The Inside Pitch
Some high-scoring outings in the local baseball scene
By Lee-Ann Brinovec Junior rookie

It was a sweltering hot summer evening as our Tile Source junior rookies visited Aurora's Canadian Springs team for a re-match on their home turf last Tuesday.

The Aurora pitching was a tough nut to crack, and many of our usual big hitters fell victim to the fast ball down the middle of the plate.

Angelo Grande and Jake Hansen managed to keep their focus, took their positions in the batters box, and each extended their record for another game of perfect plate appearances. Emily Brinovec may be of diminutive size, but she fills big shoes in the clean-up position in the batting order. She was also perfect at the plate this evening, and belted a grand-slam home run in the first inning, and then cashed in a three-run homer in the last inning. Erin and Jesse Becker seem to be the happiest kids on the ball diamond and the smiles they are always wearing show just how much they are enjoying their first year of ball. This night, they both had reason to smile, as they each stepped up to the plate and dealt out crushing hits that earned them each doubles. Ethan Fisher continues to impress his coaches each week with his defensive skills in the infield, and this week he made another incredible play at second to record an out. Gregory Long showed great fortitude in his position as catcher, getting in front of the pitches, even if it meant having a few balls bounce off his body armor. He was quick to jump on a batter-tipped slow rolling ball to make the third out of the first inning, not allowing Aurora to score a run.

Player of the game for the Tile Source team was Gregory Long, for his strong defensive play at both the catcher and pitcher positions.

The King 2 team, Schomberg IGA, continues their winning ways as they are now working on a fivegame winning streak.

The team chemistry is incredible after only seven games, and defence seems to be the key to success. These young players made five tag-out or force out plays in one inning alone.

Mark Lago, Serene Falzone and Nicholas Dicks made three infield gems, while Magnus Krever and Tyler Radell made two outs at second base. Tyler Rydell was a perfect two-for-two at the plate and A.J. DiCrescenzo had his first perfect at-bat game and came around both times to touch home plate. Besides having a perfect at bat percentage, Rydell also threw several runners out at home, and this made him the player of the game.

The highlight in their second game of the week was Brock Walters getting his first hit of the season. The defense was once again exceptional, with outstanding performances by A. J DiCrescenzo and Serene Falzone at the corners, making sure nothing got past them down the line for extra bases, and making timely outs at third and first respectively.

Falzone was the player of the game adding to her awesome defense by going two-for-two at the plate.

FileBank Records turned in another solid performance last week against Summers and Smith.

Coach Claire Murphy's hard work is paying off and the Filebank club is showing improvements every week.

In a high-scoring affair at Confederation Park, Matthew Murphy, Ffion McKay, Mackenzie Douglas, David Rumbolt and Cadence Opoka-Mullins all had a pair of hits and crossed home plate twice themselves. Justin Topp, Nia McKay and Jonathan Brunato also connected for two hits apiece. Giselle Murphy smashed out the team's first triple of the season in the second inning. Defensively, the Filebank team was kept on their toes by the hard-hitting Aurora team. Brunato, Rumbolt and McKay all made great plays in the field to cut down on extra bases and a determined Murphy saved a run by getting his face behind a hard ground ball.

Player of the game for File Bank Records was a battered and bruised, but still smiling Matthew Murphy.

Senior rookie TVS Development Corp. (K1) lost their first game of the season last Monday night to crosstown rivals Rona Cashway (K2) by a score of 11-10.

It started out as a tight defensive battle with three up - three down innings turned in by both teams. Daniel Pignataro recorded TVS's first unassisted double play of the season with a pop fly catch and a force out at second. Continuing with the defense of the TVS team, Sean Beer made a spectacular out at third after fielding a hard-hit ground ball, Matthew Lancaster made a long throw from third to first to record an out, and Adam Cipollone played short like a pro as he made two solid throws to both first and second bases to record two outs in the same inning. Hunter Chantiam led the way at the plate, with TVS's first inside-the-park home run of the season.

Player of the game for the K1 team was Adam Cipollone who turned in a solid defensive effort in a losing cause.

Unfortunately the K2 team had not sent in their version of the game by press time.

With the school year winding down, and various year-end celebrations underway, the TVS Development Corp team fielded an abbreviated lineup as they hosted Aurora's McAlpine Ford team at sunny Pottageville Park last Wednesday evening.

The defensive highlight of the night came from young Matthew Pacitto at shortstop. He dove for a sharply hit ground ball coming up with it in his glove and tagging out the Aurora runner as he tried to get to third. This seemed to rally Pacitto 's teammates as they came to bat and maxed out the inning at the five-run mercy limit. Adam Cipollone and Scott Cameron each belted out stand-up doubles. Sara Valentini, not to be outdone by her male teammates, stepped up to the plate in the fourth and drove a ball deep into the outfield, cashing in numerous runs.

It was an inspired victory for a team short on players but not on manpower.

Player of the game was Scott Cameron, who was five-for-five at the plate and demonstrated some strong infield play.

Mosquito

The Armstrong Petroleums team has evened their season record at four wins and four losses with a win over the Green Point Laser team from Aurora.

After losing to King City Auto in a make-up game over the weekend, Armstrong went into last Tuesday's game hungry for a win. They did just that, taking the game 13-9.

Nicholas Bell took the mound in the first inning and struck out two batters. The team came to bat after this fine pitching performance and scored the maximum five runs allowed. Matthew Fiorni, covering first base, made all three

outs in the top of the third with the help of strong fielding by Francesco Amanteo and Matthew Ardizzi. Daniel Luccia crushed a ball to the outfield recording a three-run, in the park home run, the first for any Armstrong player this season.

The player of the game was undoubtedly Daniel Luccia.

Peewee

The Royal LePage (K2) team traveled to Bradford last Monday to face the Lions sponsored club.

The game was a hard fought affair that was not without controversy, and unfortunately the rule book interpretation did not favor our hometown squad.

The highlight was a textbook double play, as pitcher Josh Baird picked up a ground ball, making the toss to second baseman Brandon D'Amato, who made a perfect throw to first baseman Ryan Groombridge, and an easy two outs. Just like they practised.

Player of the game was Christian Milani. It was a tough 16-12 loss.

Rhind Electric (K3) recorded two wins this past week on their home diamond.

In the first game, they squeaked by Aspen Ridge Homes (A1) 8-7. With the visiting team up by four runs going into the bottom of the sixth inning, the game was called for time and the score reverted back to the last complete inning, the fifth, giving Rhind Electric the win. Sebastian Fritz made his pitching debut and did an admirable job in his first outing. He recorded seven strikeouts in three innings, and allowed only five runs. The offence was a little sluggish for the first time this season, but Dennis Orr led his team going three-forthree.

Last Tuesday, they played host to Scotia Bank (A2) in a make-up game from May, and this match was all about offence, with Rhind Electric coming out on top of the 16- 14 score. The big hitter on the night was Scott Rhind, who made some adjustments at the plate that paid off in a big way as he smashed out three doubles and scored three runs. Dylan Love has been making the most of batting practice as he also went three-for-three with a double, two singles and three RBIs. First year Cobras continue

to learn the game

Last Tuesday the bantam rep Cobras played host to the Barrie Red Sox major bantams in Nobleton, and once again failed to find the win column, as they managed only six hits and a solitary run against a powerful visiting team.

Ryan Forletta was the starting pitcher and after a couple of shaky innings, where he had trouble keeping his pitches down, he settled down and put in a respectable four innings of work.

The motto of the big league Toronto Blue Jays pitching staff is "Pound Down," a short form for "pound the strike zone and keep the ball down around the batter's knees." The Cobra pitchers are slowly learning that this baseball maxim has some validity.

Josh Lipscombe appears to have bought into the idea, encouraged by his pitchingcoach father, and young Forletta gave notice in his last two innings last week that he also sees the wisdom of this approach. Where the ball was finding our outfielders, especially Brandon Oukes and Daniel Lisi, on the fly in the first two innings, by frames three and four it was the infielders who were being put to the test; a sure sign that Forletta was indeed keeping his pitches low and beginning to understand the craft of pitching.

At the end of four frames, the ball was turned over to Stephen Leonard and newcomer Joel Winer. Winer, in particular, showed well and has moved himself up the ladder in the pitching rotation. He will likely see a start before too long.

Coming through with solid hits at the plate were Brady Boccia, Oukes, Lisi, Dylan Rochon, Lipscombe and Danton Brinovec. Brinovec's drive, in particular, was satisfying as he has been in a brief slump and he badly needed the RBI that cashed in second baseman Rochon with the Cobras only run.

At this early stage in the season, the coaches are still moving some players around, trying to see who best fits in at which position, in addition giving them the experience needed to fully understand the game from every position. The Cobras are fortunate in that they have a lot of fine athletes on their roster, just not a lot of players with rep baseball experience.

The team got some bad news last week when it was learned that Taylor Joseph suffered a shoulder injury and will be lost for the better part of a month. With school trips and family holidays beginning to thin the ranks, there will be plenty of playing time for those who stay behind and the team will be calling up one or two peewee players, and possibly bantam house leaguers as well, to see them through the holidays crisis.

Sponsor of the Week

The King Township Baseball Association (KTBA) would like to thank our sponsor of the week, Glen Hulse Plumbing, sponsor of the peewee 1 team, for their continued contribution.

Player of the Week

KTBA's Player of the Week award goes to Daniel Luccia of the Armstrong Petroleums mosquito 1 team. Daniel is playing only his second year of ball, but has been playing like a seasoned veteran. He has been successful when called upon to pitch, giving his team a chance to win every time he takes to the mound. He has definitely shown that he can hit the long ball, with his in the park home run this past week. Congratulations Daniel, much success in your baseball future.