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Baseball

Friday Apr. 10, 2009

Glenn outplays Green Hope, winning 9-5 in Hilltop Tourney

Shambley run over Grant Shambley run over by Glenn baserunner - correctly called out by the UMP despite Glenn fans protests

Yesterday, head coach Mike Miragliuolo watched a very strong Glenn team win their game using great defense, pitching, and aggressive baserunning ("small ball"), to go up 6-0 against Cedar Ridge. So before today's game, he had stressed the importance of being alert on defense for this type of play, and the importance of making sure to "get an out" when Glenn was running the bases. So today's loss was very disappointing as Glenn repeated that same strategy, going up 8-0 after 5 innings, forcing GH defensive miscues and mental lapses by their aggressive baserunning. Glenn capitalized on every offensive opportunity, maximizing their hits, and forcing GH into bad decisions or poor execution on defense.

The weather was a factor, as an extremely strong wind was blowing in the entire game, and only subsided when it started to rain in the 6th inning. These conditions favored the disciplined Glenn team, not only defensively, but offensively as Glenn batters simply put the ball in play, allowing the bad conditions to help them. In the first 5 innings, only 2 Glenn hitters struck out and only 2 flied out, compared to 4 GH K's and 7 fly outs. Glenn scored 2 runs in 2nd without a hit, and a run in the 5th on only a single, as GH just didn't make the plays when needed on defense. Glenn pressured GH's defense unlike any team they faced so far this year.

Brady's home run Eric Brady's home run

Of course the other edge of Glenn's sword was the excellent pitching from Brandon Harrison, who held GH batters in check in those important first 5 innings, allowing only 3 singles, no walks, but hit 2 batters. While Glenn was cashing in on every baserunner, two of those five GH baserunners were eliminated, one thrown out stealing and one caught off base on a pop up, so only 18 GH batters were faced in those first 5 innings. Meanwhile Glenn was scoring 8 runs on only 7 hits, running the bases flawlessly, making no errors on defense while GH made 4 errors and a couple of poor decisions.

Joe Pistacchio started for GH, and just didn't have his good stuff today. He had some control problems, hitting 2 batters and walking another in just 2 plus innings, but also gave up 4 straight singles to start the 3rd, which ended his day. Joe really wasn't hit that hard, but Glenn just made solid contact, and with their aggressive baserunning, outs which should have been made, just were not today. Joe only had one strikeout, which allowed Glenn to keep the pressure on GH's defense. Daniel Sondag relieved Pistacchio in the 3rd, but did about the same in his 3 innings of work, and Will Yoder pitched the last 2 innings, managing a little better, but going against all subs in the 7th.

But there were positives for GH today, losing is never fun, but playing good teams is always valuable experience. Eric Brady had a great game going 3-4 with a HR and played good defensively. Anthony Colantino was solid behind the plate and picked off 2 Glenn baserunners from 1st, unfortunately no outs were recorded from those pickoffs, but Glenn respected AC enough not to even attempt a steal today. And several players came off the bench to get hits in the last 2 innings to make the final score respectable. Wesley Clark had a double and a single, while Will Yoder and Michael Sondag each had 2 singles, as all three went 2-2 in the last 2 innings, when GH scored 5 runs, and had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the 7th.

Brady HR 2 Brady defense Boghosian Will Yoder, Wesley Clark, and Michael Sondag all played great in the last 2 innings



















GH falls to 10-2 on the year.