To view game action photos, visit the photo gallery at the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
FAIRVIEW VILLAGE – Wissahahickon had ‘one of those innings’ on Saturday at Methacton.
The Trojans trailed the Warriors by just one run heading into the bottom of the fourth, but the Warriors’ leadoff batter reached base on a play the Trojans should have made but didn’t. That was followed by an error on a relatively routine fly ball.
It marked the beginning of the end as the Warriors pushed five runs across their way to a 10-5 win over their former SOL rival in a non-league contest on Saturday morning.
“The last two years it seemed like we’d have one of those innings every game,” Trojan senior Drew Frankenfield said. “This year we’re really limiting them.
“You hate to say it, but those little mistakes just come back and kill you. We can’t do that if we want to be a championship caliber team in our league.”
The Trojans also will need to capitalize on their scoring opportunities if they aspire to vie for a title. Twice in Saturday’s loss – in the third and fourth innings - they left the bases loaded.
“We were hitting the ball today, but we were leaving so many guys on base,” Frankenfield said. “We gave them some runs, but you have to give it to them – they drove in the runs when they had the opportunity, and we didn’t today.”
The Trojans - who pounded out 11 hits, including five doubles - were led by the three-hit efforts of Frankenfield and sophomore Brian Kaissi. Frankenfield needed only a triple to hit for the cycle as he pounded out a single, double and home run, driving in three runs in yet another productive day at the plate.
“That been his M.O.,” Trojan coach Shannon Gunby said. “If I could clone him and hit him three, six and nine in the game, I would. He stepped it up.”
Gunby didn’t have to look far to figure out what had gone wrong in his team’s loss.
“Our biggest concern is obviously defensively,” he said. “We cannot afford to let balls go through us or drop and give them an opportunity for a big inning.
“Also, offensively we had had two bases-loaded situations where we had our four or five guy up, and we cannot afford to waste opportunities like that.”
Saturday’s game pitted a pair of former SOL American Conference foes, and for Warrior coach Paul Spiewak, whose team is now playing in the PAC-10, it was good to be back, if only for a day.
“There are some very, very strong teams in the PAC-10, and it’s a good fit for us location-wise,” he said. “But I grew up in the SOL – played four years of high school in the Suburban One, and for six years, I was coaching with guys like Shannon, Frank (Decembrino) from Cheltenham and Pete (Moore) from Hatboro.
“These are some of my closest friends, so from a selfish standpoint, it’s disappointing, but from a baseball and academic standpoint, it’s been a great fit for us.”
Saturday’s game afforded both coaches the opportunity to give playing time to some of their back-ups. One of Methacton’s super subs – senior Ed Lowery – delivered the game’s biggest blow when he hit a two-run blast over the center field fence in the first inning, giving the Warriors an early 3-1 lead.
“To see Ed Lowery come out and have a chance to play and be successful is a great feeling as a coach,” Spiewak said. “He’s such a good kid. He’s our locker room guy.
“We have some really good players that haven’t been playing for us. They’re tremendous team guys, and they have accepted that we are one team. We don’t care who gets the glory on the mound, we don’t care who gets the glory offensively. We just want to play good team baseball.”
The stage was set for Lowery when Kevin Burke, who had a pair of hits and scored three runs, led off the first with a double to right. Nick Strizziere, who had three hits, followed with an infield single. The game’s first run crossed the plate on David Toomey’s groundout.
In the second, Wissahickon’s Kevin Cuff roped a double to right center to open the inning, and Steve Hopwood poked a single to right. The Trojans had runners on second and third with none out but – thanks to some shaky base running – came up empty.
One inning later, Kaissi, who was a perfect three-for-three, collected a one-out double to left, and Frankenfield followed with a single to shallow center. Kaissi scored on a bases-loaded walk to make it a 3-2 game.
In the bottom of the inning, the Warriors got that run back, but the Trojans made it a one-run game again after Taylor Franko, who doubled to right, scored on Frankenfield’s screaming double over the third base bag in the fourth.
Then came the fateful bottom of the fourth that included hits by Joey Casselberry, Drew Schaffer (2 RBIs), Burke (RBI) and Toomey (RBI) as the Warriors plated five to go on top 9-3. The Trojans never threatened again.
“Obviously, their history is they’re a very good program,” Gunby said. “This gives us an opportunity to face the caliber of teams we’re going to face in the playoffs and also see where we’re at.”
Both teams left the field boasting identical 3-1 records.
“I’m very pleased with the way we started our season,” Gunby said. “We have some guys that have been around for a few years, and it’s their opportunity to shine, and they’ve been doing well.
“We’ve had some very good wins. Two shutouts – you can’t complain about that. We scored 14 runs in one ball game, so every aspect has been there.”
According to Frankenfield, coming out of the gate quickly this season was important for this Trojan squad.
“As a senior, me, Rick (Pasceri) and (Kevin) Cuff were three-year players, and we knew we could win and compete,” Frankenfield said. “It was important for the younger guys to get that – ‘We can win, and we can compete with anyone.’
“Those three wins are big for us. It makes us feel like we can only beat ourselves, and we can do some good things this year. We’re not happy with the loss today, but we still have a good feeling. We’re really optimistic about the season. We just didn’t make the plays we had to make.”
METHACTON 10, WISSAHICKON 5
Wissahickon: Brian O’Donnell 4 0 0 0; Brian Kaissi 3 3 3 0; Drew Frankenfield lf 4 1 3 3; Nate Guaglianone 2b 2 0 1 1, J.T. Crits 3 0 0 0; Rick Pasceri 1 0 0 0; Kevin Cuff lf,p 2 0 1 1, Brennan Weiss ph 1 0 0 0; Steve Hopwood p 3 0 2 0 Ryan McDonough cr, rf 0 0 0 0; Taylor Franko c 4 1 1 0; Chase Merrill 3b 4 1 1 0; Chris Beall ph 1 0 0 0. TOTALS 31 5 11 5
Methacton: Kevin Burke rf 3 3 2 1; Steve Capizzi rf 1 0 0 0; Nick Strizziere ss 4 1 3 0; David Toomey c 3 0 1 3; Todd Rubendall ph 1 0 0 0; Jon Bronstein 1b 4 0 0 0; Ed Lowery dh 3 1 1 2; Andrew Carr pr 0 1 0 0; Joey Casselberry p,3b 3 0 1 0; Todd Robendall cr 0 0 0 0; T.J. Klinger lf 2 1 0 0; Nick Sun lf 1 0 1 1; Jason Kushner 3b 1 1 0 0; Anthony Civitello ph 1 0 0 0; Mark Romano 3b, p 0 0 0 0; Drew Schaffer cf 3 1 1 2; Andrew Fair 2b 1 0 0 0. TOTALS 31 10 10 9.
Wissahickon 101 102 0-5
Methacton 301 510 x-10
E-Wissahickon 4. LOB – Wissahickon 10, Methacton 4. 2B-Guaglianone, Cuff, Kaissi, Franko, Frankenfield, Burke, Sun, Strizziere. HR-Frankenfield, Lowery. SB-McDonough.
IP H R ER BB SO
Wissahickon
Hopwood (L) 5 9 10 7 1 3
Cuff 1 1 0 0 0 1
Methacton
Casselberry (W) 5 1/3 11 5 5 4 4
Romano 1 2/3 0 0 0 1 3
- Log in to post comments
0
