On the Trail With Ted Return to TedSilary.com Home Page  Observations, notes, etc., on games I've seen during the 2005 season . . .

MAY 28
CATHOLIC LEAGUE SEMIFINAL
La Salle 5, Roman 4
   This game had memorable moments in the beginning, middle and end, but those at the end will probably draw the most attention and be discussed the most by players and fans. So, that's where we'll start. The seventh began with La Salle ahead, 5-3, when Roman sr. C Brian Cooper ripped a double to right-center. When he walked sr. 1B Nick DeMalto (his first free pass of the game), jr. LHP Matt Zielinski was yanked in favor of sr. RHP Chez Angeloni. The Chezster and sr. 3B Bob Spinks had a tremendous battle. Spinks fouled off five pitches and, on a 3-2 count, swung and missed at a high pitch that likely would have been ball four. With soph CF Dominique Joseph at bat, Angeloni uncorked a wild pitch and the ball bounced back to the screen not far from the Roman (3B) dugout. Soph C Sean Saverio could not locate the ball, though, and Cooper came all the way in from second to score. Sr. Mike Mychack, pinch-running for DeMalto, probably could/should have gone to third, but he remained at second. That became huge when Joseph sent a regular grounder to sr. 3B Mike Pennington. Mychack erred by straying too far off the base and Pennington began a rundown that resulted in a putout. The swift Joseph then tried to get into scoring position by stealing second. He got there easily, but somehow momentarily lost contact with the bag and was tagged out by sr. SS Will Phillips. That ended the game. It also started a major verbal attack on second base ump Gene Otto by some of Roman's players and coaches and, of course, fans. Some of the other umps also were targets of verbal abuse. I don't want to overstate this, because the furor died out rather quickly and only a few people were truly nasty. Many people seemed to think Otto could have found a way not to end the game in such fashion. But if he'd held back and the next batter had singled to tie the game, would that have been acceptable? If Joseph was truly off the base, he deserved to be called out. (From where I was watching, it did appear he was reaching for something as he was tagged.) OK, now we'll go back to the beginning. The highlight during that time frame was provided by Zielinski, who recorded four consecutive strikeouts and fanned five of six batters. The mid-game highlight? It involved weather and helped La Salle. As the home fourth began, the wind kicked up in grand fashion and it was blowing to right. Pennington hit a looper to RF that was misjudged by sr. Nick Di Santis and fell in for a single. Phillips followed with another looper down the RF line that went for a double. Next up was sr. 1B Zac Hess. He had a deep shot to right-center that got up in the wind and kept going and going. Make no mistake. The ball was hit well. It would not have been a homer if not for the stiff breeze, though, but out the ball went (pretty close to the 346-foot sign) and the score was 3-3. La Salle went on to take the lead as jr. RF Bill Warrender was hit by a pitch, moved to 3B on a steal-error combo and scored on an RBI single to RF by Saverio. Run No. 5, which of course became VERY necessary, was scored in the fifth. Pennington led off the inning with a rocket off the fence in LF that went for a double. He later scored on a wild pitch. The high winds mentioned earlier were part of a cold front that moved through and brought with it momentarily heavy rain and lightning. Third base ump Bruce Martin, after noticing a distant crackle, halted the game at 4:19 and the delay lasted 42 minutes. That happened in the visiting fifth. Meanwhile, sr. LF Ryan Murphy (double on sinking liner to CF) and sr. 2B Carmen Del Mastro (looping single to LF) had hits for Roman in its three-run third. Del Mastro had an RBI, as did Cooper on a sacrifice liner to CF. The third run scored on an error.

MAY 28
CATHOLIC LEAGUE SEMIFINAL
Conwell-Egan 11, O'Hara 4
   Ryan McCarthy, who showed great hustle by coming straight to La Salle from the airport after a week in Florida, will handle the at-length report for this one. C-E's hitting heroes were jr. LF John Malloy (3-for-5, two doubles, RBI), sr. 2B Greg Martoccio (2-for-2, two walks, three runs, one RBI) and soph DH Ryan Terry (2-for-4, double, three RBI). Sr. LHP Chris David allowed NO hits in five-plus innings. He was removed after walking the first two batters of the sixth and jr. RHP Brian Herman finished up. The no-hitter was broken up with two outs in the sixth when sr. SS Matt Catania fired an RBI grounder to center. Sr. DH Jim Young got the other hit, a two-run triple, with two outs in the seventh. Sr. RF Mike Verdeur stumbled while coming forward and otherwise no doubt would have made the catch.  

MAY 26
PUBLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL
Northeast 3, GAMP 2
   In a close, low-scoring game, it's not easy for one team to get TEN times as many hits as the other and still wind up with a loss. But, incredibly, it happened in this one. Northeast's only hit was a looping single to LF by sr. RHP Brandon O'Malley in the fourth inning. It didn't figure in the scoring. What did? How about GAMP's eight errors? Bobbles. Off-target throws. Drops of popups. It wasn't pretty and the sloppy play ruined a stellar effort by sr. RHP Vinnie Evangelista. (Admittedly, VE himself had one of the errors and it led to a run). Anyway, he fanned six and walked two and, as you might have guessed, none of the runs was earned. NE scored in the third on a groundout by jr. 3B Kyle Bachmann. Its fourth-inning markers came via throwing errors. O'Malley, a converted catcher, went the distance. Though he did surrender the 10 hits, all were singles. He received mostly solid support from his mates as GAMP lost one runner apiece to a pickoff and caught stealing. Also, the Vikings turned two early doubleplays. On the first one, sr. 2B Chris Steinke made a terrific scrambling stop and flipped to sr. SS Nick Diamond, who turned the doubleplay. Bachmann started the other and jr. C Derek Butler was solid in both making sure he got a force at the plate and whipping to 1B for the back end. Steinke, among others, was headed for NE's senior prom after the game, which was why the action started at 1:30 as opposed to the usual 3:15. He was the focus of my DN story. In the sixth, an error and an RBI single by sr. RF Gabe Natale, the son of Bok FB assistant Frank "Roscoe" Natale (and the Pub's coach last week in the City All-Star Game), brought in two runs. With Natale later on second base, soph 1B Andrew Caines hit a grounder to Diamond. The play was in front of him, but Natale couldn't help going and he was out in a rundown. The play loomed large after jr. DH Joe DeStefano cracked a hard single to left-center; it would have tied the score at 3-3. OK, on to the seventh. Down to its last out, GAMP bagged consecutive singles from sr. 2B Dom DeMarco and Venafro. Jr. LF Ryan Challender sent a reasonably good shot to LF. Jr. Joe Breitweiser made a not-hard, not-totally-easy running catch toward the line. Ballgame. GAMP is still alive, though not in the Pub playoffs. The Pioneers will play June 6 in a state playoff as the District 12 Class AA champ. As always, GAMP has personable, efficient scorekeepers. There were close to 10 ex-Pioneers in attendance. It's a tight-knit group.

MAY 25
CATHOLIC LEAGUE SECOND-ROUND PLAYOFF
Conwell-Egan 5, Ryan 3
   If you check back through baseball recaps and/or game reports, you'll see that C-E has had all kinds of problems in the late innings of playoff games. The Eagles have not only endured bites by snakes. They've been swallowed whole by snakes. Could it possibly happen again? Almost. C-E carried a 5-0 lead into the seventh and, to that point, no one had advanced past second base against impressive sr. RHP Ryan Geiss. There was a popup to start the inning and then . . . oh, baby. We'll just give you the sequence, OK? Hard single to left by sr. LF Anthony Turco. Ripped single to right by sr. P T.J. Mihok. Walk to sr. SS Anthony Carter. (Geiss was replaced by jr. RHP Brian Herman, in from third base.) Jr. 2B Chris Dolan lofted a sac fly to right. Sr. 1B Steve Covely walked, loading the bases. Sr. CF Kyle Unger was plunked by an 0-2 pitch, making it 5-2. Sr. 3B Ed Kovacs drew a walk. Now, Ryan not only had the bases still loaded, but the tying run was at second! Sr. C Nick DiEnno lifted a popup down the rightfield line. Sr. 1B Chris David desperately gave chase and made an over-the-shoulder catch just inside the line. Phew! The sigh of relief from C-E folks equaled a gale-force wind. Second basemen don't usually have strong arms, but Mihok threw pretty hard and did a fine job in his first varsity start. Under great pressure in a playoff game, to boot. (Sr. RHP Nick Klein recently had surgery to repair a blood clot.) C-E touched him for unearned runs in the fourth (one) and fifth (two) and added two EXTREMELY important runs, as it turned out, in the sixth vs. Dolan. Rich Dupell, pinch-hitting in the No. 9 hole, got home the first with a ringing double to right-center. The second came in on a groundout by jr. LF John Malloy. The funny line of the day went to Tom DiEnno, Nick's brother and a former OF star at Ryan. There was a discussion about honors and he said he'd been given a Lifetime Achievement Award by a youth organization (Crispin, I think he said) at age 17. Yes, 17. Many people watched the game wrapped in blankets. I can't imagine a playoff game has ever been played in colder conditions. La Salle's grounds crew, like pretty much always, was excellent preparing the field for use. It rained hard early in the day. It drizzled over the last three innings. Also in attendance was good-guy scout Frank Carr, whom I've known since childhood in Germantown. For obvious reasons, he's quite proud of the World Series ring he was given by the Angels in 2002. It even has his name on it. How cool is that?

MAY 24
CATHOLIC LEAGUE FIRST-ROUND PLAYOFF
Ryan 3, Judge 1
   This easily could have finished 1-0, in favor of Judge, and DN readers would have been learning about jr. RHP Matt Compton, the co-MVP of the Northern Division. Instead, Ryan capitalized on some poor fielding, and then some clutch hitting, to post a three-spot in the visiting seventh and the ink went to sr. RHP Rob Fisher. It's the way of the newspaper industry, folks. The guys combined to put on a strong show of quality pitching. It was a pleasure to watch them work quickly and almost always from ahead in the count. Fisher allowed five hits and two walks while fanning 11. Compton's numbers were six, two and seven. Well, since so much happened at such an important time in such memorable fashion, we'll go to the visiting seventh. Sr. LF Anthony Turco grounded out. Sr. 2B T.J. Mihok sent a grounder tight to the line and deep. Sr. 3B Dan Higgins, who'd made some nice plays, gloved this one but threw the ball wildly (it was scored a hit/error) and Mihok got to second. Sr. SS Anthony Carter hit a shot to deep CF for out No. 2. Jr. RF Chris Dolan hit a hopper to Higgins' left. Dan bobbled for one miscue and then belatedly threw past first for another. What a shame for Dan. These kinds of things happen in all sports and it's never easy to watch, let alone be the one who goes through the experience. Our thoughts are with you . . . Anyway, with the score a 1-1, Compton came oh-so-close to getting a called third strike on sr. 1B Steve Covely. Didn't happen, though, and Covely milked a walk. Sr. CF Kyle Unger slashed an RBI single down the RF line, making it 2-1. Sr. 3B Ed Kovacs fisted a low popup about 60 feet up the 1B side, but off the line by maybe 12 feet. Compton made a diving attempt, but couldn't quite make the catch and Kovacs wound up with an amazing RBI single. A fielder's choice ended the inning. Higgins and Compton collected singles in Judge's half, but no one advanced past second. If the game HAD ended 1-0, Kovacs long would have been second-guessing himself. After singles by Higgins and sr. 2B Dan Bucher made it first and third with one out in the fifth, Compton sent a grounder to Kovacs. It appeared Ed could have come home to nab Higgins, but he instead tried for a doubleplay. Compton easily beat Mihok's relay, which was offline anyway. Back to Higgins: In the sixth, he made a big-time play with one out and Unger on third. The infield was up and he smothered a difficult grounder by sr. C Nick DiEnno, held Unger and gunned to 1B for the out. In his previous at-bat, DiEnno singled and departed for a courtesy runner, soph Rob McArdle. Rob was promptly picked off and guess who was the 1B ump who had to call him out? His uncle, John McArdle. There was only one extra-base hit in the game, a one-hop double off the fence in leftfield by jr. LF Justin DeCristofaro, a lefty swinger (and pretty darn good QB -- smile). In the seventh, Ryan coach Ron Gerhart had trouble deciding whether to use McArdle as a regular pinch-runner. Rob even went to 2B before being called back off the field. Kale Beers, the PA announcer, said McArdle would be a pinch-runner. When Beers saw McArdle head back to the bench, he said, as everyone laughed, "Or not." John McArdle has led an interesting sports life. He was the starting 3B in the College World Series for Temple and was the Owls' interim coach this season after Skip Wilson was injured in a fall. He also was a successful basketball coach at Chestnut Hill Academy and last summer umpired part of a Phillies game when the regular arbiters experienced travel delays. Pretty cool, eh? Now he'll be able to say, "I rang up my nephew one time, too." (smile)

MAY 23
PUBLIC LEAGUE PRELIMINARY PLAYOFF
ALSO CLASS AA SEMI
Saul 7, Prep Charter 0
   To borrow from a back-in-the-day city basketball coach, 17-0 and down they go. In 1974, Dougherty finished fourth in Catholic North and was preparing to play 16-0 North Catholic. Coach Bob Harrington kept saying, "Sixteen and oh and down they go . . . but don't quote me until after the game." It happened, as Dougherty pulled the upset. Well, PC went 17-0 in Division C but was humbled by Saul, which went 11-5 in Division B. Saul won, yes. As much as anything, though, PC beat itself. Saul had just one earned run (and got it in shaky fashion, at that) and only one RBI. That produced run No. 7 in the fifth as jr. CF Andrew Phipps poked a single to CF. The Razorbacks scored two in the third on a balk by jr. RHP Bill McGovern and a throwing error by soph SS Mike Digneo. In the fifth, McGovern walked the bases loaded with nobody out and jr. C Enrique Meletiche hit a grounder to Digneo. His throw to the plate was wide and a run scored. The next three runs came courtesy of a pair of throwing miscues by McGovern, one on a pickoff and another on a comebacker. Ouch! Saul had three hits for the game, singles by Phipps, Meletiche and soph 1B James "J.J." McAleer. Sr. SS Kasmir "Kaz/Cashmere" Zysk and frosh DH Harris Trobman drew a pair of walks. Saul's pitcher was frosh RH Esteban "Shorty" Meletiche, Enrique's brother. He pitched no-hit ball for 5 1/3 innings until McGovern looped a single to CF. Soph 1B Julian DiPietro sliced the next pitch to left-center for another single, but Shorty made short order of the Huskies to escape the frame. He finished with a three-hitter while walking one and fanning six. It was bright and sunny and borderline warm when the game began. Around the sixth inning, the temperature dropped by probably 15 degrees and it appeared there'd be big-time rain any moment. Instead, there wasn't even a drizzle. Enrique Meletiche has a very strong arm and a good presence behind the plate. He looks like someone capable of making the Carpenter Cup team.

MAY 17
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
O'Hara 7, Kennedy-Kenrick 2
   This was the Avoid Coin Flips Game. A win for K-K would have created a tie for first in the South between O'Hara and Bonner and a tie for third between K-K and Roman. Instead, the playoff order does: O'Hara, Bonner, Roman and K-K. O'Hara will now have to find ways to stay busy until the semifinals May 28. There was decent drama today as sr. LHP Josh Rickards, working for the first time on something less than a full week of rest, pitched no-hit ball for 5.2 innings. To that point, he had walked just two (and had just picked off the second guy) and his mates had played errorless ball. Then, K-K soph SS-P-RF Tom Mahoney sent a groundball up the middle. Jr. 2B Harry Duke made a diving attempt to smother the ball, and it dribbled away from his glove. Base hit anywhere, folks, even with a no-no going. Jr. C D.J. Santoro smacked a groundball single through the hole to right and sr. LF Lenny "Blink 182" DelGrippo sent a shot to right that went for a single and scored Mahoney. K-K scored again in the seventh when jr. 1B Kevin Lawrence power-launched a solo homer to deep right-center. O'Hara's field allows for some cheapies in that direction, but this one was WAY legit. Rickards finished with 12 strikeouts (seven outs in a row at one point) and walked two while allowing four hits. He had high velocity and many foul balls went to the batters' swingin'-late side. The no-hitter was almost snapped with two outs in the fifth when sr. 2B Jay Rigg sent a shot to right. In fact, DelGrippo hopped up off the bench and exclaimed, "Oh, yeah! There goes the no-no!" But sr. RF Sean Barksdale made a nice running catch toward the foul line. O'Hara scored four in the third and three in the fifth against jr. RHP Dennis Morgan, a slight kid who didn't pitch badly, actually. Barksdale got the first run home with an RBI groundball single to CF and, two batters later, jr. 1B Jonathan Szeliga powered a three-run homer to right-center. In the fifth, DH Marco Menna singled, sr. SS Matt Catania bunted for a hit, LF Tom Connelly smoked an RBI double to left-center and sr. Jim Young, as a pinch-hitter, executed a perfect suicide squeeze (to great appreciation from his teammates). Another run scored on a steal-bad throw combo. O'Hara was guilty of some poor baserunning early and coach Frank Allison was not a happy man. Sr. 3B Brian Giacobetti twice was hit by pitches (on the foot/ankle; somewhere down there). Plate ump Carlos Deno took a wicked shot in you-know-whats when a pitch bounced up and through Santoro. Carlos needed a good five minutes to regroup and continue. He was in big agony. This was the only CL game today, so many players and even coaches from other schools were in attendance. Before the game, O'Hara AD and football coach Danny Algeo asked me, "Who's the kid who threw 182 pitches last week?" Meaning DelGrippo, of course. "I told him, 'The kid whose right arm is now 10 inches longer than his left.' " When Szeliga hit his homer, I was stationed on the left side of the cage. When the ball cleared the fence, I scrambled over maybe 10 feet to get a better picture of his home-plate arrival. Jonathan was severely calm as he arrived. Huck said to me with a laugh, "You just put out more energy than he did."
   ****Huck sent this later about his experiences while watching the game: Classic moment up on the hill with the Bonner kids. I found out who ripped me on "the wire." It was freshman Matt Gallagher. "Wardy" (Kevin Ward) and everyone else let me know, and they were laughing. Matt was embarrassed. He didn't know I was WCBurrs 87. I said, "Matt, what, why are you being salty to me?" He was laughing. The older Bonner kids were calling him at idiot, and busting chops.****
   One more thing: Four legendary coaches all graduated from West Catholic in 1964 -- Frank Allison (O'Hara baseball), Linus McGinty (O'Hara girls basketball), Dan Bielli (Carroll FB) and Tom DeFelice (Bok FB and baseball). Pretty darn cool! 

MAY 16
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Northeast 5, Central 3
   Both teams had one big inning. Northeast's was better, 4-3, and it added another run, so that was that (smile). Sr. RHP Brandon O'Malley, one of the Pub's top catchers, is now the Vikings' No. 1 starter (kind of by default) and he went the distance in this one. O'Malley forced Central to strand 10 runners and twice the Lancers left the bases loaded. In the first, soph 3B-LF Jim Benek struck out looking with the sacks full. In the third, jr. C Joe Magdovitz smashed a two-run double to CF and Benek followed with an RBI single to RF. O'Malley plunked sr. RF Rick Avanzato and sr. DH Joe Tierney walked, but O'Malley fanned jr. 2B Nick DeLeo to avoid further misery. In the fourth, guess what, Central loaded the bases AGAIN, this time with help from coach Sam Feldman, who ordered a no-out intentional walk to sr. SS Andrew "Potter" Reynolds after soph P Jared Farbman walked and jr. 2B-LF Matt Smith doubled. O'Malley escaped unscathed as sr. 1B Walt King pounded into a forceout at the plate via jr. 3B Kyle Bachmann. Next, with the infield still up, Magdovitz sent a liner to Bachmann. He caught the ball and easily beat Smith back to 3B for an inning-ending doubleplay. Bachmann had a few more good plays, starting a doubleplay on a grounder in the fifth and twice making respectable snags on foul popups. (Bachmann was not in the batting order, but he was given a chance to replace the DH in the sixth and he grounded a single to center. Nice game overall, kid!). The game ended with the tying runs left in scoring position. Reynolds opened the frame with an infield single and King was hit by a pitch. Magdovitz bunted up the runners. Benek fouled out to Bachmann and Avanzato lined out to jr. CF Seth Shapiro. Farbman was let down by his fielders in NE's four-run fourth as only one of the runs was earned. There were three solid hits, though, as Shapiro, a lefty swinger, started things with a double; sr. RF Chris McNamee ripped a two-run triple to right-center and sr. SS Nick Diamond sent an groundball single to CF for an RBI. NE's fifth-inning run came on Shapiro's homer to dead CF. The new fence is higher and roughly 20 feet back from where the old one was, so this was a poke. Diamond, sr. 2B Chris Steinke, Shapiro and McNamee all had two hits for the Vikings. Farbman, Smith and Reynolds did likewise for Central. One of NE's players was saying beforehand that his allergies were bothering him, but that he didn't want to take a pill because it might make him sleepy. "You can't fall asleep (in the field)," he said. "Not that I don't do that sometimes anyway." Reynolds hit outfield and infield because coach Bob Barthelmeh was absent due to a family member's health issues. Avanzato was called out for interference on a slide into second. Lord only knows why. Looked like a normal slide to me and everyone else except the base ump. At one point I looked at Central's stands, saw Mastbaum coach Jim Taylor and thought, "Hmm, why's he here? Must have a relative in the game." Two, in fact. His sisters are the mothers of Steinke and Benek. Cool! When O'Malley was experiencing brief control problems, a Lancer yelled, "He's missing spots like a white dalmation." Northeast jr. DH Naim Muhammad busted on jr. C Derek Butler's lack of speed by saying: "You run like somebody's holding your ass." There was a nice fan turnout and ex-NE football player Pete Zoltowski, famous for his funny comments last year directed at Frankford franchise Joe Farina and now at Temple, headed a crew that grilled hot dogs and burgers and gave out soda/water. All for no charge!

MAY 12
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Neumann-Goretti 11, West Catholic 10
   There were definitely more important games around the city today than this one, which was basically for last place in the Southern Division, but I can't imagine too many others were very much in doubt until the final pitch. The players enjoyed getting some exposure and I enjoyed being there. N-G has struggled since going 9-9 in the '01 season and West has been much worse (4-78) since going 6-12 in '00. West coach Fran Kehoe had 11 only players in uniform and there is no junior varsity (ouch). As much as he dislikes the idea, Kehoe said he'll try to rebuild the program by hitting the CYO trail and trying to convince some suburban kids to become Burrs. Because the finish was interesting, we'll start there. West trailed, 11-7, entering the visiting seventh and sr. RHP Brian Dietrich was trying to close out his first CL win. Jr. OF-3B Ray Dougherty got plunked, jr. 3B-P Steve Powers fanned and sr. 2B Eric Massey looped a single to left. Coach Gaeton Lucibello removed Dietrich and waved in soph SS George Hatton. Sr. RF Dan "Fish" O'Neill walked to load the bases. Soph CF Derek Rouse went down swinging. Sr. LHP Joe Aaron sent a groundball to center for an RBI. Sr. C Steve Roman (5-for-5, triple, four RBI) beat out an infield single to deep shortstop to make it 11-9 and sr. SS Josiah Morley (2-for-4, two RBI) took a pitch in the small of his back, making it 11-10. Oh, baby! Sr. 1B Matt DeMarco, a large football lineman, came to the plate. Alas, he swung and missed at a low curve and that was it. Matt was pretty upset and so were his teammates. Not in a bad way. Just in a frustrated way. I liked seeing that because it meant that everyone still cared at almost the end of a long, trying season. N-G's star was sr. 2B Sal Filippello, who went 3-for-4 with solo and three-run homers and a run-scoring single for five RBI. Filippello had to run out his homers. Each was a shot over the head of the speedy Rouse. Hatton, a spunky kid with good instincts at SS, collected three RBI on a sinking liner to CF and a double to right-center. Jr. RF Franco Cima had a two-run double to CF while sr. CF Anthony Turchi (double) and jr. DH Sean Beach posted two hits apiece. N-G scored four runs in the third and six in the fourth. When Aaron was lifted, he dropped the ball on the mound and began walking to the outfield before Kehoe even arrived. Not good. At the insistence of assistant Bart "Buzzy" Wood, Kehoe removed Aaron from the game. Aaron stewed for a while, but then got over it and, as mentioned earlier, delivered a key hit as a re-entry guy in the seventh. The discipline was the right move and Aaron should be praised for regrouping and redeeming himself. There was a wild play to end the visiting sixth. While approaching the plate, Morley stumbled and went into a slide WAY early. Jr. C Kyle Ogozarek did a tremendous job of blocking the plate, but ump Joe George said Morley was safe. He was standing behind the play at the time, pretty much in a straight line with the third-base line. At Ogozarek's behest, George then walked around to the side and took a second look and called Morley out. As you might imagine, a rhubarb ensued. The out call stuck. (It did appear that Morley got nowhere near the plate, but this was certainly a strange/unacceptable way to arrive at the right call). Meanwhile, West broke a rule in the seventh by using Brandon Gallashaw as a pinch-runner for a regular player and then a courtesy runner for another player. Then again, as Wood pointed out with a smile, "They let us do it, right?" Base ump Gene Otto, the head of CL umpires, acknowledged afterward that he'd been had (smile). In 1993, Neumann and West met in a semifinal playoff. West has not been back to the playoffs since then and N-G last tasted the postseason in '97 (except for a pre-playoff loss in '98). Heard this legendary exchange between two West players before the game: "Is your mom coming to the game today?" one said. "Nah, she can't," another responded. "She's smokin'," the first kid said. "I'd love to be her son." Ha, ha, ha, ha.

MAY 10
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Penn Charter 10, Gtn. Academy 5
   When I saw PC meet Chestnut Hill in an Inter-Ac opener, coach Rick Mellor said he wasn't sure how his team would do and that it could finish anywhere from 0-10 to 10-0. Well, one league game remains but the Quakers already have eight wins and the title. GA has been PC's chief rival for over a century -- well, at least in FB -- so a win over the Patriots, no matter the circumstances, is always enjoyable. This one was earned in come-from-behind fashion, though "behind" was only 1-0. That run was scored in the third when sr. RF Matt Brown powered a homer, a true shot, over the fence in right-center (more towards CF, actually). The next three half-innings were wild as PC sandwiched four and five runs around four by GA! After retiring the first seven batters in order, sr. LHP Mark Shimrock walked soph LHP Mark Adzick. Shimrock issued two more free passes in the inning and two-run singles were smacked by sr. C R.J. Hollinshead and sr. LF Chris Brock. In the fourth, popular sr. 2B Marc Spagnoletti, the No. 9 hitter, powered a two-run double to right-center (Brown made a diving attempt to catch it) and sr. CF Ryan Nanni later smacked a two-run double to left-center. Brock added an RBI single (and another in the sixth). By then, GA's pitcher was soph RH John Barr, who began the game in CF. His fastball had some visible movement and "crackleability." He has a chance to be a stud. Adzick was not especially sharp, especially with the two-seamer that tailed away from righthanded batters so effectively when I saw him last week. He only had one 1-2-3 inning and that was the seventh, and it ended with a ripped liner to RF by soph C Joe Conaway. Adzick's one bad frame was the aforementioned fourth as he walked in a run, plunked in a run and served RBI hits to jr. LF Erich Enns (single) and sr. 2B Tyler Stampone (double). He settled down over the last three innings, though. Mellor, a great guy and my classmate at PC (MANY moons ago -- smile), has won 11 titles in his 26 seasons. He did a nice thing after the game when he encouraged parents, grandparents, siblings, etc., to pose with the happy Quakers. Meanwhile, the career of sr. SS Zack Zeglinski is now truly winding down. Hard to believe. It's like there's a rule. Every fall, winter and spring, Zack HAS to be on PC's major sports teams. He deserves all kinds of credit for making it back for the end of basketball season (and then a full baseball season, of course) after blowing out his knee just before football games were to begin. Zack was part of six title teams -- three in football, two in basketball and one in baseball. Not bad, eh? Our legendary, you-blinked-and-you-missed-him website writer, Liam McGettigan, who called his column Red Hot Blocks at the Rim or Get Your Red Hots While I Sit on the Rim or Rim Blocked by Red Hot, or something like that (smile -- Liam, we hardly knew ye), sent an e-mail reminding me that R.J. Hollinshead played on all the same teams as Zack and was also a six-time champion. Indeed, R.J.'s accomplishment should also be mentioned. And now that I think about it . . . how 'bout the good, ol' Goat, Ryan Nanni? Wasn't he also on all six squads? Pretty sure. (Actually, he wasn't. He topped out at five, having ditched basketball in '04). By the way, the six champs were: '02 (outright), '03 and '04 (both shared) in FB; '03 and '04 in hoops (both outright) and '05, of course, in baseball.
   PC's lineup: Z. Zeglinski, ss; R.J. Hollinshead, c; Ryan Nanni, cf; Chris Brock, lf; Billy Goldman, dh; Sean Rust, 1b; Sammy Zeglinski, rf; Mark Adzick, p; Marc Spagnoletti, 2b; Jim Entwisle, 3b (not part of batting order).       

MAY 9
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Kennedy-Kenrick 8, Roman 7 (9 inn.)
   182. Yes, stories/recaps usually start with words, but this one HAD to start with a number. 182. That was the number of pitches thrown over seven innings by K-K sr. RHP Lenny DelGrippo. Amazing? Definitely. Disturbing? Assuredly. Should someone from the school or even the CL admonish the members of K-K's coaching staff and tell them, in no uncertain terms, that something similar must NEVER happen again? Yes, I'd have to say so. No matter how much is at stake (and we're talking "only" a bid for a playoff spot with games still remaining; it wasn't like this was a title game with all kinds of rest to follow), I can't imagine there's a justification for letting a high school kid -- hell, even a major leaguer -- throw 182 pitches. K-K coach Nick D'orazio acknowledged as much afterward when he noted that if something turns out to be wrong with DelGrippo's arm, it'll be on his head. How'd this happen? Well, DelGrippo barely made it through the second inning, in which he threw 42 pitches to raise his two-inning total to 72! By his own admission, the 6-1, 190-pound DelGrippo lets things get to him on occasion and he definitely expends extra energy tugging on his cap and/or sleeves and walking around the mound. Roman reached him for five runs in the second inning, making the score 6-2. Through two he had walked four and fanned five and the trend continued, kinda. He finished with nine walks and 16 strikeouts and, believe it or not, he recorded 10 of his last 12 outs on Ks. The exceptions were a pair of groundouts. DelGrippo, who was pumping mid-80s gas (even late), said later he thought he'd thrown around 130 pitches and was "pretty disappointed" he'd been permitted to hit 182. But as he also noted, he could have asked to come out at any time and the competitor inside him wouldn't let that happen -- until after the seventh, of course. Summing up, I hope this is the last time I ever see somebody cut loose 182 times. (Oh, and he probably made a minimum of 20 pickoff throws). The win went to soph RHP Tom Mahoney, who zipped through the eighth and ninth 1-2-3, 4-5-6. In the home ninth against sr. RHP Tim Hoban, soph C D.J. Santoro drew a leadoff walk and was bunted to second by jr. RF Kevin Barnett. That brought to the plate sr. CF Mike Dayton, who'd been replaced by a pinch-hitter in the seventh. (Don't forget, the CL now has the re-entry rule). Dayton, a righthanded batter, sent a hopping ball to sr. 1B Nick DeMalto. The ball bounced off DeMalto's glove for an error and Santoro frolicked home with the game-winning run. The Wolverines went nuts, as you might imagine. K-K earlier scored two in the first and third against jr. RHP Ryan Weber and single runs in the second, fourth and sixth. Among the batting heroes: DelGrippo went 2-for-5 with an RBI triple; sr. 3B Josh Eidell went 3-for-5 with a single, double and triple; and jr. DH Kevin Lawrence went 3-for-4 with two RBI. In the eighth, Lawrence was issued an intentional walk after Eidell reached Hoban for a two-out triple. Sr. 2B Jay Rigg followed with a shot caught by Hoban at ankle level. Hoban was the only Cahillite with as many as two hits. He, sr. 2B Carmen DelMastro, sr. C Brian Cooper and DeMalto all had RBI singles. Major props to K-K football player Tim Bracken and some of his schoolmates. They congregated just beyond the K-K dugout along the rightfield side and were relentless in their support. The guys also had some funny lines, with most of them directed to the umpires. One of the K-K assistants, after a borderline pitch by DelGrippo was called a ball, muttered, "The plate's not a Frisbee! It has corners!" (This is for the parent of one of Roman's players, who called my office voice mail and left a bitter message claiming I wasn't paying attention. Your son did NOT have two hits. One was ruled an error. Also, he did NOT steal five bases. Twice he moved up on wild pitches. I won't list his name here, so as not to embarrass him.) 

MAY 5
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
O'Hara 12, SJ Prep 8
   This was my first look at Richie Ashburn Field, which is across Broad Street from the Wachovia Center in FDR Park, a k a "The Lakes", and maybe 100 yards from an elevated portion of I-95. The ballfield itself is quite nice with legit dimensions (330 lines, 375 power alleys, 405 center) and dugouts and all that good stuff. Not good, however, is that there's all kind of foul territory and it seems like the game is taking place a mile away. Part of the fun of covering high school baseball is being right by the cage and hearing/seeing all kinds of neat stuff, some of which I can even throw into these wacky reports (smile). Oh, well. The game itself was sloppy and at times hard to keep track of. There was a strong performance by O'Hara sr. RF Sean Barksdale to enjoy, though. There's no dog in "Barks" and he went 3-for-4 with an RBI single to CF, a three-run homer (385 feet) to right-center and double down the LF line. He also hit a grounder to short that resulted in a throwing error. For the moment he's headed to West Chester to play WR, but coach Frank Allison is begging for D-I baseball coaches to come calling and it's easy to see why. Barksdale is 6-foot, 200, and runs 40 yards in 4.4 seconds. He can also throw and in this one he made a sliding catch of a sinking liner. The Prep scored an unearned run in the first, but O'Hara too command with four in the third and five in the fifth. Jr. RHP Matt Leddy killed himself by issuing six walks total in those two innings (along with uncorking a pair of bad throws to 1B). Barksdale had his RBI single in the third and his homer in the fourth. Freshman Aaron Haas, a tall, thin righthander, had some impressive moments in relief, but was eventually reached for a pair of runs. They were scored on consecutive sacrifice flies by sr. CF Steve Cook and sr. 3B Brian Giacobetti. Giacobetti and backup 2B Harry Duke (2-for-2, walk) spanked RBI singles along the way. Now's as good a time as any to tell you about a true oddity: one player from each team picked up base hits on grounders that struck baserunners! Cool, huh?! Cook did so for O'Hara (Duke got hit) and jr. 3B Matt Tiagwad did so for Prep (sr. LF Jim Bogan got hit). Ace sr. LH Josh Rickards started for O'Hara, but was not especially sharp. In fact, he yielded 12 hits and departed after the first four batters in the seventh went single, single, double, single. The legendary sr. RHP, Rich "Dickie V, Baby!" Varrasse, came on and was greeted with a liner to the right portion of CF. Cook got him off the hook with a sensational diving catch. Haas followed with a looping RBI single to RF and sr. 2B-P Steve Vassalotti (2-for-4) went down looking to end it. Bogan had a double and single while wearing the No. 2 jersey of coach Chris Rupertus. "He forgot his jersey last game and went 3-for-4 in mine," Rupertus said. "He said not to wash it and that he'd be wearing it again. OK, he's the boss." Sr. C Pat McKeever went 3-for-4 with an RBI and was the first catcher to throw out Barksdale this season. Tiagwad went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Jr. CF Bill Edger made the defensive play of the day for Prep when he caught a flyball and gunned down courtesy runner John Dempsey (three SBs) for a doubleplay. In pretty much every story I've ever written, I've tried to detail kids' career goals. Of course, I've often wondered how many kids actually follow through on their supposed plans. Well, early in the game, Josh Rickards' mother walked over and said she thought I'd be interested in knowing that a kid I wrote about during the 1998 Carpenter Cup, her nephew, was now a third-year medical student. That was exactly what he said he'd do -- become a doctor. Tremendous, right?! The "kid" was Malvern Prep outfielder Chris Wayock. I wish him every success! Also, it was nice to hang out with long-time scout Wilmer Reid, who now works for the Washington Nationals. Wil, who played in the Negro Leagues, is a true gentleman with a love for baseball and helping young men. Prep basketball manager Colin Curtin was hoping for a strong student turnout, but it wasn't to be. The crew, such as it was (or wasn't), departed in the sixth inning. There were some decent lines early. When Cook came to bat to lead things off, Colin yelled, "Strictly a football player!" And when sr. DH Marco Menna came to bat, Colin and somebody else bellowed back and forth "Marco . . . Polo." I'm sure Marco has never heard THAT before (smile). And when Matt Catania and Tom Connelly fanned in the second, as they headed back to the dugout they heard, "Nice to meet you, Matt," and then, "Nice to meet you, Tom."
Here's the beginning of the Chris Wayock story, by the way . . .
   Chris Wayock knew before he entered high school he wanted to be a pediatrician.
   "Well,'' he said, smiling, "at first I wanted to be an accountant. But then I decided I wanted to work with people, and help people. Once I decided on medicine, since I always liked kids, it made sense to set my goal in that direction.''

MAY 4
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Frankford 16, Central 7
   Well, troops, I knew this had a good chance to be a wild one when each team's best player made an error in the first inning. Some hunches are better than others and this one was dead-on. Central sr. SS Andrew "Potter" Reynolds had a double miscue on a grounder, first bobbling and then throwing the ball past 1B. In the bottom half, the first ball went to sr. SS Luis Alicea and . . . he kicked it. Oh, baby! There were 10 errors total in this 3-hour game along with 17 walks and 24 hits (nine doubles, one triple). Even the bus driver made an error. He left before the game was over and Cliff Hubbard, who oversees daily athletics for the school district, was not a happy man. Just when he was making calls to ream out somebody, another bus showed up (maybe 5 minutes after game's end) and Frankford was on its merry way back home. There were some funny moments. While pitching in the second inning, Frankford jr. LH Juan Carlos Torres kept adjusting his cup. Finally, coach Bob Peffle went to the mound and, as everyone gathered 'round to offer screening, Torres reached into his pants, removed his cup and placed it inside Peffle's jersey. Really. I wouldn't lie about something like this. As Peffle returned to the bench, he laughed and said, "Better to carry it in my shirt than with my hand." Later, Peffle reported that during a brief, between-innings meeting, one of the Pioneers was talking exclusively in Spanish. Sr. OF Pat Lewis, the lone Caucasian on the squad, asked sheepishly, "Could someone give me a translation?" And then there was the family, close and extended, of Alicea. They chanted and sang, in Spanish, pretty much all game long and their enthusiasm transferred to the Pioneers. It was pretty cool to see/hear. In the game . . . Neither team started its ace as soph RHP Jared Farbman went for Central and Fkd countered with sr. RHP Kelinton Tejada. Farbman, a tall stringbean, did reasonably well into the fifth, but then was torched for a double by jr. C Ramon Reyes, a single by jr. OF Edwin Burgos and an RBI double off the sidewalk in right-center by Tejada. Farbman was removed in favor of Reynolds, who throws righthanded but is suffering from some left-shoulder pain. Five more batters reached base in a row as jr. 3B Jose "Pinky" DeLeon smacked an 0-2 curve for a two-run single, sr. OF Andrew Bracero walked, Alicea fired a two-run double down the leftfield line, sr. 2B-SS Carlos Rosado smacked a two-run single to center and jr. P-INF Richard Jimenez sent an RBI single to center. Reynolds retired the next three batters in order, but asked to be removed from the mound before making his warmup pitches for the sixth. Three little-used pitchers divided the next two innings for Central and Fkd added six runs. My DN story focused on Rosado, who went 5-for-5 with a double, sac fly and four RBI. He has very quick hands at bat and in the field, along with all the desired instincts. Reynolds, a switch-hitter, had a strong performance at the plate. He walked once and lashed three hits. His double landed on the sidewalk in front of the imposing fieldhouse building in rightfield. His two-run triple was even better. The ball came within maybe six feet of reaching the roof in deep right-center, maybe four-fifths of the building's way toward CF. Sr. 1B-3B Walt King slammed an RBI double to CF and jr. 2B Matthew Smith sent a two-run single to CF. Jimenez was the winner in relief. He was chased after Reynolds' triple, though, and Alicea recorded three strikeouts over the final 1.1 innings. Meanwhile, big kudos to Central's field guy, Sean Romsdahl. The infield dirt is even and smooth and the grass is cut low and the place looks better than it has in the 30 years I've been going there. Excellent!

MAY 3
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Penn Charter 5, Malvern 1
   It's good to be an underclassman and a slim lefthander, at least if your name is Matt Zielinski (La Salle junior) or Mark Adzick (Penn Charter soph). These guys know how to pitch and ooze composure and what a pleasure it is to watch them. Adzick was not 100 percent sharp, most likely because he was making this start on three days of rest. He has been clocked at 87 mph; my guess today was lower 80s. But what a tail he has on his two-seam heater! And the bottom just flat-out drops out of some. He also has a biting curve/slider and rarely serves up a fat pitch of any kind. Plus, he works extremely fast and often makes pitches 4-5 seconds after gloving return throws from sr. C R.J. Hollinshead. The Friars reached him for eight hits (six infield) and Adzick reached them for eight strikeouts. Malvern could not get the knockout hit when it needed one. In the third, a single by sr. LF Bobby Malonoski and pair of plunkings (jr. CF Tom Grandieri in the butt; sr. C Darren Hepke on the ankle) made it bases loaded with two away. Jr. 1B Tim McEndy hit a grounder to sr. 2B Marc Spagnoletti, who made a flip to sr. SS Zack Zeglinski. Malvern scored its run in the fourth when soph 3B Pete Greskoff smacked an impressive double over the head of sr. CF Ryan Nanni, moved to third on an infield hit by soph 2B Connor Hepke, Darren's brother, and scampered home as jr. 3B Jim Entwisle made a low throw on Malonoski's grounder. In the fifth? Phew! Grandieri led off with an infield single and was picked off by Hollinshead. D. Hepke followed with a single to center. HE was picked off by Adzick. In the seventh, Malvern actually brought the tying run to the plate after an error and singles by D. Hepke and McEndy loaded the bases. Jr. DH Joe Rawlings hit a hard one-hopper to the mound. Adzick briefly pondered going to second, and even turned that way. He then fired home for a force and Hollinshead gunned to jr. 1B Sean Rust to end it. PC scored two in the second and one apiece in the third, fourth and sixth. Rust and soph RF Sammy Zeglinski had RBI singles in the second. Nanni smacked a solo homer in the third. The ball was struck to right-center and cleared the flimsy, rubbery fence as sr. RF Andrew Matasic got tangled in it. Hollinshead's RBI single highlighted the fourth. There was a weird sequence in the sixth as Nanni smashed a ball into the outfield, but did not receive credit for a hit. Why? Because the bases were loaded and the ball was pretty close to Matasic. The runners had to be careful and Z. Zeglinski, after some hesitation, was forced at 3B on a relay from Matasic to McEndy to Greskoff. Nanni still received credit for an RBI, of course, and Zack took some good-natured kidding (even from some guy who operates a website for city high school sports -- ha ha) for "costing" his good buddy a hit. Malvern's starting pitcher was jr. RH Anthony Fenza. He went five innings, then jr. RH Tom DellaFranco and soph LH Mike Francisco divided the sixth. Maybe the luck of the Irish be with you! (smile) My wife, who's Italian and Irish, with a hint of French thrown in, OKd that last attempt at humor.

MAY 2
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Edison 3, Washington 2
   It's not too often a team makes two bad errors in a tight game and gets the win behind a wet-behind-the-ears soph when the opposing pitcher is a veteran senior. But it happened here and there was enjoyable viewing. The winner was RH Javier Lafuente, who goes 5-4, 123 pounds. Lafuente is a savvy kid with boundless energy and he almost never sits down, even between innings. Though he allowed three straight hits with two out in the first and then issued a walk to load the bases, he humped up to strike out sr. RF Bill Jamieson and he and his teammates were visibly (and audibly -- smile) charged up and relieved when the damage was just one run. The curveballing Lafuente allowed seven hits total (all were singles) and struck out six. He helped himself by notching four assists on comebackers and two more on a pickoff and rundown, respectively. The rundown wound up capping a doubleplay and sr. 1B Mathew Padro had BOTH putouts. The play occurred in the fourth. Sr. 2B Chris Zervoudis executed a sacrifice bunt and was out at first. Jamieson rounded second and was approached by Padro. There were a number of throws back and forth and Jamieson finally was tagged out at THIRD by Padro, on a flip from Lafuente. Sr. CF Carlos Maldonado made a sensational diving catch, moving to his left, of a third-inning liner by sr. OF-3B Anthony O'Donnell. The play came with two away and saved the Owls a run. Those two plays were offset by boo-boos in the sixth and seventh. In the sixth, jr. SS Alex Perea failed to get down on a grounder and the ball went right under his glove and between his legs for a run-scoring error. That tied the score at 2-2. In the seventh, sr. SS Bill Sanginiti slammed a hunging curve into LF for a single. Jr. 1B Chris Phares got the job done with a sac and sr. C Matt Peterson stepped to the plate. Peterson hit a high popup to the right side. It started off pretty much right to the spot where soph 2B Juan Ortega was standing. But the wind was rather strong and the ball eased closer and closer to 1B. With a few teammates yelling, "Two hands," Ortega tried to catch it with one and, you guessed it, dropped the ball. Sr. RHP Marc Tankel followed with a single to shallow C and coach Max Bilkins held Sanginiti at 3B. Lafuente came up huge, curving a called third strike past sr. OF Rodrigo Valladares and retiring jr. LF Rolando Fontanez on a grounder to Ortega. The Owls were understandably thrilled as any win over Washington, even in a medium to down year, has to be considered an upset. Soph C John Fuentes had two RBI hits for Edison, with a double in the fourth and a single in the sixth. Both were fired down the rightfield line by the righty swinger (also impressive defensively). Edison scored in the first when Lafuente (2-for-3) singled in the leadoff spot, moved to third on a double by sr. 3B Miguel Rodriguez and came home on a 4-3 groundout by sr. DH Oscar Colon. This was my first look at Tankel this spring, but his velocity appeared to be down. Hopefully, he's only in a brief, tired-arm stage. He allowed seven hits and struck out three. The weather was strange. A light rain began in the home fourth and then got harder later, with a whole bunch of wind thrown in. The drops were those big, sting-ya ones. Also, the temperature must have dropped at least 10 degrees. Washington sr. C Justin Presley is out with an, um, well, um, private-parts injury suffered Friday vs. Mastbaum. He wound coaching at first base. Sr. OF Matt Yankowitz is still sidelined, and will be for the season, with the serious leg injury he suffered during the Eagles' Florida trip. He will attend Penn State-Altoona with hopes of playing ball, eventually, at the main campus. Only one umpire showed up. Did a nice job, too.

APRIL 28
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
La Salle 3, Conwell-Egan 0
   Now this was a downright pleasure. Like most baseball loyalists, I can handle the occasional slugfest and even games that are outrageously sloppy and last a long time provided there are interesting plays/situations along the way. But every so often, an old-fashioned pitchers' duel needs to appear on the menu and this one was a four-star special. The moundsmen for this showdown for first place were a pair of lefties, La Salle jr. Matt Zielinski and C-E sr. Chris David. Zielinski appears to be about 6-foot and 175 pounds (we're told his official dimensions are 6-3, 185) and displays a perfect demeanor. He does not react if the plate ump happens to pinch him and/or something goes wrong in the field and he flat-out works all game long. You can just see that he's making every pitch with a purpose and that he honors what true pitching is supposed to be all about. He only struck out four and none after the second inning; very weird because he struck out the side in that frame. But the Eagles rarely made very solid contact and Zielinski was always in command. Assuming "Z" stays healthy, scouts are going to love him next year because they'll project him with 15-20 more pounds as a pro. His fastball/location are already impressive and his breaking ball leans a shade more toward slider than curve. Only once did an Eagle reach third and that was in the seventh inning when David got plunked (for the second time), sr. CF Matt Burns popped out to CF, soph DH Ryan Terry drew a walk (and yielded to sr. PR Pat Wojciechowski) and sr. LF Ryan Donlen chopped into a 6-4 forcecout. Zielinski wrapped up the win and preserved the shutout, of course, by inducing another harmless flyball to CF from jr. C Rich Dupell. C-E had one other shot to score in the fifth when Donlen led off with a liner that took one bounce in front of jr. RF Bill Warrender. Dupell did his job, bunting Donlen to second. With the game still scoreless, and undoubtedly remembering that the teams' first meeting ended with C-E on top, 1-0, in nine innings, coach Rich Papirio called for a steal. Soph C Sean Saverio was equal to the task and the pressure, though, making a strong, true throw to sr. 3B Mike Pennington. Sr. SS Joe Jordan followed with a hopper to Pennington. He momentarily bobbled, but recovered and used his good arm to get the out. La Salle finally hit the scoreboard in the home half by doing the little things and profiting from a C-E error. Sr 1B Zac Hess drew a leadoff walk and, under the re-entry rules, yielded to pinch-runner Jeff Liberatore. Warrender indicated bunt on the first pitch, then Dupell tried to pick off Liberatore and the ball whizzed down the 1B line. Thus, when Warrender did get the bunt down, Liberatore wound up at third. La Salle coach Joe Parisi was thinking right along with Papirio, so though no one was out he went with a bold move -- a squeeze. Sr. DH Nick Manzi displayed perfect execution and Liberatore scored easily. There was no more scoring in the frame, but there was an impressive play. Saverio hit a hard one-hopper right back to the box and David -- whoa! -- bare-handed it. Great play! And just as nice was having the presence of mind to trap Manzi in a productive rundown for the second out. A flyball ended the inning. David was visibly not as sharp in the sixth and the Explorers added a two-spot. After an intentional walk to Pennington made it first and second with one out, jr. SS Will Phillips laced a groundball, RBI single down the LF line. Hess walked, then Warrender lifted a sacrifice fly to center. Also for La Salle, jr. LF Steve Ullrich and Warrender made sliding catches of sinking liners. Neither one was overly spetacular, but at least there was a mention on the website (smile). As for David, he's only 5-8/5-9, but he also shows good velocity (a shade lower than Zielinski's) and a big-breaking curve. He allowed just three hits (one was the squeeze bunt; no one was available to cover the bag) and struck out five. Very weird weather day. It went from bright and sunny to completely cloudy with some occasional rain to back to bright and sunny. La Salle had maybe 35 students on hand and a few good lines were heard. After Donlen was cut down on the stolen base attempt at third, one yelled, "Don't you EVER try that again!" After sr. 2B Tom Lyons was plunked with a pitch, out came, "He's not cryin' 'cause he's Tom Lyons!" And when jr. CF Mike Villari was batting: "You'll be sorry if you mess with Villari!" Pennington was playfully begging to have his pic in Special Photos. "I'm all about TedSilary.com," he claimed. Some kids lead shallow lives (smile). Website contributor Ryan McCarthy showed up for this one as well, but graciously agreed to go elsewhere so we'd avoid duplication. Sr. P Joe Winning is the all-time chirper. He talked pretty much the entire time I was there, even non-stop through batting practice as he yelled in encouragement to each and every hitter. He rebuffed suggestions by teammates to take a deep breath and zip it every once in a while (ha ha). "You want me to calm down? You don't want to see me calmed down," he said, laughing. A fast-paced pitchers' duel (Carlos Deno was excellent behind the plate, by the way) and a guy willing to keep up positive, game-long baseball chatter. Is this heaven?

APRIL 26
PUBLIC LEAGUE
King 6, Mansion 5 (8 inn.)
   As a rule, Division C does not offer much top-notch baseball. But there are certainly high-entertainment possibilities and this one was Fun with a capital F. The site was a field in Fairmount Park, a few blocks from 33rd and Oxford, and people from the nearby neighborhood, along with some King fans, turned out to enjoy and make noise and unleash witty comments. Oh, and late in the game, between innings, King's players gathered in the bench area and belted out a few lines from "Wild Thing" and then "Bad Boys" and then "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." Seriously! I'm positive it was the first time in world history that a group of kids/adults/whatever sang those three songs in succession (ha ha). Anyway, the pitchers were King sr. RH Roberto Hernandez and Mansion jr. RH Matthew "Moo" Johnson. This was my first look at both. I knew Matt from basketball (he's a quality scoring guard) and that he's not a real big kid. For whatever reason, probably because he has recorded so many high-strikeout games, I expected Hernandez to be a big'un. Instead, he's 5-9, 155. He also has long braids that go halfway down his back and he wears them in a ponytail. His curve is his best pitch, but his fastball is sneaky and he throws pretty much from behind his ear (he's also a catcher). Hernandez struck out 17, walked five and allowed six hits. He was two strikes away from completing the win in the home seventh when sr. 1B Dominique Nixon lined a ball to deep left-center, right into a wind that was strong all game long (and sometimes more like gale-force). Sr. LF Deshan "Fresh" Lupton ran and ran and ran and dove with his back to the plate and . . . oh!! The ball squirted out of his glove as he hit the ground, for a triple. Sr. C Jerome Raynor, a large kid who has "Fat Man" written on his cap (smile), hammered the very next pitch for an RBI double to CF, tying the game at 5-5. In the eighth, sr. SS Karon Neal walked, stole second and stayed there as Hernandez beat out a roller for an infield single. Sr. 3B Jeff Campbell sent a long fly to RF and Neal moved up. Sr. CF Larry Allen then sent a fly to LF and Neal raced home. Bottom half? Of course there was drama. With two out and the bases loaded, Johnson came to the plate with a chance to tie it or win it. He smacked a liner to LF, but the hard-charging Lupton made the catch at about knee level. Great theater in the last couple innings. I could have watched these teams go at it for at least another hour, no problem. Campbell collected two RBI on groundouts. Allen also smoked an RBI double to deep right-center. Lupton had a two-run single. Jr. C Duane Stith has a strong arm and a good presence behind the plate. He threw out two would-be stealers and would have caught a third if not for a dropped throw. He also stole three bases of his own. Mansion's RBI went to sr. 3B Bashir Rashad (single) and Johnson (HBP) in addition to Raynor. Sr. RF Carod Anderson collected a pair of infield singles. The kids on both teams were excited to receive some media attention (I guess I qualify -- smile). A few kept asking to get their pictures on Special Photos. King coach Jim Johnson and Mansion coach Lou Zambino are both great guys, so that made the visit to this game even more enjoyable.

APRIL 25
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Bonner 5, O'Hara 3
   Much was the same as it had been March 31 in the South opener: chilly temperatures, a pain-in-the-butt wind, no sunshine and the same starting pitchers, Bonner sr. RH Tom Moran and O'Hara sr. LH Josh Rickards (Marist signee). Rickards won the first clash, 2-0. He departed early in this one, through no fault of his own. While taking a swing that resulted in a grounder to short in the second inning, Rickards suffered a dislocation to his right shoulder! Yes! What a weird injury and what a shame for Josh. On a busy sports day, O'Hara's trainer was elsewhere and Josh convinced coach Frank Allison to be allowed to go back out to the mound for the Bonner third and at least try to hang in there. The Friars already led, 1-0, and they would add three more runs in that frame against Rickards and jr. RHP Harry Duke. The sequence: sr. CF Andrew Case got plunked; jr. C Ryan Hunt contributed a sac and Rickards misplayed the ball for an error; LF Steve DeBarberie was also called upon to bunt and moved up both runners; sr. 1B Kevin Ward scorched a two-run single to RF; RF Joe McGilligan walked and Rickards departed in favor of Duke; 3B Phil Leonard went down looking; Moran fired an RBI grounder into LF; DH Tom Tarpey went down swinging after the runners executed a double steal. Tarpey had provided the RBI (on a single) in the second inning. Moran would do likewise in the fifth. Making his second start in five days, Moran upped his innings total to 13 while having an outing pretty much die for. Yes, he gave up a pair of homers, but those were the only two balls that made it into the air! Literally. And they traveled to the shortest part of O'Hara's ballpark, in right and right-center. The solo homer in the fourth by sr. RF Sean Barksdale was a liner that happened to make it over. The two-run shot in the fifth by sr. CF Steve Cook (La Salle-bound; 3-for-4) was admittedly spanked. Otherwise? Moran fanned five and got 16 outs on grounders. There was one doubleplay and it was a biggie. After Cook homered, Moran walked SS Matt Catania and milked a groundout from sr. 3B Brian Giacobetti (following a wild pitch). With a base open, Barksdale was issued a free pass and DH Marco Menna walked to the plate. He slapped the first pitch right to Moran, who started a 1-6-3 doubleplay. (By contrast, some thought O'Hara would opt to give an intentional walk to Ward in the third. Didn't happen, of course, and he delivered the two-run single). Moran, the subject of my DN story, is also a quality catcher and would no doubt be D-I material. But now it appears he'll go to college for pitching. He has been accepted at Temple as a student and interim coach John McArdle was in attendance. La Salle is also sniffing, as is D-III Widener. In the O'Hara seventh, Cook fired a one-out, ate-him-up single off Leonard and that brought the tying run to the plate. Catania struck out looking and Giacobetti grounded out to 2B Bill Larkin. Among those in attendance were Huck and Ryan "Yes, There's Ryan in Baseball" McCarthy, who is covering CL baseball this spring for the website. All of my previous contact with Ryan had been via e-mail or phone, so it was nice to actually meet him. Bonner's coaches spoke highly of their previous meeting with Ryan. Good to hear! Also on hand was ex-O'Hara star Jeff Randazzo, a LHP released a few days ago from Class AA by Minnesota. Jeff said he might hook up with the Washington Nationals and that he's been offered a contract by the independent Camden RiverSharks. Also a possibility is abandoning baseball and trying to play college basketball. The boy could ball!! (smile) He was a second team All-City pick in '99 and check out this performance in a quarterfinal vs. Roman and Eddie Griffin -- 25 points, 12 rebounds and eight blocks, and he stuck a trey in Eddie's face to force the second OT. And then came baseball season and he had THIS performance in a first-round playoff vs. Kennedy-Kenrick -- a two-hitter with 13 Ks and a pair of two-run homers. Not a bad two-sport athlete, eh? Jeff, a class act all the way (and a pitching tutor to some Bonner/O'Hara kids), was in a horrific auto accident a shade more than three years ago en route to spring training. He's been battling ever since and I know I speak for everyone who knows him when I say I wish him every success going forward.

APRIL 20
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Roxborough 8, Germantown 5
   Wasn't quite positive where to go today, but this choice turned out to be a good one. The game was relatively well played and some true shots were fired to different parts of the field and the field itself was in excellent shape thanks to the efforts of groundskeeper Joe Shields. The spread, across Lowber Ave. from Leeds Middle School, had perfectly manicured grass and cutouts around the bases. Everything is level, too. What a pleasure! Roxborough coach Howard Leight has only one senior on his 13-man squad, so the Indians will bear watching over the next couple of seasons. The headliners in this one were sophs -- 2B Joe Parisse and CF Doug Sponsler. Parisse, the No. 3 hitter, is a big, strong kid and able to drive the ball to all fields. He went 3-for-4 with a double to CF, a triple to LF (far over the guy's head) and a triple to right-center, along with two RBI. The triple to LF came on the very next pitch after Gtn sr. RHP Robert Fisher threw a nice fastball on the outside corner and blurted out, "Ooooh. That pitch was nasty, cuz." So was the lightning bolt that rolled all the way to the wall (smile). Parisse's triple to right-center was something of a fluke. Oh, he hit it well, all right, but the ball thudded against concrete at the base of the fence and rolled away at a crazy ankle. I haven't seen Parisse as a pitcher, but I'm told he has nice potential in that area, as well. Sponsler, the No. 6 hitter, stroked four straight singles for two RBI. The Indians took control with a six-run fourth as Parisse (RBI triple) and jr. C Sean Murphy (another big, strong kid) followed with an RBI double to right. Jr. SS Kyle Monaghan and jr. RF Fernando Press also collected one RBI in the frame. In a two-run sixth, jr. 1B Johntae Grove hammered a run-scoring triple way, WAY out to dead CF and Sponsler followed with a RBI single. The Injuns went 1-2-3 in the seventh against sr. RHP Brandon Cuff, who'd been catching. Cuff fanned two, mostly thanks to knee-buckling curves. Cuff fired a solo homer out onto Lowber Ave. (behind right-center) and later singled twice. Fisher went 2-for-3 with a triple (also to DEEP CF) and RBI single. Other RBI went to sr. CF Basir King and sr. LF Ronald Williams on singles and to soph 1B Hamid King on a sacrifice fly. Roxborough's pitcher was another soph, righthander Anthony Scipione. A part-time sidearmer, he recorded seven strikeouts. The Bears have two sets of brothers in the starting lineup with Robert and Andre Fisher (jr. 3B) and Hamid (soph) and Basir (sr.) King. There are also two Williamses, jr. 2B Josh and Ronald. They're not related. Strange fact: even though 13 runs were scored in the game, Roxborough's first two hitters and Gtn's first three went a combined 0-for-19 with no walks. VERY strange, in fact. Football lineman Omar Zachary is one of G-town's managers and somebody needs to teach him how to keep score. He had very little in his scorebook and did not track runners' progress around the bases. He had Roxborough for seven runs in the fourth when the real total was six. It could have become an issue. Never know what you might hear at Pub games (smile): Beforehand I heard a Gtn player say to some teammates, "I got a mosquito bite on my titty." To which another guy said, "That's something I don't have to know . . . Something I don't WANT to know." I checked out the progress of the renovations at Gtn's football stadium. There'll be some pics in Special Photos.

APRIL 19
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Gtn. Academy 3, Haverford School 0
   Well, as I start writing this, it's actually 2 a.m. on April 20 and, yes, I need a life (ha ha). Sr. LHP Mark "Shake" Shimrock had the misfortune of twirling a one-hitter on a day when newspaper coverage was not available (due to the fact I had to cover the Donofrio Classic final at night). He also had the misfortune of preventing himself from posting a no-hitter. Shimrock, who has good size (6-4, 215) and is bound for Middlebury College (and for my money looks like the long lost son of coach Craig Conlin), has a somewhat nasty curve and a sneaky fastball. He struck out 10 and walked four and the hit was yielded in the third, to jr. CF Nick Tom. With two out and jr. C Steve Luminais (cool name, I like it) on first with a walk, Tom send a hopper up the middle to the 1B side. Shimrock got partial leather on the ball on one of those all-or-nothing stabs and it trickled away. I'm not positive whether sr. 2B Tyler Stampone (Holy Cross) would have been able to make the charge-and-throw. HS had a chance to get to Shimrock in the second inning after soph 3B Jim McConlogue walked and moved up to second on a sac by freshman DH C.J. Frederick. With sr. LF Zach Tripp hitting, Shimrock fired a pitch to the screen. McConlogue broke for third, but sr. C Danny Overcash (Delaware) made a quick recovery as the ball bounced back right to him and McConlogue was an easy out. Tripp then whiffed. HS soph RHP Mike Galetta, a short, stocky kid, at times threw VERY hard and mixed in impressive curves, as well. After the game, I was surprised he'd only struck out two. I was not surprised he'd walked seven and plunked one because he often worked behind the batters. Nevertheless, he too could have pitched shutout ball with some better defense, or better luck on defense (take your pick). Shimrock started the second with a drive to deep CF. Tom circled the ball a shade and probably should have caught it. Instead, it went for a shaky triple and jr. 1B Jason Davila followed with an RBI groundout to jr. 2B Keith McCalla. In the seventh, Davila drew a one-out walk and moved up on a passed ball before sr. SS Andrew Hanson (Franklin & Marshall) went down looking. Jr. LF Mark Brown rifled a hard groundball through the hole to LF for an RBI and then, after stealing a base, came around on a bloop hit to CF by the No. 9 hitter, jr. 3B Erich Enns. The plate ump was Jeff Kerrigan, a former football star at Wood and the son of perhaps the most well-known scholastic umpire in city history, Ed Kerrigan. Where was Ed on this day? Doing the bases. Ed is the brother of ex-Phillies pitching coach Joe Kerrigan and Joe's son, Joe Jr., is Dougherty's new coach. Got all that? (smile) Jeff said he has three sons and that his wife is expecting this summer. Also that his dad's other nine grandkids are girls. GA's field look great with a big scoreboard in LF and a temporary fence all the way around the outfield. It's 325 feet down the lines and 390 to center. OK, it's now 2:27. Time for some shuteye.

APRIL 18
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Conwell-Egan 6, Ryan 4
   This one was decided in the home sixth, when the Eagles posted a four-spot against sr. RHPs Rob Fisher and Anthony Carter (in from SS) to break a 2-2 tie. The highlight? Easy. Jr. John Malloy, who appeared to be about 5-8, 140 pounds (admittedly, I'm not often the greatest judge of that stuff), muscled up and smacked a three-run homer to dead rightfield. C-E's field has legit dimensions and Malloy's poke was significantly over the head of sr. RF Nick Klein. The ball bounced to the fence and Malloy, after a brief slowdown around 3B, kept coming when he saw he could make it. While Malloy was batting, I noticed that soph DH-3B Ryan Terry was trying to signal pitches from 2B. "I didn't pick up on that. Honest," Malloy said later. "I don't like knowing what's coming. I start thinking too much." I'm not positive because Terry was walking in the other direction when he said it, but he MIGHT have mentioned that he wound up giving incorrect signs to Malloy anyway (smile). Anyway, here's how the inning went: sr. CF Matt Burns got hit in the helmet by a fastball; Terry, after fouling off two bunt attempts, singled hard to right with Burns taking third; sr. 2B Greg Martoccio popped out; sr. LF Ryan Donlen lashed an RBI single to RF; with Carter now pitching, Malloy delivered his homer; jr. C Rich Dupell (2-for-2 to this point with an RBI single) grounded out to end the inning. Ryan did not go quietly in the seventh against sr. RHP Brian Herman, also in from SS. Sr. CF Kyle Unger and sr. 3B Ed Kovacs stroked singles and moved up one base apiece when a relay went awry. Sr. C Nick DiEnno scalded a groundball single to CF for two RBI and the tying run came to the plate. Fisher grounded out, sr. 1B Chris "Meat" David to Herman, and sr. LF Anthony Turco (strong game; he went 2-for-4 with an RBI and three "hard contacts") popped out to sr. SS Joe Jordan. Burns and Dupell had RBI singles in the first and second, respectively. Fisher mostly sailed through the third, fourth and fifth. C-E starter Ryan Geiss, a sr. RH, was deceptively fast with a hopping fastball, especially out of a certain motion, and every so often threw eye-popping curves. He threw about 115 pitches, though, and Ryan hit some rockets in the sixth without scoring. He was finished. There were nice defensive efforts on back-to-back plays in the third. Herman made a diving stop to his left of a liner by jr. 2B-SS Chris Dolan, but the ball squirted out of his glove. He scrambled to his feet and gunned to David for the out. Then, sr. 1B Steve Covely lofted a high popup down the RF line. David had a decent run and was twisting/turning en route. He stayed with the play and made it in foul territory. Excellent! In addition to his two hits and RBI out of the No. 9 hole, Dupell picked a runner off 2B. C-E trainer Frank McGowan had a good pun after "Meat" David worked a 3-0 count: "Look for a prime cut, Meat." My partners behind the screen were the Lakes, father Al and son Mike. Both were Ryan's head coach and Mike is now an assistant at La Salle University. They had a nice pre-game talk with C-E coach Rich Papirio, who was also the head man at Ryan back in the day. Meanwhile, Burns is the nephew of ex-Egan all-timer Ricky Burns, who twice was a first team All-City honoree in football and baseball. He holds what has always been considered the city record for consecutive steals in a season, with 49. The streak ended when Judge's Stan Brach gunned him down at third base.

APRIL 14
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
North Catholic 9, Judge 4
   It's not too often a game with 19 walks winds up being enjoyable. Or, for that matter, takes just a shade over two hours to complete. Weird, huh? Well, here's one of the reasons the game moved along: There were five doubleplays and four in the first 2 1/2 innings! There was also one of the all-time nutty/amazing plays and we'll get right to it, sports fans. Sixth inning. Two outs. Judge jr. CF Justin DeCristofaro hits an absolute rocket just past soph RHP Chris Dougherty. The line drive then slams right into the second base bag and pops into the air -- maybe 12 feet, I'm guessing -- toward sr. 2B Chris Wenger. Wenger had been moving slightly toward the middle of the diamond at the ping of the bat. Showing tremendous instincts/poise, Wenger barehanded the ball and fired to first for the out! Many people who saw the play will long be talking about it. OK, back to the beginning moments of that inning. Sr. RHP Tim Wallace issued walks to sr. 2B Dan Bucher and jr. SS Jeff McMahon, a single to sr. 3B-P Dan Higgins and another walk (his 12th of the game) to jr. 1B Jason D'Ambrosio to force in a run, bringing Judge within 7-3. Wallace (120 pitches) departed and Dougherty came on. His first pitch? A doubleplay. Soph DH-3B-RF Ryan Kreider hit into it and Wenger did the major work, stepping on the bag and firing to first. A run scored, but of course Kreider did not receive credit for an RBI. Wallace, a feisty SS, was making his first pitching start in a CL game. He does not throw very hard and often goes with curves and, yes, his control leaves a lot to be desired (he felt he got pinched; the plate ump was highly inconsistent), but his sheer will and fielding support by his teammates enabled him to hang tough and emerge as the winner. North broke open a 2-2 game with five in the fifth. Wenger (there's that name again; that's no coincidence) drew a leadoff walk and Wallace (2-for-4, two RBI), a lefty swinger, powered an RBI triple to deep right-center. That ringing hit chased sr. RHP Josh Ruhland and Higgins moved in from third. His stint did not go well. A botched grounder immediately brought in Wallace and the Falcons followed with consecutive singles by jr. C Mike Constantine, sr. CF George Fenton (for an RBI) and sr. LF Brett Bryan (another RBI). Later, Wenger drew a walk to bring in the fifth run of the frame. In the sixth, vs. sr. RHP Pat Gallagher, soph 1B Derrek Etsell and Constantine lashed back-to-back doubles and Bryan got home a run with a sacrifice fly. Dougherty walked two in the seventh and the game ended as McMahon lined out to sr. 2B Joe McDermott (no relation to Judge's coach). Wenger was at SS in the last inning; he had two assists. Meanwhile, Judge is still without star sr. RHP Shane Erb (tender elbow) and there's no indication he'll be back any time soon. Another pitcher, jr. RH Matt Compton, is out with a back injury suffered while he was refereeing a youth hockey game. Before the game, coach McDermott gathered his squad for the ever-popular team photo by saying, "Let's get this picture done for goofy Ted and his website." Everybody was laughing. Including me. I said to Joe, "That's maybe the nicest word you've ever called me." (smile) Joe and I go back to each other's very beginning. He became Judge's coach for the '76 season, which was when I started covering city high school sports for the long-gone Bulletin. As far as I know, Joe has never been mad at me. More than three times per season (ha ha).

APRIL 12
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Penn Charter 4, Chestnut Hill Academy 0
   Ah, what a pleasure. Two pitchers with mostly great stuff, tremendous mid-April weather (for the second day in a row) and the beautiful grounds of my alma mater. Well, one of my two alma maters. I attended two years of pre-school at CHA, then 13 of regular school (including kindergarten; I never flunked; almost got tossed once or twice -- ha ha) at PC. My mom, who today celebrated her 91st birthday, wanted me out of the house early, thus explaining the stint at CHA. I did drive her nuts (smile). Anyway . . . PC jr. RHP Sean Rust pitched a gem and CHA jr. RHP Cory Broderick also had good moments. Rust, a strong kid, struck out 11, walked none and retired the final 12 batters in order. His fastball had movement in addition to velocity and, on occasion, his curve and newly added changeup were also effective. CHA loaded the bases with one out in the first on singles by sr. SS Anthony Biello, Broderick and soph 2B Anthony Cafagna. Soph CF Anthony Cardona (do you notice a pattern here?) hit a chopper to Rust, whose throw to sr. C R.J. Hollinshead got a forceout. Jr. 3B Anthony Giovinazzo (notice a pattern YET? -- that's four guys named Anthony among the first six batters!) went down swinging. In the second, sr. LF Kris Kimball lashed a two-out triple to CF, but died at third as Biello flied to CF. In the fourth, Cardona singled off Rust's glove and Giovinazzo singled through the hole to LF. Sr. 1B Scott Dziengelski fouled out to jr. 3B Jim Entwisle and, as sr. C Scott Redpath faked a bunt, the runners executed a double steal. Redpath flied to sr. CF Ryan Nanni and Cardona, after a momentary brush with disorientation, was unable to try to score. Kimball then fanned to end the uprising. Rust dominated from there on out. Only one of PC's runs was earned. It came in the third as Nanni and sr. LF Chris Brock drew two-out walks and Rust powered an RBI single to RF. CHA was guilty of misplayed grounders in the fourth and fifth and they were killers. Hollinshead, who's expecting to attend La Salle or Mt. St. Mary's, went 2-for-4 with an RBI and ripped the ball in every at-bat. Soph RF Sammy Zeglinski went 2-for-3 with an RBI. PC's designated hitter was an eighth-grader, Rob Amaro. His father (David) and uncle (Ruben) starred at PC and Ruben is the Phillies' assistant general manager. Their father, Ruben Sr., played for the Phillies (as did Ruben Jr.). Rob went 0-for-3 in the No. 6 hole. I can only imagine how much fun he'll have down the line. Meanwhile, Nanni's uncles, Chris and David, were multi-sport stars at PC and their brother, Tito, was the same at CHA. He was the Mariners' first-round pick in 1978. Dziengelski, a lefty swinger who goes about 6-4, 230, uses a 32-inch, 29-ounce bat, according to teammates. Not sure why. CHA coach Stan Parker, on all his Anthonys: "When I yell that name, about half the team runs over."

APRIL 11
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Roman 8, Carroll 5
   Sr. RHP Brian Rorick, whose fastball usually hits 88-89 mph, is bound for Coastal Carolina and ranks as one of the area's top players, but Roman got the better of him today. For me there was an early tipoff when Roman's batters kept fouling balls straight back. That meant they were on him. For whatever reason, Rorick's heater had little movement. In warmups between innings, he threw some extra-crisp curves. He rarely showed it during the game itself. Roman's headliner was sr. 1B Nick DeMalto, a lefty swinger who sent all three of his hits to LF and left-center. He smacked a double, an RBI single and a three-run homer to LF that came in the fifth inning and turned a 4-2 deficit into a 5-4 lead. Sr. C Brian Cooper, an old-fashioned guy who actually gets dirty and shows leadership, started the frame with a rocket through the hole to LF. Sr. 3B Bob Spinks followed with a grounder deep behind 3B that resulted in a single. DeMalto then homered and, one out later, promising soph CF Dominique Joseph sent a solo homer to dead CF. Rorick moved to SS for the sixth inning and jr. RHP Andrew Haefner allowed two more homers, solos by sr. SS Tim Hoban and Spinks. Both were hit well. Hoban handled four grounders and made strong/true throws on all of them. Roman's pitcher was jr. RH Ryan Weber. He threw nowhere nearly as hard as Rorick, but had pretty good location and mixed in a knuckler at key moments, especially early. Only one leadoff man reached base. Before the game, a Roman guy picked up a bat, flipped a baseball maybe a foot in the air and made contact with the bat. Clink! He said, "You won't hear that sound today." The guy who did that? Weber. Nothing wrong with having confidence and showing it in a humorous way (smile). Later, I ruled an error on a grounder hit by Cooper. When the inning ended, he asked how the play had been scored. A few guys gave him the bad news and Brian said with a laugh, "Hey, I'm just trying to boost the average." Backup sr. OF Ryan Murphy, sitting nearby, piped up with, "I'm just trying to GET an average." Carroll's top four hitters produced just one hit, an RBI infield single by sr. RF Dave Puliti. They also combined for six of the seven Ks recorded by Weber. Weird! Soph LF Chris Lisowski (No. 7 in order) had a pair of doubles for one RBI. No. 8, jr. SS Steve Brouwers, hit a rocket for a sac fly and No. 9 Matt Cantafio, the DH hit a high fly to CF that barely became a two-run homer. Our best wishes go out to ump Paul Fricker, who's consistently terrific behind the plate and has a good demeanor, too. With Roman jr. LF Mike Mychack batting in the fifth, Rorick uncorked a fastball that somehow sailed untouched past jr. C Andrew Szalejko and nailed Fricker on his left elbow. Paul was visibly shaken and even lost color for a while. He tried to continue, but was dizzy and light-headed and base ump Bill "Babs" Haines had to go to his car and get his gear. The delay was 20 minutes. Babs kiddingly said he wanted a bigger paycheck for his efforts. Puliti made the day's defensive play with a sprawling snag of Mychack's low liner in the fourth. Roman's new coach, Joe Tremoglie, was the starting 1B and No. 3 hitter for the school's '92 champs. One of his assistants, Harry Carr, was the cleanup hitter and a star pitcher. Another assistant, Pete Boylan, was a gritty infielder for the '83 Cahillites, who won one of the best games I've ever seen. Here's the recap:
SOUTH PREPLAYOFF
At O'Hara
Roman 5, SJ Prep 4 (12 inn.)
   Paul Barton homered with one out in the home 12th to win it. Pat DiCicco went 2-for-4 with an RBI, was issued two intentional walks, gunned out two base-stealers and made a great block-and-tag at the plate to prevent an 11th inning run. Roman scored two in the seventh on RBI singles by Pete Boylan and John Connor. In the eighth, Prep scored on a doubleplay grounder and Roman's Fran Zehren had an RBI single. Prep's Vince Bonaventura and DiCicco had RBI singles in the ninth.

APRIL 7
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
Ryan 17, Dougherty 7
   Sr. RHP Mike McCann might have unwittingly set a world record today for most hits allowed in his next start after a gem. McCann pitched a no-no March 31 vs. North Catholic, but in this one he was raked for 20 hits in a five-inning, 112-pitch stint. I know. Isn't that incredible? Zero hits to 20 hits! Dougherty is extremely short on pitching, so McCann had to suck it up and stay out there much longer than he should have. Frankly, I was surprised and disappointed he wasn't removed earlier because staying out there that long could not have done much for his confidence. Early, McCann did a nice job of moving the ball in and out and he used two strikeouts to wriggle free from a bases-loaded, one-out, first-inning jam. Thereafter? Ouch. Four of the 20 hits vs. McCann went for extra bases as sr. RHP Nick Klein and jr. 2B Chris Dolan powered ground-rule doubles out onto the street in LF-CF, sr. RF Steve Covely smacked a triple to RF and sr. SS Anthony Carter slammed a solo homer to LF that cleared a parked car and landed in the street. Ryan scored two in the second, seven in the third, two in the fourth and six in the fifth. The wind was blowing HARD to LF and/or LC and a few of the hits were bloopers that proved to be adventures, but many were stung. Some stats: sr. CF Kyle Unger went 3-for-4 with a sac fly and four RBI. Sr. 3B-P Ed Kovacs went 3-for-5 with two RBI. Sr. 1B Rob Fisher went 2-for-4 with three RBI. Carter went 3-for-5 with two RBI. Sr. LF-C Anthony Turco went 3-for-4. Dolan went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Sr. C Nick DiEnno had one hit and a sacrifice fly and easily threw out a would-be basestealer. Ryan's offense was finally calmed when soph LHP Kevin McGovern (brother of Sean, ex-Dougherty RHP of some note, also a QB of much note) worked the last two innings. He goes about 6-1/6-2 and shows a tailing fastball and an excellent changeup. He struck out four and got two more outs on popups. He gave up one hit. Klein went five innings for Ryan, surrendering six hits and striking out five. He showed a decent fastball. Kovacs threw a LOT of pitches in his two innings, as he walked four, hit one and struck out five. Dougherty's top hitter was sr. C Mike Copestick, who hit a rope to RF for one of his outs and lined a pair of RBI singles to CF. Sr. 1B Pat Peters went 2-for-4 with a two-run double. Sr. CF Luke Ashenbrenner doubled and drew two walks in four plate appearances. Sr. 3B Mike Moody had interesting, back-to-back plays in the fourth. While coming to the mound to catch a popup, he tripped and fell and drew some laughs (but still held onto the ball). Next, Fisher hit a grounder to third. Moody hung tough on a difficult play, stepped on the bag and threw to first for the doubleplay. Scout Joe McGillen was in attendance. He's DiEnno's next-door neighbor and has long followed his career while also offering pointers. Seeing Joe and talking baseball with him is always a pleasure. 

APRIL 6
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Kensington 14, Franklin LC 2
   I decided very early in the day to attend a game involving lesser lights and the choice came down to this one, Bartram-Bok or Saul-Roxborough. A hunch sent me here and honestly, this wasn't exactly a classic. Kensington is respectable, but FLC is way down talentwise in part because some of coach John Merlino's best players, especially pitchers, are academically ineligible. Jr. RHP Brian "Bibby" Franklin, normally an infielder, got through the first inning OK, then struggled. The Tigers torched him for seven runs in the second, then four and three in the third and fourth, respectively. Sr. RF John Duffy fueled the first outburst with a two-run triple to right-center and, hey, I think he just arrived at third base! (smile) John is not exactly in the lineup for his wheels and he was huffin' and puffin' like crazy as he went around the bases. He's highly popular with his teammates and all were thrilled to see him come through. Sr. 1B Odaly Santana followed with an RBI single to LF. Later, jr. CF Justin Velazquez got a run home with an HBP and jr. RHP Sthalin "Stallion" Hidalgo slammed a three-run double, a two-hopper off the fence in LF. Velazquez had the big hits in the third (two-run double) and fourth (two-run single). The two-run double clanged off the light tower in left-center. Sr. SS Ricardo Feliciano, soph 2B Angelo "Not Arturo" Garcia (double) and jr. 1B Hector Cruz also delivered run-scoring hits in the last two innings. Despite its struggles, FLC maintained its pride on two fronts and Merlino left very encouraged. In the home fourth, Kensington was one run away from ending it when Franklin regrouped and notched an inning-ending strikeout. In the fifth, Hidalgo (seven strikeouts) was two strikes away from a no-hitter when Franklin again came through. With two out and soph LF John Schuler (walk, WP) on second, Franklin fired an RBI single into CF. Garcia made a sprawling effort to preserve the no-hitter, but couldn't get to the ball. Jr. C Kevin Curran followed with a slow roller for an infield single and promising soph SS Lenny Nicoletti delivered a semi-liner to RF for an RBI single. The game ended when backup 3B Jon Martin, made a nice charge play on another slow roller. This game was played at Bridesburg RC, at Richmond and Ash. The field's not in very good shape and it's kind of sad. Back in the day, this was the home field of a legendary squad in the semi-pro Pen-Del League, Magnolia A.C. Strange as this might sound, a generation (or maybe a generation-and-a-half) ago, it was not uncommon for ex-major leaguers to play in the Pen-Del League, especially ex-Phillies. And Magnolia had a few of them. Oh, well. Times change . . .

MARCH 31
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
O'Hara 2, Bonner 0
   If people could have concentrated more on the action instead of trying to avoid frostbite (nah, it wasn't THAT bad, but it was COLD, especially in the latter innings), this might have been an all-timer. About 200 spectators were in attendance and, like often in recent years, numerous students were behind the fence in centerfield. These schools are big rivals, of course, and now there's a fuel-adding subplot. Bonner's new coach, John Fleming, was formerly the top assistant to O'Hara coach Frank Allison and even steered the Lions to the 2003 CL title when Allison had medical problems. Fleming is intense like crazy and is hoping to make the Friars a regional, if not national, power. He's not afraid to ream out his players at high volume and everyone, it appears, is still adjusting. Meanwhile, now assisting Allison is Mike Sundo, a former Bonner player and very popular assistant who hoped to be the replacement for the retired Bob Vent. Even before the game began, Allison and Fleming briefly flared at each other, and the umps, over the ins and outs of the newly adjusted rules concerning speed-up runners. The game itself? Oh, yeah. Almost forgot (smile). Very few players made crisp contact and there were no spectacular fielding plays and it's never fun to watch a walk (seven total, along with two hit batters), but this was respectable. In fact, it almost produced life-long memories because O'Hara sr. LHP Josh Rickards (Marist signee) twirled a one-hitter with 12 strikeouts. Rickards is sneaky fast (even VERY fast, on occasion) and mixes in competent curves and changes. Honestly, he overmatched many of the Friars. He walked five, but only one after the third inning. Bonner's hit came with two outs in the sixth when sr. 1B Kevin Ward fired a groundball single between third and short. That gave Bonner first and second, but sr. RF Joe McGilligan grounded out to short. The Friars got a leadoff walk in the seventh (jr. SS Matt Kern), but the bottom of the order followed, as did three Ks. Two of the whiffees were pinch-hitters. Bonner sr. RHP Tom Moran also had a good outing, for the most part. He also fanned 12 and walked just two. The two free passes were issued in the same frame, though, and both guys scored. The sequence in the third: sr. SS Matt Catania walked and stole second while sr. 3B Brian Giacobetti was fanning; sr. CF Steve Cook walked; sr. RF Sean Barksdale sent a drive to deep RF and Catania scurried to third; as Cook broke for second, soph 2B Pat Young dribbled a grounder maybe 30 feet wide of 1B; sr. 2B Bill Larkin had broken to cover second and it took him a while to recover and make the play (his throw was late and Catania scored); jr. 1B Jonathan Szeliga followed with an RBI single to CF. Next, jr. DH Rob Crowley fanned and the next 12 O'Hara batters went down in order. Ex-Malvern coach Bill Ford is now a Bonner assistant, as is former Friar slugger Rob Cucinotta (first team All-City in '98). It was good to see both of them. Huck and Amauro were in the hiz-ouse! Guess which sport they talked about nonstop behind the cage? Hint: it wasn't baseball (ha ha). About 40 advertising signs were hanging along the outfield fence. A DJ was on hand, and he doubled as a PA announcer. CL teams can now use DHs and the first for O'Hara in league play, jr. Tom Connelly, had a very brief stint. He took a swing in the second inning and the ball dribbled foul. It SOUNDED as though the ball hit the bat, but Connelly claimed it hit a finger and chose to remove himself from the game (Tom reported Friday morning that he suffered a hairline fracture to the middle finger on his right hand; we hope he makes it back into action soon!). Trivia answer: the first O'Hara player in CL history not to be allowed to bat was sr. LF Mark Concannon. Bonner did not use a DH. In fact, in a rarity, the pitcher (Moran) and catcher (jr. Ryan Hunt) batted 1-2 in the order.

MARCH 30
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Frankford 7, Olney 0
   The weatherman cooperated nicely for my first game of the spring. The competitionman did not. Olney is young and inexperienced and Frankford has a talented, veteran squad and this one wasn't exactly crackling with excitement. No sweat. How many games in late March are ever tremendous? Frankford has five transfers in its starting lineup and four came from Olney. Coach Barry Strube said junior DH Jose DeLeon was told to transfer because he did not live in Olney's district and he strongly suspects the others (sr. 1B Juan Torres, jr. LF Edwin Burgos, sr. RF Kelinton Tejada) followed along because they wanted to remain together. Olney pressed the issue with District 12 and even overall PIAA brass, but everyone was ruled eligible and that's that. The best transfer is sr. SS Luis Alicea, the PL's best prospect. Though only 5-6, 150, he has great hands and feet and is receiving scouting attention. He also runs well and is thoroughly dedicated to the game. He projects as a second baseman, but his strong arm allows him to play SS at this level with no problem. Alicea went 0-for-4, but twice hit rockets to deep CF. If those balls had gone to left, the houses across Pratt Street would have been under siege. Luis also made an out on a liner to normal CF. No grounders were hit his way in part because jr. RHP Richard Jimenez was busy striking out 13 in six innings. Early, Jimenez mostly got his strikeouts on curves. Later, he used a good FB to blow away the overmatched Trojans. Alicea worked the seventh and got 'em 1-2-3 while fanning two. The other out came on charge play by Jimenez. Though all of Frankford's against frosh RHP Alan Rosa were officially earned, none was "clean" due to walks, easy steals, etc. Also, in the third, Burgos received credit for a two-run double when his liner to CF was dropped. In fairness to sr. CF Juan Diaz, the sun was directly in his eyes as he ran in. (That was why we opted to call the play a hit; it was definitely borderline.) Jimenez had an RBI single earlier in the inning. Sr. 2B Carlos Rosado and jr. C Ramon Reyes scored two runs apiece overall. By the way, Reyes looked impressive beyond the dish. He gunned down a basestealer and threw some peas to second between innings. Olney sent just three balls beyond the infield. Jr. 3B Jaime Mojica hit a flare into LC for a single. Soph SS Felix Madera fired a low liner into CF for a single. Diaz popped to CF. After Olney sr. 3B John Miles grounded out, he came back to the bench complaining about his spikes. "My feet are killing me," he said. "These are size 11. I need 13." Frankford has 12 Hispanics on its 13-man roster and coach Bob Peffle is doing his best to learn Spanish. At one point I heard him yell out the Spanish words for "keep working." Not bad, though my Spanish accent is better (smile). Said assistant Juan Namnun, "I was thinking of buying him one of those little, handheld things that translates words." After Olney jr. 1B Eric Cruz, who's kinda beefy, missed catching a foul popup by a couple feet, Strube cracked good-naturedly, "Two less cheeseburgers and you would have had that!"