BASEBALL: Fernandez leads HV to top of Lower Montco standings

By Mike Prince
mprince@montgomerynews.com

Photo courtesy of Mike Landes Rafael Fernandez has been a key to Huntingdon Valley's run to the top of the Lower Montco American Legion standings.

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Despite finishing with as many points as eventual league champion Fort Washington, Huntingdon Valley lost the head-to-head tiebreaker and finished second overall in the Lower Montco American Legion standings last season.

It was an occurrence with which Valley was familiar, as the team, currently coached by Evan Horn, has never – not once – finished first overall in the standings since starting in the league in 1963.

Valley won the league championship in 1980 and 1992, but still, the team has not been able to reach the top of the standings when the regular season came to a close.

So when Horn and his team look at the current standings, one which has Valley all alone in first place with 16 points and a 7-3-2 overall record, it’s a pretty big deal for them.

And one of the main reasons that Valley has been able to have so much success this season is the play of Rafael Fernandez, the recent Cheltenham High School graduate and current team captain who leads off for Valley while quarterbacking the defense from the shortstop position.

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GOLF: McDermott's in good form at Philadelphia Amateur

By Tom McNichol
tmcnichol@delcotimes.com

NEWTOWN SQUARE — Michael McDermott got his game revved up a little sooner in 2013 than usual.

Life as an investment adviser, husband and father of three boys, the youngest just seven months, doesn’t leave as much time for golf as there used to be in the days when McDermott was a regular at the U.S. Amateur and won the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s William Hyndman III Award that goes to the Player of the Year five times.

But McDermott is a member at Merion Golf Club and when the 2013 U.S. Open was headed to the historic East Course, well McDermott had to give it a shot. He came up short May 9 in a local qualifier at Waynesborough Country Club, but his game wasn’t far off.

Tuesday, McDermott, the former Haverford High and St. Joseph’s University standout, showed he’s in pretty good form during the rain-delayed qualifying for the GAP’s Philadelphia Amateur Championship. He went out and fired a 2-under 68 at the 7,190-yard, par-70 Aronomink Golf Club layout, tying him for the best round of the day at the Donald Ross gem.

He was even-par through eight holes when darkness halted his second round at the 6,613-yard, par-70 St. Davids Golf Club layout, leaving him at 2-under. He’s tied with Little Mill Country Club’s Michael Hyland in the battle for medalist honors.

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BASEBALL: Frandsen, Lee lift Phillies past Nationals

By Dennis Deitch
ddeitch@delcotimes.com, @DennisDeitch

PHILADELPHIA — Sometime soon, the Phillies hope to have Chase Utley back at second base, playing happily and healthily for the remainder of the season.

However, for the last three weeks, Kevin Frandsen has been making a pitch for more playing time by doing the same thing he’s done ever since getting called up in late July of last season — hit.

Frandsen continued to make good use of an opportunity he waited two months to get, as his two-out, two-run single with the bases loaded in the sixth inning Tuesday night gave the Phillies the lead for good as they notched their second straight win over Nationals, 4-2, at Citizens Bank Park.

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PHILLIES NOTES: Ruiz rejoins club

By Dennis Deitch
ddeitch@delcotimes.com, @DennisDeitch

PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies decided two minor-league rehabilitation games were enough for Carlos Ruiz to get back behind the plate in the big leagues.

However, the fact that the team’s leading hitter in 2012 was hitting eighth in the order tells you that Charlie Manuel doesn’t think the veteran’s bat is quite ready, even if his hamstring has healed.

“That was my thinking — put him down there (in the No. 8 hole) and let him get some at-bats,” Manuel said in a rain-soaked home dugout at Citizens Bank Park Tuesday night. “On nights we have a good (offensive) night he’ll get four at-bats. On nights we aren’t getting runs, he’ll get three, probably. We’ll see where he’s at.”

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CARPENTER CUP: SOL American/Continental powers past Philadelphia Catholic League

By Nick Iuele
niuele@montgomerynews.com

Montgomery Media / BOB RAINES Wissahickon's Randy Frankenfield pitches for the Suburban One American/Continental stars during Monday's Carpenter Cup game against the Philadelphia Catholic League.

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The Carpenter Cup provides an opportunity for the area’s best baseball players to show their skill set in front of college scouts. While both the Suburban One American/Continental and Philadelphia Catholic League teams are packed with talent, the former simply has the better squad and it showed in the opening round of the all-star tournament.

Led by stellar pitching and big offensive outings for Upper Moreland’s Robert Knox and North Penn’s Brady West, the SOL American/Continental essentially dominated the game showing the PCL who was boss with an 8-3 victory.

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CARPENTER CUP: SOL National-Bicentennial falls to Olympic-Colonial

By Mike Prince
mprince@montgomerynews.com

There wasn’t too much to cheer about for the Suburban One National/Bicentennial team or its fans, but when Trey Guaglionona came up to the plate, the Abington faithful was plenty happy.

The recent graduate and starter for the Ghosts, who was selected to the All-Star squad along with Abington teammates Eric Tidwell and Sean Gallagher, had two hits and got a huge response from the sizable cheering section which made the drive down to see their local players participate in the 28th Annual Phillies Carpenter Cup Classic.

The two hits marked possibly the loudest cheers of the day for the SOL National/Bicentennial team, but in the end, it was Olympic Colonial coming out with a convincing 16-8 win in the opening game of the Carpenter Cup at FDR Park’s Richie Ashburn Field on Monday morning.

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BUX-MONT LEGION BASEBALL: No letdown for Pennridge

By Tim Hindin
thindin@montgomerynews.com

For Montgomery Media / SUSAN KEEN Pennridge's Evan Myers releases a pitch during Monday's Bux-Mont American Legion League action against Perkiomen.

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Many times a deep run into the state playoffs that ends in a tough loss can spill into the American Legion season. This however was not the case for Pennridge as it picked up right where it left off from its state championship run after falling short to the eventual state champions North Penn last Tuesday.

“I was thinking it might be let-down time because I’ve had that before,” Pennridge coach Rocky Wright said.

It was not let-down time for Pennridge as it cruised to a 5-0 win over Perkiomen Monday night. Starting pitcher Evan Myers continued his dominance, throwing a complete game three-hit shutout.

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GREATER NORRISTOWN AMERICAN LEGION: Mascaro topples Valley Forge

By Rick Kauffman
rkauffman@21st-centurymedia.com

For Montgomery Media / RICK KAUFMAN Pat Rohr, 16-year-old pitcher from Devon Prep, struck out eight Valley Forge batters in his first start for JP Mascaro.

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JP Mascaro just keeps rolling. Sunday night it earned a 2-1 victory over Valley Forge behind Mike Anthony’s 16-strikeout game and on Monday it again won 3-1 behind the stellar performance of 16-year-old Pat Rohr from Devon Prep to improve to 8-0 on the season.

The key to it all? Just taking it easy.

“We’re kind of relaxed, not super intense,” Rohr said. “When everyone goes out there and plays their game relaxed, you play much better than when you’re under of pressure.”

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PERKY LEAGUE: Shorthanded Collegeville rolls past Nor-Gwyn

By Dennis C. Way
dway@21st-centurymedia.com

The lineup, particularly the bottom, was considerably less than awe-inspiring.

The starting pitcher was slated to pitch in the middle of this week.

And the manager, out of necessity, was playing first base.

It wasn’t a typical Collegeville ballgame. But it was a typical Collegeville result.

Matt Altieri, Lenny DelGrippo and Jon McGlone combined to go 9-for-11 with four doubles and eight RBI as the Black Sox ignored their shortcomings and blasted Nor-Gwyn, 10-1, in a Perkiomen Valley Twilight League game Monday at Ursinus College.

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BASEBALL: Domonic Brown, Howard lift Phils over Nationals

By Rob Parent
rparent@21st-centurymedia.com

PHILADELPHIA - His power pace at a career low, his knee and ankle still reminding him daily that he’s not completely healthy, Ryan Howard had nonetheless started to stir of late.

A home run had eluded him since May 29, and he’d only had seven of them all season. Yet Phils manager Charlie Manuel noted that during the club’s 3-7 road trip, Howard had stung a few pitches. It was just that he didn’t get under any of them.

Not to worry, Manuel said. He’d seen Howard get a few balls up in the air over the years.

Monday night, Manuel and the Phillies didn’t have to wait long to see it again. In Howard’s first at-bat, he crushed a high offering from Washington Nationals starter Dan Haren, kick-starting the Phillies to what would be a 5-4 victory, and hopefully for Howard starting something else.

The Phillies need to see him hit a lot more balls in the air.

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PHILLIES NOTES: Amaro points to 'core guys' for lack of production

By Rob Parent
rparent@21st-centurymedia.com

PHILADELPHIA — Not only did the Phillies perform miserably on their just-completed road trip, they finished it amid two of their premier pitchers venting some miseries.

First Cliff Lee indicated that if the Phillies didn’t start playing better, the trade deadline would loom ever larger for the club. Not lost in there was the not-so subtle hint that perhaps Lee would half-expect to be part of any trade movement that might crop up in that case.

That done, Cole Hamels really put voice to his frustrations, which seemed way overdue considering he’d just suffered loss No. 10 in a season that so far shouldn’t have produced half that many losses for him.

Lee and Hamels have seen respective measures the past two seasons of non-support from a Phillies offense, with support issues extending back far beyond spring training. Charlie Manuel hasn’t been shy in talking about his hitters needing to pump up the production, but it took a 3-7 road trip for the boss to sound off.

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BASEBALL: Molettiere, Wesolowski boost Pennridge to state semifinals

By Mike Prince
mprince@montgomerynews.com

Through Pennridge’s first six postseason games, senior leftfielder and team RBI leader A.J. Molettiere was raking at the plate, going 8-for-20 while driving in eight runs. And despite the competition continuing to get increasingly tougher as each game passes, the switch-hitting star has showed no signs of slowing down.

On what turned out to be a rainy and unseasonably cool Thursday afternoon in Allentown, Molettiere helped to keep the Rams’ season alive by doing what he does best – beating teams with his bat.

The senior hit a pair of doubles and scored a pair of runs in what was a 3-1 win for Pennridge over Wyoming Valley West in a PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinal at Parkland High School.

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FOOTBALL: South eases past North in Bucks County All-Star Football game

By Tim Hindin
thindin@montgomerynews.com

A person who talks trash through social media, but will not back his actions is known as a keyboard gangster. A twitter feud between players on the North and South Bucks County All-Stars resulted in the game ending prematurely and the two teams not exchanging handshakes afterwards.

Unlike the usual cowardly connotation to the term, these keyboard gangsters were ready to back their words up in the form of a football game.

“There was a lot of Twitter trash [talking], just communicating the past couple weeks,” Pennridge running back Kenny Crawford said. “This wasn’t just tonight, this was building up for a while. [There was] a lot of sore feelings from the past season with losses and it just let out here. Every one was just pretty dirty.”

South was very effective offensively totaling just less than 400 yards with a balanced attack throwing for 220 while rushing for another 177. Defensively South held North to miniscule three yards rushing. The offensive efficiency and defensive dominance led to a 35-9 South rout.

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BASEBALL: North Penn mercy-rule's Coatesville

By Mike Cabrey
mcabrey@21st-centurymedia.com

For Montgomery Media / MARK C. PSORAS North Penn's Dylan Borawski delivers a pitch during Thursday's PIAA Class AAAA playoff game against Coatesville.

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When North Penn’s Jared Malone walloped an offering by Coatesville pitcher C.J. Martinez in the bottom of the fourth inning, the blast appeared to have a chance of exiting Spring-Ford’s Ram Stadium.

Instead, the ball bounced just short of the center-field fence and bounced over for a ground-rule double.

“Got to hit the weight room for next year,” said the Knights’ sophomore first baseman.

The near miss of a home run was about the only thing that did not go North Penn’s way offensively against the Red Raiders Thursday afternoon in their PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinal contest. Melone finished 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles, while Bobby Scott drove in five runs as the Knights rolled past the District One champions 11-1 in six innings.

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SOFTBALL: North Penn rolls over Central Bucks East

By Andrew Marcus
amarcus@21st-centurymedia.com

For Montgomery Media / MARK C. PSORAS North Penn's Erin Maher scores a run as Central Bucks East catcher Julia Schoenwald calls for a late throw during Thursday's PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinal game.

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The North Penn softball team remembers the jitters it had prior to its first PIAA game a year ago.

The feeling of losing that game has been festering ever since. The Maidens certainly could empathize with Central Bucks East after they handed them a 11-0 loss in the Class AAAA quarters, but on Thursday afternoon it was all smiles on the Maidens’ side.

The goal was to get further than they did a season ago and now with two wins in the state playoffs the Maidens have done that. On Monday they will face Neshaminy in the semifinals at a time and place yet to be determined.

“I told my coaches winning the district last year and losing in the first round of states was going to help us,” Maidens coach Rick Torresani said. “Central Bucks East won the district, but they’ve never been in this environment.”

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Inter-Ac leagues merge

By Mike Prince
mprince@montgomerynews.com

Despite the high school spring sports season coming to a close, there has been plenty of activity among several local schools surrounding the Inter-Academic Athletic Associations.

Following a meeting back on May 30 between the heads of schools of nine different institutions, and after months of deliberation, it was decided to have the Inter-Ac schools form a single league with a single set of rules, which will come into effect in the fall of 2013.

The new league, which will feature co-ed schools Germantown Academy, Episcopal Academy, Springside-Chestnut Hill Academy and William Penn Charter, along with single sex schools Academy of Notre Dame de Namur, Agnes Irwin School, Baldwin School, Haverford School and Malvern Prep, will be called the Inter-Academic Athletic League, which has been approved to have a single constitution and set of by-laws.

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BASEBALL: Cloyd, Phillies topple Brewers

By Dennis Deitch
ddeitch@delcotimes.com, @DennisDeitch

MILWAUKEE — The Phillies wanted John Lannan to pitch Thursday night in Clearwater, but that was rained out. They have Carlos Zambrano prepared to go for Double-A Reading tonight, but the forecast seems damp for that game, as well.

Tyler Cloyd, meanwhile, keeps making enough sunny starts to make you wonder how you go about demoting him.

For the fourth time in his five starts as Roy Halladay’s understudy in the rotation, Cloyd gave the Phillies a quality start, this time working his way through seven shutout innings and taking advantage of early runs from the offense in a 5-1 win over the Brewers at Miller Park.

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PHILLIES NOTES: Manuel keeps Mayberry in the lineup

By Dennis Deitch
ddeitch@delcotimes.com, @DennisDeitch

MILWAUKEE – Charlie Manuel wanted to keep John Mayberry’s bat in the lineup while it’s hot, so after starting him in right field Wednesday, he had Mayberry giving Ben Revere a night off in Milwaukee Thursday.

That meant an opening at the top of the order. Surprisingly, it wasn’t Jimmy Rollins filling the role for the evening. Instead, Manuel went with Michael Young, who was at the top of the order for the first time since Sept. 8, 2004.

Rollins entered Thursday night with 10 starts in the No. 3 hole of the order, and although he was hitting just .233 with two RBI there, he has drawn 12 walks in 60 plate appearances – a rate the Phillies would have adored in, say, that decade he was batting leadoff every day.

Still, Manuel will take that .452 on-base percentage anywhere he can get it.

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FOOTBALL: Kelly says Eagles are getting better

By Bob Grotz
bgrotz@delcotimes.com, @bobgrotz

PHILADELPHIA — Eagles head coach Chip Kelly still isn’t comfortable talking about how his team fits into the NFC East.

The three-day minicamp concluded, Kelly spoke conceptually about tools in the toolbox like the read-option series instead of whether the Eagles had enough tools in their toolbox to compete in the division.

“I haven’t watched enough film of Dallas, the Giants, the Redskins,” Kelly said. “And to be honest, I’m not concerned with that right now. I’m concerned with our guys getting better every day and that’s what they’ve done. You’re not going to put the cart before the horse and say, ‘We’re this.’ Everybody had new acquisitions. I don’t know what the rookies for the Cowboys or Redskins are like, what their free agent acquisitions were like. I have no idea. So for me to compare ourselves to somebody else, I have never been that way anyway. We compare ourselves to ourselves. We improve every day and that is the only thing we can count on. We’ve got the guys we’ve got. We can’t start signing free agents in September. We’ve got 90 guys here and we’ll continue to work with them.”

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EAGLES: Is this a quarterback controversy?

By Bob Grotz
bgrotz@delcotimes.com, @bobgrotz

PHILADELPHIA — We knew Michael Vick and Andy Reid were a package deal.

We knew if the Eagles were serious about changing the culture it was best to dispose of the quarterback along with the head coach.

We knew it because we lived it.

But we gave incoming Eagles head coach Chip Kelly the benefit of the doubt because he convinced us that Vick, based purely on skills, was better than the quarterbacks available in free agency and the draft.

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MLB DRAFT: Phillies select a shortstop

By Dennis Deitch
ddeitch@delcotimes.com, @DennisDeitch

MILWAUKEE – The last time the Phillies had a pick as high as No. 16 in MLB’s June amateur draft, they took pitcher Gavin Floyd with the fourth overall selection in 2001.

The Phils have become staunchly prep-centric with their top picks in drafts over the last decade, particular as it pertains to position players. That has not done them much good in that time. The last high-school position player taken in the first five rounds that amounted to anything was this little shortstop from Enicinal High in California named Jimmy Rollins. That was in 1996 – 17 years ago.

Maybe the Phillies are like the cicadas of the draft and pluck a winning shortstop high in the draft once every 17 years. They certainly hope J.C. Crawford works out that way. They are desperate for some serious position-player prospects.

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BASEBALL: Upper Moreland rallies past Greencastle-Antrim

By Nick Iuele
niuele@montgomerynews.com

The playoffs are all about unlikely heroes and crazy situations. The smallest break to give a team new life can completely turn things around. Just ask Upper Moreland, which came back from a run down in the bottom of the seventh to advance to the second round of states.

Led by a solid effort from starter Eddier Decker and a couple clutch singles in its final at-bat, Upper Moreland shook off a quiet day at the plate to down Greencastle-Antrim 4-3. After Charlie Hooker tied the game with an RBI base hit, Pat Driscoll knocked him in with a liner up the middle to keep the Bears alive in the PIAA Class AAA playoffs. However, the circumstances in the last inning were anything but typical.

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SOFTBALL: Tumasz, Bilotti lift North Penn past Northampton

By Mike Carey
mcabrey@21st-centurymedia.com

Vicky Tumasz collected the North Penn softball team’s only hit Monday night. But that hit was enough for the Maidens to advance to the PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinals.

Tumasz’s single up the middle in the top of the fourth scored Erin Maher from third and Jackie Bilotti made the run stand up by throwing a one-hit shutout as the Maidens topped District 11 champ Northampton 1-0 in the state first round at Patriots Park.

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SOFTBALL: Pen Argyl topples Christopher Dock

By Ben Reese
For Montgomery Media

For Montgomery Media / GEOFF PATTON Christopher Dock's gets to third base on close play during Monday's PIAA Class AA tournament game against Pen Argyl.

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After the 2012 softball season ended for Christopher Dock with a loss in the quarterfinals of the PIAA Class AA playoffs, many people close to the team didn’t expect much for the 2013 season.

Except coach Wayne Benner. Benner knew what was going on and the Pioneers proved him right, winning the District One Class AA title before bowing in the first round of the PIAA playoffs to Pen Argyl 9-0 at Spring-Ford High School on Monday.

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LEGION BASEBALL: Souderton falls to Quakertown

By Tim Hindin
thindin@montgomerynews.com

Trailing 3-0 after the fourth inning and having only two hits, it looked as though Souderton was going to go down easy against Quakertown Monday night.

Souderton snapped out of its offensive funk and finally got on the board in the fifth inning when Brad Stolzfus hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Josh Freed. Stolzfuz finished the game 2 for 3 with an RBI.

“I thought we didn’t play very well,” Souderton coach Paul Meara said. “We didn’t show up until the fifth inning, the first four innings we’re sleep walking through it.”

Perhaps the lasting image for Souderton in the fifth inning is not the run it scored but the three runners it left on base when the inning ended. For most of the game Souderton struggled to find the clutch hit it needed it and Quakertown held on to win 4-3.

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