Varsity
Baseball 1994
Row
1(Kneeling): Mike Flor,
Justin Stewart, Nate Book, Ty Woods, Doug Grant, Mat Bennett,
Justin Shoemaker;
Row
2 (Standing): Coach
Shirley, Brian Hellam, Sam Hepner, Charlie Carruthers, Rodney
Broker, Mike Fortuna, Perry Albert, Mike Pestke, Josh Hess, Mike
Edwards, Ryan Mark, Brett Witters, Coach Sauve.
(Not pictured, Jason Stamper)
In
the beginning …
The
Wildcats, who finished second in the division last year, are
looking to make their third straight appearance in the District
3-AAA playoffs. Mechanicsburg was 17-5 in 1993 and reached the
district semifinals before losing to
Waynesboro
8-0.
Several
key players from that team graduated, but coach Don Shirley feels
there is enough talent left to contend for the division title once
again.
"For
one thing, I think the experience factor helps us," Shirley
says. "For another, I think they're close as a group. That
helped us last year, and I think it can help us again."
Mechanicsburg
has some quality pitchers returning, led by seniors Bob Strickler,
Nate Book and Justin Stewart and junior Mike Edwards. Junior Bryan
Hellam and senior Ty Woods can also pitch when needed.
Three
starters, all of them good hitters, return in the infield: Strickler
at first; senior Doug Grant at second; and Edwards at short.
Edwards, who has started since he was a freshman, was the
Wildcats' leading hitter last season.
Senior
Mike Flor takes over for Bordlemay behind the plate, while Hellam
and Woods are the third basemen. Speedy Perry Albert returns in
the outfield, where he is joined by senior Justin Shoemaker,
Stewart, Book, Woods and juniors Mike Pestke and Rod Broker.
"We've
got to get great pitching and we've got to get clutch hits,"
Shirley says. "This is a tough league. You can have a great
team and still lose too many games to make the playoffs."
(April1,
1995 Sentinel)
Wildcats Rock
Hershey In Baseball Opener
Spring
training for major league teams ended Saturday.
For the Mechanicsburg Wildcats, it began and ended on the
same day. Mechanicsburg tuned up for the rigorous Mid-Perm
Division I campaign by tuning out Hershey 10-2 Saturday in the
regular-season opener at Memorial Park. The victory counts
toward the Wildcats' regular-season record, but coach Don Shirley
treated it more like an exhibition.
Five
Mechanicsburg pitchers combined to limit Hershey to two hits,
and the Wildcats took batting practice in the first inning. They
sent nine hitters to the plate and scored five runs in the bottom
in their first at-bat of the year to assume control from the
outset.
Starter
Justin Stewart got the victory. The senior left-hander allowed a
run, but not a hit, while striking out five in two innings. Nate
Book, Bob Strickler, Mike Edwards and Jason Stamper also pitched
for Mechanicsburg, and all of them were effective. They struck out
14 batters and allowed five bases on balls in seven innings.
"They're
a young team," Shirley said in defense of the Trojans.
"They only have one starter back from last year, and they had
three players who weren't here because of Easter vacations."
Hershey
actually led briefly in the first. Jason Garver drew a walk to
start the game, then stole second and third and scored on a
grounder to short by Fred Weaver.
After
walking Garver, Stewart retired six consecutive batters, striking
out five of them. He fanned the side in the second inning,
throwing just 13 pitches.
Mechanicsburg,
which played error-free defense (in part because of all the
strikeouts), took advantage of some sloppy fielding by the Trojans.
Two first-inning errors played a sizable role in the Wildcats'
five-run uprising.
With
one out, Strickler walked and Edwards followed with a ground ball
to second. Carver's throw to second pulled the shortstop off the
bag, and Hershey didn't get anybody out on the play.
Stewart
followed with his team's first base hit of 1994, a sharp single to
right that zoomed past right fielder Mike Pritchard and all the
way to the fence. Strickler and Edwards both scored on the play,
Stewart wound up on third and Mechanicsburg never trailed again.
Book
added the first of his two hits to score Stewart, and Doug Grant
had a two-run single later in the inning to account for the Wildcats'
other two runs in the first.
Edwards
upped the ante to 7-1 in the bottom of the second with a two-run
opposite-field homer against Hershey starter Matt Iacavone. After
Strickler singled, Edwards lofted a fly ball over the short fence
in right field. He also singled during Mechanicsburg's .three-run
fifth inning, giving him two hits, three RBI and two runs scored
in four at-bats.
Strickler
and backup catcher Matt Bennett also had run-producing hits in the
fifth, and nine players contributed to the Wildcats' 12-hit
attack. It was pitching which stole the show on opening day,
however.
The
Trojans didn't get their first hit until Weaver started the fourth
with a line drive home run over that same right-field fence.
Weaver was the first batter to hit against Strickler, who then
retired six of the next seven he faced.
Book
and Edwards each pitched one inning without allowing a hit and
both of them struck out two. Sidearmer Jason Stamper worked the
seventh, allowing a hit and two walks but no runs. He also struck
out a pair.
"We've
only been on an infield twice, and we haven't pitched off a mound
until today," Shirley said. "Considering all that, I
think (the pitchers) did very well."
The
Wildcats are scheduled to begin the Mid-Penn I season by
hosting
Cumberland
Valley
Tuesday. Shirley said Book is penciled in as the starting
pitcher.
Hershey
1001000 -
2 2 4
Mechanicsburg 520 030
x – 10 12 0
Matt
Iacavone, Fred Weaver (3), Mike Pritchard (6) and Matt Bruce,
Chris Stump (4). Justin Stewart, Nate Book (3), Bob Strickler (4),
Mike Edwards (6), Jason Stamper (7) and Mike Flor, Matt Bennett
(4). WP-Stewart. LP-lacavone. HR — Edwards (M), Weaver (H).
Mechanicsburg Rallies For Win vs.
Chambersburg
Walks
and mental lapses usually come back to haunt a baseball team.
Just
ask the Chambersburg Trojans.
The
Mechanicsburg Wildcats took advantage of six walks in the game
and rallied for three runs in the top of the seventh inning for a
come-from-behind 6-4 win over
Chambersburg
at Henninger Field Thursday in a Mid Perm I game.
Heading
into the seventh inning, the Trojans were on top 4-3, but things
went sour in an agonizing way.
Trojan
starting pitcher Jason Forrester began the inning by hitting
pinch hitter Justin Shoemaker. Perry Albert then chased Forrester
from the game by roping a triple to right-center, scoring
Shoemaker and tying the score. New pitcher Scott Burkholder
retired his first batter on a short fly ball.
The
Wildcats' Mike Edwards then beat a ground ball against a drawn-in
infield. Second baseman Jason Fleegal threw home, but Albert
scored the go-ahead run on a close play. Justin Stewart added an
RBI single for Mechanicsburg to finish the scoring.
"We
walked too many hitters,"
Chambersburg
coach Bob Thomas said.
Four
runners who walked or were hit by a pitch eventually scored.
"Today
wasn't a good day for hitting (because of the cold weather), but
we hit all right," Thomas said.
Mechanicsburg
took advantage of two walks in the first inning to go on top 2-0.
Bob
Strickler and Edwards received consecutive walks, and with two
outs, Ty Woods blooped a single down the rightfield line to bring
home both runners.
"This was a typical early season game,"
Mechanicsburg coach Don Shir-ley said. "Next tune around both
teams will play better. Both teams got a lot of seeing-eye
hits."
Justin Stewart was the winning pitcer.
He pitched 7 innings, gave up 8 hits, 2 earned runs, struck
out 8.
Waynesboro
4, Mechanicsburg 0
Waynesboro
’s Matt White may be Greg
White’s little brother, butt he sophomore hurler is making a big
name for himself.
Matt fashioned a three-hitter with nine strikeouts as the
Indians blanked Mechanicsburg 4 – 0.
Mechanicsburg’s Bob Strickler took the loss, his first in
three years.
Of course, Greg was there to lend a hand with a two-run
homer in the fourth inning to snap a scoreless tie.
Wildcats Win Wild One In M'burg
Carlisle
pitcher Nolan Cassell surrendered two hits and only one run to
Mechanicsburg in six innings of work Wednesday afternoon in a
Mid-Penn Division I baseball game at Memorial Park.
The
Thundering Herd led 4-1, when Cassell tired in the bottom of the
seventh and was replaced by Tony Saporito, which seemed to
ignite the Wildcats. With two out and the bases loaded in the
bottom of the seventh, Ty Woods stroked a single to rightfield off
Saporito, which scored the tying and winning runs for
Mechanicsburg to cap a four-run rally and an improbable 5-4
come-from-behind victory.
"We
didn't quit, but it seems like it takes us about four innings to
get started every game," Mechanicsburg coach Don Shirley
said. "Although I think Cassell pitched a great game. He was
throwing strikes and keeping us off balance. He did a very good
job for them. I give him a lot of credit."
Cassell
walked Doug Grant on four straight pitches to open the bottom of
the seventh. None of the four pitches was even close to being a
strike and Carlisle coach Harry Mundorff decided, with a three-run
lead, to bring in Saporito.
He
walked Bryan Hellam to put Wildcats on first and second with no
outs. Pinch hitter Justin Stewart fouled out to Herd third
baseman Brian Rhinehart, on a miraculous catch, for the first out
of the inning.
Two straight wild pitches plated Grant and put Hellam on
third. Perry Albert then grounded out to first, which allowed
Hellam to score and cut the deficit to 4-3.
With
two outs and the bases empty, Mike Pestke and Mike Edwards strung
together back-to-back singles, followed by a walk to Nate Book,
which loaded the bases for Woods.
The
senior fightfielder worked the count to 2-2, before depositing an
outside fastball just in front of Lance Conley, which scored
Pestke with the tying run and Edwards with the winning run.
“It
was an outside fastball and I got ringed up on that pitch last
time and I didn’t wantt hat to happen again,” said Woods of
the winning hit. “I
was juiced and I knew I had to come through.”
"Saparito
throws hard and then I didn't know if there was going to be a play
at the plate or not because Ty hit it so hard," Shirley said.
"It got to rightfield in a hurry, but Edwards got a good jump
off second base."
Mechanicsburg's
last-inning heroics completely overshadowed a masterful pitching
effort by Cassell. In addition to limiting the Wildcats to a
single run, Cassell did the job at the plate by driving in two or
Carlisle
's four runs.
Waynesboro
Takes Lead In Mid Penn I
It
was deja vu all over
again.
Last
Thursday, the Waynesboro Indians were in first place atop the
Mid Penn I baseball standings all by themselves.
One
week later . . . and the Indians are atop the Mid Penn I all by
their lonesome thanks to Matt White's three-hit, 4-0 shutout of
the Mechanicsburg Wildcats Thursday.
Flash
back to last week: The Chambersburg Trojans had thrown a bucket of
brutally cold water on the Indians last Friday in a shocking 8-0
defeat that threw the Mid Penn I standings into a jumble.
That
game left
Waynesboro
,
Chambersburg
and Mechanicsburg tied for first.
Monday,
the Trojans fell 5-2 to Mechanicsburg. All Indian coach Greg
Chandler wanted was to have it back in Indians' hands.
He
got his wish.
"What
a big relief,"
Chandler
said. "I feel real confident right now.”
“We
won a close ballgame against a good team and went through that
slump where we weren't hitting the ball. So we took a day off
(Monday) and we were mentally fatigued, frustrated and like a
bear just waking up from hibernation."
Even
though Waynesboro (11-2,8-2 MPC) might have been a tad on the
ornery side heading into the game, Mechanicsburg's southpaw ace
Justin Stewart matched White great pitch for great pitch — until
the fourth.
With
two outs and nobody on, Indian Greg White was hit by a pitch.
Jamie Long then lined a double to the fence in left-center to
score White.
"That
first run was big," Mechanicsburg coach Don Shirley said.
"He got the big hit there, but we just couldn't get the big
hit when we needed it."
Waynesboro
put the game out of reach with
some help from Mechanicsburg (10-3, 8-3 MPC) in the sixth,
batting around and scoring three runs. Ben Henicle walked, stole
second and went to third on a throwing error. Greg White beat
out an infield single, which left Henicle at third. White then
stole second.
Long
was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Wes Smith hit a
chopper to the mound which Stewart fielded cleanly. Stewart threw
home wide, allowing Henicle and White to score, while Long went
to third. Ryan Weber followed with a bloop single to score Long.
For
Matt White it was the second time this year he's thrown a
three-hit shutout to beat Mechanicsburg. It was also the second
time this year the Indians have beaten the Wildcats 4-0.
Deja
vu.
White
walked three and struck out seven to move his record to 5-0.
"I was surprised to throw another shutout at them, because
they're an excellent team," Matt White said. "But going
into the game, we knew a lot about their hitter's (from scouting
reports)."And my defense behind me was great tonight."
A
diving stop by shortstop Henicle in the second on Mike Flor's
infield single saved one run, and rightfielder Dana Weber's great
catch of Mike Edward's deep fly to right in the fifth saved
another run.
NOTES:
Chambersburg (10-3, 8-3 MPC) beat Cedar Cliff 10-0 and is tied for
second With Mechanicsburg — one game behind
Waynesboro
. Greg White had a big day at the plate for
Waynesboro
, going 2-for-2 with two runs scored and a double. He had a
two-run homer in the first Mechanicsburg game.
Stewart, Bennett Power M'burg
The
first time Mechanicsburg played
Carlisle
this season, the Wildcats needed a dramatic comeback in the bottom
of the seventh inning to beat the Thundering Herd.
This
time, all Mechanicsburg needed was Justin Stewart. The big lefthander
pitched a two-hitter, retiring 15 consecutive batters during one
stretch of the Wildcats' 4-0 Mid-Penn Division I victory at George
Bowen Field.
Matt
Bennett provided the biggest offensive support with a towering
two-run homer in the fourth inning, and Perry Albert knocked in
the other two runs with a groundout and a sacrifice fly. Mechanicsburg
swept the season series from the Herd after scoring four runs in
the bottom of the seventh to defeat
Carlisle
5-4 on April 20.
"That's
the best pitching we've seen this year," Herd coach Harry
Mundorff said. "We've seen other left-handers, but he broke
well and his fastball was tailing a little bit. He just
dbminated our hitters."
Stewart
allowed a bloop single to Matt McKenrick with two outs irt the
bottom of he first inning. No other Carlisle batter reached base
until Tony Saporito hit a pill to the fence in center field for a
two-out double in the sixth. Stewart struck out eight batters,
walked two and hit one. All three of the three passes came in
the sixth and seventh innings.
"He's
pitched a lot of good games," Mechanicsburg coach Don Shirley
said. "I'd say the first five innings were as well as he's
pitched all year.
Lefty Knocks Trojans Out Of First
Only
three losses.
All
three losses to left-handers.
Do
you see a trend here for the Chambersburg Trojan baseball team?.
Mechanicsburg's
Bob Strickler scattered seven hits Monday to help the Wildcats
to a 5-2 victory over
Chambersburg
at Memorial Park, halting the Trojans' eight-game win streak and
knocking them out of a tie for first place in the Mid Perm I.
Mechanicsburg
(10-2, 8-2 MPC) is a half-game ahead of
Waynesboro
(10-2, 7-2 MPC), which was idle Monday, while the Trojans are 9-3,
7-3 MFC. The Wildcats play at
Waynesboro
on Wednesday afternoon.
"This
is the tough part of the schedule," Mechanicsburg coach Don
Shirley said. "Everybody plays Chambersburg,
Waynesboro
and Mechanicsburg in a row, and we play each other back-to-back,
too."
Although
the Trojans have lost three times to left-handers, coach Bob
Thomas is more dismayed by how his team has lost to them.
"All three times, we had them on the ropes early in the game
and let them off," Thomas said. "We let him off the hook
in the second inning today."
Chambersburg
. struck first, scoring twice in
the top of the first after Strickler had gotten two outs. He
walked Anthony Cleary, gave up an RBI double over the
leftfielders' head to Eric Bender and a run-scoring single up the
middle to Rusty Truett.
"I
tell my guys to get me three runs and we'll win," Strickler
said. "But I was worried when
Chambersburg
got those two so quick."
The
Trojans were looking for more in the second when John Barton and
Ricky Truett hit one-out singles and moved up to second and third
when the leftfielder misplayed Truett's hit.
But
Strickler got out of trouble by inducing a pop-up and a fly out.
The
Wildcats got to Trojan pitcher Scott Burkholder in the third for
three runs. Shortstop Eric Folmar's bad throw put the leadoff
batter on, then Strickler singled. After a sacrifice bunt, Mike
Pestke lined a two-run single, then later scored on a hit by
Justin Stewart. But Burkholder escaped more serious trouble when
he got Matt Bennett to hit into a bases-loaded 6-4-3 double play.
Shirley
said, "I thought that would come back to haunt us."
Chambersburg
threatened in the fifth when
Folmar and Jason Fleegal hit one-out singles. But Cleary's sinking
liner to right was gloved by Nate Book and he caught Fleegal off
first for a killing double play.
"That
was big, especially with Bender up next," Strickler said.
Mechanicsburg
added two runs in the fifth with the help of a couple of Trojan
mistakes. Mike Edwards doubled, then caught the Trojans napping by
taking third on a throwback from catcher Rob Paetow to Burkholder.
Edwards scored on a single by Book.
Pinch
runner Rod Broker stole second, moved up on a hit by Stewart and
scored on a wild pitch. "A couple of mental errors hurt
us," Thomas said.
In
the sixth, the Trojans' last threat expired. A walk and a single
by Chad Wadel went for naught when Barton flied out to deep left.
Strickler
said, "You know
Chambersburg
is a good-hitting team. Even their No. 9 hitter (Ricky Truett) hit
three shots. I just tried to keep the ball down and keep it away
from the lefties. I got it up more than I wanted, but they hit a
lot of fly balls."
The
Trojans made 11 outs on fly balls or pop-ups.
"The
big thing for Bob was he didn't put his head down when they went
ahead 2-0," Shirley said. "Usually when
Chambersburg
gets ahead, they aren't done. But Bob threw better from the third
inning on."
Edwards,
Stewart, and Strickler had two hits.
Edwards had a double, and Pestke had two RBIs.
Strickler The Star For Mechanicsburg
Bob
Strickler scattered six hits and struck out seven to a 6-1
Mid-Penn Division I baseball victory over Cedar Cliff Monday at
Memorial Park.
In
addition to a stellar pitching effort, Strickler also did the job
at the plate by going 2-for-2. Junior Mike Edwards pitched in with
a two-run home run in the fifth as the Wildcats scored at least
one run in five of the six innings they batted.
Justin
Stewart and Mike Flor each had an RBI.
Mechanicsburg
improves to 9-3 in the conference and 11-3 overall. Cedar Cliff
drops to 3-10 in the conference and 5-12 overall.
Cedar
Cliff
000 0010 — 1 6 3
Mechanicsburg
111 021 x — 6 8 3
WP-Strickler. LP-Sean Witte. HR-Edwards (M).
Baseball Team Avenges Hoop Team's District Loss
EPHRATA
— Mechanicsburg made good use of its second chance against
Spring Grove.
The
Wildcats jumped out to an early 8-0 lead and coasted to a 12-3
victory over the Rockets Monday at War Memorial Field in the
opening round of the District 3-AAA baseball tournament.
Mechanicsburg
paid Spring Grove back after the Rockets ousted the Wildcats from
the district basketball tournament in the first round. Justin
Stewart, Mike Pestke and Mike Edwards,
all
basketball players, had three hits each, and the Wildcats pounded
Spring Grove pitcher Eric Kern early and often. Kern was the
player who scored 35 points against Mechanicsburg in the district
basketball game.
Stewart
also pitched 5 2/3 innings of four-hit ball, and when his control
faltered Edwards came in to close the game.
Mechanicsburg
will face Manheim Central in the second round. The Barons
defeated Lower Dauphin 3-1 in the second game at Ephrata Monday
night. The Mechanicsburg-Manheim Central second-round game will be
Friday, probably right back at War Memorial Field.
"That
was in our mind," Stewart said of the rematch. "Coach
was joking about it the whole time on the way down. I think we
just kept our heads tonight. We've got a really good ball club
here. Hitting was the key today. Guys were crushing the
ball."
In
fact, before Stewart even went to the mound for the first time he
had a four-run lead. Mechanicsburg's first four batters in the top
of the first all scored.
Perry
Albert drew a walk to start the first, and Pestke grounded a
double down the left-field line to put runners on first and third.
Edwards smashed a single to left field to plate the first run, and
Nate Book followed with a drive to deep right that went for a
two-run triple.
It
was the beginning a big night for Book, who drove in three runs
with the triple and a sacrifice fly, and also made a pair of
sparkling defensive plays in the third inning. Book scored the
fourth run in the first on Doug Grant's picturesque squeeze bunt.
"You
usually want to be the home team, but not always," Wildcat
coach Don Shirley said. "Sometimes you're better off to be
the visitor if you get things going early."
Mechanicsburg
kept applying the pressure in the second and third.
Stewart
started the second by smoking a line drive right back at Kern. The
Rocket pitcher had no chance to react. The line drive hit him just
above his pitching elbow, and Kern had to come out of the game.
Albert
greeted reliever Troy Swartzbaugh with a bunt base hit, and Pestke
and Edwards followed with back-to-back RBI singles. Book's sac fly
made it 7-0, and Stewart brought in another run with a triple to
left-center to score Bryan Hellam, who reached on an error to
start the third.
The
eight-run cushion was more than enough for Stewart, but the senior
left-hander had a rocky third inning. He walked the first two batters,
and Jon Hersh stole a base to put runners on first and third with
no cuts.
Then
came the game's most unusual play. Matt Poff hit a short pop fly
to right. Book came in on the ball but couldn't make the play.
Hersh held up to see if the ball was caught, and Book threw him
out at the plate. Book also made a running catch in foul territory
for the second out of the inning, but consecutive singles by
Corbett Leonard and Rob McDonald produced the Rockets' three runs.
Most
of Stewart's problems were caused by control. He surrendered only
four hits in 5 2/3, but he walked six batters, hit another, and
threw a couple of wild pitches. "I think I'm kind of guiding
it," he said. "I changed windups about two weeks ago,
trying to get a little bit more velocity out of my fastball. I
threw real well against Carlisle, came back against
Red
Land
and didn't throw well at all. Tonight, I kind of caught mixed up
between the two windups."
Stewart
had no problems at the plate. His two-run single capped the
Wildcats' three-run fourth. Hellam drove in the first run of the
inning by drawing a walk with the bases loaded, and Stewart's
single was the only hit during the rally.
Mechanicsburg
got help in that inning and several others from the Rockets' six
errors. Pestke's second double, a shot over the center fielder's
head, scored the game's last run in the sixth inning.
"We
wanted to prove something today," Edwards said. "We
played well the first couple of innings, but then we started to
get out of it and made a couple of bad plays for Justin. Overall,
we played a pretty good game."
Edwards
said the team's goal is go farther than it did last season when
the Wildcats were eliminated by
Waynesboro
in the district semi- finals.
To
do that, Mechanicsburg has to play good defense and get our bats
moving again," he said. "We hit ball well tonight, and
if we can that the rest of the way we should do fine."
Mechanicsburg
431 301 0 —12 12 1
Spring
Grove
003 000 0— 3
5 6
Justin
Stewart, Mike Edwards (6) Mike Flor, Sam Hepner (5), Mat Benett
(7). Eric Kern,
Troy
Swartzbai (2), Brian Baney (3), Adam Spongier and Corbett Leonard.
WP — Stewart LP — Kern 3B — Nate Book, Stewart (M). 2B —
Mike Pestke 2 (M).
Barons Rally in 7th Inning;
Wildcats Lose Heartbreaker
Mechanicsburg
left War Memorial Field in Ephrata in a state of utter shock Friday
night.
For
that matter, so did Manheim Central.
Neither
side could believe Central's comeback from beyond the grave in
the second round of the District 3-AAA baseball tournament. The
Barons scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh and won the
game 7-6 on Todd Cantrell's three-run double to right field with
two cuts.
Nate
Bell scored the winning run, coming all the way around from first
base on Cantrell's second double of the game.
Bell
just beat the relay throw to home plate. The tag by Wildcat
catcher Mike Flor came a fraction of a second too late.
Mechanicsburg's
season comes to an end with a 17-4 record. Manheim Central (17-5)
moves on to the district semifinals.
"In
these playoffs, we seem to be snakebitten," Wildcat coach Don
Shirley
said.
"The ball was hit just in the right place. We made a good
throw. He just beat the throw. No way did I ever think they were
going to score the winning run from first base right there."
Mechanicsburg pitcher Bob Strickler almost completely
stymied the Barons before the seventh inning. He allowed just one
hit — a shot for a double by Cantrell— and he retired Manheim
Central in order in five of the first six innings.
But
the Barons took advantage of a couple of walks and put together
four hits in the bottom of the seventh to earn the victory.
"We've
won games like this, but it wasn't to get into the semifinals of
the district
tournament,"
said Central coach Hen Bell, the grandfather of the player who
scored the winning run. "We've done it before, but not at
this level. That was a great win."
Strickler, who struck out 11 and walked just three, issued
a free pass to Derek Groff to start the seventh. Torrey Bomberger
doubled down the line in left, and Jeremy Mohr drew another walk
to load the bases.
The Barons caught a break when Brad Ginder's high pop to
right field found open space and dropped for an RBI single.
Strickler struck out the next two batters before
Bell
's infield single brought in Central's fourth run and brought
Cantrell to the plate. Strickler got ahead in the count, but
Cantrell stroked a 1-2 fastball to right to seal Mechanicsburg's
fate. "I thought
he'd try to throw something low and outside," Cantrell
said. "He just got it up a little bit. It was outside, but he
just got it up a little bit."
When
the Barons lost 10-8 in the Lancaster-Lebanon League semifinals,
the batter before Cantrell made the last out of the game with the
bases loaded. This time, the .607 hitter got his chance.
"Everybody
looks forward to doing something like this, and I finally did
it," Cantrell said. "I never thought I would, but you
don't think about getting in these kind of situations until they
happen."
"He's
an honest-to-goodness hitter," Hen Bell said of Cantrell.
"He has a short, quick swing. He hits the breaking ball, he
hits the fastball, he hits it no matter what you throw up there.
He believes that he can do it, and we have a lot of faith in
him."
Mechanicsburg
enjoyed complete command from the first inning through the top of
the seventh. Just as they did in an opening-round win over Spring
Grove, the Wildcats scored four times in the top of the first
inning.
Manheim
Central helped out by making three errors in the top of the first.
Justin Stewart's single with the bases loaded knocked in the first
two runs, and two more came home when Doug Grant reached on a
throwing error on what should have been the last out of the
inning.
The
Wildcats' leadoff batter reached base in each of the first six
innings, but Baron starter Eric Vasko battled out of some trouble
in his six innings of work. While Strickler set down the first
nine batters he faced, Vasko kept the game relatively close.
"When
you get your chances in the playoffs, you've got to do it,"
Shirley said. "You can't let them get away. I thought we
played well, we just didn't get the last out."
Central
got its first two runs in the fourth.
Bell
drew a leadoff walked and moved to second on a wild pitch. He
scored when Cantrell drilled the Barons' first hit of the game, a
ground-rule doubled that bounced into the football bleachers in
left-center field. Cantrell moved to third on one fielder's choice
and scored on' another, cutting Mechanicsburg's lead to 4-2.
The
Wildcats got those runs back one at a time. Mike Pestke started
the top of the fifth with a ground-rule double of his own. Pestke,
who had three two-base hits in Mechanicsburg's two district
games, reached third on a wild pitch and stayed there until
Stewart drilled a two-out triple to center.
Stewart
finished with five hits, two triples and six RBI in the district
playoffs.
Perry
Albert's two-out single to left knocked in pinch runner Justin
Shoemaker with the Wildcats' sixth run in the top of the sixth.
The
scored remained 6-2 until Manheim's miracle in the seventh.
"I
just don't know what to say. I just can't believe," Shirley
said.
"This
has been a great season," he added. "You go 17-4, there
can't be any doubt that we played well to get this far.
We had high aspirations.
We certainly expected to go further than this game, but it
just didn’t work out.”
Mechanicsburg 400
011 0 — 6 7 1
Manheim Cent. 000
200 5 — 7 5 5
Bob
Strickler and Mat Bennett, Mike Flor (7). Eric Vasko, John
Woostmart
(7)
and Bob Smoker. WP — Woostman, LP — Strickler. 3B — Justin
Stewart (M) 2B — Mike Pestke (M), Todd
Cantrell
2, Torrey Bomberger (MC)
1994
Varsity Scores
|
MASH
|
Game
|
Opponent
|
Record
|
|
2
|
Hershey
|
10
|
1
– 0
|
|
2
|
C.V.
|
14
|
2
– 0
|
|
3
|
Chambersburg
|
4
|
3
– 0
|
|
4
|
Waynesboro
|
0
|
3
- 1
|
|
0
|
Palmyra
|
9
|
4
– 1
|
|
3
|
Cedar
Cliff
|
7
|
5
– 1
|
|
4
|
Carlisle
|
5
|
6
- 1
|
|
6
|
C.D.
East
|
1
|
6
- 2
|
|
2
|
Red
Land
|
6
|
7
– 2
|
|
1
|
Central
Dauphin
|
10
|
8
- 2
|
|
4
|
C.V.
|
14
|
| 
