw even harder as he fills out. He was the victim of the five unearned runs. Three relievers struggled. A lightning sighting, followed by a shower, halted play for 18 minutes in the top of the seventh. The Brothers Zeglinski, frosh RF Sam/Sammy and jr. SS Zack, made back-to-back nice plays in the third. Sam/Sammy (we're still awaiting word on which he prefers -- ha, ha) caught a liner on the dead run toward the line and Zack followed with a sparkling, cut-across-the-diamond, scoop-and-throw play on a grounder. In website legend news, GA's Zach "ZB's Zone" Berman pinch-ran in the seventh and scored a run. While sliding into second, he also took a throw in the back of the helmet. He laughed it off, as did his teammates. Meanwhile, "Special Ed" was in the on-deck circle, ready to take Bruderek yard (smile), when the game concluded.

MAY 17
PUBLIC LEAGUE ROUND-OF-16 PLAYOFF
GAMP 9, Kensington 4
  
The most interesting part of this afternoon was watching two guys from the South Phila. Sabres (John Sandefur and Anthony Turchi) get the all-dirt infield prepared for the resumption of play after a thunderstorm caused a 63-minute delay. GAMP coach Art Kratchman swept the water out of puddles and then Sandefur -- phew, he was a whirlwind on a small tractor with a dragging instrument on the back. I never would have predicted that the field could have been made good enough for the game to continue. The teams spent the delay under a bridge on 7th Street, north of Packer. A good time was had by all. Not really. A mostly boring time was had by all. As for the game itself . . . Kensington killed itself by committing nine errors. Yes, nine! Sr. LH Josh "Eggie" Williams could only shake his head in disgust as the total mounted. The game got ugly in the fourth as the Tigers were guilty of three boo-boos. None of the four runs was earned and only jr. RF Dom DeMarco (3-for-4) had a hit for an RBI. GAMP's four-run sixth featured a two-run double by sr. 3B-LF Kyle Torriero. Soph CF-P Ryan Challender added an RBI single. With a 5-1 lead after five innings, Kratchman decided to remove jr. RH Vinnie Evangelista from the mound and go with Challender, a lefty. The idea was to keep Evangelista eligible for Thursday's quarterfinal at Washington. The move looked shaky when Challender was touched for three runs; admittedly, they were unearned and a bad, two-out error opened the door. Sr. 3B Edwin Tapia had a two-run double and frosh LF Carlos Rivera followed with an RBI single. The inning ended when frosh C Wilmy Jimenez smashed a liner almost straight up the middle and LaBruna made the catch. Kensington coach Joe Egenolf exclaimed, "Why was he playing there?! That should have been a hit!" GAMP's subsequent outburst undoubtedly made Challender feel more comfortable and he held the Tigers scoreless in the seventh. GAMP jr. LF Gabe Natale, son of Bartram FB coach Frank "Roscoe" Natale, received credit for a sacrifice fly in the second when his drive to left was dropped for an error. I had a nice pre-game talk with the ever-bubbly Jenny Tran, the leader of GAMP's managing corps. She's bound for Drexel to major in corporate communications and there's no doubt she'll do well. She kiddingly described one of GAMP's players as a "degenerate." She said with a smile, "Most of the people I call that aren't even degenerates. I just love that word."

MAY 14
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
O'Hara 4, Carroll 2 (8 inn.)
  
Excellent ballgame on many levels between what might be the league's top two teams and a decent crowd -- somewhere in the 150 to 175 range -- was on hand. Well worth the drive out to Radnor. Carroll's field has a well-deserved rep as a bandbox, but there were no homers through four innings. The only run to that point, scored by O'Hara, had come in the first as jr. CF Steve Cook reached first on an infield error, moved up two bases on a pair of groundouts and scored as sr. RF Don Werner smacked a single into LF. With two out in the fifth, O'Hara made it 2-0 as jr. 3B Brian Giacabetti fired a low line drive barely over the CF fence. O'Hara jr. LH Josh Rickards carried a no-hitter into the sixth. Soph 3B Andrew McDonnell hit a one-hopper off the fence in right-center and jr. LF Dave Puliti grounded into a forceout. Jr. 2B John George followed with a looper not too far from the LF line. Jr. LF Sean Barksdale, a defensive replacement, made a diving attempt and was unable to make the catch. Barksdale made a quick recovery and, though the play was right in front of him, Puliti tried to make it to third. He was an easy out. That play became huge when jr. SS Chris Cashman followed with a two-run HR to dead center. After jr. P-3B Brian Rorick smashed a single to CF, Rickards departed in favor of sr. RH Kyle Reynolds, a submariner. He induced a fly ball to end the inning and was perfect in the seventh and eighth. There was some serious gear-turning in the O'Hara seventh. Sr. 2B Nick Longmore led off with a bad-hop single last 3B and yielded to pinch-runner Harry Duke. Rorick struck out Cook looking and coach Fran Murphy came to the mound. Rorick had thrown roughly 125 pitches on Monday and he departed in favor of sr. LH Joe Harris. Harris retired Giacabetti on a popup and, boom, he was history, too. Sr. RH Brandon Gribbin, a 6-3, 190-pounder with high-80s gas, ended the frame with a looking K. In O'Hara's eighth, Werner drew a walk and sr. 1B Paul Titchenell easily turned on an up-and-in pitch and pounded a two-run HR way out to left-center. That was it, as things turned out. Rickards' final line: 5.2 inn., 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K. Rorick's line: 6.1 inn., 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB (1 intentional), 5 K. There were several nifty defensive plays. Carroll sr. RF Matt Smith ran hard and caught a popup in foul territory and O'Hara jr. SS Matt Catania sprawled to glove a hard one-hopper up the middle, then scrambled to his feet and made a true throw. Had a good time watching the game with Joe McGillen, of scouting fame, and Paul McGeehan, formerly Carroll's coach.

MAY 13
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Olney 6, Mastbaum 3
  
Why wait until next year? Yes, Olney has an entire starting lineup of underclassmen and seven of the 10, counting the DH, are freshmen or sophomores. But the Trojans, who have baby formula on the bench instead of Gatorade (smile), are the Division B champs and they claimed that honor in grand style, dumping Mastbaum yesterday at home and today on the road to finish 12-2 to The Baum's 11-3. The pitcher was frosh RH Felix Madera, who's only about 5-8, 155 pounds, but very poised and methodical. His expression did not change at ALL until the game was won. Madera was mostly a strike-throwing machine and he has a dive-bombing splitter that almost looks like a knuckler. Here's how much faith coach Barry Strube had in Madera: In the third, with two outs and a runner on third, Strube decided to issue intentional walks to the No. 2 and 3 hitter to load the bases for No. 4! Except in a late-inning, game-on-the-line situation, have you ever seen something like that? Incredible. The game was scoreless at the time. Madera walked jr. 3B Wilson Ribot to force in a run, but rebounded immediately to blow away sr. C Joel Rodriguez. Madera finished with a four-hitter and nine strikeouts. He had a no-hitter for 4.1 innings when jr. SS Luis Alicea smashed a long drive off the fence in left for a double. Sr. RHP Jose Colon followed with a sinking liner to left. Jr. LF Juan Diaz made an all-or-nothing dive and the ball got past him for an RBI double. Madera pitched out of trouble from there. In the field, soph 3B Arturo Quirindongo made an early throwing error, but his throws were strong and true thereafter and most were from deep locations. Madera, batting second, went 2-for-4 with a double and triple. Junior SS Kelington Tejada went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Diaz had two hits, two RBI. Soph DH Mike Semidey and soph C Jose "Pinky" DeLeon also had two hits. Colon had game-long trouble keeping the ball down. He seemed visibly drained after legging out a triple in the fifth and Olney touched him for seven hits total in the sixth and seventh (along with three runs). Jr. CF David Pough, who figures to be a top FB prospect come fall, gunned down a runner at the plate in the top of the seventh and led off the bottom half with a triple to the low concrete wall in CF. Alicea singled to bring him home. Like Neumann CF Billy Canady, David was on that team of youngsters in 1997 that traveled the country in an old bus to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's entry into MLB. Before the game, Olney took BP on the field next to the main field. Sr. William Medina, a big, strong kid, hit a HR to left-center that landed on the roof of the hockey rink. I wondered, "Who is THIS kid?" Just a sub. He never got into the game. Olney showed game-long emotion even though it was quite hot. It was nice to see.

MAY 11
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Gtn. Academy 9, Penn Charter 0
  
What a disappointment. This game was l-o-n-g for no good reason and was nothing close to crisp. As everyone knows, the spring weather has largely been atrocious and today was wickedly hot and humid so maybe guys had trouble focusing. Anyway, GA's starter was sr. LHP Sean Grieve, who's bound for William & Mary. He consistently threw mid-80s cheese while allowing two hits in five innings. Even though he fanned eight, I can't say he was particularly sharp. He walked four and plunked one and often ran deep counts. He did have an impressive moment in the fourth. With the bases loaded and two out, Grieve went 3-0 on frosh 1B Mark Adzick and then battled back to strike him out. Sr. LHP Pete "Paco" Vernon finished up. With the score 4-0, jr. C R.J. Hollinshead and jr. CF Ryan Nanni greeted Vernon with quick singles. It was the first hint of life, of its own doing (two runners had reached base on walks in the fourth), that PC had shown. But coach Rick Mellor, my ol' PC classmate, opted for a sacrifice and jr. DH Sean Rust did the job. He came close to reaching base, but was nipped at first as Vernon fired to jr. 2B Tyler Stampone. Next, Vernon bounced a pitch to the backstop and Hollinshead dashed home. Sr. C Alex Kaplan flipped to the covering Vernon and Hollinshead was out. (Or maybe he wasn't. The play was that close and even some GA loyalists appeared to be surprised at the call.) Anyway, the would-be rally died quickly as soph LF Mike Parrilla grounded out. Vernon fanned the side in the seventh with a walk mixed in. GA scored one in the first and second, two in the third and five in the sixth. PC sr. Corey Thomas, a classic crafty lefty, just didn't have it. He plunked the first two batters of the game and finished with three along with seven walks. He allowed five hits. Jr. RHP Chris Brock had a rocky sixth (five hits). Grieve collected three RBI on a single, HBP and grounder that became an error. Jr. CF Matt Brown, who seems to consistently hit rockets, had an RBI single while going 2-for-3 with a walk and a liner for an out. Jr. 3B Danny Overcash went 2-for-2 with two walks and two runs scored. Stampone went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI and his best shot turned into a sliding catch for Parrilla. Very nice play! Sr. CF Joe Matteo and jr. SS Andrew Hanson plated runs with singles and sr. LF Kevin Gordon did so with a sacrifice fly. Hollinshead had two knocks for the Quakers. PC assistant Mike Ryan loved my Boston College hat. No wonder. His brother, Matt (PC '03; Mike played at Malvern), is a QB there and could very well receive playing time come fall. Lots of pretty ladies among the spectators. You know who you were (smile).

MAY 10
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Franklin Towne Charter 12, Overbrook 2
  
Some background first: FTC is a first-year member and plays its home games at Frankford and Comly in a corner of Wissinoming Park; the school itself is on the grounds of the old Frankford Arsenal, in Bridesburg. The enrollment is about 950 and the principal is a very nice guy, Bill Tomasco, who formerly coached basketball in The Pub (Furness) and CL (SJ Prep). The Coyotes were perfect in Division C play going in and I'd noted in the results that Overbrook sr. RHP Ron Bubas had turned in some high-strikeout performances, so I figured this tilt might be respectable. Oh, well. I was right for three innings. The only run through three was a MAMMOTH homer to left-center by Bubas. The ball was about 40 feet high as it disappeared into a tree. It's impossible to tell for sure, of course, but it looked pretty darn similar to the blast hit last week at Bonner by O'Hara's Paul Titchenell. Bubas is a short, strong kid and throws rather hard. Not hard enough to alert the scouts, but much harder than the average Div. C hurler. He is also wild. He walked three and hit two through three, then came apart in the fourth as FTC plated nine runs. With that being said, he could have survived had sr. RF Sean "Cheese" Williams not slightly misjudged a liner that went for a two-run double; also had sr. 1B Josiah Barnes not hot-dogged a play at first base. With one out, frosh CF Eric Krajewski tapped a comebacker to Bubas. His throw was in plenty of time, but Barnes snapped his glove at the ball and wound up dropping it. Not good, and Barnes knew it immediately. Bubas then walked two in a row and sr. 2B Ryan Sweet hit the liner that got over Williams' head. Jr. 3B Rich Brown, sr. RF Casey Chuhinka and soph LF Ray Ostrowski drew bases-loaded walks for RBI and Krajewski greeted Barnes, in relief, with an RBI single. Jr. 1B Chris Slavin got plunked to bring in run No. 7 and sr. SS Nick Coleman added a two-run single. The Coyotes added three in the fifth to end it. It wasn't pretty. Slavin got hit again -- for the THIRD time in the game; by the third different pitcher -- to plate run No. 12. FTC's pitcher was sr. RH Brian Figaniak, a basketball star who's playing baseball for only the second year. He has a big-breaking curve and a decent fastball. He fanned eight and allowed three hits. The Panthers' second run scored in the fifth on a double by energetic soph C Michael Yancy. FTC has a chance to make some noise in the playoffs. Figaniak, Coleman, Brown, Sweet and sr. C Mike Cermignano all could start for most of the PL teams and Brown is likely one of the league's top juniors. Cermignano is thoroughly old school. He talks and keeps his teammates focused and he directed a snappy infield-outfield drill before coach Kyle Riley arrived; it was complete with situations. Also, he gunned down two would-be basestealers and almost got a third. Overbrook turned in the game's most impressive play. With Brown on third in the third, Bubas uncorked a pitch that thudded against the wood portion of the backstop and came bouncing in front of the plate. Yancy made a great recovery and tossed to Bubas, who was running toward home. Brown neglected to slide and Bubas made an outstanding catch-and-tag while running pretty close to full speed. Only one ump showed up. He was scheduled to work the bases, but went to his car and put on the equipment. It only seemed to take him about four days!! 'Brook coach Phil Beauchemin is the director of the school's state championship mock-trial team. He was trying like crazy to keep FTC from ending the game in the fifth. He brought his outfielders WAY up with the hope of keeping run No. 12 from scoring.   

MAY 6
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Washington 3, Central 1
  
When the first inning featured three errors, I was fearful the game would be hard on the eyes throughout. It settled down nicely, though, and both teams had some good moments. Plus, the weather was outstanding and the umps were good guys I've known for a long time (Bill Hall, Jerry Kleger) and it's always interesting to hang out with our dot.com stalwart Randy Seidman, of "Randy's Ramblings" fame. Jr. RHP Marc Tankel, who has grown about 4 inches just since the fall, went the distance for Washington. He allowed five hits (all singles) and three walks while striking out six. He's still a rather thin kid. As he fills out, he could become a horse. I was impressed with sr. CF Brian Morgan, a lefty thrower but righthanded batter. He has very good speed and baserunning instincts, and he went 3-for-4 with two ground rule doubles and an infield single on a simple grounder to shortstop. The doubles would have been triples, but the balls rolled onto the sidewalk in front of the locker-room building that stretches from RF across to CF. Morgan bats second. Third was jr. LF Matt Yankowitz, the son of Dobbins basketball coach Rich Yankowitz, the winningest coach in Pub history. Yank had an infeld single in the first and a single to center in the fifth. In the seventh, after Morgan doubled, Yank got down a bunt in perfect fashion and sr. 3B Ken Radziak (2-for-3, two RBI) followed with a sac fly to RF. Washington received no hits from the final five batters in the order. Central's pitcher was jr. RH Andrew Reynolds, who is universally called "Harry Potter" or just plain "Potter" for obvious reasons. He gave up eight hits and fanned 10 (seven among the last four guys in the order). Also, he switch-hit and went back and forth (lefty in the first and fifth; righty in the third and seventh). In the seventh, there was a man on first and I thought he should have hit lefthanded there because there would have been a good hole to shoot for. He wound up looking at a third strike. He'd made great contact lefthanded with a liner to right and deep fly to center. Sr. C Ron Daukaus collected Central's RBI with a hot grounder that hit Tankel's foot and caromed into shallow RF. While Washington received seven hits from its 2-3-4 hitters, Central received none. Central's starting SS is frosh Jared Farbman, a tall, thin kid. He made a nifty play on a ball hit rather deep into the hole and threw out sr. 2B Adam Eisman. Randy Seidman is using a new lawn chair purchased by several Eagles. His back rests against a cloth baseball. Cool, eh? Central sr. 3B Craig Baumbach must be a John Kruk fan. He wears No. 29 and his jersey is untucked more often than tucked. Jerry Kleger coached Ben Franklin to the Pub title in 1983 and to the final in '84. Bill Hall is active in publicity for the Carpenter Cup. Jerry got torched right after the game by Central coach Bob Barthelmeh, who argued that sr. CF Brandon Watson should have been safe at 1B when a throw by jr. SS Jason Charney pulled sr. 1B Eric "Son of Randy" Seidman off the bag. Eric definitely came off. Jerry said he caught the ball first, THEN came off. Don't ask me. My angle was horrible. After I took Central's team picture for the website, Barthelmeh told his guys, "Let's make that the last time we smile today. We've got work to do."

MAY 4
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
O'Hara 7, Bonner 3
  
There was no sound system to play the National Anthem, so O'Hara's batters took care of that rockets' red glare stuff. Jr. CF Steve Cook (4-for-5, two RBI) opened the game with a home run that hit about halfway up the monastery building in CF. The Lions added five more in the frame and cruised from there. I always make note on my scoresheets of how well balls are hit. O'Hara had seven hits in the inning. All were "hard" or "rip." And the first out was a liner to SS by the No. 2 hitter, jr. 3B Brian Giacabetti. The sequence thereafter: walk to sr. C John Coyle, single to right by sr. RF Don Werner, three-run homer to DEEP left-center by sr. 1B Paul Titchenell, walk to sr. LF Mike Conn, infield single by sr. LHP Josh Rickards (sr. SS Bruce Berry made a terrific diving stop), single by jr. SS Matt Catania, walk to drive in a run to sr. 2B Nick Longmore, RBI single by Cook, single by Giacabetti. Runners were thrown out at the plate on those last two hits. Jr. RF Joe McGilligan and sr. LF J.J. Jordan did the throwing and the Friars' ever-impressive jr. C, Tom Moran, did the snagging/tagging. Sr. RHP Connor McCormick relieved sr. RHP John Couts before Cook batted for the second time. He went the rest of the way and was touched only for a sixth-inning run. It looked early as though O'Hara was en route to 20, 30, 40 runs, so McCormick should feel good about the job he did. Titchenell's homer was a bomb and a half. WAY out and completely over a tree. And the tree wasn't too close to the fence. As Titchenell (1-for-3, intentional walk) returned to the bench, his teammates and coaches were wondering whether Bonner's zany student fans, who hang out behind the centerfield fence making wisecracks and grilling burgers, would throw the ball back on the field. Someone cracked, "They gotta find it before they can throw it." By the way, the kids had a hose and filled a plastic baby pool with water. I saw one kid get tossed in and a few splashing around while standing up. Wasn't exactly warm, either. Rickards had a weird one. In each of the first four innings, he retired the first two batters before getting into slight to medium trouble. He then fanned all three guys in the fifth (of nine total). A leadoff guy finally reached base in the sixth and he later came around on a single by sr. 3B Tom Callan. Rickards has a good-gas fastball (84 to 87 mph) with the typical lefty's tail. He did walk six, though, and as he knows, that's unacceptable. Sr. RHP Kyle Reynolds, an old-time submariner, finished up. He surrendered a double to Berry and a two-run homer to jr. 1B Kevin Ward. Off the bat, I thought, "Man, that has a chance to clear the roof (of the school building)!" It reached the third floor (of four). Quite a shot nonetheless. "Wardie" has a neat batter's box habit: he twice blesses himself between pitches and twice uses his bat to "bless" the plate. Bonner assistant Jim Tully was ejected for complaining about balls and strikes. The home plate ump had a rough day. He was severely second-guessed (by O'Hara assistant John Fleming) on the game's very first pitch and maybe a dozen times total by coaches from both sides. In the third inning, McGilligan hit a drive to left. It sounded great, but died. Rickards thought he had surrendered a home run. He said, "I turned around and was waiting for 'Blue' to gimme a new ball." Werner made a sparkling, diving/sliding catch in deep RF, heading toward the line, to end the game.

APRIL 30
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
La Salle 9, North Catholic 2
   Now THIS was the opposite of a goodie. Especially when compared with yesterday's Ryan/Conwell-Egan game. On second thought, it was probably unfair to go see North for the first time on its fourth consecutive day of playing a league game, especially since the Falcons' Thursday game vs. Wood had gone 12 innings. North jumped to two quick runs, literally, as the game's first two batters scored. But it did little thereafter and killed itself with sloppy fielding and La Salle wound up coasting. La Salle's pitcher was jr. RH Chez Angeloni, whose real first name is Cesar/Caesar (forgot to ask how it's spelled). He's a thin kid and does not throw especially hard, but he regrouped nicely after the early jolts and pitched through the sixth. He allowed six hits and struck out seven. Jr. LHP Pat Rider finished up and threw the two best curves of the day. North's take-one-for-the-team starter was sr. RH Mike Berretta, who pitched four innings Tuesday. His fielders let him down, big-time, and he also wasn't razor sharp; he allowed 11 hits in four innings. La Salle plated six in the second on four hits, three errors and a very important misjudged line drive in the outfield. Some overall heroes for the 'Splorers: soph CF Mike Villari went 2-for-3 with an HBP and an RBI. Sr 2B Charlie Capaci had an RBI single. Sr. 3B Pat "The Future of La Salle High Athletics" Riley went 2-for-4 with two RBI. Sr. RF John Trainer had two hits and a sac. Sr. C Jeff Kanof (single), sr. LF Dave Achey (double) and Angeloni (single) had hits for RBI. Achey had one of the best sacs you'll ever see. Coaches like to say, "Try to 'catch' the ball with your bat on a bunt." Achey did it perfectly! North's first inning featured a single by jr. 2B Chris Wenger and double to left by sr. 3B Craig Kubis, a lefty swinger. Sr. CF Stan Orzechowski launched a sac fly to right and Berretta got the second run home on a groundout. Kubis made impressive contact two other times; lineout to deep left and liner to 2B. Jim Quinn, a small/slight soph, talked it up non-stop for North game and got a chance to pinch-hit in the seventh. He made decent contact and flied to left. Even with two out and nobody on, he was still encouraging his teammates. "C'mon, we can do it! We're gonna score eight runs and win this thing!" That attitude will take you far in life, young man. Maintain it forever. The ring on the cell phone of a North fan was "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." At one point, La Salle sr. SS Matt Malloy walked over to injured teammate Nick Manzi, handed him his cell phone and told him, "Here, take this up to my dad and tell him to press 7. It's my prom date." Gotta love it! Manzi did as ordered. Remember those Taco Neck Syndrome commercials Shaq did for Taco Bell a few years ago? Kanof probably has 'Splorer Catcher Neck Syndrome. To get the pitch calls from pitching coach Mike O'Connor, Kanof had to turn his head, again and again and again, to the right at more than a 45-degree angle. Here's the answer to a trivia question jr. INF Mike Pennington asked me about his brother, Chris, an ex-FB star at La Salle: In '97, Chris was a first team coaches' All-Catholic pick on defense at the E/OLB slot. That answer might enable baseball assistant Ed Bongard to win the bet, but I've gotta be honest, my man (smile). By the way, Ed (class of '98) was a first team All-City player in football (LB) and baseball (C) as well as a basketball starter (third team coaches' All-Catholic). Not bad, eh?

APRIL 29
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Ryan 1, Conwell-Egan 0
  
Now THIS was a goodie! Neither pitcher issued a walk (OK, there was one hit batsman) and both benches had decent energy throughout, making for a lively atmosphere. Ryan's hurler was sr. RH Mike Szelagowski, who mostly mixed regular fastballs with splitters and fired them from all sorts of arm angles, even borderline submarine. He allowed six hits (three did not leave the infield) and struck out 11 (five in the last two innings) and six of C-E's stranded runners were left at second or third. Szelagowski received his one run's worth of support in the first inning. Sr. 2B Sean Costello fired a single to center and remained at first base as sr. CF Tom Dolan and jr. C Nick DiEnno struck out. Costello then stole second on a close play and came around as sr. 1B Rob Fisher lined a single to right. Ryan came close to scoring only one other time, in the seventh. Jr. RF Nick Kline was plunked and yielded to jr. PR Kyle Unger. Jr. LF Anthony Turco laid down a nice bunt to advance Unger and jr. 3B Ed Kovacs flied to right. Szelagowski, trying to give himself a cushion, lined a single to right. The throw by jr. RF Matt Burns was strong and true and sr. C Matt Fischer had no trouble making the tag for an easy out. C-E's pitcher was soph RH Brian Herman. He also fanned 11 and yielded four hits. Herman had many of Ryan's batters swinging late and he did an excellent job of hitting spots. Home plate ump Chris Opanel had a little bit of an expanded (though consistent) strike zone and Herman showed savvy in taking advantage. C-E had several respectable opportunities. In the first: With runners on first and third, sr. LF Gene Stricker hit a grounder to the mound. Szelagowski held the man at third, and got the out at first. He then recorded a strikeout. In the fifth: With a man on third and one out, Burns sent a grounder to Kovacs. Jr. SS Joe Jordan tried to score and was rubbed out. Szelagowski then got a strikeout. In the sixth: With one out and a man on third, "Szel" humped up to K Fischer looking and soph PH Joe Marziano swinging on three pitches. In the seventh: With two out, jr. PH Chris David singled and jr. PR Ryan Donlen thieved second. Burns looked at a third strike to end it. C-E sr. CF Tim Carroll had two hits. He didn't have to do much roaming in this one -- the wind was blowing in -- but coach Rich Papirio was effusive in his praise beforehand: "He's made three of the best catches I've ever seen this season." DiEnno is one of the city's top catchers, but he's battling an ankle injury that's affecting his ability to set up strong and gun the ball. Star C-E running back Steve Slaton spent some time talking baseball behind the screen. North Carolina has offered and many others are making in-school visits. Steve got a kick out of hearing stories (or else he was just being nice -- smile) concerning C-E's legendary FB stat man, Mike Tos. To say Mike is obsessed with C-E FB is to put it WAY beyond mildly. He routinely leaves messages on my voicemail at work about how many days, hours, even minutes, are left until FB practice begins. Without exaggeration, he can pretty much tell you the score of every FB game in Egan/Conwell-Egan history. He has missed TWO in his life. He was in sixth grade at the time and both were outside the five-county area. Also among those in the house was good-guy scout Joe McGillen, of the Major League Scouting Bureau.

APRIL 27
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Gtn. Academy 8, Chestnut Hill 0
  
The Patriots (19-2 overall) have six guys bound for D-I programs as recruited players, so a loss to the mostly young Blue Devils would not have been good. There was no need to worry. Sr. LHP Sean Grieve went unscathed through a mildly uncomfortable first inning and then cruised through the sixth and sat down. He allowed hits to two of the first three batters and a wild pitch moved runners to second and third. He then fanned fresh RHP Anthony Cafagna (more on him later) and induced a groundout from jr. 1B Scott Dziengelski. CHA's only baserunners thereafter against Grieve reached on walks. Sean fanned "only" five, but three were in the fifth and sixth. Also, he twice made nice plays on guys who tried to bunt for hits. In the leadoff slot, he made solid contact in four of five trips while going 2-for-4 with a double, sac fly and two RBI. Jr. RF Matt Brown and jr. 2B Tyler Stampone also had SFs for RBI. Sr. LF Kevin "Windshield" Gordon smoked an RBI double and jr. 3B Danny Overcash went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI. GA's six D-I guys are Grieve and sr. LHP Pete "Paco" Vernon (both William & Mary), RHP-OF Joe Matteo and Gordon (both Lehigh), P-INF Matt Bruderek (Rhode Island) and C Alex Kaplan (Dartmouth). Vernon pitched the seventh (1 apiece walks, hits and whiffs). I was impressed with CHA's battery of Cafagna and sr. C Chris McInerney. Any time you hear good things about a freshman pitcher, you have to wonder: Is he going to be good down the road or is he just good now because he's bigger and stronger than everyone else and his chances for long-range success are minimal? I like Cafagna long-range! He's not yet filled out and has a live arm, along with savvy and presence. I also liked that coach Stan Parker did not leave him out there for the entire game, and perhaps ring up a too-high pitch count. He pitched 4.1 innings. As for McInerney . . . Excellent! He's VERY polished as a receiver and game-director, if you know what I mean. And even though the throw bounced, he sent a seed to 2B and caught a would-be base-stealer by about a week and a half. Also, he did a sensational job of blocking the plate to get an out on a four-person relay (sr. CF Mike Braverman to jr. 2B Anthony Biello to Dziengelski to McInerney). McInerney is headed for Dickinson to hopefully play football and baseball. For my money, he's better than a D-III catcher. I have to credit CHA sub Andrew Ochroch for a good call. He trumpeted McInerney's skills before the game and he was definitely right! By the way, McInerney bats leadoff. How often do you see that, a pitcher (Grieve) and catcher in the leadoff slots in the same game? Also for CHA, soph RF Brett DiFelice made a terrific running catch while having to reach across his body toward the line (he throws lefthanded). Also, Dziengelski (ZINN-GELL-SKEE) ranged far to his right to stop a grounder and get an out at 1B on a impressive cover by sr. RH reliever Mike Manzione. GA has an unbelievable program book/media guide. Pictures, stats, detailed bios on the players on a year-by-year basis, prospectus, history. I've never seen anything like it for any sport at the high school level, let alone baseball. Kudos to all, but especially to Zach "ZB" Berman of website fame (smile)!!! Rumor has it he did most (all??) of the writing.

APRIL 22
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
SJ Prep 3, Neumann 2
   One minute, Neumann had rather realistic hopes, considering that the baserunner was speedy sr. CF Billy Canady, of forging a tie in the bottom of the seventh. The next minute, the game was over. Here we go . . . Canady drew a leadoff walk and sr. LHP John Coury left the mound and went to 1B, yielding to sr. RHP Joe McElwee. Against Coury, a 6-6, 240-pounder with a long release, even from the stretch, Neumann was 11-for-11 on steals (with Canady 4-for-4). But McElwee was throwing hard, and using a slide step, and coach Gaeton Lucibello opted for a sacrifice bunt. Soph RF Al DiDomenico, a lefty swinger, sent the ball along the 3B line. Sr. Mark Noonan made a good play on the ball, but his throw was short and wide. Coury made a great scoop and noticed that Canady was trying to take third. Luckily for The Prep, so did sr. SS Rob McDonnell. Coury's throw was strong and true, McDonnell made a polished catch and tag and Canady was out by a hair. Jr. SS Christian Lannutti, who had RBI singles in the third and fifth, then tapped out to McElwee to end it. Phew! What a sudden termination to a pretty good game. Coury has big potential. Due to injuries, his soph and junior seasons were basically washouts. He has a smooth delivery with a Bigfoot-type stride and releases the ball from maybe 54 feet away. His fastball looks even faster because of the smooth release, and because he throws a lot of fastballs. Oklahoma State is involved, and Hartford has offered a scholarship. As he acknowledged, he was not his sharpest, but that's what the good ones do -- get a win even on a semi-off day. Coury allowed five hits (all singles) and five walks and fanned nine. He received a great defensive play from McDonnell in the fifth. With two outs and runners on second and third, sr. 2B Vito Canci sent a grounder deep into the hole. J-Roll -- I mean McDonnell -- made a clean backhand grab and gunned to first for the out. Neumann sr. RH Antonio Cima deserved a better fate. Then again, he did cause some of his own downfall with an errant throw on a pickoff in the second inning. It was to 1B and allowed soph 2B Matt Tiagwad to score from 2B. Jr. 1B Ed O'Brien got another run home with a sacrifice fly. In the sixth, Noonan led off with a wicked grounder right down the RF line. Neumann's coaches said it was foul. The umps disagreed. It went for a double. Coury, a lefty swinger, did his job and moved Noonan to third with a 4-3 groundout. Tiagwad followed with a hard base knock to left. My DN story focused on Coury. His father, Michael, is SJ Prep's principal. I'm guessing a play on words involving "principal" will find its way into the headline. (Writers do NOT write headlines, by the way). As always, Lucibello was involved and vocal throughout.

APRIL 20
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Germantown 16, Dobbins 0 (4 inn.)
   Holy mismatch! This one was brutal, unfortunately. The Bears scored seven in the second, four in the third and five in the fourth. They drew seven walks, got plunked thrice and collected 11 hits (10 singles) and the Mustangs committed eight errors. Some headliners for the Bears: sr. SS Dustin Hardy-Moore went 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBI; sr. RHP Haneef Hill did likewise; sr. 2B Gabriel Johnson went 3-for-4 with three RBI; and jr. C Robert Fisher went 2-for-2 with a two-run double. Hill would be a quality pitcher even in Division A. His fastball has movement and his curve is good enough to complement the heater. Plus, Fisher is a good receiver with a better-than-average arm and they work well together. Any Division C team hoping to make some noise in the playoffs needs a good battery, and G-town has that. Hill struck out six and allowed two hits, an infield single by sr. 1B Keon Richardson and a blooper to right by sr. 3B-P James Allen that probably should have been caught. Dobbins jr. RH Jamil Phillips struggled, but when I tell you that he snapped off one of the all-time curveballs, please believe me. It was incredible. Like the kind you'd see with a Whiffle Ball. Even better. Everyone around the cage glanced at each other in oh-my-God! astonishment. It was a one-time thing, though. You know that fake-to-third, throw-to-first pickoff play that never works? Well, Phillips made it work big-time. But during the rundown, the runner on third easily trotted home and, in time, no one wound up covering first and that runner returned to safety. Oh, brother! Once the game became one-sided, the Bears occupied themselves by kidding around. When sr. 1B Christen Johnson, who is thinking hard about attending Mansfield for football, was batting and time out was called in very abrupt fashion, he said, "Damn, I thought maybe my fly was down." Later, the guys were talking about running speed and Johnson said of Hardy-Moore, "Yeah, I know you're fast. You chase cheetahs in the off-season." Check out G-town's pic on PL Team Photos. Some of the players don't have uniform tops. They wear black T-shirts and use adhesive tape to form numbers. The number on the back of G. Johnson's jersey was missing. When asked about that, he said, "It's probably stuck to my seat on the bus." I hung out with Ken Cuff, the father of G-town jr. P-3B Brandon Cuff and a good FB player for the Bears (class of '78). He was keeping the scorebook for G-town coach Thomas Monson.

APRIL 19
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Mastbaum 11, Fels 1 (5 innings)
   I went to this game on a hunch. Fels jr. RH Danny Gonzalez had posted a couple of high-strikeout games, admittedly against suspect opposition, and I thought maybe he'd make this competitive. He didn't quite have it, though, and only lasted three innings. Oh, well. (He pitches from the stretch no matter what.) Mastbaum jr. RH Luis Alicea allowed two hits and no walks while recording nine strikeouts. As the fourth inning opened, frosh OF Bacilio Gonzalez sent a grounder to sr. 3B Wilson Ribot. Ribot hesitated slightly, then made a low throw for an error. Sitting nearby was German Sanchez, a star last year for Edison. He had recently walked in. I said to German, "He had a perfect game through three." German said, "I know. He just told me (while Mastbaum was batting). I said, 'There it goes. You jinxed yourself. You can't be talking about that stuff.' " After two strikeouts, D. Gonzalez sent a grounder to the right side. Soph 2B Victor Serrano ran and ran some more hard to his left and made a dive to stop the ball. He couldn't quite get it in time to soph 1B Anthony Rivera, but what a spectacular effort! It went into the books as a hit. Fels scored in the fifth on a ringing double down the leftfield line by soph SS Jhancarlos Vallejo and a stolen base/error combo. At bat, Mastbaum was led by sr. LF Jose "Tito" Colon (2-for-2, two RBI, two walks) and Ribot (2-for-3, walk, triple, three RBI). Soph SS Ben Garcia, batting leadoff, got hit once and walked twice while scoring three runs. Mastbaum had no hits in its four-run fourth vs. LH Christian Duckworth, a tall kid who professed to being very nervous. There were five walks, two hit batsmen and a balk, forced by Colon (a very good baserunner), to bring in a run. The highlight for Fels came when frosh C Edwin Lozano gunned down consecutive base-stealers at second. He'd previously made a couple of shaky throws, but these were strong and accurate. After the first one, a teammate yelled, "Look at Edwin! He's happy as hell! Big smile on his face!" Sr. captain Loan Truong, the DH, did a nice job of trying to lead his team. Several of Mastbaum's Spanish-speaking fans were having trouble pronouncing the first name of jr. DH Sherrod Evers, so they were calling him "Sheet Rock." Cracked me up. So did Alicea's mother, who hollered a few times, "Show 'em what your mama gave you, papi!" Mastbaum and Fels are both the Panthers. Also, they both use Tarken Playground for a home field. They'll be playing again tomorrow with Fels as the home team. Mastbaum coach Bob Levy said his squad is close to finalizing a doubleheader with Roxborough on May 10. That's an early dismissal day. 

APRIL 17
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Frankford 5, Northeast 2
  
This was a rare Saturday morning Pub affair and maybe a shade more than 100 spectators wound up watching in beautiful weather. The result matched the 2003 title game, with Frankford coming out on top and extending its PL regular season winning streak to 32 games (14 in '02, 13 in '03, five this season). Sr. RH Joe Farina, now 68-0 in PL regular season contests at Frankford in football, wrestling and baseball (and 86-1 in all PL action, including playoffs), allowed five hits and struck out 10 and had only two innings where he faced more than three batters. Two of the minimum innings were aided by caught stealings as soph C Ramon Reyes, though not in possession of a gun, made respectable throws with quick releases. Farina had one rough moment. In the home fourth, just after his teammates had provided a 3-0 lead (more on that momentarily), Farina was touched for a hard single to center by jr. 3B Chris Steinke and a two-run, not-a-cheapie homer to right by soph RF Seth Shapiro, a lefty swinger. Sr. CF Bryan Adamson then ripped a single to left and coach Bob Peffle paid Farina a visit. Within a few moments, the inning was over as sr. LH Andrew Lihotz grounded into a doubleplay and fresh DH Joe Breitweiser fanned. Strangely, all of Frankford's RBI came from the bottom three guys in the order. The first two came on squeeze bunts! Sr. SS Cory Shaeffer led off the fourth with a single/error combo. Soph 3B Richard Jimenez singled Shaeffer to third and promptly stole second. After Reyes fanned, Peffle called for a squeeze. Sr. RF Carlos Masip got the ball down, though it was relatively close to the plate. Jr. C Brandon O'Malley was unable to make a play in time (Shaeffer had a GREAT jump) and the Pioneers took a 1-0 lead. Masip's steal again provided a second and third situation. This time, sr. LF Jeff Newman bunted the ball up the 3B line. The Vikings tried to get an out at third, but the throw was late. A groundout by sr. 1B Geoff Minetola brought home run No. 3. Not exactly a power display by the Pioneers in the inning, but they did the little things and sometimes that's MUCH more important. Newman (on a single) and Minetola (sac fly) had RBI in the sixth. Lihotz allowed five hits and struck out seven. The two runs in the sixth were unearned. Farina had a severe cramp in his right calf in the seventh inning and was hobbling around on and off the mound between pitches. He fell to the ground after whiffing Breitweiser to end it. Pete Zoltowski, a jumbo-sized member of NE's football team, did non-stop verbal razzing of Farina, who attended NE as a freshman. Some of the lines were funny; some were over the line. At one point, Zoltowski even blurted out Farina's home phone number. "Pete really did his homework for this game," said manager Jade Barron. "He knows everything about Joe." After Farina struck out in the seventh and was obviously upset with himself, Zoltowski yelled, "It's OK to strike out every once in a while! . . . Or twice, in this instance!" (Joe had also fanned in the third.) After one of Farina's pitches bounced about 4 feet in front of the plate, a Viking mumbled, "Hit the relay man." Jade fielded about a dozen cell phone calls from people wanting updates on the game. She even did some play by play. Most of the calls were from NE assistant Dennis Weiner. I hung out behind the cage with Randy "Ramblings" Seidman. His lawn chair is nicer than mine. Farther back was GAMP coach Art Kratchman, furiously writing down notes for future reference.

APRIL 16
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Dougherty 4, West Catholic 0
   This was the first game at WC's new Alumni Field, at 46th and Fairmount, and, boy, is this place small! It's only 215 feet down the lines and roughly 300 to center. There is mesh fencing surrounding the entire outfield, and I have already dubbed it The Mesh Monster. Anyway, it's 40 feet high from the corners to about halfway to CF and about 35 feet high for about half of the rest of THAT distance to dead CF. The rest of the mesh is about 25 feet high. Balls that clear the 40-foot mesh are only ground-rule doubles. Clear it anywhere else and you've got yourself a homer. Home plate is in the southeast corner, so 46th and Fairmount is in dead center. The infield is all dirt. The game was pretty entertaining. There was very competent defense, for the most part, and leading the way was Dougherty jr. C Mike Copestick. He gunned down one guy at second on a steal, and another at third after a pitch squirted away and the runner tried to take the base. Also, he pounced on a ball pounded into the dirt right in front of the plate and easily got the out (it wasn't an easy play) and made a strong, true throw after having to scour the cage to find the ball after an errant strike three pitch. Also, the Cardinals used an old trick play to get out of a jam in the sixth. West had runners on first and second with two out. Jr. RHP Mike McCann faked a pickoff throw to second, but held onto the ball. The runner, jr. CF Joe Aaron (two hits), fell for it as the middle infielders and jr. CF Luke Ashenbrenner all pretended to scramble for the supposedly loose ball (and yell, too.) Aaron was out in a rundown: McCann to sr. 3B Mike Wood, to jr. 2B Tom Bisceglie, to McCann. Vintage trickery! Wood, the game's first batter, posted the field's first hit with a groundball single to RF. Wood went 4-for-4 and was on base in the third, after hitting a ground-rule double over the mesh in RF, when sr. LF Dan Metague stroked a two-run, groundball single to RF. Ashenbrenner and Copestick had the RBI in the fifth and seventh, respectively. McCann was strong at the end, getting three of his six Ks in the seventh. He allowed five hits; two were of the infield variety. West sr. RHP Kyle Whalen allowed nine hits while fanning six. I heard a Dougherty kid say the field will be host to games of Arena Baseball. Also, referring to  something near the entrance to the field, close to the RF corner, a Burr cracked, "The Diamondbacks get a swimming pool in their outfield. We get a Porta Potty."
Here's a list you might like:
The first guy to . . .
Throw a pitch: Kyle Whalen, WC.
Bat: Mike Wood, CD (singled for first hit; grounder to right).
Strike out: Tom Bisceglie (the second batter).
Get an assist: Whalen (he almost immediately picked off Wood, putout to 1B Kevin Gardner).
Get caught stealing: Joe Aaron, WC (Mike Copestick to 2B Bisceglie).
Hit a bullet for an out: Luke Ashenbrenner, CD (liner to SS Josiah Morley, first inning).
Draw a walk: Whalen (it came with two out in the first after Aaron had singled and been caught stealing).
Hit a ball off the mesh fence: Duane Wyse, WC (second inning; held to single).
Hit a ball over the mesh fence for a ground-rule double: Wood (third inning, to RF).
Get hit by a pitch: Bisceglie (third inning, in the helmet).
Post an RBI: Dan Metague, CD (on two-run single in third).
Lay down a sacrifice: Bisceglie (fifth inning).
Get forced at 2B because the outfielders, not especially by choice, play very shallow: Gardner (in the second inning after Justin Bruno flared a ball to RF; RF Shaun Ellis to SS Kyle Donahue).
Get a triple: Not yet.
Get a homer: Not yet.
Have to leave with an injury: Bruno, took pitch on knee in fifth inning.
Get a hit as a substitue: Matt Uffelman, WC (pinch-ran for Bruno, then singled in seventh).
Arrive at the field: Me. (WC coach Fran Kehoe and a player arrived maybe 10 minutes later.) 

APRIL 6
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Roman 11, SJ Prep 6
  
Ah, finally, a chance to watch a game in reasonable weather conditions. This was not an all-timer, but there were enough enjoyable moments, plus I was smart enough to wear a winter coat (smile). Roman coach Joe DeLuca said beforehand that his team was struggling at bat and deep into the fourth inning, it was easy to see what he'd been talking about. The Cahillites had three hits: a popup lost in the sun and two infield singles. But after sr. CF Jerry Reed drew a walk and sr. LF Vinnie DiGiovanni reached on an error, and after the count went to 0-2 on backup sr. 2B Chris Gallagher in EASY fashion, pow!, Gallagher fired a three-run homer over the fence in CF! All three pitches were fastballs. Gallagher was way behind on the first and partially behind on the second. But the third was fat and Gallagher had to know it was coming. He didn't miss it. The sequence seemed to unnerve sr. RH Joe McElwee, as did an error to open the fifth inning. Jr. SS Tim Hoban followed with a two-run homer to right-center and Reed smacked a grand slam to RF four batters later. Phew! Just like that, the Cahillites had nine runs! They added a 10th against jr. RH Brian Veit on a triple by DiGiovanni and RBI single by feisty jr. C Brian Cooper. Run No. 11 came in the sixth on a double by sr. 3B Lee McInerney (3-for-4) and single by sr. RF Mike Krimm (he also saved the win for sr. RH reliever Mike McFarland (his nickname is "Mo" -- or is it spelled "Moe"? -- I forgot to ask, sorry). McElwee should experience success as the games go on, especially if he keeps the ball down. His stuff is respectable. Roman's starter was jr. LH Nick DeMalto. He's mostly a curveballing, change-speeds guy. He walked five in 3 1/3 innings. We'll chalk it up to early-season rust. There were some nice defensive plays. DiGiovanni's throw and Cooper's catch-and-swipe tag (while blocking the plate) cut down a Prep runner in the first. Prep soph 2B Matt Tiagwad made an outstanding catch and tag on a throw behind him to catch a would-be basestealer. Tiagwad also sprawled to smother a grounder. McInerney did likewise (though the ball squirted out of his glove as he tried to tag the bag with it). Hoban made a diving catch of a liner to his right. A few times after foul balls, the home plate umpire, a lefty, threw nasty knucklers to the pitchers. Comment from a Roman person after the game: "That's the first time we beat Prep in something all year." Definitely a first in a "major" sport.