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JUNE 15
PIAA CLASS AAAA FINAL
La Salle 3, Council Rock South 1
At Penn State
Back in Kevin Long’s hometown of Horsham, or somewhere
else, a beautiful young lass must have been waiting for him. ‘Cause this
dude was pitchin’ at warp speed! Not so much the pitches themselves, though
his fastballs did have respectable juice. We’re talking about how quickly he
worked. A few times, the sr. RH was delivering the ball three seconds after
snagging it from sr. C Corey Baiada. OK, maybe four. When a kid works
that quickly and is having control problems, an observer’s main thought is
automatic: He needs to slow down. When the kid’s throwing strikes, THIS
thought is also automatic: Work even faster! This is great! After Long today
pitched the Explorers to a state title, he mentioned that the umpire gave
him an acceptable strike zone, especially toward the bottom, whereas the ump
in Monday’s state semi had called pitches tighter. In that one, Long had
some free-pass issues and wound up pitching six innings before yielding to
soph RH Dom Cuoci, also a SS. The Cootchster warmed up today as La
Salle batted in the visiting seventh, but coach Joe Parisi had no
intention of removing Long, short of an implosion. No wonder. Long had
retired nine in a row and 12 of 13 and he zipped through the ninth in very
rapid fashion and then . . . let the celebration begin! The pics are all
posted and some of the specifics are mentioned in the SportsWeek story (only
one dollar at a store near you; come on, you can afford it – smile) and,
well, they were all cool to see. Like the first Catholic League team to win
a state title (Carroll, basketball, 2008-09), the Explorers did not win the
league title. But they stunned N-G in a state playoff and rolled onward to
state AAA honors. These guys fell to N-G in the CL chip, but the teams were
members of different classifications. La Salle won the AAAA City Title over
Frankford and stormed to four more triumphs in the state tourney. Long was
masterful. Incredibly, he pitched a three-hitter even though the second and
third batters of the game reached him for singles. That early uh-oh was
compounded by a passed ball and CR South had men on second and third with
one away. Long fanned the next guy and got the third out on a grounder to
sr. 1B Chris Melillo and what a mental/emotional lift that success
must have given him. The only other hit was a looping double down the
rightfield line with two away in the second. An HBP followed, but Long
(eight Ks, one walk) induced a flyball to sr. RF Tyler Kozeniewski to
thwart that threat. The run against him was unearned. In the fifth, the
leadoff guy sent a liner to center. Sr. CF Ryan Otis had some
problems with judgment and footwork and the ball wound up being scored a
three-base error. A sac fly followed and that was the first out of the 12 to
finish the game. La Salle tallied one run in the second and two in the
fourth. Second: Kozeniewski drew a leadoff walk and sr. 3B Mike Piscopo
received credit for a single off a shot that ate up the first baseman. Sr.
2B Colin Pyne followed a low liner to center that bagged him an RBI.
Fourth: Baiada scorched a leadoff double into right-center. Kozeniewski hit
the ball to the shortstop and an attempt to catch frosh courtesy runner
Jim Herron was made at third. Didn’t work. Piscopo then sent a hard
single to right-center for one RBI. Pyne’s bunt moved up both runners and
Cuoci followed by stinging an RBI single to left-center. Parisi flashed a
squeeze sign to Long, but Kevin missed it. Afterward, he said it must have
been sent his way while he was distracted by orders from the plate ump to
get back in the box. Piscopo got hung out to dry and was tagged out a short
distance from third. Long then was rung up and, thankfully, the snafu did
not wind up providing pain and sorrow. Aside from glancing at his strikeout
totals, a sign of Long’s dominance can be had by checking a scoresheet.
Mine, for instance (smile). Kozeniewski had five putouts and Melillo notched
three more on foul popups. Most if not all of South’s hitters were righties,
so obviously they were swinging late and/or getting bad looks at the
pitches. This La Salle team was a fun one to cover and congrats to all,
coaches and players alike! The day’s one downer came when I checked email
and found out that Inter-Ac/Indy fell in its Carpenter Cup Classic
quarterfinal. Would have been cool to visit CBP for a semi and maybe a
final, as well. That result means -- except for the All-City squad, which
will appear sometime next week -- my 41st school year of covering scholastic
sports is in the books. Great fun, as always! Thanks for paying attention!
JUNE 13
CARPENTER CUP CLASSIC FIRST ROUND
Delaware County 9, Public League 3
At Richie Ashburn Field
In his pregame comments to the Pub squad, coach Juan Namnun
(Frankford) perhaps tried to go the reverse-black-cat route. He mentioned
that the Pub has a tendency to do well through six-seven innings in the
Carpenter Cup, and then experience problems. Uh, oh. Guess what happened
today? Exactly that! The score after seven innings was 3-3, but Delco posted
one run in the eighth (with the help of an infield error) and five more in
the ninth (mostly due to walks, some shots, a miscue and two sac flies).
Thus, the Pub’s lifetime Triple C record is 1-27 (only win in 1990) and the
average margin of defeat remains pretty darn close to seven (6.8). The
weirdest part of this tilt: the Pub’s top two programs were almost
completely absent! Frankford had graduation at 1 o’clock at the football
stadium and the five Carp Cup members did not arrive until the top of the
seventh. Carp rules prohibit players from seeing action in more than six
innings, but game officials let the Pub slide for the top of the seventh
(defense) as three starters – sr. CF Joshua Fontanez (Edison), jr. SS
Aderly Perez (Esperanza) and soph OF Robert Freer (Prep
Charter) – remained on the field. As for Central . . not one Lancer was in
da house! The reasons apparently were numerous, but coach Rich Weiss
said he asked seven of his players to try out and no one responded. His
disappointment was obvious. DN ink went to sr. RH Nate Vahedi (Seton
Hall), who worked three wonderful innings. He allowed no hits and one walk
while fanning three and even recorded 10 outs because one of the whiff guys
reached base on a passed ball. Jr. RH Khalil Coles (Franklin)
followed for one inning and wound up allowing three runs. He pitches almost
all of his games on fields with cages and Ashburn, of course, is wide open.
Maybe that unfamiliarity caused him to uncork some wild pitches? On one, jr.
C Joey Powell (Masterman) made a quick recovery and Coles dashed in
to catch Powell’s throw and successfully make the tag. The very next pitch
also skidded to the backstop. This time the runner scored. Jr. LH Dylan
Burke (Lincoln) worked two perfect frames (one K) and soph RH Jake
Kurtz (GAMP) coasted two-thirds of the way through a second inning.
Alas, sr. SS Ricky Alvarez, one of late-arriving Frankford guys, was
slightly off with a throw off a grounder and sr. 1B Tyler Criniti
couldn’t quite make the scoop. The next guy thumped an RBI double to
left-center. Sr. RH Rafael “Omar” Cruz worked the ninth. I guess we
can understand why things didn’t go well for the Pioneers. They had to rush
to get to Ashburn Field and likely were not completely stretched/poised
before they entered the game. The Pub scored one run apiece in the fourth,
fifth and seventh thanks to respective RBI by sr. DH Derek Gregg (Bok,
single to right), jr. LF Jake Wright (Washington, double down the
leftfield line) and jr. LF Shakore Taylor (E&S, groundout to
shortstop). Perez had a pair of singles and stole a base. DN lensman Dave
Maialetti and I spent much of the game right next to the first-base end
of the Pub’s dugout. There was a small puddle of water/mud right near us and
. . . you got it! Some dude sent a ground ball that way and we got splashed
with mud! Ha, ha, ha. Not much, thankfully. But definitely enough. Delco’s
first base coach was former Bonner star Frank Nunan (’03, first team
All-City outfielder), who now coaches at Upper Darby. Great to see him!
JUNE 12
LA SALLE'S PLAYOFF STATS
(Through Seven Postseason Games)
| BATTING | H-AB | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | AVG. | |
| Chris Melillo | 11-22 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 0 | .500 | |
| P.J. Acierno | 11-23 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .478 | |
| Corey Baiada | 10-22 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .455 | |
| Mike Piscopo | 7-17 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .412 | |
| Kevin Long | 6-16 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .375 | |
| Tyler Kozeniewski | 7-19 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .368 | |
| Colin Pyne | 6-19 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .263 | |
| Ryan Otis | 5-22 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .227 | |
| Dom Cuoci | 4-19 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .211 | |
| Jim Herron | 2-10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .200 | |
| John Scheffey | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | |
| Totals | 69-190 | 43 | 13 | 3 | 1 | .363 | |
| PITCHING | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| Mike Piscopo (1-0) | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Dom Cuoci (2-0, S) | 17 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 0.82 |
| Kevin Long (3-1) | 25.1 | 18 | 11 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 2.76 |
| John Scheffey | 2.2 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 10.49 |
| Totals | 44.1 | 34 | 18 | 16 | 19 | 34 | 2.53 |
JUNE 12
NEUMANN-GORETTI'S PLAYOFF STATS
(Through Seven Postseason Games . . . Final)
| BATTING | H-AB | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | AVG. | |
| Justin Curtin | 1-1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | |
| Pat Doudican | 1-1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | |
| Charlie Jerla | 1-2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .500 | |
| Josh Ockimey | 9-21 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 4 | .429 | |
| Joey Gorman | 9-24 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .375 | |
| Nicky Nardini | 6-19 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .316 | |
| Mario DiFebbo | 7-22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .318 | |
| Anthony Adams | 5-20 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .250 | |
| Marty Venafro | 6-24 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .250 | |
| Jimmy Kerrigan | 5-21 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .238 | |
| Joe Kinee | 2-20 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .100 | |
| Joey Glennon | 2-23 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .087 | |
| Dean DeJesse | 0-2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | |
| Totals | 54-197 | 34 | 10 | 3 | 4 | .274 | |
| PITCHING | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| Joe Jaep (1-0) | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 0.00 |
| John LaMotta (3-0) | 14 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 0.50 |
| Joe Kinee (1-0) | 12 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 11 | 2.33 |
| Joey Gorman (1-1) | 21 | 24 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 17 | 2.50 |
| Totals | 56 | 51 | 19 | 12 | 17 | 49 | 1.50 |
JUNE 11
PIAAA CLASS AAA SEMIFINAL
Lampeter-Strasburg 2, Neumann-Goretti 1
At Spring-Ford High
It’s one thing to chastise
an umpiring crew for making calls you feel were incorrect. It’s quite
another to claim the men in blue were guilty of cheating and Mike Zolk,
N-G’s first-year coach, decided to visit that very dangerous territory maybe
an hour after the game. It happened in a phone conversation and I asked Mike
if he was sure he wanted to go there. He was. “I really feel we were
cheated,” he said. “I really, really, REALLY feel we were cheated.” He
wasn’t screaming. Didn’t mix in expletives. He just talked and expressed his
feelings. A few more times during the night, once I arrived at the office
and began writing the story, and again much later, as I was arriving back
home, we again had phone conversations. He’d seen video shot from the top of
the stands behind the plate by an N-G parent. Had even watched it on a big
screen. Now, he was more positive than ever that the two big plays in this
game had been blown. He’d already crafted an email and sent it to Dave
Connolly, the Pub baseball chairman and the guy who’d handled details
for D-12 squads in the City Title games and first round of the state
tourney. In that email, Zolk accused the plate ump of cheating and asked
Dave to talk to state officials and see if the game could be replayed in its
entirety with a different crew. Mike said he received permission from two
N-G administrators before going down that path. . . . Now, for some
background. Zolk is the all-time bundle of energy and, by his own admission,
just cannot stay still. If allowed, he likes to coach from in front of the
dugout at fields like this, walking back and forth, back and forth, back and
forth non-stop. Even pretty much out to the point where the cinders meet the
grass. That, of course, means he's "in play." He did that throughout the
Catholic League final at Widener and no one ordered him back in the dugout.
This time, however, L-S’ coaches spoke up and Zolk, at least twice in the
early part of the game, was ordered to back up and stay put. (Of course,
he’s only in this area when N-G is in the field. He’s stationed in the
coach’s box at third when the Saints are batting.) Was the plate ump annoyed
that he had chase Zolk back to the edge of the dugout multiple times?
Couldn’t have helped. The first call that went against N-G occurred in the
third. After sr. LF Mario DiFebbo was plunked, sr. RF Anthony
Adams pushed a sacrifice bunt toward the right side. The pitcher, lefty
Peter Darrenkamp, picked up the ball and fired it past first base
into right field. N-G’s players and fans were ecstatic. Then the plate ump
slowly walked out and called time. Adams was called out for interference.
The ball had not hit him, but he’d caused the bad throw, in the ump’s
opinion, because he’d been running to first INSIDE the baseline and not in
the runner’s box. Tuesday morning, Zolk sent a text to correct a version of
the play he said he’d seen on the video Monday night. At first, Zolk
indicated Darrenkamp had made the throw in fair territory by a decent
amount. After further looks at the play, he sent a text that read in part,
“The pitcher’s momentum carried him into foul territory, which caused him to
make a bad throw!” He stood by his all-along contention that Adams was in
the runner’s box by that juncture. Anyway, Zolk had no prayer of getting the
plate ump to rethink that verdict. Adams was called out and DiFebbo was
ordered back to first. The inning died a quick death. A group of male N-G
fans was stationed behind a fence located between the dugout and the main
stands. As you can imagine, those guys rode the plate ump pretty hard and
the ump went over and appeared to try to get one of them/all of them to
move. Not completely positive how that went down because I was stationed at
this juncture beyond the wall at the OTHER end of N-G’s dugout. Later, I
moved to a spot near the plate side of L-S’ dugout, on the steps leading up
to the main stands, and remained there until the end of the game. As the
fifth inning ended, a local policeman approached those same N-G fans and
ordered them to go up INTO the stands. A Spring-Ford employee said police
from three local areas were now on the premises. Not a whole bunch of cops.
Just one-two from each municipality. Through six innings, the Saints were
no-hit (even though the scoreboard showed one hit; that mistake was
eventually corrected) and the task in front of them looked pretty daunting
as they prepared to bat in the home seventh. Score at least two runs against
a guy who’d not yet allowed a hit? Let's give it a whirl. Soph 1B Josh
Ockimey led off and a pitch brushed against his uniform top. He was sent
to first, then replaced by pinch-runner Dean DeJesse. Up stepped sr.
CF Jimmy Kerrigan and, bang!, he broke up the no-no with a hard-hit
double to right-center. DeJesse stopped at third. Jr. 3B Joe Kinee
fanned on three pitches. Jr. 2B Joey Glennon, tremendous in the field
all day but who’d managed just one hit through the whole postseason, put a
late swing on a pitch from Darrenkamp and fired an RBI single through the
right-side hole. DeJesse scored and Kerrigan stopped at third. Next was
DiFebbo and he was ordered to squeeze. He got the ball down perfectly and
Kerrigan raced home. The Saints and their fans momentarily went BERSERK. One
problem. The plate ump had his hands in the air. He wound up ruling the ball
had bounced off DiFebbo while Mario was trying to emerge from the box. Foul
ball. No play. Get back in the box. DiFebbo followed with another good bunt.
This one went past Darrenkamp, to HIS left, into pretty much a no-man’s
area. It went from a sac to a single as DiFebbo easily reached first. Big
problem, though. As the play began, Kerrigan spun his wheels while trying to
start a dash home and had to remain at the bag. Another problem. While
running toward second, Glennon and the second baseman collided in powerful
fashion. How would THIS be untangled? After all kinds of discussion,
obstruction was ruled and the bases were loaded. Adams wound up fanning
after missing a sign for a squeeze. (Later, in an emotional speech to the
players and family members, Zolk took the blame, saying he’d forgotten to go
over the signs, like he usually does, before the game.) Sr. C Nicky
Nardini followed with a smash that, off the bat from my angle, had the
potential to be a two-run walkoff single. Oh, my goodness. How amazing would
THAT have been. Instead, the ball was gloved on one hop by the third baseman
– great play under intense pressure – and a game-ending force was made at
the bag. The umps quickly left the field and were greeted by a police
officer. That guy accompanied them as they walked to a spot near a back
fence well behind L-S’ dugout. Already, a N-G supporter was screaming at a
Spring-Ford employee who’d told him to tone down the language he’d been
directing at the umps. The two were face to face. Soon, another N-G
supporter could be spotted in the aisle at the edge of the main stands,
maybe five-six rows up. He was yelling assorted comments toward the umps and
getting into it with L-S fans who were right next to him. The Saints,
meanwhile, were beyond devastated. Zolk had an emotion-filled talk with the
players and family members and, among other things, told the kids to leave
the the stadium “with heads held high, chests out.” N-G’s pitcher was sr. LH
Joey Gorman. L-S scored in the third on a homer – a true BIG FLY to
left -- by sr. RF Dan Neff and again in the seventh on an RBI sngle
by Neff. That inning started with a single. Then, on a 3-2 count and with
the runner going, the batter sent a ground ball right through the spot
occupied just moments earlier by Glennon. He’d gone to cover second for K-DP
possibilities, even though the batter was a lefty. Where all of this will go
is anybody’s guess. The PIAA does not allow protests and especially does NOT
take kindly to accusations of cheating. Two years ago, in basketball, the
Math, Civics and Sciences people leveled that same charge and said the bad
calls in a state playoff were due to racism. That created a statewide
uproar. At a hearing that didn’t take place until summertime, the PIAA,
among other things, censured the coach and placed him on probation. What
happened in 2011? MC&S won a state title.
JUNE 11
PIAA CLASS AAAA SEMIFINAL
La Salle 7, Hatboro-Horsham 5
At Spring-Ford High
We should have known it would wind up being one of THOSE days . .
. After the lineups were announced, and with the teams standing on the
respective baselines, the PA man said, “Will everyone please rise and face
the flag in left field . . . Oops, it’s not there.” Then the Anthem played
and the game began and neither was the strike zone!!! Or, if nothing else,
it was floating around everywhere. Both schools’ fans groaned/yelled early
and often as ball after ball was called. Plus, the plate dude had a very
slow delivery and those pitches that WERE called strikes often weren’t
registered until at least two seconds after the fact. Very frustrating. La
Salle sr. RH Kevin Long and H-H sr. LH Casey O’Donnell
combined to walk 7,642 guys in the early going. Oh, it wasn’t that many?
Sure seemed like it. Long free-passed five and hit another in the first
three frames while O’Donnell went the seven/one route before departing with
one away in the fourth. This was a state semifinal? Looked more like
Division C of the Pub. Luckily for all on hand, the game had nice
back-and-forth qualities and there were some clutch hits, etc., to
eventually make things pleasing to the eye (and soul). This is year No. 8 of
District 12’s PIAA involvement and La Salle will be the first representative
to play for a state title. In previous seasons (don’t forget, the CL didn’t
jump on board until 2009), just three D-12 squads had advanced as far as
semifinal rounds. But La Salle has made it and we expect everyone to head to
Penn State for Friday’s 1 o’clock final vs. Council Rock South. OK?
Riiiiiiight. Long mostly used high fastballs to get strikeouts and tough his
way through the first two innings. But with one away in the third, he was
thumped for four consecutive hits (all hard) as H-H came alive. He began to
see daylight as soph SS-RH Dom Cuoci made a nice play deep in the
hole, but a hit-by-pitch and walk came thereafter (to the Nos. 8 and 9
hitters) and the leadoff guy looped a two-run to left to make it 5-2. The
very bottom of the order had also helped the Explorers in the second. With
one way, Cuoci ripped a single to center and Long drew a walk. As sr. CF
Ryan Otis faked a bunt, the runners executed a double steal (frosh
Jim Herron was courtesy running for Long). Though Otis fanned, sr. LF-SS
P.J. “Paul” Acierno delivered a two-run single to right-center. H-H
used three hurlers in the fourth and the Explorers slapped together a
four-spot. Cuoci and Otis walked to get things rolling and The Paulster
again was clutch, rifling a two-run triple over the leftfielder’s head. Jr.
1B Chris Melillo got plunked, Acierno scored on a wild pitch with sr.
C Corey "Like the Nurses" Baiada batting and sr. 2B Colin Pyne
delivered an RBI single to center three batters after that. That made it
6-5. Long retired all six guys to face him in the fourth and fifth, but
trouble reappeared in the sixth. The No. 9 hitter singled, then so did the
leadoff guy. The No. 2 hitter failed to bunt them over, then struck out.
Long almost used a trick play to post a pickoff at second, then spun toward
first shortly thereafter and got one at that bag. Nice. It was important,
too, because H-H had four runners reach base in the inning. With one away in
the home sixth, Baiada scorched a single to left and yielded to Herron. Sr.
RF Tyler Koziniewski grounded out, but an insurance run was added on
consecutive walks to sr. 3B Mike Piscopo (intentional), Pyne and
Cuoci. Cuoci, the subject of DN ink in light of the scary moment he endured
last Friday in a quarterfinal (a liner right off his foot; didn’t look good
for a while), pitched a 1-2-3 seventh and the Explorers went semi-crazy,
rushing Cuoci. It appeared they wanted to create a dog pile, but Dom wasn’t
having it. He was as sturdy as they come and his teammates couldn’t force
him to the ground (ha ha). That was allllllll the Explorers would have
needed, a re-injury to Cuoci’s ankle/foot. He’s the No. 2 starter and might
get the call on Friday, unless the Explorers want to go back to Long on
three days’ rest. From one standpoint, this no doubt was a very weird game
for La Salle coach Joe Parisi. H-H’s No. 3 hitter was sr. CF Casey
Saverio (2-for-3 with a double), whose brother, Sean, was a star
catcher for La Salle. I saw Joe walk over to exchange pleasantries with Sean
before the game. No idea what was said, but I do know Joe thought the world
of Sean as a player. And he was probably hoping water would be thicker than
blood once the game began (smile).
JUNE 10
CARPENTER CUP CLASSIC FIRST ROUND
Chester County 13, Catholic League 7
At Richie Ashburn Field
Ever try to play baseball with your hands tied? The CL did today.
Didn’t work out too well. We’re only halfway through the state playoffs and
two teams, Neumann-Goretti and La Salle, are still alive. Though their
players were permitted by their coaches to play for Carp coach Joe
DeBarberie (Bonner), a decision was reached that nobody would take the
hill. Very understandable, especially since N-G and La Salle will play
tomorrow in semifinals with Joey Gorman and Kevin Long,
respectively, expected to pitch. N-G’s Joe Kinee was also kept in
mound mothballs and one of the hurlers wound up being a guy, jr. Dan
Furman (Bonner), who’d started at catcher all season and had made
infrequent pitching appearances almost completely (totally?) in non-league
games. I was told, however, that he’ll likely be the Friars’ No. 1 or 1-A
pitcher next season. Anyway, every pitcher wound up surrendering at least
two runs except for jr. RH Nick Donovan (O’Hara), who came on to get
the final out in a VERY messy six-run ninth. For the second time in three
days (also during Friday’s La Salle quarterfinal vs. Central Dauphin),
someone experienced a brain cramp about a simple baseball rule. We’re
talking about the one that says a batter who fans with first base occupied
and fewer than two outs is automatically out. If this mixup had not
happened, the CL likely would have posted a DP with the second out coming at
third base. Instead, that guy scored what turned out to be the winning run.
All kinds of cwap (as Puck would say) happened from there and none of
it was good. The highlight was a two-run bomb to almost dead center by soph
1B Josh Ockimey (N-G). It seemed as if he barely swung the bat and
then, wow, the ball was rocketing over the fence (roughly 395 feet) and jr.
DH Shane Williams was crowing as he rushed toward the plate to
celebrate with Okcimey, "I said that was going to happen! I called it!" This
was Ock’s seventh postseason game and he now owns five homers in that span!
Phew! The blast came in the first inning and followed a hard single to
left-center by Gorman. DN ink went to sr. C Corey Baiada (La Salle),
who had to miss the quarterfinal due to illness. He, too, was given a
reduced role (DH) and went 2-for-2 with a walk and RBI double to
left-center. The fifth inning run was all N-G as Ockimey singled and was
later driven in by sr. CF Jimmy Kerrigan. The CL scored thrice in the
seventh to forge a 7-7 tie as sr. C Devin McCann (O'Hara) and sr. RF
Corey Kreamer (Judge) posted IDENTICAL RBI doubles on groundballs
down the leftfield line, then jr. 3B Ian “Egan” Conwell (Lansdale)
hit another grounder that was misplayed for a run-scoring error. Eight first
team coaches’ All-Catholic honorees were not on the roster. I guess it’s
possible a few failed to make the squad, but there’s a strong suspicion most
just flat-out opted not to play. Sad.
JUNE 12
LA SALLE'S PLAYOFF STATS
(Through Seven Postseason Games)
| BATTING | H-AB | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | AVG. | |
| Chris Melillo | 11-22 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 0 | .500 | |
| P.J. Acierno | 11-23 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .478 | |
| Corey Baiada | 10-22 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .455 | |
| Mike Piscopo | 7-17 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .412 | |
| Kevin Long | 6-16 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .375 | |
| Tyler Kozeniewski | 7-19 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .368 | |
| Colin Pyne | 6-19 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .263 | |
| Ryan Otis | 5-22 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .227 | |
| Dom Cuoci | 4-19 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .211 | |
| Jim Herron | 2-10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .200 | |
| John Scheffey | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | |
| Totals | 69-190 | 43 | 13 | 3 | 1 | .363 | |
| PITCHING | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| Mike Piscopo (1-0) | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Dom Cuoci (2-0, S) | 17 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 0.82 |
| Kevin Long (3-1) | 25.1 | 18 | 11 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 2.76 |
| John Scheffey | 2.2 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 10.49 |
| Totals | 44.1 | 34 | 18 | 16 | 19 | 34 | 2.53 |
JUNE 12
NEUMANN-GORETTI'S PLAYOFF STATS
(Through Seven Postseason Games . . . Final)
| BATTING | H-AB | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | AVG. | |
| Justin Curtin | 1-1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | |
| Pat Doudican | 1-1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | |
| Charlie Jerla | 1-2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .500 | |
| Josh Ockimey | 9-21 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 4 | .429 | |
| Joey Gorman | 9-24 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .375 | |
| Nicky Nardini | 6-19 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .316 | |
| Mario DiFebbo | 7-22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .318 | |
| Anthony Adams | 5-20 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .250 | |
| Marty Venafro | 6-24 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .250 | |
| Jimmy Kerrigan | 5-21 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .238 | |
| Joe Kinee | 2-20 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .100 | |
| Joey Glennon | 2-23 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .087 | |
| Dean DeJesse | 0-2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | |
| Totals | 54-197 | 34 | 10 | 3 | 4 | .274 | |
| PITCHING | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| Joe Jaep (1-0) | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 0.00 |
| John LaMotta (3-0) | 14 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 0.50 |
| Joe Kinee (1-0) | 12 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 11 | 2.33 |
| Joey Gorman (1-1) | 21 | 24 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 17 | 2.50 |
| Totals | 56 | 51 | 19 | 12 | 17 | 49 | 1.50 |
JUNE 8
PIAA CLASS AAAA QUARTERFINAL
La Salle 7, Central Dauphin 6
At Muhlenberg High
Except for weather miseries, these doubleheaders for District 12’s
upper-echelon baseball squads are working out quite nicely, folks.
Monday/Tuesday at Temple’s Skip Wilson Field and La Salle University’s Hank
DeVincent Field, then yesterday/today at Muhlenberg, with the order of games
reversed, La Salle and Neumann-Goretti managed to triumph. This time N-G
went first, using a six-run fourth right out of the resumption to break a
2-2 tie en route to a 9-2 victory. As for La Salle . . . Not easy! And, for
that reason, even more satisfying! After writing the N-G story in the middle
school building adjacent to the field, I walked up the hill behind the
backstop to see soph RH Dom Cuoci sitting on the grass near the field
with a whole bunch of concerned people standing around him. He’d just taken
a wicked line drive off the inner part of his left foot. La Salle trailed at
the time, 2-0. Displaying a slight limp, Cuoci was able to make it through
five innings before coach Joe Parisi, in an emotional moment, pulled
him aside and mentioned it would be best to shut things down. The Explorers
responded by putting “Cootch” in position to claim the victory, thanks to a
two-spot that made it 3-2. The RBI went to sr. 2B Colin Pyne on a
very strange single to center, and to sr. RF Tyler Kozeniewski on a
rousing triple to right-center (the ball short-hopped the fence). Sr. SS
P.J. “Paul” Acierno had walked, stolen second and moved to third on a
wild pitch. Pyne sent one straight toward the centerfielder. For whatever
reason, the kid allowed the ball to bounce almost directly in front of him.
In La Salle’s dugout area, everybody looked at everybody else with
expressions that screamed, “Man, did we luck out there!” Couci’s replacement
was soph LH John Scheffey and CD reached him for three runs, thus
claiming a 5-3 lead. With one out in the bottom half, frosh LF Jim Herron,
of future QBing fame, thumped a single to center and the Explorers
immediately reenergized. Sr. 3B Mike Piscopo, in particular, was very
animated. He stood at the backstop and yelled toward the next few batters,
“Refuse to make an out! Let’s go! REFUSE to make an out!!” Gotcha. Sr. CF
Ryan Otis send a hard groundball to center. Acierno put down a bunt that
was so good (halfway up the third base line), he beat it out for a
bases-loading single. That brought up sr. 1B Chris Melillo, already
2-for-3 with an RBI single in the third. Kozeniewski offered, “He’s going to
hit a home run.” Hey, that same prediction had been correct during the N-G
game, when soph 1B Josh Ockimey launched a three-run bomb. Bang!!
Melillo rocketed a shot over the centerfielder’s head. Nah, it didn’t clear
the fence as well, but it went for a double and brought home three runs and
“Koz” certainly can’t be faulted for missing out on this prediction by just
a little. Pyne reached on an infield bobble, then stole second and
Kozeniewski was issued an intentional walk to load the bases. Piscopo went
down on a bouncing curve and Melillo, in quite the embarrassing moment, was
erased after wandering off third. Had he thought Mike’s K had ended the
inning? Had he forgotten that no throw to first base would be required since
first base was occupied? To his everlasting credit, Chris freely discussed
the snafu after the game and expressed how upset a loss would have left him.
Yet, he couldn’t quite explain what had happened. We’ll chalk it up to one
of those occasional brain freezes that everyone experiences. CD did not go
quietly. In fact, a triple started the seventh and a sac fly tied the score
at 6-6. After a two-out double was spanked to left-center, Piscopo moved to
the mound and got the third out on a liner right back to him. On to the
bottom of the seventh we go! . . . Sr. DH Kevin Long worked a
full-count walk and yielded to sr. PR Marcus Sistrun. Soph 3B Brad
Schneider, who’d entered the game to replace Piscopo, laid down a
perfect sac. With Herron up, a wild pitch sent Sistrun to third. CD then
decided to go with a five-man infield, placing the CF right near the second
base bag. Herron finished drawing a walk and Otis stepped to the plate.
Again, Piscopo led the encouragement brigade. He yelled in to “Oh-tee” (or
however you’d spelled it – smile), “There’s no one I’d rather have up there
right now!” Result? Otis sent a flyball to left and that was all that was
needed. Sistrun raced home and the Explorers did some serious rejoicing.
They rushed out toward Otis and the major part of the celebration took place
beyond the infield dirt. What a wild ride! The Explorers overcame deficits
of 2-0 and 5-3 and the disappointment of seeing a 6-5, three-outs-to-go lead
vanish. Major props to everyone. The state semifinals will take place Monday
at Spring-Ford High, in Royersford. La Salle vs. Hatboro-Horsham will go
first at noon, followed by N-G vs. Lampeter-Strasburg at 3. Hey, the
doubleheader formula has worked twice already . . .
JUNE 8
PIAA CLASS AAA QUARTERFINAL
(Completion of Suspended Game)
Neumann-Goretti 9, Blue Mountain 2
At Muhlenberg High
Tyler Kozeniewski is one perceptive dude! Wait. Doesn’t he
play for La Salle? Why is he being mentioned right at the start of a report
about N-G’s game? Welllllll . . . This completion started at 4 and La
Salle’s game vs. Central Dauphin could have started as early as 5, so the
Explorers were on hand as N-G batted in the home fourth. Right after sr. SS
Marty “Mart-EEEEE” Venafro lofted a sac fly to center, making it 3-2,
soph 1B Josh Ockimey stepped to the plate. “Koz” was standing nearby
right behind the backstop and said, emphatically, “He’s going to hit one
out. Right here.” The pitch . . . Long drive! . . . Deep center field . . .
Outta herrrrrrre!! Two guys were on, the lead zoomed to 6-2 and the game
could have ended right then and there, truthfully. Instead, sr. CF Jimmy
Kerrigan laced a double down the line in left, jr. 3B Joe “Vote for
Me; I Gave You Water for Free” Kinee got plunked and both guys wound up
scoring on miscues. In the fifth inning, Venafro drove in a run on the
continuation of a fielder’s choice, so he finished the game with three RBI
on no hits. Legendary! N-G’s six-run fourth enabled jr. RH John LaMotta
to collect the win; he was ineligible to take the hill today due to PIAA
pitching restrictions. Sr. RH Joe Jaep, whose dad, also named Joe,
was a star QB for the old Neumann (class of ’80), pitched the final three
innings and prevented even a hint of drama. SportsWeek ink went to Venafro.
Like the rest of N-G’s seniors, he graduated at Temple at 9 o’clock this
morning, then headed back “downtown” to N-G to change into his uniform and
ride the team bus to Muhlenberg High. Marty is a four-year starter at
shortstop and his skills/approach/wisdom are important to everything N-G
does. Ditto for sr. C Nicky Nardini, who also started as a freshman
(though as the DH before becoming the catcher in sophomore year). Sr. LF
Joey Gorman finished the game 2-for-2 with a double, walk and HBP. Sr.
DH Mario DiFebbo singled twice and scored a run and Nardini managed
an infield single along with two walks. By the way, Kozeniewski was at it
again DURING La Salle’s game. In the sixth inning, he predicted that
teammate Chris Melillo, the jr. 1B, would hit a homer. Not quite. But
Chris did send a three-run rocket (a double, actually) over the
centerfielder’s head. So, Koz “gave” the squads three RBI apiece. Not bad,
right?
JUNE 7
PIAA CLASS QUARTERFINAL
Neumann-Goretti 2, Blue Mountain 2 (suspended)
At Muhlenberg High
Only in the Laureldale!! I promised La Salle assistant Bob
Peffle, formerly the head man at Pub power Frankford, I would use that
phrase to describe the day's/night's events. Laureldale is a small borough
above Reading and that's where Muhlenberg High is located and today/tonight
all it gave us was frustrating weather! The game started at 4 and was halted
at 7:03 after matching 57-minute delays, one just for rain and the other for
lightning followed by rain. Ugh! N-G has graduation tomorrow at 9 a.m. at
Temple's Liacouras Center so the resumption won't begin until 4. The AAAA
tilt between La Salle and Central Dauphin will follow and that one can't go
first because, as La Salle coach Joe Parisi was told, some members of
CD's coaching staff can't get away from their regular jobs early enough to
make a morning/early afternoon game possible. The field is very nice and it
sits up high. In fact, you can see miles and miles in pretty much every
direction. Now, let's just hope no raindrops are visible tomorrow! N-G
scored twice in the third with the RBI going to sr. LF Joey Gorman on
a double smoked into the rightfield corner and a gave-himself-up groundout
to the right side by sr. SS Marty Venafro. The inning started with a
walk to sr. RF Anthony Adams and a single off an infield chop by sr.
C Nicky Nardini. As Gorman stepped in, he gave a I'm-gonna-sac
appearance, then loaded up quicky and delivered his RBI blast. Nice job.
When the game resumes, the Saints will have the bases loaded with one out.
Sr. DH Mario DiFebbo led off with a hard hit to left-center and Adams
tried to bunt him up. The throw was wild, however, so both runners survived.
Nardini then thumped a hot smash off the third baseman's chest, but a nice
recovery was made as the runners advanced to second and third. Gorman then
was plunked and a lightning flash occurred with Venafro at bat. It was WAY
off in the distance. So far away, in fact, that no thunder could be heard.
PIAA rules call for an automatic half-hour delay, however, and 17 minutes
into that the rain picked up again. It let up at 6:47, got harder again at
6:54 and the umps finally cried uncle at 7:03. Jr. RH John LaMotta
did the pitching for N-G, allowing two hits. A passed ball in the third
(during a rain spurt) and an infield bobble in the fourth caused the runs to
be unearned. LaMotta retired the first seven batters he faced. The highlight
of the afternoon/evening was getting to spend a lot of time behind the
backstop with Tom Telford, who back in the day was a Catholic League
umpire (and the guy who assigned the umps, as well). We exchanged numerous
funny stories about crazy baseball games and other things and it was great
to see him! During the second delay, it was interesting to watch some of the
La Salle guys rock a van back and forth. Not from the outside. While they
were sitting inside it. Must be a special talent. Ha, ha. In some ways, La
Salle caught a break. One of its starters would have missed the game due to
illness. Here's hoping he can make it back for tomorrow's game.
JUNE 5
PIAA CLASS AAA PLAYOFFS
FIRST ROUND
Neumann-Goretti 2, Twin Valley 0
At La Salle University
Did jr. RH Joe Kinee break a major league record? Of course
not, but hear me out and you’ll understand why the report was started with
that question. In pitching a shutout, Kinee forced TV to strand 12 runners,
including three apiece in three consecutive innings! On Baseball Almanac,
the listed MLB record for most runners LOB in a shutout is 16. The Cardinals
hit that number in a 1994 game vs. the Phillies and Seattle did so vs.
Toronto in 1998. One MAJOR difference: the Phillies used four pitchers that
day (David West started) and Toronto used two (Roger Clemens
started). Twelve runners LOB in seven innings would translate to 15.4 for
nine. So let’s say someone who went the distance in a shutout forced the
losing team to strand 15 runners (if that has ever happened; can’t find a
specific reference . . . might update this later). Kinee, in effect, forced
TV to strand 15.4 runners. Higher percentage, baby! MLB record! Ha, ha, ha.
Kinee allowed seven hits, walked three and drilled four, and three guys
reached on fielder’s choices, so you’re talking 17 baserunners. He picked
off one, another was erased in a doubleplay and three sat down after
fielder’s choices. Pretty darn amazing. The Raiders stranded one apiece in
the first, second and third. Here’s what happened in the fourth, fifth and
sixth:
Fourth: Thanks to two singles and a hit batsman, the bases were loaded
with one away. Kinee escaped with a strikeout and forceout.
Fifth: Righthander Jared Price, a flame-throwing Maryland signee,
crunched a one-out triple to center. After a hit batsman and walk surrounded
a whiff, Kinee induced another groundball that turned into a forceout.
Sixth: The leadoff batter walked, but Kinee picked him off. The Nos. 8
(infield) and 9 hitters (bunt) posted singles. The next three batters
fanned, walked and went down looking.
In the third, sr. SS Marty Venafro and jr. 2B Joey Glennon
combined to turn a DP. To start the fifth, Venafro made a great play in the
hole and whipped a one-hopper to soph 1B Josh Ockimey. He picked it
clean for the out. Pitching coach Joe Messina reported that Kinee
threw 102 pitches and that 65 were strikes. Meanwhile, Kinee noted that he’d
spent roughly 90 minutes last Friday with a personal instructor named
Frank DiMichele. Yes, that’s the same Frankie D, a good-guy lefty who
graduated from the old Neumann in 1983 and pitched in four games in 1988 for
the California Angels. Joe, also a decent hitting third baseman, had
struggled lately and figured a look by some fresh eyes would help. Maybe
Frank can now change his marketing approach to something like, No One
Teaches You Better How to Make Sure Runners Get Stranded. Just Ask Joe Kinee!
(smile). Anyway, N-G scored one run apiece in the first and third. Sr. LF
Joey Gorman led off the game with a hard single to right off a curve.
Venafro tried to bunt him over, but Price made a good pounce and got the
forceout. Ockimey flied out to deep center. Sr. CF Jimmy Kerrigan
(Temple) milked a walk. Kinee inside-outed a smash that ate up the 1B and
brought home the run. The Saints came close to scoring in the second as sr.
C Nicky Nardini clobbered a two-out double off the fence down the
leftfield line and Gorman followed with a liner. Alas, the ball went
straight to the shortstop. With one out in the third, boom!, Ockimey, a k a
The New Ryan Howard, thumped a solo homer over the fence in right.
(Oddity department: Like Howard, “Ock” has a twin brother.) In N-G’s five
postseason games in 2012, he is hitting .438 (7-for-16) with two doubles, a
triple, three homers and 10 RBI. And, yes, that means six of his seven hits
have gone for extra bases. Ockimey’s bomb was the Saints’ last hit of the
day, as things turned out, but Kinee made sure the dry spell would not come
back to haunt them.
MAY 31
CLASS AAAA CITY TITLE
La Salle 14, Frankford 1 (6 inn.)
At Richie Ashburn Field
Not much to say about this one, folks. Before Frankford batted in the
home sixth, coach Juan Namnun looked over from the third base coach's
box to where I was stationed (for photo purposes) and said with the
slightest hint of a smile, "Be kind." It was THAT kind of game and, really,
it was decided within the first 10 minutes. The starting time was 12:17 and
when La Salle's leadoff hitter, sr. CF Ryan Otis, sent a popup about
seven stories up, sr. SS Ricky Alvarez was looking directly into the
noonday sun and the ball fell for a gift double. From there the problem was
only slightly above ground level -- as in the strike zone. Sr. LH Hector
Cerda couldn't find it and issued four consecutive free passes. A few of
the pitches were close and the non-strike calls seemed to rile him. The
second two walks forced in runs, of course, and sr. 3B Mike Piscopo
made it 3-0 with a sac fly. When Frankford came to bat, the first three
batters combined to swing at the first five pitches! Say what!? Namnun said
patience had been discussed in the dugout, but it was assuredly not in
evidence. La Salle added three more in the second and the big moment was a
throwing error on a rundown that allowed two runs. That happened four
batters into this uprising, right after Cerda had yielded to sr. RH
Rafael "Omar" Cruz. Sr. RF Tyler Kozeniewski then added an RBI
single. Though the Pioneers, for the most part, remained energetic, they
never mounted a comeback. Their lone run, in the fourth, came gift-wrapped
in the form of an infield error after jr. 1B Kevin Montero doubled
hard to left. Jr. RH Dom Cuoci pitched all six innings, allowing
three hits and fanning five. He walked none. DN ink went to sr. SS P.J.
"Paul" Acierno, who will play golf at La Salle University on a partial
scholarship. Last fall he led the Explorers to the CL links crown and then
was an important, ever-brassy basketball sub as well. Batting second, he
went 2-for-4 with one RBI apiece on a double (hard to left-center) and
single (groundball to left). Sr. 1B Chris Melillo added two walks to
a double and two-run single. Sr. C Corey Baiada had a two-run double.
Piscopo singled twice and scored each time. Otis stole two bases and scored
three times. Namnun and Bob Peffle, right-hand man to La Salle boss
Joe Parisi, experienced some weird feelings. Peffle, who also starred
there (he spent some time in the minor leagues), was Frankford's wildly
successful coach through '07 and Namnun was his chief assistant. Bob said
one of his jobs is to write team goals on a dugout whiteboard, and he said
it felt very strange to post "Beat Frankford." Can only imagine. Both teams
will advance to the state playoffs, which begin Monday. La Salle's game will
be played at the field on Temple's Ambler Campus. The site for Frankford's
tilt is TBA.
MAY 29
CATHOLIC LEAGUE FINAL
Neumann-Goretti 5, La Salle 4 (8 inn.)
At Widener University
The worst thing about baseball is that important games, especially
those that are tight late into regulation or into extra innings, are often
lost more than they’re won. So it was today in sweltering conditions at
Widener, at which (for whatever reason) the grass hadn’t been cut for a
while. Don’t get us wrong. The grass wasn’t brutally high and it appeared to
play no role in the outcome. But if you’re going to host a championship
event, shouldn’t the field be in the best possible shape? Before a game, a
coin flip was held to determine the home team and N-G coach Mike Zolk,
who’s in his first year, allowed La Salle’s Joe Parisi, who’s in his
26th, to make the call. N-G won and thus had the coveted last-to-bat rights.
In the home eighth, with sr. RH Kevin Long (Lehigh) still pitching,
jr. 1B Josh Ockimey drew a five-pitch walk and yielded to a soph
pinch-runner, Joe Lolio, who goes 5-3, 148, and was promoted from the
JV as the playoffs began. Sr. CF Jimmy Kerrigan (Temple) sent a shot
to deep right that might have wound up being a homer if the wind had not
died down just a short time earlier. Jr. 3B Joe Kinee stepped in and
received a sign from Zolk to try to bunt for a hit. Later, Kinee said he was
pretty sure he’d not bunted a ball fair all season. He tapped this one up
the third base line and sr. 3B Mike Piscopo (Northeastern) made a
bare-handed snag. He was really on the move, hard, though, and his
across-the-body throw skipped past jr. 1B Chris Melillo. Lolio got a
great jump and scampered all the way around the bases, providing a stunning
end to the tight contest. In the ol’ days, that would have been it.
Devastating loss. No chance for redemption. The Explorers have at least two
more games, however (AAAA City Title Thursday vs. Frankford, start of state
playoffs next Monday), so some great things could still happen and I’m sure
everyone, including the Saints, would love to see that. As often happens for
title stories, I decided to take an overall slant and interview a few guys
and, right out of the box, sr. LH Joey Gorman (Saint Joseph’s)
dropped a bombshell. More complete details are in the DN story, but the
short version is this: He’d been playing recently with two dislodged ribs!
Whoa! Anyway, Gorman threw 144 pitches and was directed to left field after
issuing a four-pitch walk to start the eighth. His replacement was the guy,
jr. RH John LaMotta, who’d absolutely burst onto the scene last
Friday by pitching four-hit, 10-whiff ball in NINE relief innings in N-G’s
14-inning semifinal win over Bonner. LaMotta remained the competent
good-luck charm as the Saints rallied after he wriggled out of the eighth
with nary a scrape. Earlier today, I did some pitching stats for Gorman and
Long and they were eerily similar. A breakdown of earned runs was not
available, but Joey had allowed 1.79 runs for every seven innings in CL play
while Kevin had allowed 1.71. In 39 innings, Joey had been reached for 24
hits while striking out 49. Kev’s numbers in 41 were 23 and 41. Is it any
wonder the game was so close? While claiming its second consecutive title
and third in four seasons, N-G scored two apiece in the third and sixth
before crashing through for that last run in the eighth. Third: sr. SS
Marty Venafro (West Chester) ripped a double to left-center (shade to
the left of the 358-foot sign) and Ockimey followed with a two-run homer to
dead right. It’s 309 to the corner and the ball left the stadium maybe 20
feet from the line? Sixth: Kerrigan was drilled on the hand, Kinee sliced a
double into the right field corner and jr. 2B Joey Glennon launched a
sac fly to center. After sr. LF Mario DiFebbo flew out, sr. RF
Anthony Adams rocketed a one-hopper through the infield into center for
an RBI single. La Salle scored one apiece in the third and fourth and two in
the sixth. Third: Long sent a double to the base of the fence in right, but
the courtesy runner, frosh Jimmy Herron, was rubbed out on a
fielder’s choice. Sr. LF P.J. Acierno (La Salle for golf) beat out an
infield single and Melillo delivered a run-scoring single to left-center.
Fourth: the Saints committed three errors and the run scored as Gorman
bobbled a chopper off the bat of the leadoff man, sr. CF Ryan Otis (Bucknell).
Sixth: An error on a sac wound up making both runs unearned. The RBI went to
Otis on a looping single and to Melillo on sac fly. Meanwhile, Zolk was the
all-time perpetual motion machine. He walked back and forth, back and forth,
in front of the dugout when the Saints were in the field and was never
without instructions for the guys out there, or even future-reference
tidbits for the members of the bench brigade. What energy! As N-G prepared
to bat in the seventh, a fan yelled down to Nardini, “Yo, Nick, you like our
chances now?” (As in, to end the game.) Nicky didn’t respond right away, but
then said, “Lovin’ ‘em.” By the way, Nardini did a great job blocking low
pitches and I apologize for not mentioning that in the DN story. When N-G
won in ’09. that title broke a drought that had lasted since 1960. In the
interim, the Pirates/Saints dropped finals in ’67, ’86, 88, ’93 and ’95. La
Salle has now experienced defeat in six of its last seven title-game
appearances (with four of those setbacks coming by two runs, or fewer). The
day’s MVP was likely Dave Crowe, La Salle’s trainer. Again and again,
he provided wet towels so plate ump Carlos Deno could try to cool off
between innings.
MAY 27
PA. INDY TOURNEY FINAL
Malvern 3, Haverford School 2
At Haverford School
Winning a championship, no matter how it's done, always provides
great feelings. But here's a strong guess that those titles won under
nerve-wracking circumstances are the most satisfying. Malvern recently
concluded its first-ever perfect Inter-Ac season (at 10-0) and a non-No. 1
finish in this tournament would have been VERY disappointing, especially
since only I-A teams reached the semis. And then, there we were, heading
into the bottom of the fifth, and the Friars trailed, 2-0. Oh, baby! HS had
scored in the second on a solo homer to left-center by jr. CF Steve
Fitzgerald and in the fourth on a fielder's choice grounder off the bat
jr. 1B-RH Pat Valentine; it followed an infield single by sr. 2B
Gus Costalas, a double to center by sr. DH Vince Piccioni and a
walk to Fitzgerald that loaded the bases. Jr. LH Matt Galetta, whose
pitches have that nice, late tail, entered the fifth having yielded just two
hits. He even recorded two quick outs, retiring sr. 1B Joe Ravert on
a liner to left and jr. DH Stephen Robinson on a grounder to short.
However, the No. 8 hitter, jr. LF Mike DeMatteis smacked a single to
center and jr. C Billy "Moose" Ford with a high flyball in the same
direction. It was hit well and Haverford's new field resembles the old one
in terms of its short distance to center and . . . home run! Game tied at
2-2! Jr. 3B Joe Poduslenko led off the sixth with a hard single to
left and Galetta was removed in favor of Valentine. After "Pod" thieved
second and Greskoff milked a walk, Hayes tapped down a perfect sac and both
guys moved into scoring position. Sr. CF Nick Bateman chopped a
grounder to third and frosh 3B Kevin McGowan made a nice play while
making sure to freeze Poduslenko. With two away, Fords coach Bob Castell
decided to issue Ravert an intentional walk and reload the bases. Robinson
followed by inside-outing a scorching grounder maybe 12 feet inside the
first base bag. There was no chance for anyone to make a big play and
Poduslenko romped home to make it 3-2. Greskoff was cut down at the plate --
easily, in fact -- and Haverford had a chance. Sr. RH John Durkee, in
his second inning of work in relief of soph RH Gardner Nutter,
allowed a two-out single, on a 3-2 pitch, to sr. SS Andrew Landolfi.
McGowan then pulled a grounder to first. Ravert made the scoop, stepped on
the bag and . . . let the celebration begin! The pileup took place to the
right of the mound and everybody was part of it. Quite a sight. The game
ended at 4:13 and I didn't start driving home until 4:40. In between, the
Friars gathered in left field and coach Freddy Hilliard, along with
three assistants, had lengthy and emotional exchanges with all 12 seniors.
It was impressive to see. Then, the underclassmen were brought back into the
group and team pics were snapped. All of that must have taken 15 minutes,
maybe even more, but guess what . . . the Haverford kids waited around so an
official awards ceremony could take place. Major props to the Fords for
their patience! Castell then supervised the trophy/plaque presentations and,
finally, the Friars received medals. Meanwhile, this ballgame was tight!
Neither team committed an error and there were only four walks, counting the
intentional one to Ravert. Hayes made a diving catch of a liner. Nutter and
Hayes combined for a sneaky pickoff play. The Fords turned two doubleplays.
On the second one, McGowan caught a hard one-hopper, tagged out a runner
who'd strayed off the bag and fired to first. Jr. LF Drew Field made
a sprawling catch. And Costalas made an impressive, running,
back-to-the-infield catch of a popup to retire his cousin, sr. SS C.J.
Costalas -- with soph RF Steve Scornajenghi sliding toward his
legs. HS' Costalas was the guy who, at one point, had bellowed in a
mini-confab with his teammates, "Who wants to win as much as they want to
BREATHE!?" Now to backtrack . . . Malvern won its semi over SCH Academy on
Saturday afternoon but the HS-Penn Charter counterpart was halted in the
fourth inning by weather issues. HS offered to host today's activity and sr.
RH Eric Close completed a two-hit, five-K shutout as the Fords won,
3-0. Close is a tall kid (maybe 6-7?, even 6-8?) and is still rather lean,
so there could be all KINDS of potential in that body. His original plan was
to head to Temple, but the coach has stepped down and Eric is back on the
market. Here's hoping he finds the right place and continues to blossom.
Also concluding their careers were PC's five-year varsity players/best
buddies, SS-RH Kenny Koplove and 2B Demetrius "Meat" Jennings.
The Duke-bound Koplove recorded two strikeouts to escape from a bases-loaded
situation. Nice. This was also THE final game for Rick Mellor, PC's
coach for the previous 33 seasons and a co-coach for this one with ex-Gtn.
Academy/Penn assistant Jon Cross (though he stepped back greatly and
let Jon run the show). ALL the best, Rick!! You deserve every last morsel of
it.
| MALVERN 3, HAVER. SCHOOL 2 | |||||||||
| Haverford School | AB | R | H | BI | Malvern Prep | AB | R | H | BI |
| Andrew Landolfi ss | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Joe Poduslenko 3b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Kevin McGowan 3b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Matt Greskoff rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gus Costalas 2b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Drew Hayes 2b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Vince Piccioni dh | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Nick Bateman cf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Steve Fitzgerald cf | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Joe Ravert 1b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pat Valentine 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Kevin Frost pr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Matt Galetta p | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Stephen Robinson dh | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Tom McCarthy 1b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Mike DeMatteis lf | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Drew Field lf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Billy Ford c | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Terry Rossi c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | C.J. Costalas | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 27 | 2 | 7 | 2 | Totals | 20 | 3 | 6 | 3 |
| Not part of batting order -- HS: Steve Scornajenghi, rf; MP: Gardner Nutter and John Durkee, p. | |||||||||
| E: None | |||||||||
| DP: HS 2. | |||||||||
| LOB: HS 6, MP 3. | |||||||||
| 2B: Terry Rossi, Vince Piccioni. | |||||||||
| HR: Steve Fitzgerald, Billy Ford. | |||||||||
| SB: Mike DeMatteis, Joe Poduslenko. | |||||||||
| S: Drew Hayes. | |||||||||
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ||||
| Haverford School | |||||||||
| Matt Galetta (L) | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Pat Valentine | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |||
| Malvern Prep | |||||||||
| Gardner Nutter | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |||
| John Durkee (W) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Matt Galetta faced 1 batter in 6th. | |||||||||
| WP: Matt Galetta. | |||||||||
| T: 1:43 | |||||||||
| U: Bill "Babs" Haines, T.J. Berry. | |||||||||
MAY 25
PUBLIC LEAGUE FINAL
Frankford 8, GAMP 3
At Richie Ashburn Field
If we didn’t know so already, we do now: Frankford’s sport of
dominance has changed. Just 13 seasons into this century, the Pioneers own
eight baseball championships while football has produced only four.
Moreover, the diamond guys of Juan Namnun (and Bob Peffle
before him) have captured seven in the last 10 seasons and that
accomplishment matches Overbrook’s in basketball from 1950 to ’59. Those
'Brook squads included FIVE guys who advanced to the NBA. Wilt
Chamberlain (’55), of course, heads the list, but Jackie Moore
got things started in ’50 and three guys – Wayne Hightower, Walt Hazzard
and Wally (later Wali) Jones -- were part of the ’58 squad. Downright
amazing. So far, no Frankford diamond guys have achieved pro fame, but
infielder Esteban “Shortie” Meletiche has enjoyed great success at
Keystone College and is again hoping to be drafted this June. Anyway, as
highlighted in the SportsWeek story, one of Frankford’s heroes today was a
guy whose body screams football. Jr. 1B Kevin Montero goes 6-4, 250,
but he hails from the Dominican Republic and football does not really
compute. No sweat. He’s doing fine with baseball. Montero went 3-for-3 and
his first hit was the biggest. As the lower seed, GAMP batted first and the
energized spectators were treated to an early jolt. Against sr. RH Rafael
“Omar” Cruz, the starting pitcher in a championship game for the third
consecutive game, sr. RH Desmond Drummond rocketed a two-run homer
over the fence in right-center (not far from the 375-foot sign) and the jaun’
was ON, folks (smile). Cruz did not get rattled, ending the inning on a
strikeout and flyball, and Frankford came in to bat. Sr. CF Augusto
“June” Ortega singled hard to center. Sr. SS Ricky Alvarez milked
a walk. Sr. RF Hector Cerda fired a run-scoring double into
right-center. Montero lashed a two-run single up the middle. That quickly,
Frankford not only erased the deficit but seized the lead. The uptown
Pioneers (GAMP, in South Philly, also owns that nickname) added three more
runs in the fourth and the bottom of the order was front and center. Well,
early anyway. With one out, the No. 7 hitter, sr. LF Ramon Rosario,
sent a single down the rightfield line and sr. RF Nick Carine did a
great job of scrambling over to prevent a double. Jr. C Eduardo “Cheese”
Sanchez laid down a bunt, but Drummond was quick to pounce. Alas, his
throw to second was low. Jr. DH Carlos Ramirez again went the bunt
route and he was able to beat Drummond’s throw to earn a single. That turned
over the lineup, of course, and Ortega hammered a three-run double to
right-center. Well, eventually it was a double. Ortega at first was awarded
a triple as third base ump Jerry Kleger signaled that June had evaded
the tag of soph 3B Jake Kurtz. Whoa! The reaction from Kurtz and
other nearby GAMPers was fast and strong. In short order, Kleger heeded the
calls to check with partners who might have had a better angle. Marvin
Doughty, the second base ump, convinced Kleger to change the call and
Ortega was sent to the dugout. Major props to the crew for getting it right,
and especially to Jerry, who didn’t let his ego get in the way. Jerry today
completed quite the (unprecedented?) trifecta. In 1957, he was one of the
pitchers who helped Lincoln clinch the Pub title with a regular season win
(before the playoff era). In 1983, he coached Ben Franklin to the PL crown
and that was the first all-minorities squad to win one. Now, of course, he
has also umped in a championship game. Very cool! In the fifth, Frankford
tallied two more runs on a misplayed grounder. Montero had the only hit in
that frame. There was also no RBI attached to GAMP’s sixth inning run as it
scored when Kurtz grounded into a 4-6-3 doubleplay. The bases had been
loaded on singles by Brinkman and Drummond and a hit batter (Carine). The DP
was seriously crisp and the middleman, Alvarez, made a great play in the
seventh, as well, ranging WELL toward third base to glove a groundball off
the bat of jr. C Jeremy “Squirm” Castellanos. Meanwhile, Carine and
his Frankford counterpart, Cerda, made nice sliding catches. GAMP was trying
to win its second title (also 2002) and it’s amazing what this tiny school
is able to do under Art “Archie/Kratch” Kratchman. GAMP’s male
enrollment is roughly 110. By the way, a number of former downtown Pioneers
showed up and one was LH Mario Malatino, the winning pitcher in the
’02 triumph. He was working on two days’ rest and that couldn’t happen today
due to PIAA rules. One of the postgame highlights came when Cerda snatched
the championship trophy and ran completely around the bases, completing his
journey with a short slide into home. Shortly thereafter, Alvarez was
standing nearby and I kiddingly said to him, “Hey, when you’re going to do a
flip, you have to tell me so I can get a picture.” He’d done one right on
the infield during the early moments of the celebration, but I was taking a
pic of something else at that moment. Ricky shot back with a smile, “C’mon,
I’ll do another one right now and you can get my pic.” I squashed that idea
REAL quick. The last thing Frankford needed was for Ricky to get hurt while
trying to provide a website photo op (smile). These Pioneers are already
without jr. INF Kidanny Cumba, who suffered a broken bone near his
ankle while completing a stolen base journey in the semis. Oh, and how ‘bout
that N-G/Bonner CL semi! Huck was in attendance and was sending text
messages. On to the 11th. Now in the 12th. Headed for the 13th. The game
wound up going 14 innings,
tying the city postseason record (Roxborough beat Frankford, 1-0, in a Pub
semifinal), and N-G jr. RH John LaMotta, who’d pitched just one
league inning all season, wound up going NINE in relief for the win. He
allowed just four hits, struck out 10 and missed the strike zone with only
21 of his 97 pitches! The other semi, La Salle-Carroll, began at 2:30 at
Philly U. Bob Long, who covered that for us, then scurried to Widener
and was able to see roughly HALF of the N-G/Bonner game. Legendary!
MAY 23
PUBLIC LEAGUE SEMIFINAL
Frankford 11, Washington 1 (6 inn.)
At Richie Ashburn Field
While writing down Frankford's lineup before the game, I had a
strange feeling when seeing Hector Cerda's name in the No. 3 hole.
Hmm. Where had he been? There was definitely no memory of writing his name
Monday for one of the quarterfinal boxscores. Coach Juan Namnun
confirmed after this one that Hector had been granted "a vacation" to help
resolve a family issue. Hector always comes off as a good kid and his
energy, especially, is appreciated by Namnun and he ain't a half-bad player,
either (smile). The sr. LH pitched one-hit ball over five innings and went
2-for-4 with a triple, one RBI and two runs scored. Really, this one was
over after one inning. Frankford notched five runs in the bottom half and
even though four of the runs were earned, the uprising was quite messy. With
a two-run single, sr. RF-1B Ramon Rosario had the big hit. The one
run in the second was driven in by Cerda. In the third we witnessed a very
unusual "grand slam." Well, that's what a 9-year-old would have called it.
Frankford loaded the bases on a single by sr. LF Rafael "Omar" Cruz
and walks to jr. 2B Kidanny Cumba and sr. CF Augusto "June" Ortega
(intentional). That brought to the plate sr. SS Ricky Alvarez, who a
few years back might have been the smallest player in city history to be
issued a free pass. Alvarez lined one to center and wound up receiving
credit for two RBI. There might have been a play at the plate, but the relay
throw short-hopped sr. C Dean Grande as he was absorbing contact from
soph PR Alex Torres; HE was on the field because Cumba had suffered
an ankle injury (perhaps severe) while stealing second. Anyway, Grande
appeared to be stunned and did not immediately chase after the ball. Neither
did anyone else. Ortega and Alvarez kept racing and had no trouble scoring.
For Washington, jr. RH Jake Wright replaced soph RH Roger Hanson
for the fourth and order was restored. He faced just seven batters total
over the next two innings and the Pioneers still needed one more run to end
it early. Cerda stung a one-out triple to right and the ball reached the
fence or a hop or three. GW coach Ken Geiser decided to issue
intentional walks to the next TWO batters with the hope of inducing a
game-extending doubleplay, or at least getting a force at the plate.
Instead, Cruz lined one to left and the ball cleared the head of the
drawn-in LF, jr. Corey Sharp. The fact that Frankford won this game
was not surprising. Its skill level is assuredly higher than Washington’s.
The Eagles spent too much time playing in careless, even uninspired,
fashion, however, and that just shouldn’t happen in a semifinal. Geiser had
to be very disappointed because he’s big on detail and making sure things
are done the right way. Friday, 3 o’clock at Ashburn, Frankford will meet
GAMP, a surprise, 9-7 winner over Central for the Pub title. Frankford will
enter as anything from a moderate to heavy favorite, but rumor has it
pregame analysis means nothing and whichever team scores the most runs will
be declared the champion. Geez, who would have thought? (smile)
MAY 22
CATHOLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL
Neumann-Goretti 8, Wood 4
Both pitchers were rocked for big-time hits in the first inning
and, guess what, I'm blaming the umpires. If the fact that they MUST follow
rules is drummed into kids all day, every day, why can umpires stroll onto
the field one minute before the scheduled 3:45 start? Especially when the
game will terminate one team's championship dream? Pitchers and coaches set
up their entire pregame sequence with the starting time in mind. This has
been a wet week so far and N-G coach Mike Zolk, among others, arrived at the
field at 10 a.m. to make sure it would not only be ready, but ready ON TIME.
It is NOT fair for the umpires to mess with all that! The ground rules took
an outrageous nine minutes and the game didn't start until 3:57. Booooo!!!!
I know both umps pretty well. Both are good guys and I respect their work.
But this stuff needs to be addressed. Oh, and while we're at it, is the
Catholic League getting cheap? The Pub, despite the School District's
outrageous money miseries, used four umps for every quarterfinal. The Cath
used two apiece for its quarters. What's with that? Anyway, Wood scored
twice in the first against star sr. LH Joey Gorman as sr. SS Tim
Greenfield singled hard to right-center and came around on a blast and a
half! Jr. C John "Beef" Santospago hit it and the ball traveled WELL
beyond sr. CF Jimmy Kerrigan. In the bottom half against sr. LH
Rich Rosenbaum, Gorman tried to bunt for a hit and reached first base on
a bobble. Sr. SS Marty Venafro also bunted, and beat the play to wind
up with career hit No. 100. Congrats! Soph 1B Josh Ockimey then
crushed a two-run double to right-center and any hints of negative
vibrations were quickly erased. After all, the Saints knew Wood had stormed
from behind to stun Conwell-Egan in a first-round game. Were the Vikings
suddenly blessed? Not exactly, despite a decent effort. N-G added two in the
second thank to infield bobble and a groundball single to center off
Venafro's bat. It tallied three runs in the fourth with RBI going to sr. C
Nicky Nardini on a sac fly and to Ockimey/Kerrigan on singles. Two
errors on one pickoff play allowed one more run to be scored in the fifth.
Wood notched a two-spot in the sixth. Rosenbaum and Greenfield singled, then
Santospago drew a walk. Jr. RF Joe Santospago and jr. 3B Brett
"Bert" McCrossen then bagged RBI on fielder's choice grounders. Gorman
went the distance, allowing eight hits and striking out the same number
(five in first two innings). Rosenbaum lasted five frames and jr. LH
Justin Babb worked a 1-2-3 sixth. Thanks to alumni donations, Zolk said
N-G is hoping to add dugouts, bullpen areas and maybe even a scoreboard for
next season. That'd be great. Now, remove some of the netting that covers
the backstop so it's easier to take pictures! Ha, ha, ha. In the hard work
department, kudos also go out to Wood coach Jim DiGuiseppe Jr. and
helpers (including some from Carroll and Lansdale; that posse was headed by
LC coach Rick Norwood) for making Wood's field playable for
the quarterfinal involving Carroll and Lansdale Catholic. The game was
played at Wood because Fr. Ed Casey, Carroll's president and an
assistant baseball coach, felt the Patriots' still-small field was
unsuitable for a playoff game. In the fifth inning, sr. RF Anthony Adams
faced a 2-0 count when Zolk hollered into him from the third base coach's
box, "If you can't hit over the fence, don't swing at all." Rosenbaum
delivered and Adams fouled one off to the right side and out onto Moore
Street. Zolk said, "Ah, I didn't mean THAT fence." Smile!
MAY 21
PUBLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL
Washington 11, Esperanza 6
Today’s most amazing development was that all eight playoff games –
four apiece in the Pub and Cath – were completed. Various weather people
relentlessly called for showers and it was impossible not to think, “These
babies are gonna get postponed.” Even at Lighthouse Field, located at Front
and Erie and one of my favorite places to watch a game, the skies were
seriously overcast throughout and there were bouts of mist/drizzle. In the
distance, in assorted directions, the skies were VERY gray and you had to
figure that somewhere it was raining hard. Uh, uh. At least not hard enough
to cause problems. Very cool! Postseason rainouts stink. As the visitor,
Washington of course was the underdog, but this one didn’t present much of a
problem. The Eagles immediately posted a three-spot, then added two more in
the second to establish command. The Washington crew benefited greatly from
the weather. If the conditions had been nice, a large crowd no doubt would
have been on hand and that would have made the task much more difficult. DN
ink went to sr. C-RH Dean Grande, who’s a solid player and adds even
more – significantly more, in fact -- to the Eagles’ cause with his
leadership skills. Grande, a four-year starter playing for his third coach,
was the only senior in the lineup and I know his overall contributions are
much appreciated by first-year boss Ken Geiser, a quality catcher for
the Eagles back in the day. Grande went 2-for-4 with a walk and one RBI and
that ribbie plated the game’s first run. He also cut down two guys who
mistakenly thought they could steal on him. In high school ball, with
runners on first and third, it's not uncommon for coaches to tell their
catchers to forget about the trail guy and just fire the ball to the pitcher
with the hope of catching the lead guy too far off the bag. In the first,
Grande fired through and erased jr. 2B Aderly Perez at second. The
next inning ended as he nipped, easily, soph CR Joseph Vazquez, who
for whatever reason tried to thieve third. Jr. 2B Mike “Kruk” Konick
also had a real nice outing for the Eagles. The pudgy lefty swinger slapped
a two-run single in the first, got another run home in the sixth with a
bases-loaded and crunched an RBI single to left-center in the seventh. The
highlight of the five-run sixth was a two-run double to right-center by the
No. 7 hitter, jr. RF Ian Dougherty. Thanks in part to Grande, jr. RH
Aaron Keen had little difficulty through three frames. The Toros
reached him for four runs in the fourth, however, and the big blast was an
RBI double to left by jr. DH Franklyn Mejia . . . Oops, let’s make
that a three-run homer! ‘Cause that’s what the umps eventually did. The
ground rules at Lighthouse are dicey and it was ruled that jr. LF Corey
Sharp made an attempt to fetch the ball from the shrubs out near the
fence. If he’d made no attempt, the story went, the original call would have
stood. Two batters later, sr. SS Raul Escolatico sent a shot in
pretty much the same direction and wound up with a triple. Sr. RF-LF
Victor Nunez then singled to right to plate Escolatico. Jr. CF-RH
Jake Wright (two innings) and Grande handled the pitching chores after
Keen called it a mound day. They yielded one run apiece. The semis will
feature Washington vs. Frankford and GAMP vs. Central. Details were unclear
as of late tonight because Frankford, as is its right, wants to play game
No. 1 of the semi doubleheader Wednesday at Ashburn Field and GAMP wants to
avoid game No. 2 because of an early evening school function. It’s possible
both semis will be played early at separate sights. Oh, we also had another
Only in the Pub moment. Esperanza’s mascot, a Toro, was in attendance in
costume and early in the game he wandered behind the screen to try to
distract Keen. A Washington parent bellowed to the ump about getting the
Toro to vamoose and their discussion became heated. The plate ump, in fact,
threatened to toss the parent. Could you imagine that? You go home at night,
call your friends to tell them about the game and add, in passing, “Oh, I
got thrown out.” Your buddy asks why and you tell him, “Because of a damn
mascot.” Say what?! It didn’t happen, but it could have been quite the
legendary moment. Meanwhile, Geiser got pretty upset during the discussion
about the double/homer and at one point the plate ump got pretty testy with
him. If HE had been thrown out, I’m guessing Washington would have lost by
forfeit. Ken has no assistant coaches and I’m pretty sure PIAA rules would
not have allowed the game to continue.
MAY 18
PUBLIC AAA FINAL
Phila. Electrical 7, Swenson 5
This was a Tale of Two Cities, Baseball Version. The first 4 1/2
innings were nice and pristine, like many locales in the Caribbean. The
remainder of the game was ugly, like many parts of Filthydelphia. Just that
amazingly, we went from no errors to eight. Hey, it happens. It’s just sad
to see it happen in a championship game, especially one that had been
rolling along so nicely. Swenson scored one in the third as frosh SS
Brian Nieves singled to left, stole second, advanced to third as sr. 1B
Matt Brewer fanned on a bouncing pitch and had to be thrown out at
first, and came home on a fielder’s choice off the bat of sr. C Josh
Durkin. PET answered in the bottom half as jr. LF Tyree Barnes
inside-outed a single down the rightfield line, thieved second and scored on
another inside-outer; this one was a ground-rule double by jr. 2B Rob
Payne. PET dropped a six-bomb in the sixth and managed just ONE hit, a
two-run double to left-center by the No. 9 hitter, frosh SS Elliot
Castillo. Even though two of the first three hitters had walked,
Castillo pounced on the first pitch. The inning began with a free pass to
soph RF James Saunders, who’s a beefy kid. While Saunders was
standing at first base, I almost screamed, “Yo, shouldn’t a pinch-runner be
out here?!” Didn’t happen. Sr. CF Joe Piacenti topped one in front of
the plate. Jr. LH Mike Amodei had to hustle in pretty far to get the
ball, but with Saunders running (term used loosely – smile), he figured he
still had a chance for the force. Alas, he skipped the ball into centerfield
and the inning fell apart from there. If a pinch-runner HAD been on first,
Amodei almost certainly would have made the safe play. Maybe PET still would
have scored, but one has to think the inning would not have deteriorated to
such an extent. Actually, things could have gotten much worse. Amodei was
replaced after walking three in a row and the new pitcher was sr. Jon Fox,
who’d been at second base. Fox induced a 1-2-3 doubleplay and followed that
with a strikeout. One frame later, Fox’ replacement at second, soph Nick
Diehl, who’d moved there from left field, sprawled and made a terrific
play on a grounder to his left. Swenson did bounce back with four runs in
the sixth and the big hit, in the form of a two-run single to right-center,
was posted by Nieves. Though the Lions managed to get the tying runs on base
in the seventh, jr. RH Ray Guinther, a transfer from Archbishop
Carroll, reached back for a little extra and mowed down the last two
batters, raising his whiff total to nine. This game was played at South
Philly’s FDR Park, a k a “The Lakes,” and started at 1 o’clock because
Swenson had a senior prom. After the game, it appeared the Chargers were
going to celebrate by staging a match race between Saunders and coach
Mark Olkowski, who’s also a big-‘un. Mark wasn’t havin’ it! He claimed
he had injury concerns since PET will visit Frankford for an overall
quarterfinal on Monday. But was he merely afraid of gettin’ scorched by the
oh-so-swift Mr. Saunders?? Ha, ha. I was ready to time the race. With a
sundial. Meanwhile, today’s best baserunner was almost a dog. Buddha,
a Bernece Mountain Dog weighing almost 100 pounds, broke free from its owner
and came whipping down the third base line. He would have scored, easily,
but someone standing along the fence (not the owner) whistled and said,
“C’mere, boy!” Buddha veered off and exited the field through the gap
between the cage and restraining fence in front of Swenson’s bench. Oh,
well. Maybe Buddha can come back to the field in August, and score during
some kind of youth game. You know, during the dog days of summer . . .
MAY 17
CATHOLIC BLUE
Lansdale Catholic 8, Conwell-Egan 6 (10 inn.)
LC’s players and coaches were saying they always experience strange
goings-on for games at C-E. Let the wackiness continue! Not only did this
game require 10 innings and 183 minutes, there were two very strange plays
and if they’d happened during a playoff game, everyone would still be
arguing. No. 1: In the home fourth, C-E sr. LF-RH Dan Hoffmire got
credit for a three-run double to left-center that was caught and then, oops,
no it wasn’t. Running toward left, jr. LH-CF Pat Duggan, who’d been
the starting pitcher, made a diving attempt at a low liner. The base ump
ruled the play an out, but then, apparently, thought he spotted the ball on
the grass and changed his call. The LC guys were already semi-celebrating
and beginning to run off the field and the momentary confusion allowed the
third run to score. Scheeeeez. No. 2: With two away in the visiting 10th,
sr. OF-LH Jon Motts singled to right and Duggan followed with a
grounder that was booted near the second base bag. An infielder whipped the
ball to sr. 1B Beau Fleming and the base ump called Motts out. One
big problem: Fleming was off the bag. Not really that close to it at all.
That was quickly pointed out to the ump and he reversed his call. After sr.
1B Rick Norwood milked a walk, sr. RF Pat Carney sent a looper
into left-center for a two-run single that wound up winning it. DN ink went
to sr. C Kevin Neumann, who played right field in ’11 and was kind
enough to move behind the dish for his senior season even though he’ll be an
outfielder at Penn State Abington. On a hot day, Neumann wound up having to
nurture SIX pitchers and had a good outing -- in clutch moments, anyway –
for the offense. In the sixth, he drew a leadoff walk, stole second and
scored on Carney’s infield single. His two-run single highlighted a
three-run seventh and, on one of those first-and-third, let’s-try-to-trick-‘em
plays, he was able to run home and score before Motts got tagged for the
third out. That 6-3 lead didn’t hold up, of course, as C-E posted one run on
Murray’s RBI single up the middle, an infield error off the bat of jr. 2B
Mike Petrizzi and a bases-loaded walk to Fleming. The win went to soph
RH Matt Kress, who spun two innings of no-hit, shutout ball. On
Senior Day, Andrew Ellis, C-E’s first-year coach, started a whole
bunch of 12th graders who usually don’t get much time. They played through
four innings before yielding to their “superiors.” A highlight was the
doubleplay, off a popup, turned by sr. 2B John Macnamara. One
underclass sub, jr. LF Tyler Grabowski, had an excellent outing. He
backpedaled very quickly and caught a liner, oh!, up over his head and
smacked a pair of singles as well. Jr. C Dan Sullivan, who went the
distance, also collected two hits. The Eagles really got into the Senior Day
thing and the underclassmen were reading aloud funny/heartfelt tributes to
the old heads. LC’s 10-year-old batboy, Julian Norwood (son of the
coach, brother of the first baseman), was his usual high-energy self. He
asked to have his picture taken maybe 73 times (ha ha) and provided non-stop
entertainment in other ways, too. As always, I asked the interview subject
to pinpoint where he lives. When Neumann said Silverdale, I was dumbfounded.
There aren’t too many places I haven’t at least heard of. Silverdale? He
said it’s near Hilltown – oh, THAT clears things up (ha ha); nah, I’ve at
least heard of that place – and during a Google check in the office I found
that Silverdale is a small borough with 871 people (as of the 2010 census),
and that its Pub students go to Pennridge. Glad to be of service, peeps.
Silverdale rules!!
MAY 16
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy 4, Penn Charter 0
Two things lit up today. A radar gun, thanks to PC sr. RH Kenny
Koplove (Duke). And the eyes of SCH jr. LH Matt “Squeeze” Kozemchak,
when he SAW the radar gun. The presence of the RG meant a scout was in the
house and THAT meant there was a chance to impress. Will Kozemchak prove to
be good enough to draw MLB attention as a senior? Who knows? But the fellow
in attendance had to be impressed and, if nothing else, he’ll undoubtedly
mention Squeeze’s name to friends/associates in college positions.
Ninety-nine percent of the time, I write the DN story about the winning
team. That guideline was ignored today because I wanted to give proper due
to retiring PC coach Rick Mellor, who is co-coaching this season (his
34th) with former Germantown Academy/Penn assistant Jon Cross. A
photo set was also slapped together and I wish Ricky, likewise a 1969 PC
grad (what an athlete!), nothing but the best! Also, thanks to the SCH guys
for understanding – you do understand, right, guys? (smile) -- why their
triumph did not receive DN ink. At least through the first three-four
innings, Koplove routinely hit 92 to 94 MPH on the gun. Yes, 92 to 94.
Considering his slight build and the fact that he works exclusively from the
stretch, it’s amazing that Kenny even hits the 80s, let alone the 90s. But
his stuff was BLAZIN’. Kozemchak did not throw as hard, of course, but his
pitches had good zip along with that natural lefty tail and he helped
himself with a pair of pickoffs. He allowed six hits and two walks while
striking out five. Aside from the baserunning misadventures, PC also hurt
itself with some defensive indecision. Three times, Koplove walked leadoff
batters – second, fourth and sixth innings -- and each guy scored. Can’t
imagine THAT has happened too often to him. Koplove had to be especially
frustrated by the events of the fifth. Four times righthanded batters put
the ball into play to the right side and one run resulted. In that frame
frosh RF Kenny Bergmann made a sprawling snag of a liner. In the
sixth, soph 2B Demetrius Isaac made a tremendous play – full-out dive
– on a ball to his left. Two batters later, LF Matt Caldwell sent a
liner toward right-center. Bergmann hustled over and made a terrific effort
while sprawling. Alas, he appeared to briefly stab at something right after
the play and the base ump made a no-catch ruling. Was he picking up a ball
that had barely escaped his glove? Not positive, but it surely gave off that
aura. SCH’s RBI went to Caldwell on a fielder’s choice and the
aforementioned double; to 2B Sam Feirson on a slicing single down the
RF line; and to CF Zach Jancarski on – you got it – a slicing double
down the RF line. Koplove allowed seven hits and four walks while striking
out five. Sr. SS Dan Hull made a vintage play for SCH, ranging back
into shallow left-center and then, oh!, stretching/sprawling back to snag a
blooper off Koplove’s bat. In the seventh, Kozemchak absorbed a hard shot on
the foot/ankle off the bat of sr. 1B Tucker Colton but was able to
tough things out and finish the game. The only PC guy with two hits was sr.
CF Nick Lamb, the No. 9 hitter. One was a ringing double to
left-center. Soph LF Zach Kurtz (groundball single in the second) had
to sit down after hurting his shoulder on a dive back to first. His
replacement, jr. Ted Foley, singled hard to right and launched a fly
ball reasonably deep to center. Due to an injury that has sidelined him for
much of the season, sr. INF Demetrius “Meat” Jennings was again
unavailable for the Quakers. He’s going to Wofford, in South Carolina, and
is pretty much Koplove’s forever buddy. Those guys are FIVE-year varsity
players and willingly posed for a pic with coach Mellor – smiled, even –
after a tough afternoon. Thanks, men . . . Oh, about the Squeeze nickname
for Kozemchak. As jr. 3B Matt Rowland explained, Matt was trying to
lay down a squeeze bunt in an indoor, preseason workout when something went
wrong and the ball, after bouncing off the ceiling, hit him square on the
nose and broke it. Ouch! (I didn’t write down Rowland’s description, but it
was something like that.) Anyway, the Blue Devils have been calling Matt
“Squeeze” ever since. Today, they should have been calling him "Very
Impressive."
MAY 14
PUBLIC AA SEMIFINAL
Prep Charter 10, Phila. Academy Charter 4
The Luck of the Ejected did not hold up for PAC coach Jack Smith.
Having been tossed from the last game, he was on site but not in uniform as
his squad visited 7th and Packer to play Prep Charter. The last time I
arrived at a field to find that one team’s coach would be inactive, having
been tossed from the previous game, that school’s pitcher, Eric McGough,
spun a no-hitter (admittedly dicey; he walked nine) as Carroll tamed Conwell-Egan.
PAC would have no such luck. The Chargers did score the first run – within
the first three batters, even – but positive moments would be scarce from
there and PC mostly imposed its will. Every so often, I’ll go to a game and
see and/or hear something that screams out, “There’s my story!” (Assuming
everything falls into place, of course.) That happened today and you can
read about it in the wonderful Daily News – only $1 at a Wawa near you; plus
many other places -- or online at philly.com. Jr. RH Pete Piccoli
pitched the first six innings and was money after surrendering a one-out
single to sr. SS Chris Maguire and an RBI double to right by sr.
1B-RH Jorge Martinez in the first frame. He wound up fanning 13 guys
and must have been pretty deceptive because a lot of the Chargers were
flailing. He yielded four hits and only Martinez’ went for extra bases. The
seventh was a mess and things could have gotten very interesting if PAC had
posted one booming hit when the bases were loaded. Oddly, the Huskies scored
three of their runs against soph LH Travis Zink (his frosh brother,
Tim, was the catcher) on sac flies to right. One in the third by
frosh SS Keegan McKoskey and two more in the fourth by jr. CF
Frank Suppa and sr. LF Sal Convento. The bottom of the order made
major contributions. Soph 2B Justin Bocelli, at No. 8, and soph C
Christian Coppola, at No. 9, had matching performances with two hits,
including a double, and two runs scored. Convento was the No. 7 hitter and
he crunched a double in the four-run sixth. McKoskey went 2-for-3 with the
SF and two RBI and soph PH Chris “Chill” Ciliberto rapped a two-run
single to left in the sixth. He began the seventh in right field, then went
to the mound after soph LH Robert Freer went BB/HBP/HBP. Chill had an
interesting outing on the hill. He allowed a hit and walked two, but did
strike out the side. He also showed a pretty funny expression while
uncorking his pitches. Kinda looked like a fish.
Check it out.
Ex-GAMP star Dom Raia, fresh off a strong first season at Chestnut
Hill College, was among the spectators. There was occasional rain, but
nothing heavy and nothing too sustained. Much appreciated, weather people.
The skies looked wicked all game long and a downpour would not have
surprised.
MAY 11
PUBLIC AAA QUARTERFINAL
Engineering and Science 7, Roxborough 5
How was coach Bob Stowman supposed to know E&S would actually
turn out to be legit? After all, the Engineers had gone just 6-5 in Division
C while Roxborough had fashioned an 8-2 mark in Division B. Guess what.
Circumstance are sometimes very bad indicators. Against the Indians’ No. 2
starter, sr. RH Frank Legrady (Stowman was saving sr. RH Ralph
Martinez for an anticipated semi on Monday), E&S posted a surprise
three-spot in the visiting first and remained in front the rest of the way.
This was hardly the cleanest game ever. E&S was guilty of EIGHT errors, but
again and again Roxborough was unable to get the kind of clutch, ringing hit
that would have caused the Engineers to truly sweat. Sr. LH Dougie
Williams and sr. RH David Tucker are pitchers 1 and 1-A for E&S,
or vice versa, and coach Gene Carboni went with Williams mostly
because he’s good at keeping runners anchored to first base. Rox had just
one steal, and a runner was also picked off by Williams, so the decision
proved to be all kinds of brilliant. E&S scored its other four runs in the
fifth, two innings after Martinez replaced Legrady. Sr. 1B Scott Ervin.,
a true big-‘un with a nice lefty swing, started the uprising with a booming
double to right-center. Frosh 2B January “Hot Dog” Llaverias (gotta
love that name, right?) got one run home with a sac fly (though the ball was
dropped) while sr. CF Gus Jenkins later added a run with a single to
center. Roxborough committed two of its three miscues in this frame and they
made three of the four runs unearned. Llaverias had posted the only true RBI
(via a hit, that is) in the first. Williams, who hits righthanded and helped
himself with a pair of sac bunts, forced ‘Boro to strand six guys in scoring
position (among 10 overall). Amazingly, after getting just two strikeouts
beforehand, he humped up to whiff the game’s final two batters with the
tying runs on base. From one specific standpoint – namely, the racial makeup
of the teams – this outcome was rather monumental. Despite the best efforts
of certain individuals and organizations, baseball in Philly’s
African-American circles has been weak for two-plus decades. In 1983,
Franklin, with seven blacks and two Hispanics in the lineup, was good enough
to win the Pub championship (while defeating Roxborough in the final). Every
year, or so it seemed, one or two black guys would be drafted or signed to
minor league contracts as free agents. Now, there are very few players
capable of advancing to even the lower levels of college ball, let alone the
pros. Basketball and football are just too dominant. While in no way am I
suggesting that E&S’ win is going to spur a significant diamond revival in
the A-A community, it definitely will be viewed in a much better light than
a perfunctory drubbing would have been . . . Two legendary spectators:
Joe Turvey, star catcher for Roxborough (’89; he was part of a memorable
triple play) and a former minor leaguer, and Eric Ervin, Scott’s
father and recently named by yours truly as McDevitt’s third best basketball
player over the last 35 seasons. Eric was not aware of that “honor.” (Nor
was his son.) Geez, guess news doesn’t always travel fast these days
(smile). Great to see both of you!
MAY 7
PUBLIC D
Del-Val 17, Lamberton 2 (6 inn.)
This game had been postponed twice, so over the weekend I exchanged text
messages with Lamberton coach Lou D’Alonzo, one of the all-time good
guys and a former football head coach/assistant at several city-league
schools, to be sure this game was indeed scheduled for today. He confirmed
the details – 3:15 at Papa Playground, Haverford and Lansdowne Avenues – and
jokingly added, “I’m going to say a rosary asking for no ‘Only in the Pub’
moments.” So, what happened? You got it. A classic OITP right off the bat.
Er, off the soccer goal. Over the weekend, a soccer goal was installed about
180 feet down the rightfield line, exactly parallel to it and roughly six
feet into fair territory. The goal would have been a serious hazard, so Lou,
D-V coach Will Cambria and players from both squads joined forces –
with tools and sheer strength – to remove it from the ground and carry it
deep into foul territory. Two mini-cones were used to fill the holes where
the posts had been and, luckily, they didn’t come close to being an issue.
There’d be one other legendary development, but not until the home sixth.
When jr. SS Jelahn Williams moved from SS to P, the original hurler,
jr. Charles Wright, took his place. The catch: Wright is lefthanded
and that gave the Warriors lefties at both positions on that side of the
infield. Sr. Melvin Green was stationed at third throughout. Two
lefties on the left side of the infield. Makes so much sense, right? Ha, ha.
As you can tell by the score, this game did not exactly take us to
Classicville. Lamberton was quite sloppy behind sr. RH Leon Bynum and
LB hurt his cause by somehow plunking the eighth and ninth hitters two
times apiece. (Also, he registered eight strikeouts against the last three
guys in the order. Weird!) D-V’s far-and-away headliner was frosh DH
Rainiel “Ray” Bravo, who went 5-for-5 with a homer and four RBI. The
dinger, to right-center, came in his final at-bat – in fact, he batted twice
in the sixth – and was good for two RBI. Demetrius “Meech” Green, a
jr C and Melvin’s brother, had an RBI triple and scored three times. Gotta
love that, right? Sr. 2B Ashiy Small went 2-for-5 with three RBI and
jr. 1B Ian Dennis laced a double. Wright reached three times on
errors. Soph C Jordan Bynum, Leon’s brother, collected two of the
Blue Devils' three hits and his best was a triple in a two-run fifth. Sr. LF
Simire Foulks, who also made hard contact on an out, managed a
single. Wright allowed all three of the hits while fanning nine. Williams
whiffed a trio and free-passed the same number. Wright and Williams are
transfers from Girard College and they’ve been a big help to the Warriors;
it’s obvious they’ve played some baseball. As Williams had some trouble
finding the strike zone, D. Green came out from behind the plate and walked
about halfway to the mound. Over at 1B, Dennis kiddingly yelled in toward
him, “You always tryin’ to TALK to somebody. Like you got some words of
WISDOM.” Earlier, when the sound of Williams’ fastball hitting Green’s mitt
made a loud popping noise – this was off to the side, when Williams was
warming up in anticipation of replacing Wright – Green said, loudly,
“Somebody got an AK-47?!?!” Way before that, one of D-V’s players got hit by
a pitch. As he arrived at first base, he was asked by a nearby adult,
“Where’d that hit you?” The batter responded, “My right butt cheek.” The
adult said to others nearby, “If you can’t hit the ball, I guess that’s a
good way to get on base.” There was occasional drizzle all game long, but
nothing brutal. Two female spectators were sitting nearby, on a large
boulder, when a pop foul came close to hitting them.
They flinched/bailed
big-time and I wound up showing them the picture,
which they found to be humorous. Later, we mixed in a regular photo op.
Well, KIND of regular. One gal
gave the other rabbit ears.
What's with that?? Ha, ha.
MAY 4
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Springside Chestnut Hill 3, Episcopal 2 (8 inn.)
After the game, some SCH players were ordered to head down to the
bullpen/batting cage areas and make things tidy. One of those guys was jr.
3B Matt Rowland and I was pretty sure I heard him say with a laugh,
“If I don’t get the article, I’m gonna throw a fit.” Another Blue Devil was
standing right nearby. He confirmed the remark and we both had a laugh. No
worry, dude. You were definitely getting the article (though it was only for
philly.com and not for SportsWeek.) Why? Um, it was probably the one-out
solo homer you crunched to left-center to win the game! No one else was THAT
sensational in this tilt between teams that entered with identical 1-5
league records, so Rowland was an easy choice. The dinger came on a
first-pitch fastball from sr. RH reliever Drew Peters, who replaced
effective sr. LH Noel Swanson with one away in the seventh. Like
others, Rowland was worried that maybe his bolt was too much of a liner to
leave the yard. Ah, but the fence at SCH is very low and the ball did clear
it, landing maybe 8 feet behind? The extra giddy Rowland was pummeled at the
plate and, soon, entertaining team nutjob Jamie Young, who must gulp
down 5-Hour Energy once an hour, was pirouetting up the first base side
while yelling, “Matt Rowland!! You jokin’ me?” Yes, the homer was Matt’s
first of the season, but it wasn’t as if deserved a spot in the cheapie
column. He DID nail it. The teams combined for 13 hits and, amazingly, eight
never left the infield. There were no extra base hits aside from Rowland’s
homer. The one run scored against sr. RH Christian Salem was
unearned. Salem fanned three guys in the first inning, but dismissed just
two thereafter. No matter. He mixed speeds and pitches very well and often
had the Churchmen off-balance. Salem departed with runners on first and
third in the sixth and sr. RH Tim Menninger replaced him. EA tried
the ol’ run-off-first play, but Menninger maintained his poise and jr. LF
Rob Ibarguen was the victim of a rundown, with sr. 1B Matt Primavera
applying the tag. EA tallied once in the seventh on an infield single by sr.
2B Collin Wright, move-him-up grounder by sr. CF Colin Hartzell
and groundball close to the leftfield line by jr. RF Anthony Perretti.
SCH’s seventh went like this: single to center by jr. PH Craig Alleyne
opened SCH's seventh. After sr. RF Pat Foley (two hits) milked a
one-out walk, sr. SS Dan Hull stroked an infield single and a
tacked-on throw sailed way past first, allowing Alleyne to score. Primavera
followed with a sacrifice fly to center against Peters. Menninger pitched a
1-2-3 eighth. Some guys celebrating their 50th CHA reunion were on hand and
righthander Gary Pearson threw a ceremonial first pitch to catcher
Bob Zink. Thing was wicked! Ha, ha. It appeared to slide at the last
second and Zink wasn’t able to catch it. In the sixth, as sr. 2B Sam
Feirson was getting ready to hit, a teammate yelled, “Show 'em how 'feirs'
you are!!” Salem was standing next to me. I said to him, “I can only imagine
how many times he’s heard that.” As in, a pun on the pronunciation of his
last name. Salem said, “Actually, I’ve never heard anyone say that to him.”
Also, at one point I was taking pics from a shade down the rightfield line
and two Blue Devils were sitting in chairs to the side of the bullpen. There
was a low throw on a grounder and we had a short discussion on how errors
are charged on such plays; Primavera almost held on to a scoop. I mentioned
that low throws get first basemen off the error hook and Menninger (pretty
sure it was him) said, “Makes sense. Cuts down on the ambiguity.” Ding,
ding, ding! That’s an example of something I mention every so often: You
Know You’re at an Inter-Ac Game When . . . The best example occurred one
year at a Penn Charter football game when PA announcer John Burkhart
intoned, “The gain on that play was negligible.” Yeah, baby! (smile). On the
coolness meter, SCH’s staff gives those at La Salle and Bonner serious
competition. Stan Parker is the coach. His assistants are John
McArdle, Jack Purdy, Dennis Primavera, Ken Conlin and Bob
Undercuffler. Great to see all of you, guys! Also in attendance was Best
Teammate ’11 Nick Barile. And he’s STILL a great teammate. When I
asked Nick to edge toward the field so I could take his picture, he
convinced fellow ’11 grad Nick Boyle to walk over and stand next to
him. Two Nicks for the price of none. Niiiice!
MAY 3
CATHOLIC RED
O’Hara 4, Bonner 3 (8 inn.)
The mind was racing like Usain Bolt. As the game moved into the
bottom of the 7th on Bonner’s incorrectly laid out field, the Big Yellow
Thing popped out for the first time all day. Then we headed to the 8th, tied
at 3-3, and the thought was, “Oh my goodness. What if the game keeps rolling
along? Could we REALLY have Sungate, Part II?!” Honestly, I was semi-hoping
because another suspended game due to sun glare undoubtedly would have drawn
national attention and that would have been all kinds of cool. (This time
around, I would have named it Squintgate.) Alas, the Lions shut things down
early, which was entirely their right (smile). DN ink went to jr. RH Nick
Donovan, who had barely pitched this season and had never gone more than
four innings. He lasted seven in this one and allowed just three hits while
whiffing six. He showed understated bulldog tendencies, twice causing the
Friars to leave guys at third and thrice benefiting from strong, got-him
throws by impressive sr. C Devin McCann. Merely because he hadn’t
been told otherwise, Donovan walked to the mound for the eighth and began
warming up. The wheels were turning, though, and pitching coach Mike
Sundo had finalized plans to go with sr. SS Mike Schneider. Much
later, I happened to walk past Schneider in the parking lot and he said the
pitching appearance was his first of the season. He put the Friars down in
order to notch the save. In Sungate (vs. La Salle), sr. RH Ronnie Scull
worked nine strong innings and then was not involved in the decision as
Bonner fell. Today he was dominant through four innings and then regressed
only slightly while going the distance. Incredibly, O’Hara loaded the bases
on three infield singles in the fifth and Donovan plated a run with a sac
fly to left that was really a liner. To get the seventh inning rally going,
jr. LF-3B Scott Grinnan set the tone by beating out what was pretty
much a routine grounder to shortstop. Sr. 1B Steve Trainor then was
plunked and yielded to pinch-runner Mike Sciasci, a sr. Rogers tried
to advance them both with a sac, but sr. 3B Frank Saviski made a good
pounce and was able to nip Sciasci at second base. Schneider sent a hard
single through the left side for one run and soph pinch-runner John Banes
scored the next run on a steal/E-2 combo. He wasn’t given the steal sign,
but had permission to go, assuming he felt confident. In the eighth, Scull
induced groundouts from the first two hitters before Grinnan reached on an
infield miscue. Grinnan thieved second as Sciasci was batting and eventually
got to third, which gave Rogers, a lefty swinger, the chance to plate him
with a slapper to left. Bonner had scored single runs in the third (big-time
triple to right-center by sr. CF Jack Liberatore), fourth (hard
single to left-center by Scull) and sixth (on a wild pitch after an error
prolonged the inning). Kudos to plate ump Ernie Barile, a former Penn
Charter catcher and the father of recent CHA grad Nick Barile, a k a
Best Teammate 2011. (Liberatore's brother, Colin, was Best Teammate
2006 for Bonner.) A few times “Ern” called semi-low strikes. Hey, give him a
break. He was a catcher, as I said, and what catcher doesn’t forever love
semi-low strikes? (smile) I loved the passion Ernie showed during the game,
and his dedication to keep things moving. Niiiiice! Also on site was
Bryan Kerns, a former Bonner baseball manager (’07) who also wrote for
this website. Great to see you, Bry! Let’s see. Anything else? Oh, yeah,
O’Hara might have set a city record for most position changes to start an
inning!! Ha, ha, ha. Aside from Schneider going to the mound and Donovan
heading to center (his usual position when he’s not pitching), we had
Grinnan from left to third, sr. John Kane from 2B to SS, Sciasci from
3B to 2B and Rogers from center to left. That's six.
MAY 2
FACEBOOK MESSAGE RECEIVED AFTER THE JUDGE-ROMAN GAME . . .
Thought I'd share a funny, ironic story with you. As you know
Judge played Roman today at the new field. My Uncle, Kevin Dougherty,
was talking to B.J., (Brother Jim) Williams, and he mentioned that he
used to teach at North. My uncle says, "I have some North trivia for you."
Asks him who hit the first three pointer. Without hesitation B.J. rattles
off my name. At that very moment they hear the crack of the bat and my uncle
says to him, "Well, his cousin just got the first hit at the new field." . .
. Only in the Catholic league . . . William Dougherty is Kevin's son.
Thought you would get a kick out of that. Take care.
-- Marty O'D
Ted's note: Roman SS William Dougherty, on the first pitch, lined
a double into the rightfield corner. Brother Jim Williams now teaches at
Judge and was North's basketball coach for nine seasons ending with '02.
He's big on history, especially Catholic League stuff. And that brings us to
the legendary Marty O'D; full name Marty O'Donnell. On Dec. 1, 1986,
in a non-league season opener vs. Gratz, Marty became the first player in
city history to make a three-point shot!! The game was played in North's
gym, a k a The Pit, and Marty, a sub, connected in the fourth quarter. The
rule had just been adopted by the Catholic League. The Pub wouldn't follow
suit until the 1987-88 season, but Gratz coach Bill Ellerbee agreed
to allow threes to be part of the game. Thanks for sharing this, Marty!
MAY 2
CATHOLIC RED
Judge 5, Roman 4
(First Game on Judge's New Field)
The baseball gods wanted Judge to win. How else do you explain a team,
playing game No. 1 on its beautiful new field, getting held to one hit
through six innings and then rallying to victory thanks in part to two
ringing doubles and two favorable decisions from the umpires? The field,
right across Solly Avenue from Judge in Ramp Playground, is ALL turf. Well,
maybe 97 percent. The only dirt area is the mound. It’s 310 down the lines,
350 to the alleys and 380 to center, according to coach Tim Ginter.
There are also lights and who knows what that could mean down the line?
Beyond right and right-center is the brand new football field and that’s
also turf. There are lights over that way, too, though I haven’t heard talk
of any varsity games being held there. Anyway, let’s jump to the home
seventh. Judge trailed, 4-3, when jr. OF Zack Spiker tried to bunt
for a hit. Roman’s coaches insisted the ball hit him after he was outside
the box, but the umps didn’t see things that way and Spiker returned to the
batter’s box. Smack! Forget about buntin’, baby! He bounced a double off the
fence in left and sr. RH Erik DeLone came on to replace classmate
Luke Coyle, also a righty. Sr. SS John Hearn bunted Spiker to
third and jr. OF Mike O’Hanlon, a lefty swinger, followed with an
inside-out chopper to sr. 3B Tom Carroll. His throw home bounced in
the turf (remember, no dirt) and Spiker scored. (There was also a
controversy early in O’Hanlon’s at-bat. It’s explained in the DN story.) Sr.
3B Tim Ross fanned for out No. 2, then jr. 1B John Reyes, via
the re-entry rule, sent a shot to almost the same spot Spiker’s had gone.
It, too, went for a double and jr. Andrew Maenner, who’d been
summoned to run for O’Hanlon, was held at third. Up stepped jr. C Ryan
Mackiewicz, who three-plus hours earlier had been the first guy to set
foot on the playing surface. Ding! Admittedly, the contact he made with the
ball was not the best in diamond history. But the blooper fell safely into
shallow left, Maenner dashed home with nooooo trouble and Mackiewicz soon
was at the bottom of Mount Crusader. Quite a way to end the field’s first
contest. Wanting to witness/photograph as much as possible, I got to the
field at 2:07 and the first pitch wouldn’t be until 3:45 (though they
actually started a shade early at 3:40). It took just three minutes for the
first Crusaders to show up; Mackiewicz, O’Hanlon and jr. DH Brandon Mau.
Soon thereafter, sr. RH Rob Walmsley arrived. One problem: the entry
gate was locked. As more Crusaders popped up, Roman’s entire team made an
appearance at 2:30. Ten minutes later, just when a Dept. of Rec employee was
going to open the gate, Ginter did the honors and Ross was the first guy to
follow him through. Then the race began! Ha, ha. Not really, but Mackiewicz
did pass Ross as the 'Saders walked down the path behind their dugout and
then made the left turn to get onto the field. The first pitch? Highlight
time. Jr. RH Josh Teson did the delivering and sr. SS William
Dougherty did the smacking. The ball went into the right field corner
and Doc wound up with a double. He even moved to third on a wild pitch as
sr. LF Paolo Gambaro was batting, but there he stayed as Teson
escaped with no damage. Maybe an omen? Judge tallied two runs in the second
on a wild pitch and a groundball single to left by jr. 2B Jeff Seigafuse.
Seigafuse scored in the fifth, the last frame for soph RH Kyle Rogalski,
as Hearn rapped into a fielder’s choice. Dougherty and Gambaro lined singles
in Roman’s third and the former scored on a balk. A three-run fifth was
highlighted by RBI singles from jr. 1B Matt Simon (for one run) and
jr. 2B Nick Stoffere (for two). Walmsley replaced Teson after
Stoffere’s base knock and Roman had runners on first and third. Stoffere
broke off first and Walmsley, showing good presence of mind and poise, was
able to step off the rubber and gun down sr. RF Dan Sowisdral at the
plate. The Judge kids said they practiced on the field Monday and Tuesday
and that the sun – in right-center – had been something of an issue. There
was not even a hint of sun for this one, but thankfully it didn’t rain at
all despite serious grayness. All day there’d been showers and sprinkles. On
Saturday at 2 p.m., Judge will host McDevitt and Ginter said there’ll be
more in the way of celebration. Dennis Foglia, McDevitt’s first-year
coach, was a first team All-Catholic pitcher for Judge in ’77. That LIKELY
was the last year Judge played on the original field at Ramp (then called
Holmesburg Playground) before moving to Pollock (now officially named
McArdle). Hung out for part of the game with Judge teacher Dave “D.J.”
Mulholland, who was Ryan’s basketball coach from the mid-‘80s to
mid-‘90s. He confirmed that two CL coaching legends, Whitey Sullivan
(football) and Joe McDermott (baseball), are still teaching at Judge.
Meanwhile, Ginter said he’d hoped to have “Derm” throw out today’s first
ball, “but he had grandpop duties” after the completion of the school day.
Joe was a star player at Roman, so that would have been a good fit.
JUDGE'S STARTING LINEUP
Zack Spiker lf
John Hearn ss
Mike O'Hanlon rf
Tim Ross 3b
John Reyes 1b
Ryan Mackiewicz c
Brandon Mau dh
Josh Teson p
Paul Golden cf
Jeff Seigafuse 2b
FIELD FIRSTS, IN ORDER . . .
Gate opened: at 2:40 by Judge coach Tim Ginter
Player to pass through gate: Tim Ross
Player to step onto playing surface: Ryan Mackiewicz
Deliver first prayer: Ginter (from memory)
First pitch: Josh Teson to William Dougherty (hit into rightfield corner for
double)
Wild pitch: Teson (with Paolo Gambaro batting)
Assist/putout: Ross to John Reyes
Walk: Zack Spiker (with Kyle Rogalski pitching)
Strikeout: Colin Cooke (leading off second)
Single: Nick Stoffere (two outs in second)
HBP: Reyes (by Rogalski; leading off second)
Passed ball: Phil Isaac (moving Reyes to second)
Error: 3B Tom Carroll (throw, moving Reyes to third)
Stolen base: Mackiewicz
Wild pitch: Rogalski (scoring Reyes for first run)
RBI: On single by Jeff Seigafuse (scoring Mackiewicz)
Balk: Teson (scoring Dougherty in third)
Sacrifice: Carroll (in fifth)
Caught stealing: Ken Sowisdral at home (on throw by the first reliever, Rob Walmsley, after Stoffere started to run toward second)
Doubleplay: off Dougherty's liner to Mike O'Hanlon
Game-winning RBI: Mackiewicz (scoring pinch-runner Andrew Maenner)
Winning pitcher: Walmsley
Losing pitcher: Erik DeLone
No triples or homers
Subsequent games
Triple: Chris Thompson, Judge, 5/5 vs. McDevitt (second game played at
the field)
Home run: Cory Kreamer, Judge, 5/9 vs. Lansdale Catholic (third game played
at the field)
APRIL 30
PUBLIC A
GAMP 5, Franklin Towne Charter 1
It’s not too uncommon in basketball for guys to shoot bricks. In
baseball, meanwhile, it’s not every day you see a pitcher hand bricks to his
coach. Repeat after me, folks. And I know you love to do it . . . Only in
the Pub! Bricks are beneath the dirt at the front part of the mound at 7th
and Packer and thrice they became dislodged. The first delay was only
seconds as soph RH Jake “From State Farm” Kurtz walked toward GAMP’s
dugout and handed coach Art Kratchman a small brick. The next two
delays were longer as FTC jr. RH Tim Hart and then Kurtz, again, had
to wait for Kratch & Krew to rearrange the bricks, pound them down, wet the
dirt, etc. As mentioned in the DN story, at one point FT coach Kyle Riley,
disappointed with his ballclub’s often lackluster play, groaned, "I'm going
to ask them for one of the bricks so I can hit myself in the head with it."
Earlier, as Kratchman pounded the area with a tamper tool, Riley had
quipped, "I guess this gives new meaning to 'hitting the bricks.' Sr.
George Klein, FTC's third baseman, was right nearby. He said, "I don't
even know what that saying means." Ha, ha, ha. DN ink went to sr. 3B
Desmond Drummond, who goes 6-foot, 205, and gives off an aura that says,
could be special down the line. He’s relatively new to baseball, but Kratch
is very high on his possibilities given his bat speed and body. Drummond
enjoyed just three plate appearances, drawing a walk (very unusual; he loves
to hack), slamming a solo homer over the fence in left-center and grounding
out to shortstop. Also, he made a nice, cut-across play on a grounder and
snuck in behind a baserunner to take a pickoff throw from jr. C Jeremy
Castellanos and successfully apply a got-him tag. GAMP also posted
two-spots in the first and third against hard-lucker Hart, who allowed just
four hits (only Drummond’s was well struck) and fanned eight in five frames.
On loopers, jr. SS Joe Brinkman had RBI singles in each
mini-uprising. Sr. RF Nick Carine (groundout in first) and soph 2B
Dante “Anyone Need a Vowel? I’ve Got Plenty” Sanguilliano (infield
single in fourth) notched the other RBI. The Coyotes were guilty of five
errors of commission and one big one of omission on Sanguilliano’s safety;
the guilty party did not finish the game. Though neither one helped to
produce a run, Sanguilliano laid down two sacrifice bunts. Sr. 1B Tyler
Criniti reached twice on errors and once on a walk, but after the free
pass he was victimized for a pickoff on a good throw by jr. RH Tyler
Keller, who’d started the game in right. In FTC’s second, jr. C Mike
Guilian was gunned down at the plate on a nice throw from Carine. Jr. 1B
Chris Hartman, FTC’s cleanup hitter, went 2-for-3 with a ground-rule
double to right-center that brought around jr. 2B Elias Rosa in the
sixth. Soph RF Chris Hammerstein went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles.
Kurtz went the distance, permitting seven hits and striking out nine. This
game didn’t feature much of an atmosphere. There were no more than 20
spectators and the gray skies/semi-chilly temps did nothing to help the
cause. Three of Drummond’s basketball teammates – Devon Ford, Tobias
Stokes, Mikhail Wilson – walked all the way over/down from GAMP to see
him play. Alas, they missed his homer. (The Pioneers’ games start at 2:45
because local youth teams usually hop onto the field the instant games
conclude. Didn’t notice that today, though, honestly.) One of GAMP’s
managers is Gabriella Frangipani. Her uncle, Greg, is Bok’s
new basketball coach. Her father, Steve, a k a “Snitch”, was a star
athlete for Southern.
APRIL 26
PUBLIC LEAGUE
Bartram 12, West Phila. 1
Some quarters are smarter than others. My original plan today was
to attend Del-Val at Lamberton, but for some mysterious reason that one was
postponed. I rechecked the schedule and decided to pick between West-Bartram
and Boys' Latin-Saul. Well, I decided to let a QUARTER make the pick. West-Bartram
was heads and it won the best-of-seven flips, 4-2. Off to 58th and Elmwood
we go! Was the game competitive? Not at all, truthfully. West had just 10
players in uniform and fill-in coach Adam Kuchemba (Barry Strube
is serving again in the military; stay safe, sir!) said only three had
played baseball before this season. Granted, Bartram is not exactly
overflowing with guys who'd make scouts' mouths water, but the Braves were
significantly better. This visit was lots of fun. Both teams have some
personable kids and I knew a few from football season. Plus, the extras were
off the charts. Bartram has six guys with uniform numbers higher than 49,
and they were more than willing to group for a pair of fun pics. Then, right
after the game ended, as the score sheet was being completed, I heard a
commotion and looked up to see Bartram CF Darius Sanders, who's an
extremely fast runner, doing flips across the infield and then,
thump, sticking the landing right near the mound! Ha, ha, ha. Great! He then
did another short set and, wouldn't you know it, that elicited a response
from West's Manny Withers. He started off by the third base line and
flipped one, two, three, four, five . . . damn, who KNOWS many times?! By
the time he finished he was not too far from second base! Outstanding! As
the commotion died down a little, West CF Barry Williams said, "I can
do that." I told him, "Come on out. I'll take a picture." He did one flip. I
took one pic. Great show, guys! Bartram's heroes were numerous. Sr. RH
Jahmeer Faulcon pitched a one-hitter in the five-inning game, allowed
only an RBI single by Withers in the third. Faulcon also ran out a grand
slam to center in the second. Frosh 2B Quenzel Members then
absolutely torched a shot down the leftfield line. Or should we say "up" the
leftfield line? There's a small incline running through that part of the
field and beyond it are the track and football field. Members is a big kid,
but had no trouble circling the bases for a solo homer. Meanwhile, soph 3B
Deion Sanders, another big dude, looped a two-run single to center in
the first and jr. 1B Abdur Saaba thumped a two-run single to left in
the third. Sr. C Tajai Ahmad gunned down one, two, three would-be
basestealers and completed his performance with a run-scoring single in the
fourth. Faulcon was wearing a light blue polo shirt under his uniform top
and my suspicion was correct: It was what he wears to school every day as a
student at Comm Tech. CT's players now represent Bartram because their
school dropped the sport after the 2011 season. Jahmeer said he forgot an
undershirt and just decided to wear the blue school shirt. He got a kick out
of hearing about Vincent "School Shirt" Turner, a star lineman for
Gratz in 2001; he picked up that nickname because he wore his school shirt
under his football pads EVERY day. Saaba also is from CT, along with a
couple other players. There were some crazy sequences. In the third, Darius
Sanders (no relation) fanned on a pitch that got away. He ran to first and
absolutely crushed sr. 1B Jesse Thomas, who was trying to snag an
errant throw. Later, Sanders was way down the line toward home when a liner
by Ahmad was caught by SS Damion Cox. Sanders should have been double
off third by 20 feet, but the throw was dropped. In the third, Withers was a
dead duck at third base but in a leap toward the bag he was able to dislodge
the ball from Deion Sanders' glove. Withers couldn't stand the good fortune.
He overran the bag by eight to 10 feet and was tagged out by Sanders. In the
fourth, Ahmad was late getting to the plate and the ump indicated that
Withers should throw a pitch. Strike one! Ahmad was not even on the field,
let alone in the batter's box. Remember how lately we've had some fun with
the fact that certain Catholic League players are named after CL schools?
Well, West's catcher is named Joseph Southern. Gotta love that,
right? In the fourth inning, though a man was on first base, Withers was
pitching from a windup. 3B Kyen Tyler hollered into him, "Yo!
Stretch, Manny!" So, what did Withers do? He stepped off the mound and
stretched his arms backward, as if trying to make himself looser. He then
threw the next pitch from a windup. (Bartram wasn't bothering with steals
anymore.) Let's see. Anything else? OH, YES! Major props to Cox. The Florida
transplant has scored 2100 on the three-part SAT and is bound for the
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. And by the time you
say that name, half the school year is over (smile). Congratulations on
doing spectacular work in the classroom, Damion!!
APRIL 25
CATHOLIC RED
Roman 18, Ryan 15
A no-hitter one day. A MANY-hitter the next. Life on the baseball
trail never ceases to amaze. As many folks know, Roman’s Boyce Field is not
exactly as big as all outdoors and if a hitter can’t be brimming with hope,
if not unabashed confidence, in this place, it’s probably time to try
lacrosse, tennis or track. Yes, the fence in center is relatively high
(maybe 25 to 30 feet?), but it’s only 316 feet to the midpoint of that,
ahem, barrier (term used loosely) and three balls cleared it today. All by
Ryan, as circumstance would have it. Jr. C Matt Graber, a tall/thin
guy, homered twice in that direction in one of the best performances you
could ever hope to see – 4-for-4, two-run homer, RBI single, two-run double,
three-run homer for, count 'em, EIGHT ribbies! So did jr. LF-RH Gage
Galeone, whose bomb was worth three runs. Roman outta-hered two balls
and the second one, shockingly, made the difference. Sr. CF-LH Colin
Cooke, in the second inning, drilled one over the fence in right –
that’s a legit shot – for three runs. The other one occurred on the last
pitch of the game and, you got it, served as one of those walkoffs. Jr. 1B
Matt Simon (also plays basketball) hit it right down the extremely
short left field line and, just enough, it kept from hooking foul. One, two,
three, four runs scored and the slam enabled the Cahillites to erase a 15-14
deficit. What a game! Roman led, 7-2, then trailed, 12-7. The count was
15-10 entering that home seventh and here’s what happened with soph RH
Nick Centeno doing the pitching . . . Cooke tripled to right. Sr. RF
Dan Sowisdral delivered an RBI single in the same direction. Jr. DH
Nick Stoffere singled to right-center. An infield bobble off the bat of
sr. 2B Kevin Konowal let in a run. Soph C Phil Isaac flied
out. Sr. SS William Dougherty ripped an RBI single to center. Sr. LF
Paolo Gambaro milked a walk. Sr. 3B-RH Tom Carroll bagged an
RBI single on a semi-liner to center that barely cleared the glove of Ryan’s
leaping 2B, soph Bobby Romano. That made it 15-14 and Simon turned
on a fastball to end it. The game featured 27 hits with Roman leading the
way, 15-12. There were also five doubles (Ryan led, 3-2) and one triple (by
Cooke) in addition to the five homers. Sometimes, games with 33 runs are
true slopfests. And, yes, there were some miscues. Nevertheless, 27 of the
runs were earned and how often will you ever see that? As this one rolled
along, I kept thinking of another run-crazy game I’d seen involving Ryan. On
April 28, 2003, the visiting Raiders bested O’Hara, 20-16 (for some reason,
I’d remembered the score as 18-16) and you’ll never believe this one: that
losing team’s catcher, Kevin Ahern, was also sensational.
The lefty hitter (Graber swings righty), who liked to inside-out the ball in
John Kruk fashion, had NINE RBI on a three-run double,
grand slam and two-run single. Three days later, on May 1, the trail took me
to Washington. The Eagles won that one, 24-23, and it ended at 7:24. The
first two innings gobbled up 87 minutes and the game in total took 4 hours,
6 minutes. It ended when jr. 2B Adam Eisman (five RBI)
lined a single to left to score pinch-runner Justin Presley
and set off a wild celebration. Not bad, eh? In in a four-day period, I saw
two games that yielded 83 runs!! (With a mild one in between. On April 29,
Olney beat Mastbaum, 5-4.) OK, sorry. Back to this one . . . Simon finished
2-for-5 with a walk, run-scoring single and five RBI. Cooke, who got the W
with 2 1/3 innings of shutout relief, went 4-for-5 with a triple, three-run
homer and four RBI. Carroll went 3-for-4 with a double, sac fly and three
RBI. Dougherty (Northeastern) singled twice and walked twice en route to two
RBI. For Ryan, Galeone complemented Graber's performance with a three-run
homer. Also, jr. SS Dan Stahl doubled twice for one RBI and jr. RF
Justin Price managed two singles along with a sac fly. Ryan had no
seniors in the starting lineup. However, sr. 3B Mike Anusky did see
some action and no doubt experienced swirling emotions. Anusky was Ryan’s
feisty/effective quarterback and suffered an injury to his right knee during
the Thanksgiving spanking of Washington. Today marked his triumphant return.
After scoring earlier as a courtesy runner, he pinch-hit into a groundout in
the fifth and then took to the field. Unfortunately, he won’t make an
appearance in the upcoming City All-Star Football Game. MANY legends on the
premises. No. 1 had to be Paolo Gambaro, a soccer all-timer, and I do
mean ALL-timer, for Roxborough in the mid-1970s. And former Mastbaum
All-City centerfielder Jose Dones, whose son, Jason, a soph,
started in CF for Ryan. Also spotted was Joe Ryan, a long-time
teacher there, a track whiz for Dougherty in the mid-‘60s and my basketball
coach with the East Germantown Rams’ 12-and-under squad in 1963. We finished
second in the city and one of our wins was by a 39-4 score over Awbury. All
four Awbury points were scored by the famous Seamus McCaffery, now a
Pennsylvania supreme court justice and the guy who used to run the court
sessions for rowdies in the bowels of Veterans Stadium at Eagles games.
(Seamus’ son, Jim, was an All-City punter for Ryan.) Also in da house
was ex-Roman and Gwynedd-Mercy star Anthony Capella (’03), who
advanced to pro ball with the Camden Riversharks in 2009. Great to see
everyone! Pretty cool to see a million runs, too (smile).
Here's my score sheet for Roman. Dots are RBI.
APRIL 24
CATHOLIC BLUE
Carroll 5, Conwell-Egan 0
What a crazy day/night on the game/email trails!! It was nutty enough
that Carroll jr. RH Eric McGough pitched a no-hitter with nine walks
and one HBP. When I get back to the office to write stories, I refrain from
checking email so as not to be distracted. So, when I finished the game
story and checked email around 8:15 or so, there was something from Neumann-Goretti
assistant Joe Messina. He said Joey Gorman had almost pitched
a no-no, but had been jinxed by the plate ump with one away in the seventh!
Our editors OK’d an add-on to the Carroll story – just a few paragraphs –
about how Gorman almost matched McGough’s feat. So, then, I start cropping
all the photos from the game and, just for the heck of it, decide to take
another glance at the email inbox. Therein is a note from John
Fleming, who’s now the coach at Neumann University and in 2003, as a
fill-in for Frank Allison (health issue), steered O’Hara to the
Catholic League title. One of the Lions’ key performers that season was
Michael Antonini, a lefthander pitcher, first baseman and Fleming’s
step-son. Guess what he is now? A Los Angeles Dodger!! Michael was promoted
earlier today to flesh out the bullpen and John was sending a heads-up.
Michael Antonini is now in the major leagues! How cool is that!? I forwarded
some tidbits to our Daily News editors for use in the major league roundup.
McGough/Gorman/Antonini. What a trifecta! As for the game, as hinted above,
this no-no wasn’t exactly spotless. But, hey, no matter how many guys you
walk/plunk, you still need to bag 21 outs and McGough was able to do that
with hardly any drama. And get this: He has now worked 13 consecutive
hitless innings. He hadn’t pitched since April 4, when he worked six hitless
frames vs. Lansdale Catholic. (Lesser lights were used in the series vs.
struggling Bishop McDevitt.) He threw 92 pitches, but volunteered to come
out of that one because his arm felt tired (as opposed to pained). Imagine.
You come extremely close to a no-no, then get ANOTHER chance in your very
next start. No way McGough would NOT have trudged to the mound for the
seventh inning. The outs came on seven strikeouts, four groundouts
(including a fielder’s choice), one caught stealing, three popups, five
liners/flies to the outfield and one semi-liner within the infield. C-E
stranded nine, including four in scoring position. The best defensive play
was made with two out and nobody on in the sixth as jr. CF Steffen
Ramondo ran in and caught a sinking liner with a semi-sprawl of a slide.
Two innings earlier, though not in dramatic fashion, sr. RF Rick
DiDomenico scrambled in to catch a sinker. In the second, sr. 3B
James Luskin had charged to make a nice play on a would-be sac, getting
a force at second. Luskin is normally a utility guy, but was needed at
third due to an injury to sr. Jake Peabody. Sr. C Justin Roman
was also in an unfamiliar spot. He’s normally the rightfielder, but had to
switch because of an injury to sr. C Dan Santoleri. Oh, and someone
else was unavailable. Namely, first-year coach Chris Dengler, who’d
been ejected from Saturday’s game vs. Roman. Chris was kept abreast via cell
phone and spoke with McGuff (that’s how it’s pronounced) shortly after
game’s end. By the way, Eric threw 133 pitches (65 for strikes). High total?
No doubt. But the weather was cool (and windy) and he didn’t appear to
overly taxed. McGough’s other position is SS and he bats third in the order,
so he’s hardly one-dimensional. He went 3-for-4 with a double and one RBI,
but in the first inning was nabbed off second after jr. 1B LJ Chalmers
fielded a groundout. That very promising frame also was undermined by a
caught stealing. Carroll broke through for one apiece in the second and
fourth and three in the sixth vs. burly sr. RH Beau Fleming. Ramondo
had the first three RBI on a walk, groundout and infield chopper, then
Luskin and McGough added RBI singles; jr. 1B Evan Harvey and soph
Joe DiWilliams also had singles in that uprising. (Joe’s
father/uncle/something, Phil DiWilliams, was a first team
All-Catholic QB for Roman in 1972 . . . Update: Received an email from
Kevin Flaherty. Phil is Joe's uncle. Joe's dad, also Joe, is a
'77 Roman grad and later coached football there under Bob Wagner (who
previously had coached at Egan). Thanks for the help, Kevin! Come to think
of it, the camera batteries were acting up and I had to rush to the car
between innings to get more. Someone said hello as I was heading back and he
looked vaguely familiar. Maybe that was Joe? If so, I hope all has been
going great! . . . For C-E, which has a new coach,
Andrew Ellis, and a very green squad (hardly any of the names are
familiar), Fleming, soph SS Billy Bonfig (several smooth
moments in the field) and sr. DH John Wasson drew two walks apiece.
Chalmers replaced Fleming on the mound in the sixth and retired four of the
five guys he faced; one reached on an error. Jr. C Dan Sullivan twice
made hard/true throws to erase would-be basestealers. He also made a tag to
complete a 1-5-2 rundown play. Thanks to the Rev. Ed Casey, Carroll’s
president/scorekeeper, for helping out with several fact-checking missions.
I took a pre-game pic of Justin Roman and tomorrow, assuming the weather
holds and I don’t forget, I’ll take a pic of Roman’s Tom Carroll. One
last thing: Carroll sr. sub Brenton Nicolo has true nut-job
possibilities! After warming up McGough for the home first, he came back to
the bench area and said to Father Casey, "Do you have a stopwatch? See how
quick I made it out there? I was the first guy on the field. Before ANYONE
else." Later, he removed his hat and claimed to have a mullet. He also said
he's getting other Carroll students to join the mullet club. "We have four
so far," he said. Not exactly the multitudes, but a start (smile). Father
Casey said Nicolo played ice hockey for the first time this past winter and
that the crowd went absolutely berserk when he scored a goal. Anyone have
video??
Here's my sheet for C-E. And Carroll's order was: Joe DiWilliams, LF;
James Luskin, 3B; Eric McGough, P; Justin Roman, C; Steve Dengler, 2B; Evan
Harvey, 1B; Rick DiDomenico, RF; Dan Bier, SS; Steffen Ramondo, CF. (Brenton
Nicolo pinch-hit for Bier in the sixth, but Bier then returned to the
field.)
APRIL 23
First rainouts of baseball season! First weather related
major-sports postponements since West Catholic-Lansdale Catholic football --
by SNOW -- on Oct. 29.
APRIL 20
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Malvern 10, Haverford School 1
Once "Sungate, Part II" was completed, along with the Mike Piscopo
question/answer session, the issue became, “Is there enough time to make it
to Malvern?” Of course! (Though dismissal time at several schools along the
way made for a frustrating journey.) Getting to the field just a short time
before Play Ball made pregame team pics impossible and after the Fords
mostly got sliced and diced, it would have been inappropriate to ask them to
pose. Cyber attention went to sr. RH Joe Ravert (La Salle), who
allowed six hits and fanned the same amount in, hey, the same number of
innings. In time, he found good location for his impressive heater and also
worked in effective offspeed stuff. Plus, the lefty swinger, who plays 1B
when not hurling, went 3-for-3 with a walk and an RBI double. The ball hit
the fence in DEEP center field on one bounce. His two singles were also
smacked. Sr. CF Nick Bateman (Winthrop) went 3-for-4 with three RBI
while sr. RF Matt Greskoff laced a two-run single and jr. 1B Steve
Robinson bagged one ribbie apiece on a groundout and single. In the
fifth, jr. 3B Joe Poduslenko prepared to bat having lined out to
short and sent a fly to deep center. Teammate Tasi Sioutis told him,
“C’mon, Pods. This time it’s gonna fall. I’m feelin’ it.” Indeed it did.
Poduslenko topped the ball just a few feet in front of the plate and hustled
his way to an infield single. The game featured the Costalas cousins.
C.J., a sr., started at SS for Malvern. Gus, also a sr.,
manned 2B for HS. C.J. had the pair’s only hit and made an impressive stop –
against Gus, no less – of a grounder that took a crazy, last-second hop.
Frosh 3B Kevin McGowan, a lefty swinger, had the Fords’ RBI on a
groundball single to right. Sr. RH Eric Close mostly did well through
three innings, but then was roughed up. Mike Higgins, who wrote
interesting website articles on Malvern’s basketball team, is also the
baseball team’s student manager. Great to see you, Mike! After the game, one
of the Friars was raking the mound area and another player noted, “He’s the
team gardener.” It was a play on word, folks! A check of the roster showed
that No. 37, the rake man, is named Gardner Nutter. No wonder he’s
the team GARDNER. Spent some time talking with Jim Gentile and
Brian McDonough, whose sons play for Malvern. Jim played football for
West Catholic and was later an assistant there and his brother, Rob, still
holds the Burrs’ mark for game receiving yardage (181, in 1987). Brian, a
doctor, is a prominent TV-radio expert on assorted health issues. I should
have gotten his autograph (smile).
APRIL 20
CATHOLIC RED
La Salle 10, Bonner 3
(Completion of Suspended Game)
May I talk off the record for a moment? (smile) Though reporters are not
allowed to root for teams, most (all?) do hope for great story lines, so
disappointment was my first reaction after THE play of Sungate, Part II
occurred today. All of us were already back at Bonner anyway for a truly
unusual event – the completion of a game suspended one day earlier because
of the SUN – so why not wish for the full-blown route and something
similarly crazy? La Salle scored EIGHT runs in its half of the 11th inning
(more on that later) and one had to wonder if Bonner would go meekly? Not
exactly. With one out, against sr. RH Mike Piscopo, who’d played
third base through the first 10 innings, the Friars strung together four
singles from sr. INF-P Frank Saviski, sr. P-1B-3B Ronnie Scull,
sr. RF-RH Joe Haley and jr. C Dan Furman to make a one-run
dent. Next, sr. 1B-RF Cole Trickel topped the ball in the plate area
and began dashing for first. Piscopo pounced on the ball, which was maybe 15
feet from the plate and halfway between the first base line and pathway from
the mound to home, and fired toward first. Guess what the ball did? It
cracked against Trickel’s helmet! The Friars’ excitement was extremely
short-lived, however. Replacement plate ump Dave Cohen, with no
wishy-washiness, ruled Trickel had been running inside the base line and
called him out, and ordered the other runners to return to their bases.
Steve DeBarberie, son of Bonner coach Joe DeBarberie, charged in
from the first base coach’s box and did an immediate snapout, earning an
ejection. Once the hysteria dissipated, frosh 2B Rich Tecco tapped a
comebacker. Piscopo gloved it and bull-rushed all the way over to first
base. Just like that, the game was over. Imagine if Piscopo’s mistake had
stood as a throwing error. Imagine how much momentum Bonner would have had.
Would the Friars have tacked on more runs? Have come close to tying the
game? Maybe, somehow, dropped a nine-spot to WIN it? Now THAT would have
been a story. In the interview session, Piscopo (Northeastern) even
acknowledged, “When something like that happens, it can cause a whole inning
to fall apart. We caught a pretty big break. I was pretty happy when I heard
(Cohen) make his call." Think about it: Not too many high school games go 11
innings. And when they do, how often do they end with seven-run victory
margins? Imagine if 14, 15, 16, even SEVENTEEN runs had been scored in that
one inning! This game would be getting a mention in USA Today, Sports
Illustrated, etc. Oh, well. Nevertheless, the entire experience was cool and
I’m thrilled to have been a witness. OK, now for La Salle’s 11th. Piscopo
had singled yesterday before the delay/suspension. He strolled to first as
things got started, then scored on two pitches. With a bat not even touching
a ball. An errant pickoff from Furman got him to third, then he raced him on
a wild pitch from Haley. From there: Sr. 2B Colin Pyne flied to
right; sr. RF Tyler Kozeniewski singled to center; soph RH-3B Dom
Cuoci doubled down the leftfield line, getting Kozeniewski to third;
frosh LF Jimmy Herron fanned; sr. CF Ryan Otis sent an RBI
single to center and took second on the throw; sr. SS P.J. Acierno
reached on an infield bobble, with Otis going to third; a wild pitch
advanced both runners; jr. 1B Chris Melillo drew a walk; sr. C
Corey Baiada singled to center for an RBI; Piscopo milked a walk and
Saviski replaced Haley; Pyne was plunked and earned an RBI; Kozeniewski
smacked a two-run single to center; Cuoci grounded out, pitcher to first.
Phew! What an outburst! Because he’d pitched the 10th, the win went to soph
LH John Scheffey. Today’s action required 36 minutes and was
witnessed by maybe 25 people. Coach Joe Parisi said he’d told his
players to try to make the completion take less time than the ride to
Bonner. When I mentioned the 36-minute thing, he said, “Wow. I’d bet that’s
almost exactly how long it took to get here.” In all, the game required 3
hours, 8 minutes. Might have been the best 188 baseball minutes I ever
spent. Thanks to all involved, including That Big Yellow Thing in the Sky.
LA SALLE
10, BONNER 3
(11 innings)
| LA SALLE | AB | R | H | BI | ||
| Ryan Otis cf | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| P.J. Acierno 2b | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Chris Melillo 1b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Corey Baiada c | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Mike Piscopo 3b-p | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Colin Pyne 2b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Tyler Kozeniewski rf | 6 | 1 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Dom Cuoci p-3b | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
| John Scheffey p | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Jim Herron lf | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 47 | 10 | 12 | 7 | |||
| MONSIGNOR BONNER | AB | R | H | BI | ||
| Paul-Mike Rementer lf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Jack Liberatore cf | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
| Jim Haley ss | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||
| Frank Saviski 2b-3b-p | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Ronnie Scull p-1b-3b | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Joe Haley rf-p | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
| Dan Furman c | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Cole Trickel 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Vince Tomasetti ph | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Dylan Drumm pr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Brian Dempsey 3b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Sean Ferry ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Pat Vanderslice ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Rich Tecco 2b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 41 | 3 | 11 | 3 | |||
| La Salle | 0 0 1 | 1 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 0 8 -- 10 | ||
| Monsignor Bonner | 1 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 1 0 0 | 0 1 -- 3 | ||
| E: P.J. Acierno, Brian Dempsey 2, Dan Furman, Jim Haley. | ||||||
| LOB: La Salle 10, Bonner 9. | ||||||
| 2B: Chris Melillo, P.J. Acierno, Dom Cuoci. | ||||||
| SB: P.J. Acierno. | ||||||
| SF: Frank Saviski. | ||||||
| La Salle | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Dom Cuoci | 7 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| John Scheffey (W) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Mike Piscopo | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Monsignor Bonner | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Ronnie Scull | 9 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Joe Haley (L) | 1 2/3 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Frank Saviski | 1/3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| HBP: by Frank Saviski (Colin Pyne). | ||||||
| WP: Ronnie Scull, Joe Haley 2. | ||||||
| T: 3:08 (36 minutes for resumption). | ||||||
| U: Bruce Martin (plate Thursday), Dave Cohen (plate Friday), Frank O'Neill (bases both days). | ||||||
APRIL 19
CATHOLIC RED
La Salle 2, Bonner 2 (Suspended in visiting 11th)
Let’s shed light on a cool tidbit immediately. La Salle sr. CF Ryan
Otis (Bucknell) owns, by far, the best belch of the season. In the
second inning, Ryan was standing near the on-deck circle and let one loose,
at very high volume, that lasted a good six to eight seconds. (And yes, we
do mean a belch, not the other thing – ha ha). Not sure what he had for
lunch, but wickedly spicy tacos might be a correct guess. OutSTANDing
effort!! . . . Meanwhile, I’m not even remotely a Beatles fan, but way back
in the day they did have a hit entitled “Here Comes the Sun.” Today/tonight,
that song could have been altered to “Here Comes Too Much of the Sun . . .
At an Undesirable Angle, Too.” La Salle and Bonner will meet again at 2
o’clock Friday. Why? Because the sun first caused a delay (at 6:17) and
eventually forced a suspension (at 6:54). Bonner’s relatively new field is
laid out in butt-backwards fashion with the plate in the northeast corner of
the school property. That means the sun is in center field and it causes a
game-long issue. Early, the problem is mostly with glare coming off the
windshields, etc., of cars parked beyond left-center. As the Big Yellow
Thing moseys its way across the sky and, of course, begins dipping, it can
create a BIG problem for hitters/catchers and, let’s face it, probably even
the plate ump. As the visiting 11th began, sr. 3B Mike Piscopo
(Northeastern) looped a single to center. By this time, as was relayed
later, Bonner jr. C Dan Furman had already mentioned to plate ump
Bruce Martin that he was having at least a partial problem. The next
pitch, to sr. 2B Colin Pyne, was a fouled off bunt attempt. The foul
ball was an accident and/or act of self-defense because Pyne was pretty much
helpless. Time was called at 6:17 and six minutes later the coaches – La
Salle’s Joe Parisi, Bonner’s Joe DeBarberie – reached a
decision with Martin to wait maybe 10-15 minutes to see if the sun could
somehow move over quickly enough (toward right-center) to allow for a
resumption. As things turned out, the delay lasted 31 more minutes and all
agreed to suspend the game and finish it Friday. (Neither school has
classes. Thus the earlier than normal start time.) I once covered a
basketball game with a sun delay, at Dobbins, and I’ll see if I can find
that story in the database. It was a classic moment. So was this, of course,
and you know I’ll be back at Bonner to see how things wind up. (And then
MAYBE hit Haverford School at Malvern, depending upon the length of the
resumption). The most legendary baseball suspension I can remember, at least
in recent times, occurred in the Catholic League championship game in 2004
as Carroll bested Ryan, 7-3, over a two-day period. The game was played at
La Salle University and Carroll’s Chris Cashman had a grand slam in
Part I to erase a 3-1 deficit. VERY hard rain took over shortly thereafter.
The Day Two resumption required just 12 minutes and Ryan Stewart had
a bad-hop, two-run single. Today’s game was mostly a sweetheart. Very good
pitching. Some clutch hitting. Quality defense, for the most part. Plus, the
squads were lively and some of Bonner’s students were yelling, um, chippy
comments from atop a wall in deep centerfield and it just made for a cool
atmosphere. Some highlights: La Salle scored on RBI singles by jr. 1B
Chris Melillo in the third and soph RH Dom Cuoci in the fourth .
. . Melillo and sr. SS P.J. “Paul” Acierno absolutely smoked one
double apiece and Melillo hit a liner to DEEP left – even WAY deep left –
that would have been a homer at any/every field with a fence . . . Sr. C
Corey Baiada picked one guy off first, gunned down another at second and
made an easy-as-pie catch of a straight-up foul popup. Most high school
catches butcher those in ungodly fashion . . . Piscopo hit a pair of rockets
to left for frustrating outs . . . Sr. RF Tyler Kozeniewski also
lined out twice . . . Cuoci allowed six hits and came within one out of a
seven-inning win . . . Another soph, LH John Scheffey, worked three
scoreless innings . . . For Bonner, sr. RH Ronnie Scull (also a
football player, but he’ll opt for baseball at West Chester) bulldogged his
way through nine innings and 117 pitches. Though he did give up some shots,
caught and uncaught, he was stronger at the end of his stint; he finished
with seven straight outs . . . Sr. RH Joe Haley, who used his long
legs to make several plays look easy in RF, was on the mound for the 10th
and 11th . . . The first inning run resulted from a single by sr. CF Jack
Liberatore, a single by jr. SS Jim Haley (Joe’s bro), with both
runners taking extra bases, and a sac fly to center by jr. 2B-3B Frank
Saviski . . . With one away in the seventh, Joe Haley singled hard to
right. Furman then grounded out, with Haley advancing, and jr. Vince
Tomasetti was summoned from the bench to pinch-hit. The lefty swinger
got a good hack at a first-pitch heater and, bang, sent a run-scoring
single to center; the ball barely ticked Cuoci’s glove while zipping through
the box. Meanwhile, there was a strange play in the visiting fifth. After
Melillo bagged a ground-rule double on a ball that rolled up the hill in
center, Baiada semi-offered at a two-strike pitch that bounced. The question
was, had he actually SWUNG? The base ump signaled yes and the Friars began
leaving the field. Ah, but Baiada was not out because the ball had bounced.
He made it to first and then, after a slight delay, Parisi, stationed in the
third base box, yelled to Melillo, now at second, “C’mon, Chris!” As in,
“Run over here to third.” Melillo did try to bolt over there, but after
quickly realizing the Friars were back in tuned-in mode, he tried to
scramble back to second. Liberatore, by now in the infield, took the toss
and tagged out Melillo. Parisi said later, “My fault. I had no idea where
the ball was. I thought it was (loose) on the ground.” Unfortunately, I
couldn’t make out too many of the exact comments being hollered by Bonner’s
student fans. But in the seventh, when Scull received a mound visit, one of
the kids bellowed, “Don’t take him out! He’s my friend!” Lots of cool guys
on the Bonner/La Salle staffs. It was great to see them today. Let’s do it
again tomorrow!
APRIL 18
PUBLIC B
Prep Charter 10, Swenson 2
The coolest stuff about this visit to the fields at Conwell &
Roosevelt Blvd. is handled in a special photo set, so we’ll concentrate on
other things in this report. First, Swenson jr. LH Mike Amodei is my
new favorite pitcher!! Why? Because he works VERY fast. Again and again it
took just FOUR seconds for Amodei to deliver the ball after gloving return
throws from sr. C Josh Durkin. Alas, Amodei got roughed up a little
(six runs) and vacated the mound after just three innings. Meanwhile, PC jr.
RHs Peter/Pete/Petey Piccoli (I forget to ask him which he prefers)
and Frank Suppa were in full mow-'em-down mode. Piccoli, who began
his high school career at Neumann-Goretti, whiffed 10 in 5.1 innings and all
Suppa did was K all five guys he faced. What’s Suppa wit dat, baby!! Ha, ha.
Piccoli had a cool moment in the very first inning after impressive frosh SS
Brian Nieves laced a triple to center. He fanned the next three guys
in quick order, thus achieving major starch depletion. For good measure,
Piccoli also went the 3-K route in the second. DN ink went to sr. 3B Mike
Borelli, who singled, lofted a sac fly and endured two HBPs in the No. 3
hole. A 4-year factor for the Huskies, he needs 20 hits for 100 and two days
ago he recorded 10 strikeouts in a win over Northeast, thus raising his
career total to 204. Borelli’s dad, also named Mike, was a first team
coaches’ All-Pub outfielder for Southern in 1985. Meanwhile, Piccoli’s
uncles, Chris and Al, were first-teamers for Engineering and Science
in the mid to late ‘80s. The most productive Husky was soph 2B Justin
Bocelli, who fanned in his first at-bat but then crunched a two-run
double down the leftfield line and stroked an RBI single to right. Soph CF
Chris “Chill” Ciliberto posted a run-scoring double in the seventh,
but in school on Thursday, pretty much everyone will be talking about what
happened to him after Swenson batted in the first. While running in from the
field, Ciliberto approached the baseline area near PC’s bench and . . whoa,
did a big-tumble right to the ground! His teammates were laughing like
crazy, especially after realizing Chill had not been hurt. Soph RF Rob
Freer scored three times after reaching base on an infield bobble,
groundball single to right and a walk. PC’s leadoff man was frosh SS
Keegan McCoskey, whose brother, Foster, recently played for GAMP.
Nieves also tripled in the sixth and continued right home to the plate, due
to a throwing error on the relay. He also made a neat stop of a sinking
liner to his left. Eckert collected Swenson’s lone RBI on a looping single
to left-center in the fifth. Coachingwise, this was the battle of Shawns
– Swenson’s Williams vs. PC’s Magee. The latter is back in
charge for the first time since 2006. The fields used by Swenson for
baseball and softball are right next to each other and the left field line
on the baseball field can’t be more than 15 yards from the right field line
on the softball diamond. The gals were home today, too. The base ump for
that tilt was Tommy McClain, who is likely the city’s most famous
sports official. In
this pic,
he’s making a point to a Swenson infielder after a Kensington gal was called
safe at second. Swenson’s softball boss is Pat Durkin, also the coach
of the boys’ basketball squad. Williams, meanwhile, guides the hoopsterettes.
APRIL 17
INTER-AC LEAGUE
Penn Charter 8, Germantown Academy 3
Please don't be Cross with us, PC folks. A lack of Daily News
ink could not be helped. Ninety minutes after this tilt ended came the
championship game of the (basketball) Donofrio Classic, in not-too-far-away
Conshohocken, and a little bit of space had been snapped up earlier in the
day by GA jr. PG Nick Lindner, who has already made a commitment to
Lafayette. End result: Website attention only. Ah, it could be worse
(smile). This is the first year of a new era in PC baseball. And/or the last
of the old era, depending on your viewpoint. Rick Mellor, who assumed
the Quakers' reins in the 1979 season, is about to step aside and he's
spending this campaign as the co-coach with Jon Cross. Rick, a
top-shelf, three-main-sports athlete at PC (class of '69), said he stepped
back completely during the offseason to allow Jon to start making HIS
imprint on the program and even now he's going the low-key route. He doesn't
wear a uniform and doesn't occupy a spot in the first base coach's box,
though he does remain active in terms of supporting the players and making
occasional suggestions about defensive alignment, etc. Meanwhile, this
likely had to be the strangest day of Jon Cross' life. Not only is he a GA
grad, but before spending the previous few seasons as an assistant at the
University of Pennsylvania, he was the main-sidekick guy at GA and was
responsible for finding/recruiting/nurturing many of the top players who
soared to stardom. GA is in year No. 2 of using its beautiful new baseball
stadium, so perhaps the shock was not as great as it would have been had the
game been played on the old field. Anyway, onward we go to the game itself,
folks . . . PC's pitcher was Duke-bound sr. RH Kenny Koplove, who is
in year No. 27 of playing for the Quakers (smile). Kenny, the brother of
former MLB pitcher Mike Koplove (CHA), showed his usual overhand gas
while mixing in some pitches thrown out of a sidearm delivery. It wouldn't
say he was dominant -- again, as mentioned in other reports, it's only
mid-April despite the amazingly nice weather we've been experiencing, so
guys are still working their way into form -- but he did force GA to strand
six guys in scoring position while racking up 10 strikeouts. He also walked
four and drilled two while allowing six hits. Sr. SS Dan Hoy
(Princeton) reached him for a solo homer to dead left (it's 320 down the
line) and a double to left-center. Both balls were crunched. Also, sr. DH
Mike Fitzgerald scalded a double to right. GA's starter was frosh RH
John Aiello. Sometimes, when a kid is good enough to assume such an
important role as a ninth-grader, you wonder if he's successful only because
he's a freak of nature (big, strong, already fully mature). Instead, the
semi-tall Aiello is thin with lots of room for body growth, so it'll be
interesting to watch the years march on. Koplove was also nowhere near his
physical peak as a young buck, and still remains quite thin. PC had great
success with small ball in the second inning. The inning opened as frosh RF
Gabe Smith singled hard to center and soph DH Zach Kurtz
milked a walk. Jr. LF Ted Foley moved them up with a sac and sr. CF
Nick Lamb got Smith home by directing an other-way groundball to
second. The Quakers, who are without injured sr. INF Demetrius "Meat"
Jennings (Wofford), were at it again in the third. Koplove led off with
a looping single to right-center, then soph C Jordan Della Valle did
his job by inside-outing a groundball to first. Now in scoring position,
Koplove had no trouble coming around as sr. 1B Tucker Colton smacked
a single down the left field line and Kurtz followed two batters later by
scalding an RBI double to right-center. PC posted five runs in a butt-ugly
fourth as the Patriots committed a trio of infield errors. The only RBI went
to Della Valle on a single to center. Sr. RH Michael Garbose (two
innings) and jr. Matt Dale (one) blanked PC for the rest of the game.
Garbose is the kid who last year was a true submariner. He now uses a
sidearm delivery and PC's leadoff man, soph Steven Cohen, reached him
for a ground-rule double while going 3-for-4 with a HBP. GA's new coach is
alumnus/ex-standout Tyler Stampone ('05), who played briefly in the
minors out of William & Mary. Unfortunately, he was probably the Patriots'
best fielder today (smile). While stationed in the third base box, he
snagged a semi-hot grounder while moving away from the field. He's still got
it, folks! In the seventh, GA created a stir by loading the baes with one
out. Sr. Ryan Dolan, the cleanup hitter, then tried to bunt for a
hint, but sent a popup maybe halfway to third along the line. Koplove
scrambled over and butchered the play. Ah, but he did so on purpose and the
umpires froze the action, calling Dolan out and sending everyone else back
to their original spots. An infield bobble brought in a run, then a
fielder's choice ended it. One of Stampone's assistants is Joe O'Hara,
former head man at ex-Pub power George Washington. It was great to see him!
APRIL 16
PUBLIC A
Frankford 11, Washington 6
We saw some quality pitching today! Wait. I know what you’re thinking.
If 17 runs were scored, how could anyone classify the pitching as quality?
Good point. Notice the word “some,” however. If Frankford sr. RH Augusto
“June” Ortega and Washington sr. RH Dean “Casa” Grande had
started, maybe no one would have scored and the only winner would have been
darkness. Ortega, who had a strong performance at bat and on the bases, took
to the mound with runners on first and second and none away in the sixth. He
immediately served up a doubleplay ball, then retired the Eagles’ most
dangerous hitter, jr. RH-RF Jake Wright, on a hard hit ball to right.
An error began the seventh, but two popouts and a strikeout ended it. Grande
hurled the last three frames for Washington and allowed no hits. There were
two walks and an error, but the backup C, frosh Chase Alexander,
gunned down a would-be basestealer and soph 1B Scott Siley got
another out for Grande with an excellent (lucky as hell?? – smile) pick of a
hot grounder. Earlier, the game was largely sloppy and not exactly riveting.
Plus, the plate ump didn’t arrive until 3:25, 10 minutes after the scheduled
start time, and that had most folks salty. Ortega, the recipient of DN ink,
was an impressive table-setter, going 3-for-5 with four stolen bases and
three runs scored. He’s quick, fast and instinctive and it’s nice to see a
true leadoff hitter because that has become something of a lost art. He also
provided entertainment with some funny tidbits and that stuff’s in the DN
story. Sr. 3B Brandon Gonzalez went 2-for-4 and his two-run double
down the leftfield bold-reliefed the seven-run fourth. Sr. OF Rafael
“Omar” Cruz had a bookend performance at the plate – Ks to start and
finish with three BBs in between. Jr. C Eduardo “Cheese” Sanchez
gunned down a try-to-thieve guy. Also, I VERY much liked the fact that
Sanchez and Grande stationed themselves close to the plate (though Grande
did incur a catcher’s interference call). Sr. LH-RF Hector Cerda
turned in an uneven performance. Some errors didn’t help, admittedly, but he
just didn’t display his usual sharpness. Wright experienced a similar fate.
At bat, he rapped three balls quite hard, but had to settle for one double.
(Once, when Wright came in to snag a popup, jr. 3B Aaron Goldberg
crowed, “That’s Jake from State Farm.” Ha, ha. Jr. LF Corey Sharp
went 2-for-4 with one RBI on a single. Jr. 2B Michael Honick, a lefty
hitter, and Goldberg also had RBI singles. It was incredibly hot, especially
for mid-April, and that likely contributed to the game’s lethargic ways.
Washington is now being coached by Ken Geiser, All-Public catcher for
the school’s 1979 squad. Ken is also Washington’s AD and might as well be
the groundskeeper, too, because he has to do pretty much everything to keep
the field looking nice. It was also great to see Margie Stinson,
King’s former long-time AD and now an observer for Pub sports czar Robert
Coleman. Along with some others, Margie checks out field conditions and
squad sizes and then files reports . . . On another note, tonight I received
a pair of emails from Dave Connolly, the Pub’s baseball chairman. He
reported that two games, originally scheduled for tomorrow, will go into the
books as forfeits because King and Mansion got into a fight after their game
last Thursday. Also, University City’s win over Freire back on March 29 has
now become a forfeit loss because UC used a pitcher who had not been
afforded the required amount of rest after pitching a pitching a compete
game (or close to it: Dave wasn’t sure) two days earlier.
APRIL 13
PUBLIC A
Esperanza 13, Edison 3 (5 innings)
Twos were wild for Esperanza’s sr. LF, Ralphy Ramos. The second
hitter did score three runs, but otherwise he went 2-for-2 with a two-base
hit, two walks, two steals and two raspberries. Say what? He got those – one
on each wrist – while diving for a long drive off the bat of sr. INF-RH
Mario Rodriguez. The ball hit inches from the top of the leftfield
embankment and Ramos landed on the hard surface just beyond the grass. Ouch!
He trotted in to the infield area and Edison coach Matt Fischer
fetched some Band-Aids so Esperanza coach John Grone could patch up
Ramos. Ramos had another interesting moment. In the fourth, soph RH Yamil
Morera walked the first three batters and Grone strode to the mound, and
he even pointed to Ramos in left. Ralphy began heading for the mound and
then had to apply the breaks. Reason: Morera said a couple of the right
things and Grone let him continue to pitch. Morera escaped the frame with no
runs scored thanks to two whiffs and a groundout. Guess what? In the fifth,
Edison again loaded the bases with no outs thanks to singles by frosh SS-RH
Michael Garcia (nice potential; he’s only 14) and sr. CF Joshua
Fontanez and a walk to jr. C Frankie Gonzalez. Amazingly, Morera
again recorded two strikeouts, but he then walked soph RF-3B Felipe
Montalvo to force in a run before inducing a fielder’s choice to end it.
Esperanza had two sets of brothers in its lineup. Soph CF Jeff Escolatico
led off and had two RBI on a walk and sac fly. Sr. SS Raul Escolatico
batted ninth and also had one RBI on a sac fly. Jr. 2B Aderly Perez
hit cleanup and stroked a pair of RBI singles. Sr. Adelso Perez hit
seventh and went 2-for-2 with a double and two walks. Soph 3B Jamuel Cruz,
in the No. 3 spot, went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI. As the fourth
began, Montalvo was standing roughly even with third base and someone (maybe
an outfielder) advised him to move a shade closer to the plate. He
responded, “I’m close enough. I’ll catch the ball . . . hopefully.” You know
what happened. A semi-hot grounder came his way and be bobbled it. Just his
luck. A decent crowd was on hand and there was lots of chirping. Honestly,
there was WAY too much cursing by some of the student spectators – they knew
who they were – and some of the remarks were seriously off color. There was
a funny one, though, and it was only mildly off color. After failing to
reach far enough to stop a grounder up the middle, an Esperanza infielder
let out a pretty loud “Uhhhh!” One of Edison’s female fans shouted, “That’s
what SHE said!!” This game was scheduled for Lighthouse Field, nearby at
Front and Erie, but had to be moved because a carnival was taking place
there. Grone trekked to that field and took a very interesting pic with his
cell phone.
It’s posted now
and is a true classic! Thanks, John . . . A couple of oddities: Even though
it's building is only about two long homers from Edison, Esperanza took a
bus to the game. In the fourth inning, with a 10-2 lead, the Toros played
the infield up.
APRIL 12
PUBLIC C
Franklin 7, Bracetti 5
From the entertainment standpoint, this one offered immediate
satisfaction and remained in peak form throughout. While Franklin coach
Dennis Sheedy was hitting infield-outfield, he sent a grounder to the
right side. It was butchered and Sheedy barked (in lighthearted fashion) at
the offending infielder, “You can catch the chicken pox, but you can’t catch
the ball?!” Ha, ha, ha. Soon, I was learning about the presence of
Franklin’s Sullivan
brothers, who are both named Chris!
(They attend Elverson Military and represent the Electrons via a cooperative
sponsorship. The older one was a pretty good football player for Franklin
and does a nice job at catcher; even has a much better arm than can usually
be found on Pub catchers no matter the division.) During the game, Bracetti
jr. SS Javier Surrillo, who has hair that goes roughly halfway down
his back, was called for swinging at a pitch, even though he’d try to check.
Coach John Westfield, stationed in the third base box, yelled in to
the plate ump, asking him to seek help from the base ump. The plate ump said
firmly, “He went.” Westfield shot back, “It was his ponytail that went!” Ha,
ha, ha again. Then came the Truck Delivery Delay, as illustrated
in this mini-photo set
(oh baby) and that was followed by something not so cool. After an
inning-ending play, Westfield expressed disagreement with the call and the
ump finally said, “You can say anything you want. It’s not going to change
things.” One of the Bulldogs, running back onto the field, heard the
exchange and decided to say one word. He did so in Spanish and the word, in
English, means . . . um, well, it starts with a “j” and ends with three
letters that rhyme with “cough.” Does that pinpoint things for you?
Obviously, the ump doesn’t know Spanish or there would have been an
immediate ejection. DN ink (mostly) went to jr. RH Khalil Coles, who
allowed just three hits and struck out 12 (though he also walked six and
plunked three). He fanned the side in the first, in impressive fashion, and
that got my head spinning, but he was largely up and down from there. More
up, of course, but enough down to prevent the outing from being classified
as fully special. He did cause Bracetti to leave five guys in scoring
position, so that was a plus, and only one run against him was earned. The
game’s best hit went to Franklin jr. CF Emmanuel Young (couple
quotes), who laced a three-run homer to center in the second. He had to run
it out and, boy, did he ever. Young is tall with long legs – almost gives
off a Garry Maddox aura (Phillies CF from back in the day) – and he
was flying around the bases. Franklin’s 3-4 hitters were the Davenport
brothers, jr. SS Brandon and sr. 3B Bryan. Bryan, in
particular, was brassy while showing nice leadership skills. Brandon had the
pair’s only hit, however, sending an RBI single to center right after the
truck departed. The ball always finds the spot the truck just left, right?
(smile) Sr. 2B Pontell Wright and soph LF Ricky Alicea had RBI
on sac flies and Coles got one on a misplayed grounder (run would have
scored either way). Bracetti’s pitchers, soph RH Kelvin Sabastro and
sr. RH Juan Roldan, had weird deliveries. Definitely sidewinders.
Borderline submariners. Jr. 1B Jorge Quinones had no hits, but bagged
one RBI on a groundout and another on a sac fly. Jr. C Anthony Vega
went 2-for-2 with a walk and plunking and gunned down a would-be basestealer,
as did Sullivan. Bracetti killed its chances with poor baserunning. In the
sixth, two drill-jobs started the inning. Sullivan gunned down the first guy
and Coles erased the second guy, who tried to steal third before the pitch,
merely by stepping off the mound and firing to the bag. Rasalic Mackey,
one of Franklin's BIG football linemen, is on the squad. He's raw with lots
of potential and is looking at several JCs. I liked how he handled himself
during our conversation -- maintained eye contact; expressed himself well --
and I wish him the best. Also had fun speaking with the older Chris Sullivan
and jr. 1B Jose Santiago about the ins and outs of Elverson. Jose
also has some size (nothing close to Rasalic, however, and said he plans to
play football next fall.) One last thing to wrap it up. I didn’t see this
until the very last instant, so I wasn’t able to get a pic. But as the
Electrons gathered at the mound for their post-game talk, Sheedy reached
into his pocket for a bunch of mints and tossed them into the air. There was
a happy free-for-all as the guys tried to claim them. Good stuff.
APRIL 11
CATHOLIC RED
Judge 16, SJ Prep 6 (6 innings)
We’re not even halfway through April, but suspicions are strong that this
season’s far-and-away amazing moment has already been witnessed. Judge
rallied from a 5-0 deficit. OK, cool, but not sensational. It scored 11 runs
in the fourth inning. OK, now we’re getting somewhere. The first two guys in
that frame made outs! Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner!!! Now for
something very weird. Just this week I received an e-mail from Greg
Youngblood, who was the catcher for the 1983 Bishop Egan team that lost
the CL final to O’Hara in devastating fashion. The Eagles led, 5-2, in the
visiting seventh with two away, nobody on and an 0-2 count on the batter.
They wound up losing, 10-6. Greg had stumbled on our list from the summer of
2008 of the 50 most memorable playoff games in city history (that one was
No. 3), and he’d sent a comment for posting on that page. Is that karma, or
what?! . . . OK, hold on. Here we
go. Sr. RH Ryan Winton fanned sr. OF Paul Golden and induced a
groundout from jr. RH-RF Zack “Spike” Spiker to start the inning. Sr.
CF Corey "Cosmo" Kreamer, the leadoff man, managed an infield single.
Sr. SS John Hearn singled hard to center and a bobble allowed both
runners to advance. Sr. 3B Tim Ross was issued an intentional walk.
Jr. RF-2B Mike O’Hanlon smacked a two-run single to left-center. Jr.
RH Will Flood replaced Winton. Jr. DH John Reyes ripped an RBI
single to left. Jr. C Ryan Mackiewicz smoked a two-run triple down
the leftfield line. Jr. 1B-LH Chris Thompson and Golden drew walks.
Spiker beat out a bunt single for an RBI. Kreamer dumped a two-run single
into left. Hearn smacked a two-run triple to right-center. Jr. LH Pat
Prieto replaced Flood. Ross sent a ringing triple down the leftfield
line to bring in run No. 11 of the frame. Jr. Jeff Seigafuse, who’d
been a pinch-runner for O’Hanlon, drew a walk. Reyes flied to right. Sixteen
batters, 11 runs (all earned), nine hits (three triples), two LOB, one
error. In the year 2062, maybe some of the guys who played in this
game will still be talking about it (smile). Winton, who’s listed at only
5-9, 140, was throwing some serious gas in the beginning. Not sure why his
day ended up so messy. He did walk three in a row with one out in the
second; never a good idea. DN ink went to Ross, who went 3-for-3 with the
triple, two walks and two RBI. His RBI single ended it with two away in the
sixth. Tim’s dad, Marc, was a fireballer of much note for Washington
and in ’78, before a good crowd at Veterans Stadium, he hurled the Eagles
past Northeast for the Pub title. Tim said he gave up pitching after the
sixth grade. O’Hanlon had a pair of two-run singles. Reyes went 3-for-4 with
a triple, two RBI. Kreamer went 2-for-3 with two walks and two RBI. Hearn
went 3-for-4 with a double, triple and two RBI. The win was collected by
Thompson, who throws lefty but bats righty. He’s a pretty big kid but today,
at least, was mostly a soft-tosser. He had the Hawks off balance and allowed
just one run (unearned) over his four innings. Two big hits gave the Prep
its five runs. Sr. 1B Skyler Mornhinweg (yes, THAT Skyler Mornhinweg)
poled a two-run homer in the first. Jr. LF Shane Williams added a
three-run triple in the second. Had some fun talking to Prep sr. RH Ryan
Judge. I asked him if his parents knew they giving him a
two-Catholic-school name. He said they weren’t from Philly. I’m thinking,
“OK. Maybe Sheboygan, Wisconsin?” He said his mom went to Archbishop
Prendergast. OK, admittedly not IN Philly. But you’d think his mom had at
least heard of Ryan and Judge, right? Anyway, masterful stroke of genius,
parents. We love quirks. This one's a classic. We almost had the first-ever
Team Photo injury today! While the Judge kids were lining up, one stood up
as another was starting to kneel down. They banged heads pretty hard. Ouch!
Imagine a visit to the disabled list for THAT reason. Judge coach Tim
Ginter handled the pregame prayer duties from memory. Niiiice! Among the
spectators was former Central star and Neumann coach Bob Santore. His
nephew, jr. Frank Santore, played 2B for Prep and went 2-for-3 with a
double. Soph CF Jawan McAllister, the Hawks’ leadoff batter, is the
brother of Chestnut Hill Academy all-timer Jon McAllister, who is
currently being honored as website legend Randy Seidman’s Hometown Philly
Rookie of the Week. This game almost ended in the fifth. With one away, sr.
PH-3B Mike Borsuk sent a fly to center. Kreamer made an excellent
throw to the plate and came within a whisker of getting a DP. (Or maybe
Santore was out by a whisker. Depended on your loyalties.) Sr. Sean
Connolly, one of Prep’s basketball managers, started at 3B. Key
postseason sub Tom Stewart, a sr., is also on the squad. A pregame
visit was made to Judge’s new turf fields for baseball/football. Pics will
be posted soon. The construction crew was making one last check. Ginter
happened to be there, also, and he said city inspectors will have to provide
a final OK since the fields are part of Ramp RC. He’s hopeful the Crusaders
will get to play at least a few games on the field in May. I wonder if the
Catholic League will think about using the site for playoff games? I imagine
it would come dirt cheap. Oops, make that turf cheap.
APRIL 10
CATHOLIC BLUE
Neumann-Goretti 5, Wood 2
Even the bench guys got dirty today. Home plate at N-G’s field, on the
site of the former Neumann, is set in the northeast corner of the property
and strong winds were blowing in that direction. Because this spring has
been extra dry, the plate-area dust was swirling like crazy – and up along
both baselines, of course – and by the end of the game everybody pretty much
needed three bottles of eye-cleansing solution. With the termination of West
Catholic’s program, Catholic Blue is down to six teams and that makes the
scheduling a little crazy, so this was the league opener for both squads. A
medium time was had by all. Not a classic, but some respectable moments. DN
ink went to sr. LH Joey Gorman, our Pitcher of the Year in 2011 and
last fall a recipient of a scholarship to Saint Joseph’s. Due to an elbow
twinge experienced about two months ago, Gorman had taken things slowly
through the first part of the season. He did no pitching in three non-league
games and didn’t even play the outfield; served instead as a DH. Though not
eye-poppingly impressive, he did carry a shutout into the seventh inning.
Pitching coach Joe Messina reported that 66 of Joey’s 102 pitches
were strikes and that his first toss was a strike to 19 of the first 22
batters he faced. Imagine how effective he’ll be once the midseason groove
is attained. When jr. C John “Beef” Santospago lifted a fly to right
to end the sixth, he became just the second Viking to get the ball out of
the infield. To start the seventh, jr. RF Joe “Beer” Santospago
(that’s not his nickname, but tell me it’s not a natural – smile) and jr. OF
Benji Abercrombie milked walks. Sr. SS Tim Greenfield singled
to right-center for one RBI and sr. DH Sean Sheridan lofted a sac fly
to right to plate another run. Would the Vikings REALLY create some drama?
Partially. They get to the tying run to the dish, but a strikeout ended it.
Gorman allowed four hits, struck out eight (oddly, seven came against the
top five guys in the order) and walked four (oddly again, twice there were
two-in-a-row jobs). Batting leadoff, he got the first run home in the third
with a groundout and sr. C Nicky Nardini followed that with a
semi-hard single to right-center for an RBI. N-G’s three-run fourth went
like this: leadoff double to left by sr. CF Jimmy Kerrigan, a Temple
signee; lineout to right by sr. SS Marty Venafro; walk to jr. 2B
Joey Glennon; double steal; chopper groundout by jr. 3B Joe Kinee
with both runners holding; two-run single down the rightfield line by sr. LF
Mario DiFebbo; RBI groundball single to center by sr. RF Anthony
Adams. By the way, Kerrigan’s hit was a blast. N-G’s field is set into a
city block and the ball short-hopped the fence far past the spot where
Abercrombie was originally standing. Wood’s pitcher was jr. RH Scott
Boches. Though thin, he appears to be about 6-4, maybe even 6-5, and he
had some good moments in tough spots. He faced just 10 batters in his three
non-scoring innings. Sr. RH Kevin Devine posted a 1-2-3 sixth. N-G’s
new coach is Frankford grad Mike Zolk, whose son, Mike “Zoom” Zolk,
formerly starred for N-G and is now at North Carolina. (The alleged crimes
that caused the forced departure of ex-coach Lou Spadaccini have
received major media attention. No need to rehash here.) Mike relayed a
couple of funny stories before the game and one of them followed my mention
that there appeared to be cotton candy remnants on the back windshield of
his car, which was parked right behind the backstop. He said the stuff was
Silly String and that it had been placed there by a freshman who plays for
Wood! You see, Mike works at a baseball training facility and the kid,
Nick Lafferty (not yet a varsity player), is a regular visitor.
They were having fun, busting each other’s chops about which team would win
this game, and Nick decided to “torture” Mike by Silly Stringing his car.
Click
here
for a pic of the back windshield. We’ll assume that’s a North Carolina hat.
Then again, “Zoom” did attend the late, great North Catholic before
transferring to N-G. Wood is now being guided by Jim “Dege” DiGuiseppe
Jr., who is succeeding his father, Jim Sr. You know where Sr. was
today, right? Of course. Helping out as one of the assistants. So much for
retirement. Ha, ha. Jr. is recovering from a minor health issue, so Sr. hit
infield-outfield. “I haven’t done that in 15 years,” he claimed with a
laugh. “In fact, I’m probably working harder now than I did before.” In the
DN story, early focus was placed on the fact that Gorman, also a star
student, is the vice president of N-G's student council and plans to dance
AND sing at an upcoming school talent show. Could be legendary.
APRIL 9
PUBLIC A
Central 4, Masterman 3
Given a choice, which would you prefer for baseball? A cold day with
no wind or a semi-warm day with MUCHO wind? Well, we got the second today on
Central’s elevated field and it was blowing all game long to right and/or
center. Thankfully, it didn’t affect the contest much at all and that
resulted, mostly, from the fact the pitchers were reasonably sharp; remember
this is still considered early April. Masterman sr. RH Nate “Osmosis”
Vahedi (the team’s female managers were calling him that; not sure why
but they said it’s a new nickname) was impressive in the very beginning
after Central managed to load the bases with one out on a single by sr. CF
Mike Cavallaro (3-for-3, double, two runs scored), a plunking of sr.
SS Gabe Buchanan and a walk to sr. C Julien Blancon. Vahedi
humped it up and fanned the next two guys, though jr. RF Kyle Newcomb
did notch at least four foul balls. Central soph RH Anthony DeVito
had his best moment in the second after Masterman scored thrice on a single
by sr. 1B Jack “Day After Easter” Christmas, a ringing triple to
left-center by sr. SS Harry Taggart, an infield bobble off the bat of
sr. OF Julian Melchiore and a wild pitch/TWO throwing errors combo
that allowed Melchiore to come all the way around from first (ouch). DeVito,
who showed a quality curve and splitter all afternoon, whiffed the next
three guys to prevent further damage. Central tallied once in the third on
Cavallaro’s ground-rule double into the rightfield corner (I was told the
ball bounced up the concrete steps leading to the football field), a passed
ball and a grounder to second by jr. 3B Tom Benek. Nice piece of
hitting with a made-to-order, inside-out swing. The Lancers won it with a
trio in the fifth. With one away, “Cavs” again was clutch. He ripped a
single to center, then enjoyed seeing Buchanan (groundball single to left),
Blancon (RBI single to right), Benek (yet another RBI on a groundout) and
Newcomb (RBI double over the centerfielder's head) successfully perform
their assorted tasks. My angle wasn’t good on this one because the ball was
going directly away, but it’s possible Newcomb’s drive was slightly
misjudged? Also, it appeared Melchiore stepped in a hole deep into his run.
DeVito could become a gem. He has pretty good size already and once he fills
out/matures, MPHs should be added to his fastball. He walked one (and that
was intentional) while fanning nine. Sr. LF Ryan Dydak, of QBing
fame, made the best defensive play with a sprawling, come-forward snag of a
low liner off the bat of sr. OF Josh Godbolt. Also, the Lancers
turned an interesting DP in the first as Vahedi fanned and sr. 3B Augie
Legido (remember him? -- broke my camera last year with a foul ball –
smile) was picked off first by Blancon and erased from there on a throw from
sr. 1B Wesley Doe to soph 2B Andrew Foronda. As for tidbits .
. . Before the game, we were preparing for Masterman’s team pic and jr. C
Joey Powell was having a quick conversation with a gal who was heading
into the locker room area in right-center. New coach Vic Otarola
quipped, “Get her phone number later, Joey.” Powell shot back, “I already
have it.” In the first, Melchiore allowed a ball to get past him for a
two-base error. When he came to bat in the second, he heard Otarola yell
into the cage, “C’mon, Julian, you owe me a run.” Between pitches, Melchiore
smiled and responded, “They didn’t score, though.” True dat. Otarola, most
recently the basketball coach at Vaux and once the baseball coach at
now-defunct William Penn, was not exactly thrilled the umps prevented him
from coaching at third base because he was not wearing a uniform. Assorted
Blue Dragons handled the coaching duties at third and first; Otarola has no
assistant. Meanwhile, as you probably know, Masterman is a Class A school
with a very small enrollment. The team includes just 13 players (and there’s
no JV). Guess how many kids tried out? You got it . . . 13!
--- A website break, resulting mostly from a DN furlough week, was taken between NE-Linc and Mstr-Cent. ---
MARCH 28
PUBLIC B
Northeast 10, Lincoln 9
Remember the days when Northeast owned the Pub's premier program?
And when Lincoln was also respectable? Both now find themselves in Division
B and major progress must be made before either program can even dream of a
return to glory status. Oh, well. What can you do? Times change. This game,
like pretty much every game these days in the Pub, had sloppy moments and it
required 2 hours, 33 minutes, but it featured some pretty neat plot twists
and was still in doubt until the very last pitch, so that's pretty cool,
right? The day's strangest element: Northeast jr. RH Daquan Bohannan,
one of Northeast's 57 football quarterbacks (smile), started on the mound,
but was not in the batting order. Later, after yielding to sr. Howard
Lynn, of kicking-punting fame, and moving to SS, Bohannan took the DH's
spot in the order and went 3-for-3 with two doubles and two RBI. Huh? I
decided to ask Bohannan, "Why weren't you in the lineup when the game
began?" He shot back with a shrug, "I've got the same question." Later,
coach Sam Feldman said Bohannan had missed some signs in recent games
and "a message needed to be sent." We'll assume he got it (smile). There was
also this oddity: In the fifth, soph SS-CF David Mora took a spot in
the left side of the batter's box. I asked NE scorekeeper Samantha Horn
about it and she said, "He's a switch-hitter." Ohhhhh k. But the pitcher was
a righthander, just as he'd been for Mora's at-bats in the first and fifth.
Maybe he's a world-class bunter only when hitting lefthanded? He got the sac
down, then went back to righty in the sixth and smacked an RBI single. Oh,
baby. Sr. RH Jairo Bautista held Northeast to one run through four
innings, thanks mostly to an effective curve, but he hit the wall in the
fifth and surrendered five runs as the Vikings forged a 6-6 tie. Jr. 3B
Shahir Gates and Bohannan laced back-to-back RBI doubles to highlight
that frame. Against Lynn, who'd replaced Bohannan with two away in the
fourth, Lincoln answered with three runs of its own. Bautista had the big
hit with a shot to center that was slightly misjudged for a two-run double.
Courtesy runner Cody Ulmer, a freshman, later scored from second on
an infield single by jr. LF-1B Dylan Burke (also two doubles, one
RBI). Jr. RH Matt Dougan, who'd made several nice picks at 1B,
pitched for Lincoln in the sixth. The four-run uprising went like this: Mora
singled and stole second; soph 2B Devin Rodriguez singled hard to
right-center for an RBI; Gates lined out to right; Bohannan ripped a
run-scoring double to center; Lynn followed suit to left-center; and jr. C
Manny Duran (4-for-4, all singles, two RBI) sent a groundball single
to center to score soph CR Jake Mercado. Next, jr. RF Khalil
Taylor was called out for stepping on the plate while trying to bunt. A
quick throw to second followed and jr. CR Tyler Zink was erased. Have
a problem with that? You should. Play should have stopped after Taylor's
infraction. The umps conferred and got things right and Zink returned to
second. He then was caught stealing. Walks to jr. PH Christian McGovern
and soph DH-LF Eric Cintron enabled the Railsplitters to get the
tying and go-ahead runs on base in the seventh. With two away, they even
moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. But there they died as Lynn got
sr. CF James Baldere (three walks) to wave at a pitch that might have
been slightly outside. It's obvious that Lynn is this squad's far-and-away
leader. When the Vikings came off the field, he gathered them and said,
"Coming back from 5-0, that's family. We learned so much from this."
Lincoln's roster includes soph RH-1B Tom Clarkson, whose brother,
Ron, was our All-City Co-Pitcher of the Year for the Railsplitters in
2001. One member of that squad was in attendance today. Not positive because
he didn't say his name, but I think it was Brian Smith. Lincoln's
scorekeeper, Desiree Boyer, brings her own chair and table to games.
VERY cool!
MARCH 27
PUBLIC C
Overbrook 10, Olney 7
The theme for my first day on the 2012 baseball trail . . . Only in
the Pub Personified! You name it, it happened. Well, almost.
No. 1 – Overbrook’s field, at Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park, had no
base lines. As in none. As in not even a hint of any.
No. 2 – 'Brook has been playing at BP since at least the mid-'70s and
probably much, much longer. Olney, now a charter school, has brand new
coaches and they drove the 15-passenger van to Overbrook’s school site, at
59th and Lancaster. The Trojans finally arrived at 3:49 and the game started
50 minutes late at 4:05.
No. 3 – A School District bus arrived in the top of the second inning,
with the driver undoubtedly thinking he’d soon be taking the Panthers back
to 'Brook. Somebody must have told him what had happened. Dude vanished and
as I left the field a shade before 7 p.m., ‘Brook coach Phil Beauchemin
was on his cell phone, trying to nail down exactly what would happen.
No. 4 – After tripling for one RBI, then homering for two, jr. 2B-C
David Dorsey came to bat in the third inning with two outs and a runner
on third. He tried to bunt for a hit. Frosh C Jean Carlos Leger
pounced on the ball and tagged out the runner not too far from the plate.
No. 5 – Olney had THREE runners picked off first by jr. LH Yvon
"Buddy" Dessus, who began this school year as Bok’s starting QB, then
transferred to 'Brook and wound up seeing time there.
No. 6 – In the home fourth, the plate ump began limping around and I
thought maybe he’d been hit by a foul ball. He left the game and base ump
Jim Scott wound up calling the pitches from behind the mound. The plate
guy said he’d been experiencing leg cramps, probably because he’d pushed
things too hard in a morning workout. He limped to his car and went home.
No. 7 – In the sixth, Olney jr. 1B Franklin Estevez was rejoicing
after reaching first base on an infield throwing error. One problem: He was
standing maybe 2 feet from the bag and Dessus tagged him out.
No. 8 – In the seventh, with the game ONE pitch from maybe ending,
Beauchemin yelled to Scott that Leger was standing too far behind the plate
and was forcing Overbrook’s catcher, Dorsey, “almost to the back of the
cage.” Scott called time, walked in, grabbed Leger’s bat and drew a line
that would serve as the back end of the batter’s box. Leger walked on the
next pitch, extending the game. A strikeout then ended it.
No. 9 – (Not baseball related, but just a continuation of wacky
developments). I drove to a nearby Checker’s and ordered a burger and fries
with a soda. The bag felt kind of heavy when it came through the drive-thru
window. No wonder. Inside were two double chicken sandwiches. As if I’d ever
eat chicken. Ha, ha. I drove back around to the window and handed the guy
the chicken sandwiches. He gave me a bag with the burger.
No. 10 (see intro for No. 9) – While preparing to write the DN story in
the office, I came to realize I’d left my reading glasses in the car. Had to
trudge back out to the parking lot. Ugh!
. . . So, how was YOUR afternoon into the early evening? (smile). DN ink
went to sr. C-P Shafeeq Coleman, who goes 6-5, 280 and professes a
love for baseball. He’s a personable kid and had some pretty funny stories,
which are in the DN writeup. He has an offer from a JC in Maryland and
Beauchemin is trying to drum up more interest because he thinks the world of
Shafeeq as a player and person. Coleman projects as a first baseman, but he
throws pretty hard (not outrageously, mind you) and with the proper guidance
he might be able to do something in this sport. He got a shade overanxious
at bat in the game, but put on a show in batting practice. Coleman replaced
Dessus for the final 2.1 innings and recorded six outs on whiffs. Alas, he
also walked seven and made a costly throwing error on a pickoff attempt.
Dessus fanned eight in his starting stint and showed good late movement on
his pitches. 'Brook received great production from deep in the lineup. Soph
3B-2B Nasir Collins, hitting seventh, scored twice after doubling,
then tripling. Sr. RF Markee Scott sent a medium single to center for
two runs and a hopper to right for another. Somehow, the 4-5-6 hitters
combined to whiff nine times in 12 at-bats. Soph SS Brandon Hines,
the leadoff batter, got an RBI on a bad-hop double to center. Leger had two
of Olney’s five hits, a single down the leftfield lack-of-a-line and a
triple in the same vicinity. He also milked three walks. Sr. SS Eduardo
Herrera bagged one RBI on a groundout and another on a walk. Olney's
reliever, jr. RH Eric Hernandez, was impressive. He goes about 6-1 and
throws reasonably hard. He also mixed in respectable curves, even in
unexpected counts. He whiffed 10 in six innings and just one of the three
hits he surrendered was well struck. Several funny remarks made it into the
story. Here’s one that didn’t. When he thought he was getting pinched by the
original plate ump, Dessus muttered, “This umpire’s killin’ me, dog. For
real.” One of the spectators, for a while anyway, was Boys’ Latin coach
Joe Dunn. His team played elsewhere and he just happened to drive past
while heading home. Seeing how late it was, he thought he would witness a
nail-biting classic that was maybe in the 21st inning. Not quite, folks.
Meanwhile, I can’t wait to see what day No. 2 on the 2012 trail will bring .
. .