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Warriors miss out on L-L playoffs
By Bruce Morgan
Lititz Record Express
Published: May 08, 2008 12:12 PM EST
Lititz -
Up until recently, the Warwick baseball team was where it wanted to
be.
Besides clinging to second place — and the final
Lancaster-Lebanon League playoff berth in the Section One standings —
the Warriors were also within striking distance of first-place Manheim
Township.
But back-to-back losses to Hempfield and Penn Manor last
week changed all of that. And heading into Monday's regular-season
finale, the Warriors were on the outside looking in for the L-L
playoffs.
Although Warwick and Hempfield were tied with identical
league records, the Black Knights had the tiebreaker rule due to beating
the Warriors twice this season. So the WHS nine not only had to defeat
Township on Monday, they also needed Penn Manor to beat Hempfield in order
to reach the L-L dance.
Unfortunately, the Warriors saw their L-L
hopes vanish with a 7-4 loss to the Blue Streaks, as Section champion
Manheim Twp. broke a 3-3 tie with four unearned runs in the fourth inning
and held on to send the Warriors to their third loss in the last four
games.
For Warwick (11-5 L-L, 13-6 overall), it was a tough pill to
swallow after getting to the L-L League finals last year and coming into
this season with high expectations.
"It's definitely
disappointing to a degree," pitcher Jason Griffith said.
"It's mixed feelings because we still have Districts to look
forward to. Getting to the finals of the League playoffs (last year), we
had higher expectations than what we ended up with. But I think we'll
bounce back. We need to hit our stride and I think we'll do that and
make a long run in Districts."
The District Three Triple-A
playoffs will get underway during the week of May 19, meaning a two-week
layoff for the Warriors.
Griffith, meanwhile, will be going into
Districts looking for his 5th win of the season which has eluded him in his
last two starts. On Monday, he gave up eight hits, but only three earned
runs in the complete-game loss, while striking out four and walking
two.
The senior righty deserved a better fate in the top of the
fourth. After Warwick battled back from an early 3-0 deficit to tie it,
Township's Gene Gross was hit by a pitch leading off. But Griffith
retired the next two batters, then got No. 9 hitter Matt Turman on strikes
looking. But a passed ball and an errant throw to first base allowed Gross
to circle the bases and Turman to reach base.
Then that opened the
floodgates, as Ethan Rieker (2-for-4), Tyler Deshong, and Cameron Gallagher
(2-for-4) all stroked RBI singles to put the Blue Streaks in front
7-3.
"It's baseball, things like that happen,"
Griffith said of the error. "Very rarely do you play a perfect game. I
didn't feel like I had great stuff. I think a lot of this falls on me,
not pitching as well as I should have. Those things happen, and as a
pitcher, you have to put it past you and get out of the
inning."
The Warriors got one of those runs back in fifth
inning, as Skylar Gingrich worked a one-out free pass, Andy Thompson
(3-for-4) singled, and Griffith (3-for-4) punched a seeing-eye RBI single
to left, slicing the deficit to 7-4.
They also had two runners on
base with two outs in the sixth, but reliever Carlos X Medina got out of
it, and then Andrew Peiffer pitched a perfect seventh to seal it for the
Streaks.
Earlier, Township bunched four hits in the third and took a
3-0 lead on RBI doubles by Kyle Karpinski and Gallagher and an RBI single
by Rieker.
Then Warwick answered in the home half of the inning off
of Township winning pitcher Pat Kelley on Dan Ansel's RBI ground out,
Gingrich's screaming RBI double to the left-center field gap, and
Thompson's RBI base hit, tying the score at 3-all.
But the Blue
Streaks took the lead for good in their next at-bats, leaving the Warriors
to look forward to the District playoffs.
"It's a great
group of kids ... There's only been a few points (this season) where
we've been hitting on all cylinders, and if we can do that (in
Districts), we can make a run at it," Griffith said. "I feel like
we can play with anybody in the District."
Warwick was also in
action last Friday, and Justin King's two-out, two-run single in the
top of the eighth inning broke a 3-3 tie and lifted the Warriors to a 5-3
win over Cedar Crest in Cornwall.
David Leisey then pitched a
perfect inning in the bottom of the eighth to cap his complete-game
victory. He struck out eight and yielded three runs on four hits and two
walks.
After the Falcons took a 1-0 lead in the first, Warwick
answered with three in the third on Mark Stuckey's RBI single and Zach
Shank's two-run base hit.
Crest then scored single runs in the
fourth and fifth to tie it and force extra innings.
Stuckey, Mike
Freeman, King, and Rob Lessig had two hits apiece to pace Warwick, who had
11 total hits off Cedar Crest pitchers Trahovsky and Patteson.
Last
Wednesday, April 30, Penn Manor scored seven runs in the first inning and
held on to defeat Warwick 7-6 in Millersville.
The Warriors got one
back in the second, four in the fourth, and one more in the sixth, but
their comeback fell short. Mike Freeman singled with two outs in the
seventh to put the tying run aboard, but he was stranded.
Dan Ansel
was 3-for-4 with three RBI's and Freeman finished 3-for-4 with two runs
to lead the offense in a losing cause. Mark Stuckey and Adam Zipko also had
two hits apiece.
Freeman went the distance on the hill and took the
loss. He yielded seven runs on 11 hits and two walks, while striking out
seven.
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