2004 PMS at Northwest Regional Park

Week 8:  May 23, 2004

Field 1:
Game 1: Havana Club Cannons 13 (WP-Mark Yokel 8-0, Save-Tom Paulshock 1) Eastern Savings Bank 10 (LP-Ted Winner 6-2)

The Cannons played this doubleheader with 9 players, and weren't ever hurt the lack of an outfielder. In the top of the 1st the Cannons got hot scoring 5 runs giving Yokel a nice cushion. The first 5 batters reached and scored. In the next 4 innings Eastern scored 1,1,1,5 runs to take an 8-5 lead. The Cannons defense in the infield was a bit shaky, and a few errors lead to 4 unearned runs. In the top of the 6th Johnny Edeleman lead off with a walk, igniting an 8 run rally highlighted by Mike Steller's game tying 3 run homerun (#3) to LCF. Mark Yokel strained his calf on the bases, and Gerry Edelman had a clutch hit to keep the rally alive. Tom Paulshcok came in and got through the bottom of the 6th and 7th for his 1st save of the season.

The Cannon's only showed up with nine players but ESB did not capitalize by losing game one 13-10. Ted Winner started off shaky and the Cannon's quickly scored five runs in the top of the first. After that he pitched four strong shut out innings and gave his team a chance to get back into the game. ESB chipped away at the lead with single runs in the second, third and fourth. RBI's for ESB were from Aaron Shifrin, Mark Loeb and again from Shifrin. ESB then took their fist lead of the day by scoring five runs off of Mark Yokel. Key hits in the inning came from Dave Kopel, Jim Davis, Gabe Silber, Glenn Ackman and Ted Winner. The Cannons came back with eight runs of their own in the top of the sixth. ESB gave the Cannons extra at bats with three errors in the inning to keep the inning alive. Six of those runs came with two outs. Tom Paulshock came in and finished the game for an injured Yokel.


Game 2:  

Eastern Savings Bank 6 (WP-Russ Zappocosta 1-0)  Havana Club Cannons 5 (LP-Tom Paulshock 4-2)

Game 2 was an excellent game. The Cannons bats were silent for the first 4 innings, and trailing 5-0 in the bottom of the 5th they finally awoke. Neal Charkatz got a lead off single, followed by a single by Mike Paul. Gerry Edelman's pinch hit popup was the first out, but Chuck Easter followed with a twisting line drive to left field that bounced awkwardly and left Jim Davis scurrying for the ball. Chuck made it all the way home for his 6th homerun of the season. An Edelman walk and a Steller single gave Lou Falcon a chance to hit a sac fly to deep LCF plating the 4th and final run of the inning for the Cannons. Eastern plated 1 in the top of the 6th on a bloop single that was aided by some miscommunication by Evan Kreitzer and Chuck Easter. Tommy mowed Eastern down in the top of the 7th, setting the stake for a cannons comeback. Down 6-4, Chuck Easter hit the fence in LCF and stopped at 3rd for a triple. Johnny Edelman hit a stinger that the Eastern shortstop snagged on a great play. Mike Steller gave a bid for his 2nd homerun of the day taking a pitch to deep LCF against the wall where Jim Davis made a last minute snag, giving Steller only a sac fly. The next batter struck out to end the game, and the Cannons suffered their 2nd loss of the season, wasting a well pitched game by Tommy.

Playing shorthanded on the day the Cannons put up a great fight taking 1 of 2, but had a great chance to Sweep Eastern, but it just wasn't mean to be.

Game two was a different story. ESB pitched Russ Zappocosta for the first time this year and it was a great move. Zappocosta had a nasty knuckle ball working for him and mowed through the Cannons lineup for the first four innings. The Cannons rarely threatened in those four innings as Zappocosta had them totally baffled. Meanwhile ESB had taken a 1-0 lead in the third on four walks given up by Tommy and scored four more runs in the top of the fourth to take a commanding 5-0 lead. Key hits in the fourth for ESB were from Luxenberg, Silber and Zappocosta. The Cannons finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth by scoring four runs with the help of a three base error by ESB that helped plate three of the runs. ESB scored a huge insurance run on a single by Silber and weathered a late rally in the seventh thanks to great defensive plays by shortstop Jonny Feldman and left fielder Jim Davis. Zappocosta was brilliant in pitching ESB to a 6-5 victory heading into Memorial day weekend.

Field 2:
Game 1: Quizno's Owings Mills (WP-Lane Gordon 5-0) 23  Northwest Corridor 6 (LP-Dave Stein 2-4)    5 INNINGS

NWC came into this important games against the defending champions with a new game plan: let's not bring our starting 1st and 2nd basemen and our whole starting outfield. To make the odds fair, we'll even play a man down. We'll use three outfielders: our pitcher/DH, our catcher and third baseman! This game plan started off fine, with NWC leading 2-0 off of a Howard Goldberg triple going into the bottom of the 1st inning. However, we had allow Quizno's to bat, where they scored 5 runs in the first, 8 runs in the second .... They closed out the game in the fourth by scoring 8 runs. Lane Gordon pulled a Kevin Brown by attacking a comebacker to the mound with his bare hand. We hope that all is well with him and wish him a speedy recovery.

The bats came alive today as Quizno's Owings Mills went 20-31 (.645)- thanks to the inspiration of one Lori Harris- wife of pitcher Jeff Harris. Mrs. Harris inspired the team by eating the entire head (brains, eyes, etc) and tail of a 3 lb fish the night before the game in front of the team in order to motivate the squad. With that inspirational move- Quizno's Owings Mills came alive in the first inning by scoring 5 quick runs thanks to a 2-run RBI Triple by Tony Luna and an RBI single by Jon Koman. "The Blue Wave" struck again in the second inning by scoring 8 more times thanks to a Bases on Balls and 6 Consecutive Hits: Craig Dlin (BB), Larry Henderson (1B), Tony Luna (2B), Russ Dlin (2B), Joel Koman (1B), Andrew Rosenstein (1B), and Todd Pobletts (2B) all reached base before the 1st out was recorded in the inning. After taking a commanding 14-6 lead- Quizno's Owings Mills poured it on by adding 2 runs in the 3rd and 8 runs in the 4th to cruise to an easy victory in 5 innings.

Hitting Stars for NWC -- Howard Goldberg 3-3 3R, 2 2B 1 3B
John Hummel 2-3 2RBI

Game 2:

Quizno's Owings Mills 25 (WP-Jeff Harris 5-1)  Northwest Corridor 0 (LP-Howard Goldberg 1-5)

Jeff Harris came within 1-Out of throwing his first career No- Hitter- but he gave up a looping single with 2 Outs in the top of the 5th Inning. The hit was misplayed by rightfielder Bobby Morrow in which the batter wound up at third base. After the game was over- the umpire mentioned that the runner missed first base and that if Quizno's Owings Mills would have appealed- the runner would have been called out.  Quizno's Owings Mills put the game away early in the t-1st by scoring a season high 11 Runs in which 10 of the 11 Players scored (Craig Dlin scored twice in the inning). The Blue Wave coasted the rest of the way by scoring 1 in the 3rd, 3 in the 4th, and a whopping 10 in the 5th to put the game out of reach and a commanding 25-0 victory in 5 innings.

An exhausted, hot, and rundown NWC managed one hit and one walk off of Jeff Harris.

Notes for Quizno's Owings Mills:

► Lane Gordon- out 3-5 weeks with a broken/shattered finger. Lane left the game after he was hit with a line drive on his pitching hand in the 3rd inning of Game #1.
►Quizno's Owings Mills has scored an incredible 79 Runs over the last 2 weeks- and have hit only 1 HR (Joel Koman- last week vs Sky & Sky).
► Line of the Double Header: Craig Dlin- 3-5, 4 Walks, 8 Runs Scored (Reached base in his first 8 At-Bats).
►The Cicadas are very loud in the Outfield on Field #3.
 

Field 3:
Game 1: NEK Entertainment 19 (WP-Andre Vaughn 2-4)  Hops Hounds 0 (LP-Scott Snyder 0-1)  4 INNINGS

NEK got back to its winning ways with an excellent game thrown by Andre Vaughn, along with great hitting by each of its members.

Game 2:

NEK Entertainment 14 (WP-David Pridgen 1-5)  Hops Hounds 13 (LP-Kory Rosenberg 0-3)

NEK jumped out with an early lead but the Hounds fought back. Andre Vaughn hit a 2 run inside the park homerun in the bottom of the 7th inning, with NEK down one run. Because of this outstanding play, NEK was able to win the game.
 

Field 4:
Game 1: Kings 14 (WP-Chuck Grant 5-2)  Sky & Sky Inc. 2 (LP-Larry Newman 6-5)  5 INNINGS

The Kings exploded for 10 runs in t-3rd inning en route to a 14-2, 5 inning victory over Sky & Sky Inc. The Sky team used a makeshift defense due to the absences of Brian Sky, Scott Felton, Brian Kowitz, and Eric Gertner. In addition, Brad Simons simply failed to show up, forcing Sky to use manager Alan Friedman at 2B. The Kings took advantage of Friedman's inexperience at the position, scoring 2 unearned runs in t-1st. The key hit was an Alan Varhaftik 2 out 2 RBI 3B to the LCF wall. The Kings would not look back from here. They sent 15 batters to the plate in t-3rd, getting 12 hits and 10 runs, while Sky defense committed an uncharacteristic 4 errors. RBI hits for the Kings in the inning came from Shilo Merwitz, Alan Varhaftik, Josh Frederick, Richard Wong, Jan Katzen, and Marc Goldstein (2 RBI). Kings added 2 more runs in t-2nd, taking a 14-0 lead before Sky scored single runs in b-4th and b-5th, falling short of the runs needed to keep the game going further.

Kings starter Chuck Grant was aided by a defense that turned 2 ground ball doubleplays. Multi-hit Kings players were Ken Zalis (2-4,1 R), Dave Mize (2-3,2 R), Alan Varhaftik (3-3,2 R,3 RBI,3B), Josh Frederick (2-3,1 R,2 RBI), Richard Wong (2-3,1 R,1 RBI), and Chuck Grant (2-3,1 R,2B). Despite the 16 runs scored by both teams in the game, there was just a 1 double and 1 triple.


Game 2:

Kings 11 (WP-Chuck Grant 6-2)  Sky & Sky Inc. 3 (LP-Larry Newman 6-6)

Chuck Grant stayed on  the mound for the Kings in game 2 and the Kings took the nightcap solidly 11-3. Grant allowed just 9 hits over 7 innings, with Joel Wax's triple the only extra basehit. The Kings in turn had 13 hits off of Sky's Larry Newman, but they made their hits count scoring 11 runs, while stranding only 4 men on base. Scoreless into b-2nd, Dave Mize (2-3,2 R,3B) and Alan Varhaftik (3-3,3 R,2 RBI,3B) started the Kings inning with singles. Josh Frederick (2-2,2 R,3 RBI,2B,W) followed with a 2 RBI 2B off the first base bag. Frederick scored on Jan Katzen's (2-3,1 R,2 RBI,2B) 2 out RBI single. Steve Truitt scored on a Joel Wax SF in t-3rd and Truitt singled home Larry Newman in t-4th, pulling Sky to within 3-2. However, the Kings scored 5 runs in b-4th to put the game seemingly out of reach. Key hits in b-4th were RBI 3B by Alan Varhaftik, RBI 2B by Jan Katzen, and RBI 1B by Chuck Grant (1-3,1 RBI). RBI singles by Varhaftik and Frederick led to 3 more runs in b-5th closing out the scoring for the game. Sky SS Steve Truitt (3-4,1 R,1 RBI) and 1B Joey Sachs (3-4,1 R) were the only multi-hit players for Sky.

Kings notes:
►The Kings added another Doctor to their roster this week, with Jan Katzen receiving his DDS degree from the University of Maryland Dental School on Friday. Jan will be leaving for Miami on Monday to perform a 1 year residency in general dentistry. Despite a graduation party thrown by his parents last night, the Kings dragged Katzen out of bed on Sunday morning to play SS, as the Kings other SS, Kenny Salzman, was away on vacation this week. Katzen on the day was 3-6, 2 R,3 RBI, a cheap 2B, and turned 2 DP's.
►Marc Goldstein, sore back, returned to the starting lineup.
►Jan Katzen was not the only Kings player to go out of their way to play on Sunday. Both Dan Frignito (Philadelphia) and Alan Varhaftik (Ocean City) returned early from their weekend getaways to play. Frignito on the day was 2-6 with 3 runs scored. Varhaftik on the day was 6-for-6 with 5 runs, 5 RBI's, and 2 3B's. Varhaftik is the Kings 2004 season leader in RBI's with 26 and is the Kings all-time RBI leader with 297 and all-time 3B leader with 26.