Five days, 15 games, 141 innings, and 5,326 pitches after it started, the American Legion regional tournament has finally vacated Breslin Field, leaving the Metropolitan Baseball League to use a field which has been overrun by Bears.
Any of those bad-hop singles the Met Leaguers get this week can be attributed to the footprints of, among others, the Boyertown (Pa.) Bears, winners of Region 2 for a second successive year. This season’s edition gets a shot at defending the national championship in the American Legion World Series, which started Wednesday morning in Middletown, Ct.
Boyertown, which assured itself of a spot in the championship game with three straight opening victories, suffered a fourth-day loss to the New Jersey state champs from Brooklawn, but rallied to defeat Mayo, Md., in the title game.
What follows isn’t so much a regular game summary as an accounting of the memories of the tournament, the things which made the grueling five-day event seem fun.
Following the most memorable pitching duel of the tournament, in which Wheeling’s (W.V.) Gary Taylor outdid Orchard Park’s (N.Y.) John Davidson to earn a 4-2 decision, it was time for the New Jersey state champs to take the field and display their bats. But their bats never got there, as Josh Bullock and Chris Brewer combined on a five-hit, 9-0 shutout for Mayo. Bullock recorded ten strikeouts in a game which saw the only rain of the entire week, resulting in just 27 minutes of delays.
The crowd was all there to cheer on the Lyndhurst club as they hosted Glen Allen, Va., in the final game of the evening. It looked like a good one for two innings, as Paul DeSimone of Lyndhurst matched zeroes with Les Jennette of Glen Allen. But when the visitors got back to the top of the order, DeSimone was in trouble. Before the third out, Glen Allen had 13 runs on 12 hits, and they weren’t done. They pounded their way to a 30-1 final, as 15 batters reached the hit column.
Boyertown blasted Mayo out of the water, 13-4, in an evening contest, as Chris Mackey went on a tear. He was 4-for-4 with three RBI, grabbing the spotlight from Jeff Locklear’s two-hit shutout over the first five innings.
But the greatest single pitcher’s outing we saw was on Thursday evening. That night, Glen Allen’s Paul Kendrick was the victim of numbers.
Kendrick’s scorecard was only blemished by an early error and a pair of walks as he entered the ninth inning. Starting in the first, he had retired 10 straight Wheeling batters, issued a walk, and set down 12 more. When he struck out Jason Torbett to lead off the ninth, however, the numbers turned against him.
Kendrick, who wore number 13, was about to face second baseman James Companion, who also wore 13 on his back. Torbett had been Kendrick’s 13th strikeout, while Glen Allen already had 13 runs on 13 hits, had left 13 on base, and had drawn 13 walks from four Wheeling pitchers. While no one in the press box dared utter the curse words "no-hitter", everyone saw the numbers. And Companion promptly delivered Wheeling’s first hit of the night. A disappointed Kendrick still finished with a shutout, allowing two hits and fanning 15.
After the first inning of Friday’s nightcap, the press box gang was wondering why the scoreboard didn’t have three digits on it for each team’s score. Glen Allen jumped out to a 4-3 lead before the inning was over, but Boyertown came back with one in the third and two in the fifth for a 6-4 advantage. Mark Smith, Les Jennette, and Scott Spears produced runs for the Virginians, however, and it took Sean Irey’s triple to bring in Jeff Seymour and tie it at 7-7 in the top of the eighth.
That necessitated a pitching change. Seymour was already out for Boyertown, and now Spears was leaving the mound and making way for a tall 16-year-old named Jason Angel, who could boast of just one decision all season. But the kid lived up to the challenge, failing to allow a hit for 5 2/3 innings. Meanwhile, both teams were running themselves out of innings, and as a result, it wasn’t decided until the 14th. Tom Szilli reached on an error by the shortstop, Scott Eidle singled, and Dave Willman bunted back to the mound. Angel’s throw was wide of first base, and Szilli scored the go-ahead run. Two more came in, giving Boyertown a 10-7 win, and though all of the 14th-inning runs were unearned, Angel was upset. But it wasn’t for good reason. The reporter for the Richmond paper said, "Angel came into his own as a pitcher tonight." We believe it.
Nor was Boyertown in the best of shape. Brooklawn kept itself alive by defeating Boyertown, 11-4, on another of its balanced attacks. The nights continued long, however. For a fourth night in a row, the proceedings ended after midnight. However, the final pairings were set: Brooklawn against Mayo on Sunday at 1:05, with Boyertown waiting to face the winner.
All that nearly made the final anticlimactic. Boyertown slowly built an 11-0 lead, while Scott Mutter held the Mayo bats in check. Mutter ran out of pitching eligibility after seven innings, and after a mini-rally by Mayo, Kevin Fronheiser threw the 5,326th pitch of the tournament past Greg Nehman for strike three. It was over.
Joe Clayton of Charleston, S.C., and "Bushie" Hill of Manchester, N.H., the national representatives. Bob Eppehimer of WPAZ radio in Pottstown, Pa., "the station that airs the Bears." Wayne Morris, the umpire-in-chief, and his staff of Pete Amoruso, Ed DiBacco, Dave Lesko, and Bob Stevens.
Mike Carroll and his entire staff for a superb job. Jim Franchino, the park foreman, who lost his brother during the tournament, but who still managed to keep control of the ground crew. Jerry Sparta, the scorer who had to contend with too many innings in which teams batted around the order.
Pat True, the Mayo second baseman, who won the National Community Bank sportsmanship award. Chris Mackey, who went 13-for-24 for Boyertown, and who covered plenty of ground in center field. Bernie Walter, the Mayo coach who made sure that each of his 18 players appeared in at least four games.
There are too many others, all of whom deserve credit for making it a great tournament. We’re sure they’re all ready to run one again - that is, if they ever recover from this one. Thanks to all for making it a success.