Varsity
Baseball 1983
Row
1: Alan Humes, Dave
Books, Todd Middlekauff, Roger Riegel, Mike Teeter, Ed Dolson,
Randy Spurlock
Row
2: Shawn Abner, Tony
Baldini, Andy Sheely, Darrel Walters, Doug Furness, Ron Ney,
Mike Parsons
Row
3: Coach Sauve, Bill
Sauve, Bill Price, Brian Reith, Dave Pellowitz, Scott
Middlekauff, Coach Shirley
In
the beginning …
Power
Balanced in Division I Baseball
The balls and bats will begin cracking this weekend as high
school baseball gets underway.
Carlisle, Mechanicsburg, and
Cumberland
Valley
are set to do battle in Division I of the Mid-Penn Conference.
From all indications, the league should be a tough one.
Rounding out the division are Cedar Cliff, Chambersburg,
Central Dauphin, Central Dauphin East,
Red
Land
and
Harrisburg
.
"The teams that are in (Division I) traditionally play
good baseball," said Carlisle Coach Harry Mundorff.
"It's gonna be a good league.
It should be pretty well balanced."
Last year, Carlisle played in the South Central League
while Mechanicsburg and
Cumberland
Valley
were members of the Capital Area Conference.
Mechanicsburg finished second in the CAC last year and
Carlisle
was fifth in the SCL.
Chambersburg
won the SCL and Hershey took the CAC.
Mechanicsburg is loaded with experienced players.
Ron Ney and Shawn Abner will anchor the pitching and
outfield staffs respectively.
Others in the pitching rotation will include Bill Price,
Mike Parson and Bill Sauve. Doug
Furness and Randy Spurlock will likely join Abner in the outfield.
Ed Dolson and Roger Riegel are catching candidates and the
rest of the infield could be in the hands of Scott Middlekauff,
Mike Teeter and Dave Pellowitz.
The most notable losses from last year's 20-5 squad are the
leading batter, Ryan Priest, and Mike Dietrich.
"We lost most of our infield and a couple of
pitchers," said Wildcat Coach Don Shirley.
"We should have guys that can hit the ball.
We're just average, speed-wise.
Our strength should be our experience and our weakness
could be depth. We're
not all that deep."
"(Division I) will be a dog fight.
It's gonna be the toughest schedule we've ever played.
It'll be a good year for baseball in the area, without a
doubt."
Mechanicsburg
Defeats Steel High
Mechanicsburg edged host Steel High 1-0 in baseball play
Saturday.
Ron Ney and Bill Price held the Steamrollers to one hit.
Ney pitched four innings and Bill Price pitched the final
three.
The Wildcats scored the game’s only run in the fifth
inning. Doug Furness
singled, advanced to second on a sacrifice and scored on Shawn
Abner's single.
Both Furness and Abner had two hits.
Abner's
Slam Powers Wildcats Past CV
Cumberland
Valley
kept Mechanicsburg on the ropes for four innings.
But the upset-minded Eagles couldn't survive a fifth-inning
Wildcat attack, as Mechanicsburg remained undefeated with an 8-3
victory.
Mechanicsburg's Bill Price and CV's Clark Adams were locked
in a pitcher's duel for the first four innings.
The Eagles had taken a 1-0 lead in the third when Dennis
McCartney walked and Scott Johnson smacked the game's first hit, a
ground single to left field that moved McCartney to second.
With Ian Kohlhaas at bat, Price tried to pick Johnson off
first, but the ball sailed out of play and McCartney scored.
The narrow advantage held up for two full innings before
the Wildcats took advantage of a tiring
Davis
for a seven-run fifth. The
inning was highlighted by Shawn Abner's 375-foot grand slam homer
over Memorial Park's left field fence.
The blast was only the second ever to be hit out of
Memorial Park in a high school game.
Abner's brother, Ben, now at the
Georgia
Southern, hit the other one.
Davis, who displayed near-perfect control through the first
four innings, walked three of the first four batters to start off
the inning. With Andy
Sheely, Scott Middlekauff, and Alan Humes on board, Randy Spurlock
came in as a pinch hitter and cracked a two-run ground single to
center field to put the Wildcats on the scoreboard and give them
the lead.
Confusion in the infield loaded the bases again when no one
was tagged on Doug Furness' fielder's choice.
Roger Riegel followed with an RBI single that set up
Abner's homer and forced
Davis
to surrender the mound.
The Eagles stayed in the game when John Murphy belted a
two-run homer in the sixth, but it wasn't enough.
Mechanicsburg padded its lead when Riegel tapped in the
final run with a base hit in the sixth.
Mechanicsburg ended the day with just five hits, three off
Davis
, while Price scattered three against CV.
Price also issued just three walks and stuck out seven.
"Their pitcher (Davis)kept us off stride," said
Mechanicsburg Coach Don Shirley of the early going.
"He got the ball across the plate. (In the fifth) we
finally decided we could play with 'em.
Our pitcher (Price) was outstanding.
He kept us in it. He's
been throwing real well.
"We made some mistakes defensively we shouldn't have
made. Spurlock came in
and had a real clutch hit. If
it hadn't been for that hit it's hard to tell what would have
happened. Abner gave
us some breathing room."
CV Coach Jeff Potteiger echoed Shirley's sentiments about
Davis
.
"He was throwing the ball across the plate,” he
said. "But then
he got in trouble with walks, and walks'll kill you.
He was around the strike zone but was just missing by a
little bit and that can get you out of your rhythm."
"We played super defense.
They're all underclassmen in the infield.
We're not real far from being a good baseball team."
Definitely, the Eagles did come up with the most exciting
defensive plays of the game, including a double play.
In the fourth inning, with Abner on base via a fielder's
choice, Mike Teeter poked a grounder to shortstop Damon Phelan,
who relayed the ball to second baseman Scott McNaney, who threw to
first baseman McCartney for two outs
In the first inning, Eagle third baseman Shawn Dunlap
robbed Riegel and Abner of base hits with two clutch stops.
Mechanicsburg is 4-0 overall, 3-0 in Division I of the
Mid-Penn Conference. CV
is both 1-2 overall and in Division I.
Mechanicsburg
Gets Upper Hand on Trojans
Carlisle High's baseball team did Mechanicsburg a favor on
Saturday.
But Mechanicsburg proved on Thursday that it didn't need
any help in its bid to win the Mid-Penn conference Division I
title.
The Wildcats moved a step closer to clinching the crown
with a sound 5-1 victory over
Chambersburg
at Mechanicsburg's Memorial Park.
Until Saturday the Trojans were nipping at the Wildcats'
heels, hovering just one game behind in the league race, their
only loss being an earlier one to Mechanicsburg.
But Carlisle helped Mechanicsburg out by handing
Chambersburg
its second league loss of the season Saturday, 5-3.
"It made it a little bit easier," said
Mechanicsburg Coach Don Shirley.
"But we don’t take anything for granted in this
league."
One thing Shirley has grown to almost take for granted is
his ace pitcher, Ron Ney.
The senior righthander simply struck out 12 Trojan batters
to remain unbeaten this season.
Mechanicsburg is 11-0 in the league, alone at the top of
the standings, and 12-1 overall.
Only five
Chambersburg
runners landed on base the entire game.
Ney had a no-hitter going until the sixth inning, but lost
it when Tony Hartman gutted out an infield single, beating
shortstop Dave Pellowitz' throw to first.
Ney surrendered another hit, a double, to Greg Andrews in
the seventh, and walked two batters for the game.
Another runner reached base on a fielding error.
Shirley praised Ney's performance, saying he was the key to
the win "without a doubt."
"If we get ahead early with him pitching, we're in
good shape," Shirley said.
The wildcats hammered out eight hits, seven in the first
three innings.
Mechanicsburg got on the scoreboard in the first inning
when Doug Furness made a gutsy run to home on a passed ball from
Trojan starter Ron Weigand to catcher Steve Fairchild.
Furness had earlier poked a bunt single to start the
inning.
Things got a little wild in the second inning when the
Chambersburg
coach argued with a call at first base, where Andy Sheely was
called safe on a pick-off attempt.
Sheely was later caught in a rundown between third and home
when Randy Spurlock stole second.
Spulock finally made the Wildcat lead 2-0 when he dashed
home on Pellowitz' line single to centerfield.
The
Chambersburg
coach found a few more things to get angry about in the third
innings. Trojan first
baseman George Fuller was given three warnings about unnecessary
roughness on pickoff attempts on Furness and on a ground-out,
where he tagged Riegel forcefully instead of tagging the bag.
The coach was finally ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct
when Furness stole second and went to third on an overthrow from
Fairchild to second baseman Jamie Richardson.
"That just ruined a good game," said Shirley.
"There's no reason for that."
The confusion didn't stop Mechanicsburg from stretching its
lead to 5-0. Shawn
Abner singled Furness home, and after Sheely cracked a base hit,
Ney belted a two-run double to deep centerfield to end
Mechanicsburg's scoring.
Chambersburg
scored its only run in the seventh when Andrews' double sent
Fairchild home. Fairchild
had drawn a walk from Ney.
"We played a good game and I'm just real proud of
them," Shirley said of his players.
"I'm just happy to get the win.
We had some real key hits out there.
That score in the first inning got us going."
Ney fanned five batters in a row in the second and third
innings and four consecutively over the fifth and sixth innings.
Wildcats
Hold First Place
Mechanicsburg strengthened its hold on the Mid-Penn
Division I baseball standings with a sound win over
Chambersburg
at Henninger Field.
The Wildcats remain undefeated at 5-0, 4-0 in the
conference.
Andy Sheely put Mechanicsburg on the scoreboard in the
first inning with an RBI single.
The Wildcats led the rest of the way.
Doug Furness was two-for-four with a double and Shawn Abner
had two RBIs. The
defensive unit turned three double plays that coach Don Shirley
said were a key factor in the victory.
Mike Teeter hit the game's only homerun, a fifth-inning
blast with one man aboard.
Ron Ney went the distance on the mound to pick up the win.
He fanned four and walked three while scattering four hits.
Chambersburg
didn't score until the sixth inning.
Wildcats
Flash Winning Form
Pitching and defense, some folks in the Mid-Penn Conference
will tell you, are the cornerstones to producing a winning
baseball team.
And those factors probably explain the success of
Mechanicsburg High this season.
Pitchers Ron Ney, Bill Price and Scott Middlekauff have
been unhittable. Defenders
like centerfielder Shawn Abner and the first baseman Mike Teeter
have been downright stingy.
The Wildcats, having clinched Division I of the Mid-Penn on
Thursday, yielded only one run in two games Saturday as they
successfully defended their championship in the Carlisle
Invitational.
Mechanicsburg slipped past West Perry, 3-1, in a
first-round game and then trounced
Carlisle
, 9-0, in the finale.
Carlisle
had reached the championship game by upsetting Lower Dauphin,
11-2, in the other first-round game.
In the consolation game, Lower Dauphin scored a run in the
10th inning to edge West Perry, 7-6.
But the story of the day was Mechanicsburg's lack of
generosity. The
Wildcats simply refused to give anything away, including hits,
walks and errors.
For example, in the opener against West Perry, Price
allowed seven hits but walked only one and gave up only one run.
In addition, Mechanicsburg played error-free ball.
And in the championship game, Middlekauff, though he did
walk four before giving way to Al Humes in the seventh, held the
Thundering Herd to four hits.
"That's three excellent games in a row,"
Mechanicsburg Coach Don Shirley said of Middlekauff's performance.
"He does very well in getting the ball across the
plate."
You know the Wildcats are good when they can win a
tournament without using their star pitcher, Ney.
Ney is 7-0, but because he pitched in Thursday's
division-clinching win, Shirley put him at third base Saturday.
All he did there was go 3-for-4 and knock in two runs
against West Perry. And
when he wasn't clicking (0-for-2) in the title game, Teeter or
Abner or Randy Spurlock took over.
Teeter's three-run triple in the third broke open a
scoreless game and ignited Mechanicsburg past Carlisle.
Abner and Spurlock later homered as the threesome batted in
six of the Wildcats' eight earned runs.
"We couldn't get a key hit early to get some
runs," said Herd Coach Harry Mundorff.
"They made them count."
Despite all that, the Wildcats' victory was not nearly as
impressive as
Carlisle
's win over Lower Dauphin. In
that game, Keith Morrison fired a five-hitter and the Herd jumped
on Dean Parmer for nine runs in 3 1/3 innings.
Designated hitter Gary Wolf sparked
Carlisle
offensively, knocking in four runs with three singles.
Alan Brunner also had three hits and two RBIs.
When it was over, Mundorff and his players were ecstatic,
but little did they realize that they should have saved a few of
those 11 runs for Mechanicsburg.
In the opener, the Wildcats scored two runs in the first on
RBI singles by Teeter and Ney and on errors by Mustang outfielders
Frank Briner and Jeff Reich. Down
2-1 in the fifth, West Perry threatened by loading the bases, but
the Mechanicsburg defense stiffened and the Mustangs came away
empty-handed.
Wildcat
Foes Can't Hit Around Pair of Outstanding Moundsmen
Some teams may try pitching around Mechanicsburg's standout
centerfielder Shawn Abner, but they can't hit around the Wildcat
pitching staff.
"Every game seems like this," sighed
nerve-tattered Mechanicsburg coach Don Shirley yesterday after his
unbeaten club eked out a 2-0 verdict over rival
Red
Land
. "We've had two
1-0 games and a couple like this.
We don't seem to get any easy ones."
Yet, those low-scoring games enable Shirley to show off his
righthanded senior tandem of Ron Ney and Bill Price, who equally
share in the Wildcats' 8-0 start this spring.
That includes a 7-0 surge into the talent-jammed Mid-Penn
Conference Division I slate.
"We have a sound staff, but the schedule has been so
loose we have just been getting work for Ron and Bill,"
Shirley noted. "We
also have experienced pitchers in Mike Parsons, Todd Middlekauff,
Scott Middlekauff and Alan Humes."
It was the quick-working Ney's turn yesterday as he
silenced the usually steady Patriot offense on two hits to go 4-0
on the campaign. Notching
12 strikeouts against two walks, he outdueled Red Land ace Kurt
Hackenberg, whose three-hit mound performance was spoiled by a
two-run error in the fifth inning.
Actually,
Red
Land
had both of its defensive lapses in the fifth stanza, but
Hackenberg erased one with a sharp pickoff play.
Roger Riegel was hit by a pitch with two out and took off
on Hackenberg's 1-1 offering to Abner.
The junior slugger drilled a ground single back up the
middle, and both Wildcats scored when the ball was misplayed in
the outfield.
"Shawn hit the ball hard and they really roll well in
our outfield," observed Shirley.
"He got a pitch to hit and took advantage of it.
So many pitchers are working around him."
And, the hard-hitting Abner is only part of a strong
returning lineup from last spring's Wildcat crew which finished
one game behind defending state champion Hershey in the old
Capital Area Conference.
Abner, Price and Ney, who plays third base when he isn't on
the mound, are joined by Dave Pellowitz, who shifted from second
base to shortstop, first baseman Mike Teeter and outfielder Randy
Spurlock as returning regulars.
Getting more active roles this year are junior outfielder
Andy Sheely, Scott Middlekauff, who took Pellowitz's spot at
second, and Doug Furness.
Also Riegel is back and is working full time with veteran
Mechanicsburg catcher Ed Dolson.
Shirley added that junior Dave Books plays third when Ney
is pitching.
"They may drive me crazy with these tight games, but
our pitching and defense have made the plays," cited Shirley.
"They make the tough chances like (Scott)
Middlekauff's play in the last inning."
Wildcats
Beat
Carlisle
in Classic Pitchers' Duel
With a 6-0 record it might seem like a baseball team's been
on a joyride.
But Mechanicsburg Coach Don Shirley doesn't think so.
"Every one of them's been tough," he said.
Whether the games have been tough because competition in
Mid-Penn Division I is keen remains to be seen, but as of now the
Wildcats are alone atop the league's standings.
The latest victim of Mechanicsburg's attack was
Carlisle
. The Wildcats eked
out a 1-0 decision over the Thundering Herd at Mechanicsburg's
Memorial Park. The win
came just one day after the Wildcats slashed previously unbeaten
Chambersburg
's record with a 5-2 win.
"You've got to give
Carlisle
credit," said Shirley. "We
know they have a good team."
Most of Shirley's credit was extended to the job
Carlisle
starter Dave Walker did in keeping the Wildcats' usually
thunderous bats quiet.
However, Mechanicsburg hurler Bill Price did a nearly
identical job of keeping the Herd bats in check.
Walker
surrendered just four hits on the day and Price scattered six
throughout the game. But
of the four hits issued by
Walker
. Dave Pellowitz'
fourth-inning shot did more than enough damage.
With Randy Spurlock on base via a ground single that
bounced off
Walker
's glove, Pellowitz slammed a booming double to centerfield.
Spurlock beat the throw home for the game's only run.
Both teams stranded runners throughout the game.
In the second inning
Walker
walked Andy Sheely, Ron Ney and Spurlock to lead the bases with
one out. He worked
himself out of the jam, though, by inducing Scott Middlekauff and
Pellowitz to fly out.
Price found himself in the same predicament in the third
frame.
Walker
was safe on a fielder's choice, Todd Melisauskas smacked a ground
single and Todd Gelbaugh drew a base on balls to lad the bags with
two outs. But Price
came through to strike out Alan Brunner and end the inning.
Earlier in the inning it appeared the Herd would have a
chance to score when Gelbaugh slapped a ball across third base but
as
Walker
rounded third the ball was ruled foul.
In the bottom of the third,
Walker
sat down Mike Teeter and Sheely after giving up a line single to
Doug Furness and intentionally walking Shawn Abner.
The saga of leaving ducks on the pond continued in the
fourth inning when Dwayne Kepner was hit by a Price pitch and Jeff
Morrison walked. But
with two outs pitcher faced pitcher, and Price sent
Walker
to the dugout to end the frame.
"We got people on base but just couldn't score,"
said Carlisle Coach Harry Mundorff.
"I thought that ball was through that Gelbaugh
hit."
Both coaches commended the pitching of their own pitcher
and the opposition.
"Dave pitched well.
He pitched very well in clutch situations," said
Mundorff. "Price
pitched a nice game, too. You've
just got to score to win. We
had some nice defensive plays with people on base."
"Both pitchers did a real good job," said
Shirley. "Price
pitched under a lot of pressure and with runners on base."
Pellowitz' run-scoring double was the only extra base hit
of the day.
Price ended the day with six strike-outs and gave up just
two walks while hitting one batter with a pitch.
Walker
walked five and fanned three.
Neither team committed an error.
Carlisle
is 3-2 overall and 2-2 in Division I.
Five of the Wildcats' six wins are in league play.
Wildcats
Run Streak to Nine
Mechanicsburg
High School
's baseball team ran its undefeated streak to 9-0 with a shutout
win over Central Dauphin Friday.
The Wildcats continue to get strong pitching.
Bill Price held the Rams to three hits and fanned six.
Doug Furness and Andy Sheely had two hits each for
Mechanicsburg.
Sheely and Shawn Abner also contributed defensively in
cutting down two Ram runners at third base.
Wildcats
Grab Division Baseball Title
Mechanicsburg wrapped up the Division I Mid-Penn Conference
title with a win over Central Dauphin on Thursday.
Ron Ney upped his record to 7-0 with a five-hit, 15
strikeout performance against the Rams.
Mike Teeter had two hits and one run batted in for the
Wildcats. Dave
Pellowitz added a key two-run single in the bottom of the sixth.
Ney
Hurls Win to Lift Wildcats
Mechanicsburg High got off to a great start, both
offensively and defensively Thursday night.
Hershey got off to a disastrous start, both on the
field and at the plate.
The baseball game's beginning set the stage for the
remainder of the contest, as Mechanicsburg went on to upend
defending state champion Hershey 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the
District 3-AAA tournament at
Newport
High School
.
The first inning put the Wildcats in the driver's
seat, while the Trojans dug themselves into a hole.
Hershey went to bat first.
And the Trojans found out that facing Wildcat ace Ron Ney
is no picnic.
Ney sat the first two batters down on strikes and
induced the third into a ground out.
Then Mechanicsburg came to the plate.
And the Trojans found out that facing Wildcat batters in
general is no easy task.
In minutes, the Wildcats had leaped to 3-0 and
Hershey would have to spend the rest of the game trying to dig its
way back into contention.
Trojan starter Phil Fratti got himself in trouble
right away, giving up a walk to leadoff man Doug Furness.
Roger Riegel's grounder was then bobbled by shortstop
Steve Coakley, and Shawn Abner followed by tapping Fratti for an
RBI single to leftfield.
Coakley was victimized again, this time on a Mike
Teeter grounder, and Riegel scooted home.
Ney helped his own cause with a one-run single past third
base, and Mechanicsburg was on its way to the district semifinals.
Fratti settled down then and fanned the next three
Wildcat batters. But
the damage was done and Hershey couldn't rebound.
For four innings, it appeared those three runs would have
to stand up. But
finally in the fifth, the Mechanicsburg bats came alive again.
Teeter blasted a double to the centerfield fence and Ney
followed with a ground single.
With two outs, Todd Middlekauff walked to load the bases
and Toney Baldini, running for Teeter, scored on a passed ball.
Scott Middlekauff then cracked a one-run single to shove
Hershey deeper into its burrow.
Ney's RBI sacrifice fly in the sixth ended the scoring.
Ney's performance on the mound was simply superb.
He gave up just three hits, issued one walk and struck out
11 to keep his pitching record unbeaten this season.
Fratti scattered seven hits and walked five while fanning
seven.
The Mechanicsburg defense was perfect on the day while the
Trojans committed five errors.
The only inning Hershey put more than one runner on base
was the second, in which Ney gave up his lone walk to Ken Kremer
and Sean Curtin slapped a ground single to left-center.
But Ney stormed back to fan the next two batters and the
third grounded out to end the inning.
Mechanicsburg will play Lower Dauphin on Tuesday in the
semifinals. The
Falcons, one of two teams to beat the Wildcats this season,
upended
Gettysburg
, 5-4, Thursday at
Chambersburg
.
Wildcats
Downed by Falcons
The game started innocently, with both teams feeling each
other out and neither taking the upper hand.
It took only 25 minutes to play the first three innings.
But after that, Mechanicsburg and Lower Dauphin got down to
the business of playing District 3-AAA high school baseball in
major-league fashion.
First, Mechanicsburg scored three runs in the fourth to
take a 3-0 lead. Then,
Lower Dauphin rebounded with five runs in its half of the fourth
to forge ahead
When it was over, the team that struck first came up short.
The Falcons (20-5), riding the five-hit pitching of
lefthander Kenny Kulina, toppled Mechanicsburg, 5-4, Tuesday night
at Newport to earn a berth in the district finals Friday against
Reading. The Red
Knights (21-2) upended Manheim Central, 5-2, in Tuesday's other
semifinal at Ephrata.
For Mechanicsburg, it was an unfortunate ending.
The Wildcats had won 20 of 22 games prior to Tuesday's
loss, as they repeatedly bounced opponents in Division I of the
Mid-Penn Conference.
They had whisked through the Mid-Penn on the strong arms of
pitchers Ron Ney and Bill Price.
But Tuesday, Price and Ney could not thwart the Falcons.
Price lasted only 3 1/3 innings, surrendering seven hits
and three runs while striking out one and walking none.
And Ney, who relieved Price in the tumultuous fourth,
suffered his first loss of the season and the first in his last
two varsity seasons.
"We didn’t play badly; they just played
better," said a dejected Mechanicsburg Coach Don Shirley.
"You have to give them credit.
They just had the pressure on and they capitalized."
The Wildcats started their fourth inning three-run uprising
when centerfielder Shawn Abner punched a 3-2 pitch over the center
field fence, breaking a scoreless tie.
Mike Teeter followed with a walk, then Ney singled to left
field, sending Teeter to third.
Dave Pellowitz' single to right field scored Teeter and Ney
to give Mechanicsburg a 3-0 edge.
But the Falcons were undaunted.
With one out in the fourth, Bob Alexander, Norm Stine and
Kulina ripped successive singles to make it 3-1.
Dan Mione and Mike Van Gavry pinch-ran for Stine and Kulina,
respectively, and they both scored on Lamar Eifert's towering
triple over the head of Wildcat leftfielder Doug Furness, who lost
the ball in the stratosphere.
Price was yanked at that point, with the score tied at 3-3,
and Ney stepped in. He
induced Jeff Lineweaver to hit a grounder to shortstop Pellowitz,
who then gunned down Eifert at the plate on a close play.
Barry Miller followed with a single, and Rick Smith's
dribbler down the third-base line turned into a single, too.
When third baseman Dave Books' throw to first base eluded
Teeter, both Lineweaver and Miller scored.
"The play at the plate, I thought we were going to get
out of it (the inning)," Shirley said, "and somehow they
got two more runs."
That's not all the Falcons got.
By going ahead, 5-3, they received a tremendous emotional
boost that carried them through the rest of the game.
Never mind that Andy Sheely homered to left field in the
fifth to bring the Wildcats to within one, 5-4.
All the Falcons needed was some slick fielding, and they
got just that in the final innings.
For example, with one out in the seventh and Tony Baldini
pinch-running for Scott Middlekauff at first, Sheely hit another
shot, this one to left-center.
But Eifert tracked it down, perhaps preventing the tying
run.
"I definitely thought that ball was in there, "
Shirley said.
The Falcons are in the finals, but they may not have made
it there without Kulina, who beat Mechanicsburg | 
