The Penndelmar League - Page 3

Gastric ReFlux · 07-12-2005, 10:01 AM

Annapolis had no real problems winning the 5 game Delmar Championship. George Lopez, who had won 3 in 5 starts in the 1999 postseason, going 39 innings, striking out 53 and giving up only 4 earned runs, had shown no signs of trouble handling the postseason duties then, and showed none in the first game between Annapolis and Hagerstown.

Lopez was a bit wild in the opener at Hagerstown, but throwing hard. In 8 innings of work, he fanned 11, walking 4, giving up 2 hits. It's not known exactly why in the 9th David Rowe chose to bring in Rozek to close, with the Middies ahead 1-0. In 2000, Rozek had been moved to a setup role, and the closer's position had been handed over to Jose Cañaveral, a free agent acquisiton by the Middies prior to the season beginning. Maybe Rowe figured that Rozek was already familiar with the pressure, and that kept from calling for the southpaw Cañaveral to come out with nearly 50,000 Hagerstown fans shaking the stadium.

Rozek gave up an RBI double to benchplayer Asdrubal Jasso in the 9th, and the game went to extra innings. But Annapolis came back to push another run across in the top of the 10th, and now Rowe went to Cañaveral. Cañaveral blew away the Hagerstown opposition, striking out the 3 Gappers who came to bat. Annapolis gladly took the win and would win the next 2 in succession, with the last coming in front of their hometown faithful. It was the first postseason series sweep, the first time in any of the two leagues that a series hadn't gone the full distance.

For Scranton, their series was more difficult. In their first game against the York Puddingheads, they had to battle against the fearsome $21 million dollar ace, Morris Olson. Olson was one who could rattle a radar gun with 3 digits showing, and for York his acquisition during free agency had improved the staff immensely. He had gone 13-9 in 2000 for the Puddingheads, and alongside Anselmo Heredia (15-8, 3.40), the two of them provided a strong 1-2 combination.

The York batters got to Scranton's starter Gary Erhart for 5 runs in the top half of the 6th, and ended up holding on for a 6-5 victory as the Claws couldn't quite claw their way back.

Game 2 had it looking rather bleak for Scranton. In front of the hometown fans, they fell behind 4-1, and that was the score entering their last turn at the plate. They rallied, and with one out, a runner on, the score 4-3, James Haley the leftfielder hit a walkoff homer to complete a comeback victory and square the series at one game each.

Down in York, the two teams split the pair, the first game 5-3 in Scranton's favor, then 8-4 in favor of the Puddingheads. So it went back to Scranton and a decisive game 5. Scranton would again call upon the 1999 Mathewson Award winner of Meitarou Fumiaki.

Fumiaki never gave the Puddingheads a chance. He went 8 superb innings, striking out 6, not walking anyone, and giving up 4 hits. The Claws won, 3-0, and got their chance at the Championship between the two leagues. Their manager Craig Sawyer was delighted to have erased the pain of 1999's late season struggle which had seen Allentown overtake and win a playoff game to take their division's crown.

Gastric ReFlux · 07-12-2005, 10:38 AM

In 1999, Nat Norwood showed himself to be a capable starter in the rotation for the Bethlehem Stars, winning 13 games with an ERA of 2.89. 2000 wasn't going so well; the month of June saw him go 0-2 in 5 starts, giving up 40 hits in 33.1 innings. He was struggling, and then on July 2nd he had to leave the game in the 6th inning. It was later confirmed he had torn his tricep muscle, and would likely miss 5 weeks.

In the early morning hours of July 30th, Nat got the news that he had been traded to the Frederick Possums, in exchange for a third sacker, Tony Soto. For Nat, he got the okay to stay where he was due to his injury, but for Tony Soto, he had to make the trip from Harrisburg to Bethlehem. He arrived in time to suit up for the Stars in the Sunday afternoon game. Soto seemed a bit weary after his game the night before in Harrisburg, which had gone 13 innings, and the Frederick Possums had won 17-16. In his first game for the Stars, Soto would go 0 for 3, striking out twice.

Almost immediately after the game, Soto was given the new news. Frederick had decided they needed him after all, so they gave back Nat Norwood to Bethlehem. But wait, not just Norwood, but also pitching prospect Ezekiel Clow. But probably the one welcome bit of news in that for Soto was the fact that the Possums had Monday, July 31 off.

Now for Norwood, it had to be at least somewhat insulting in the implication that his value had become a little less in the time, enough so that the Possums had to toss in Clow to complete the deal. Or was the Stars' GM just incredibly shrewd? He immediately dealt Norwood, on the disabled list, off to the Salisbury Steaks to acquire the Delmar's league rookie of the year in 1999, shortstop Ricky Scherrer.

Fortunately for Scherrer, he, like Soto, had an extra day to travel to his new locale.

Gastric ReFlux · 07-12-2005, 01:50 PM

With Annapolis having swept through their playoff series, while Scranton had been forced to the full five games of theirs, many agreed that Annapolis had a clear advantage, of which there were two sharp points: first that Annapolis had homefield advantage thanks to the All Star victory by the Delmar League, and second that George Lopez would be starting games 1 and 4, 7 if needed.

With his blazing fastball that has left scorchmarks on bats from foultips, George Lopez has established himself as the finest pitcher in Delaware and Maryland. His curve bites, his slider frequently disappears below bats into a cloud of dust that his catcher Rozek adeptly blocks when needed, and he even has a change of pace which looks for all the world like his fastball if you just looked at his arm whipping around from right-center field...

...Scranton's ace Fumiaki won't get the nod until Game 3 at the earliest...

...this series is set up perfectly for Annapolis to win, again.

--Annapolis Gazette

Close to 57,000 fans packed into the stadium for the opening game of the series. Lopez had pitched since the 4th of October, but he looked loose and relaxed while taking his warmups. The crowd roared approval when Lopez snapped off a last warmup fastball that popped into Rozek's mitt at the plate. Rozek threw down to second and the shortstop Sauceda took the throw with a grand and exaggerated sweeping tag motion.

Batting leadoff for the Claws was Mitch Daniel, who looked even younger that his age of 22 years. His back right foot scraped away at back line of the batter's box, and he went into his somewhat crouched stance. Lopez unleashed his best fastball, and Daniel just took the measure, taking a strike one. The next fastball was hit by Daniel to the right side, and Joseph Cueva made the easy play from his position at second.

John Grove, the Scranton catcher batted next, and perhaps he had picked up on something, as he got ahead of a fastball enough to line it to leftfield, a single, and the game's first hit. That hushed the crowd, and it brought to the plate Santos Escarcega, the most dangerous of the Scranton hitters.

Beanpole was what he Scranton fans called Escarcega. He was 6 feet and 8 inches, but thin. His batting stroke relied upon his fluid lankiness to generate line drives; when he was comfortable it was a lovely sweep, an arc that had driven 28 balls out of the park during 2000. Still, many wondered how he would fare against Lopez coming hard from Escarcega's side of the plate.

Lopez simply blew Escarcega away in the first matchup between the two of the series. Escarcega took the last one looking over the outside corner, unable to get his right foot to step and drop, unable to get the hands moving. Lopez would retire the final batter of the first, and the game was on.

The Middies would draw first blood in the bottom half of the 4th. Cueva led off the inning by working a walk, and he would eventually score on a single by his doubleplay partner at short, James Sauceda.

Lopez was showing no ill-effects from the long break between starts. The Claws didn't get another hit off Lopez until Grove got a 2-out double in the 6th. Escarcega, who had struck out his first two times up, managed contact with his at-bat, but it was only a weak grounder to first easily handled by Mickey Truong.

Annapolis picked up some insurance in the bottom half of the sixth when Benjamin Paille singled to right, scoring Mickey Truong who had walked earlier in the inning.

Lopez had no troubles in the top half of the 7th, setting the Claws down in order. When Boris Landeros led off in the bottom of the inning, and walked, David Rowe elected to try to work for another run. He ordered Landeros to steal, but Landeros was out on a close play. Rowe yelled loudly from the dugout, then when Bozek got called out looking, and then Cueva to follow that, Rowe exploded from the dugout to vent frustration at the umpiring.

Rowe vented far too much, and he was finally pulled back by his assistants, and sent down the dark thruway to the clubhouse.

Before going out in the top half of the 8th, the pitching coach asked Lopez how he was holding up. Lopez had already gone over 100 pitches, so in spite of long rest deserved to be watched. Lopez got David Vaughn to strikeout leading off the inning, but then walked the 8th hole hitter Stepney. Having reached 120 pitches, the pitching coach called for Rozek, a righthander, to pitch the pinch hitter, McGaughey.

McGaughey hit a rocket. But right at Mickey Truong just coming off the base from holding the runner at first. Truong speared it, and then quickly pivoted back to the bag to double up Stepney.

James Cañaveral came on to pitch an easy ninth, securing the 2-0 win. Santos Escarcega made the final out, caught looking helplessly as another southpaw throwing rockets froze him solid. Frustrated by the lack of offense from his team, Craig Sawyer came out to argue the final strike call of the game, leading to this question: Was he truly ejected from the game, seeing how the game was already over?

Gastric ReFlux · 07-12-2005, 02:01 PM

Code:

BOX SCORES Scranton @ Annapolis
Game #: 1631,   (GAME LOG)  , Thursday, 10/12/2000
 
 
	
 		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	 	R	H	E
Scranton	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	 	0	2	0
Annapolis	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	X	 	2	5	0
	
 
 
Scranton	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	LOB	AVG	HR	RBI
M. Daniel CF	4	0	0	0	0	2	0	.182	0	0
J. Grove C 	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	.190	0	2
S. Escarcega 1B	4	0	0	0	0	3	2	.240	1	4
J. Kramer RF	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	.143	0	0
J. Mitchell SS	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	.286	1	3
J. Haley LF	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	.158	1	5
D. Vaughn 2B	3	0	0	0	0	1	1	.182	0	2
J. Stepney 3B	2	0	0	0	1	2	1	.444	0	3
G. Erhart P 	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000	0	0
1- McGaughey PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500	0	1
J. Rathburn P 	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0
2-B. Dyer PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.200	1	1
B. Conejo P 	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0
Totals		28	0	2	0	2	10	6	.255	117	702
Substitution Notes
1 - J. McGaughey pinch hit for G. Erhart in the 6th
2 - B. Dyer pinch hit for J. Rathburn in the 8th
BATTING
Doubles: J. Grove (1, 6th inning off Lopez, 0 on, 2 out.)
Team LOB: 2

FIELDING
Double Plays: 1 (Mitchell-Vaughn-Escarcega)
 
Annapolis	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	LOB	AVG	HR	RBI
B. Landeros LF	3	0	0	0	1	1	1	.333	1	2
R. Bozek C 	4	0	1	0	0	1	0	.188	0	1
J. Cueva 2B	3	1	1	0	1	2	1	.438	0	2
J. Neyra 3B	4	0	0	0	0	1	2	.067	0	0
M. Truong 1B	3	1	1	0	1	0	0	.200	0	1
J. Sauceda SS	2	0	1	1	2	0	0	.417	0	6
W. Brubaker CF	3	0	0	0	0	0	5	.143	0	0
B. Paille RF	3	0	1	1	0	0	3	.083	0	3
G. Lopez P 	2	0	0	0	1	1	2	.000	0	0
R. Rozek P 	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0
J. Cañaveral P 	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0
Totals		27	2	5	2	6	6	14	.250	139	707
BATTING
Runs Batted In: J. Sauceda (6), B. Paille (3)
Stolen Bases: J. Cueva (3), M. Truong (1)
Caught Stealing: B. Landeros (1)
Team LOB: 9

FIELDING
Double Plays: 1 (Truong-Sauceda-Truong)
 
Scranton	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	PI	PS	ERA	RECORD
G. Erhart L	5	4	1	1	3	2	0	81	44	5.40	0-3
J. Rathburn 	2	1	1	1	3	4	0	39	19	3.38	 
B. Conejo 	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	7	0.00	 
PITCHING
Intentional BB: J. Rathburn
Batters Faced: G. Erhart 21, J. Rathburn 9, B. Conejo 3
Ground Balls-Fly Balls: G. Erhart 6-6, J. Rathburn 0-1, B. Conejo 1-2
Game Score: G. Erhart 54
 
Annapolis	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	PI	PS	ERA	RECORD
G. Lopez W	7.1	2	0	0	2	9	0	104	62	0.00	1-0
R. Rozek H	0.2	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	2	3.00	 
J. Cañaveral S	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	13	8	0.00	3 SV
PITCHING
Wild Pitches: G. Lopez
Batters Faced: G. Lopez 26, R. Rozek 1, J. Cañaveral 3
Inherited Runners-Scored: R. Rozek 1-0
Ground Balls-Fly Balls: G. Lopez 9-4, R. Rozek 1-0, J. Cañaveral 0-2
Game Score: G. Lopez 81
 
GAME INFO
Time: 3:03
Attendance: 56748 (56749, 100.0%) at Annapolis Ballpark
Weather: Clear skies (54 degrees), wind blowing right to left at 10 mph
PLAYER OF THE GAME: George Lopez
Game Notes:
David Rowe was ejected in the 7th inning! Craig Sawyer was ejected in the 9th inning!

abailey3313 · 07-12-2005, 02:03 PM

Annapolis is unstoppable.

Nice write-up, by the way.

Gastric ReFlux · 07-12-2005, 03:33 PM

Penn League's Rookie of the Year announcement

It may have been another sub .500 season for State College, but they've got a bright spot shining at third base. Ernesto Demiras was considered one of the top prospects by scouts in 1999 when playing at the AA level. He won the starting job at third for State College in 2000. He broke from the starting gate looking like a thoroughbred, hitting .300 in the month of April and socking a couple of homers.

May it looked like the pitchers began making adjustments and Ernesto struggled. But Demiras hung in, and began hitting again at a steady if unspectacular rate. The fans in State College are excited by the youngster, at 20 years of age he looks to be headed for a potentially long and stellar career.

07-12-2005, 10:01 AM	#41
Gastric ReFlux Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Member #3409 Posts: 8,350	Championship Prelude Annapolis had no real problems winning the 5 game Delmar Championship. George Lopez, who had won 3 in 5 starts in the 1999 postseason, going 39 innings, striking out 53 and giving up only 4 earned runs, had shown no signs of trouble handling the postseason duties then, and showed none in the first game between Annapolis and Hagerstown. Lopez was a bit wild in the opener at Hagerstown, but throwing hard. In 8 innings of work, he fanned 11, walking 4, giving up 2 hits. It's not known exactly why in the 9th David Rowe chose to bring in Rozek to close, with the Middies ahead 1-0. In 2000, Rozek had been moved to a setup role, and the closer's position had been handed over to Jose Cañaveral, a free agent acquisiton by the Middies prior to the season beginning. Maybe Rowe figured that Rozek was already familiar with the pressure, and that kept from calling for the southpaw Cañaveral to come out with nearly 50,000 Hagerstown fans shaking the stadium. Rozek gave up an RBI double to benchplayer Asdrubal Jasso in the 9th, and the game went to extra innings. But Annapolis came back to push another run across in the top of the 10th, and now Rowe went to Cañaveral. Cañaveral blew away the Hagerstown opposition, striking out the 3 Gappers who came to bat. Annapolis gladly took the win and would win the next 2 in succession, with the last coming in front of their hometown faithful. It was the first postseason series sweep, the first time in any of the two leagues that a series hadn't gone the full distance. For Scranton, their series was more difficult. In their first game against the York Puddingheads, they had to battle against the fearsome $21 million dollar ace, Morris Olson. Olson was one who could rattle a radar gun with 3 digits showing, and for York his acquisition during free agency had improved the staff immensely. He had gone 13-9 in 2000 for the Puddingheads, and alongside Anselmo Heredia (15-8, 3.40), the two of them provided a strong 1-2 combination. The York batters got to Scranton's starter Gary Erhart for 5 runs in the top half of the 6th, and ended up holding on for a 6-5 victory as the Claws couldn't quite claw their way back. Game 2 had it looking rather bleak for Scranton. In front of the hometown fans, they fell behind 4-1, and that was the score entering their last turn at the plate. They rallied, and with one out, a runner on, the score 4-3, James Haley the leftfielder hit a walkoff homer to complete a comeback victory and square the series at one game each. Down in York, the two teams split the pair, the first game 5-3 in Scranton's favor, then 8-4 in favor of the Puddingheads. So it went back to Scranton and a decisive game 5. Scranton would again call upon the 1999 Mathewson Award winner of Meitarou Fumiaki. Fumiaki never gave the Puddingheads a chance. He went 8 superb innings, striking out 6, not walking anyone, and giving up 4 hits. The Claws won, 3-0, and got their chance at the Championship between the two leagues. Their manager Craig Sawyer was delighted to have erased the pain of 1999's late season struggle which had seen Allentown overtake and win a playoff game to take their division's crown. Last edited by Gastric ReFlux; 07-12-2005 at 10:04 AM.

07-12-2005, 10:38 AM	#42
Gastric ReFlux Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Member #3409 Posts: 8,350	Insult to Injury In 1999, Nat Norwood showed himself to be a capable starter in the rotation for the Bethlehem Stars, winning 13 games with an ERA of 2.89. 2000 wasn't going so well; the month of June saw him go 0-2 in 5 starts, giving up 40 hits in 33.1 innings. He was struggling, and then on July 2nd he had to leave the game in the 6th inning. It was later confirmed he had torn his tricep muscle, and would likely miss 5 weeks. In the early morning hours of July 30th, Nat got the news that he had been traded to the Frederick Possums, in exchange for a third sacker, Tony Soto. For Nat, he got the okay to stay where he was due to his injury, but for Tony Soto, he had to make the trip from Harrisburg to Bethlehem. He arrived in time to suit up for the Stars in the Sunday afternoon game. Soto seemed a bit weary after his game the night before in Harrisburg, which had gone 13 innings, and the Frederick Possums had won 17-16. In his first game for the Stars, Soto would go 0 for 3, striking out twice. Almost immediately after the game, Soto was given the new news. Frederick had decided they needed him after all, so they gave back Nat Norwood to Bethlehem. But wait, not just Norwood, but also pitching prospect Ezekiel Clow. But probably the one welcome bit of news in that for Soto was the fact that the Possums had Monday, July 31 off. Now for Norwood, it had to be at least somewhat insulting in the implication that his value had become a little less in the time, enough so that the Possums had to toss in Clow to complete the deal. Or was the Stars' GM just incredibly shrewd? He immediately dealt Norwood, on the disabled list, off to the Salisbury Steaks to acquire the Delmar's league rookie of the year in 1999, shortstop Ricky Scherrer. Fortunately for Scherrer, he, like Soto, had an extra day to travel to his new locale.

07-12-2005, 01:50 PM	#43
Gastric ReFlux Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Member #3409 Posts: 8,350	Game 1 of the 2000 Penndelmar Championship With Annapolis having swept through their playoff series, while Scranton had been forced to the full five games of theirs, many agreed that Annapolis had a clear advantage, of which there were two sharp points: first that Annapolis had homefield advantage thanks to the All Star victory by the Delmar League, and second that George Lopez would be starting games 1 and 4, 7 if needed. With his blazing fastball that has left scorchmarks on bats from foultips, George Lopez has established himself as the finest pitcher in Delaware and Maryland. His curve bites, his slider frequently disappears below bats into a cloud of dust that his catcher Rozek adeptly blocks when needed, and he even has a change of pace which looks for all the world like his fastball if you just looked at his arm whipping around from right-center field... ...Scranton's ace Fumiaki won't get the nod until Game 3 at the earliest... ...this series is set up perfectly for Annapolis to win, again. --Annapolis Gazette Close to 57,000 fans packed into the stadium for the opening game of the series. Lopez had pitched since the 4th of October, but he looked loose and relaxed while taking his warmups. The crowd roared approval when Lopez snapped off a last warmup fastball that popped into Rozek's mitt at the plate. Rozek threw down to second and the shortstop Sauceda took the throw with a grand and exaggerated sweeping tag motion. Batting leadoff for the Claws was Mitch Daniel, who looked even younger that his age of 22 years. His back right foot scraped away at back line of the batter's box, and he went into his somewhat crouched stance. Lopez unleashed his best fastball, and Daniel just took the measure, taking a strike one. The next fastball was hit by Daniel to the right side, and Joseph Cueva made the easy play from his position at second. John Grove, the Scranton catcher batted next, and perhaps he had picked up on something, as he got ahead of a fastball enough to line it to leftfield, a single, and the game's first hit. That hushed the crowd, and it brought to the plate Santos Escarcega, the most dangerous of the Scranton hitters. Beanpole was what he Scranton fans called Escarcega. He was 6 feet and 8 inches, but thin. His batting stroke relied upon his fluid lankiness to generate line drives; when he was comfortable it was a lovely sweep, an arc that had driven 28 balls out of the park during 2000. Still, many wondered how he would fare against Lopez coming hard from Escarcega's side of the plate. Lopez simply blew Escarcega away in the first matchup between the two of the series. Escarcega took the last one looking over the outside corner, unable to get his right foot to step and drop, unable to get the hands moving. Lopez would retire the final batter of the first, and the game was on. The Middies would draw first blood in the bottom half of the 4th. Cueva led off the inning by working a walk, and he would eventually score on a single by his doubleplay partner at short, James Sauceda. Lopez was showing no ill-effects from the long break between starts. The Claws didn't get another hit off Lopez until Grove got a 2-out double in the 6th. Escarcega, who had struck out his first two times up, managed contact with his at-bat, but it was only a weak grounder to first easily handled by Mickey Truong. Annapolis picked up some insurance in the bottom half of the sixth when Benjamin Paille singled to right, scoring Mickey Truong who had walked earlier in the inning. Lopez had no troubles in the top half of the 7th, setting the Claws down in order. When Boris Landeros led off in the bottom of the inning, and walked, David Rowe elected to try to work for another run. He ordered Landeros to steal, but Landeros was out on a close play. Rowe yelled loudly from the dugout, then when Bozek got called out looking, and then Cueva to follow that, Rowe exploded from the dugout to vent frustration at the umpiring. Rowe vented far too much, and he was finally pulled back by his assistants, and sent down the dark thruway to the clubhouse. Before going out in the top half of the 8th, the pitching coach asked Lopez how he was holding up. Lopez had already gone over 100 pitches, so in spite of long rest deserved to be watched. Lopez got David Vaughn to strikeout leading off the inning, but then walked the 8th hole hitter Stepney. Having reached 120 pitches, the pitching coach called for Rozek, a righthander, to pitch the pinch hitter, McGaughey. McGaughey hit a rocket. But right at Mickey Truong just coming off the base from holding the runner at first. Truong speared it, and then quickly pivoted back to the bag to double up Stepney. James Cañaveral came on to pitch an easy ninth, securing the 2-0 win. Santos Escarcega made the final out, caught looking helplessly as another southpaw throwing rockets froze him solid. Frustrated by the lack of offense from his team, Craig Sawyer came out to argue the final strike call of the game, leading to this question: Was he truly ejected from the game, seeing how the game was already over?

07-12-2005, 02:03 PM	#45
abailey3313 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 3,718	Annapolis is unstoppable. Nice write-up, by the way. __________________

07-12-2005, 03:33 PM	#46
Gastric ReFlux Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Member #3409 Posts: 8,350	Making the leap from AA to the majors, Ernesto Demiras Penn League's Rookie of the Year announcement It may have been another sub .500 season for State College, but they've got a bright spot shining at third base. Ernesto Demiras was considered one of the top prospects by scouts in 1999 when playing at the AA level. He won the starting job at third for State College in 2000. He broke from the starting gate looking like a thoroughbred, hitting .300 in the month of April and socking a couple of homers. May it looked like the pitchers began making adjustments and Ernesto struggled. But Demiras hung in, and began hitting again at a steady if unspectacular rate. The fans in State College are excited by the youngster, at 20 years of age he looks to be headed for a potentially long and stellar career.