North baseball falls behind early, loses league games
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

If the Williamsville North baseball team learned one lesson from last week's three contests it should be start making plays earlier in games.

The Spartans dug themselves huge holes in its first two ECIC Division I league games that they couldn't climb out of.

North trailed Orchard Park, 9-0, and Frontier, 6-2, after five innings and lost, 11-6, and 8-5, last Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

"We had a lot of guys on vacation for both games but it's no excuse," said North coach Jerry Scarcella. "I have no idea why we didn't hit well early in those games."

When North did score, it was in bunches. The Spartans scored all six of their runs against Orchard Park in the sixth inning. Three of the five runs versus Frontier occurred in the top of the seventh.

In the sixth against OP, Steve Barth singled in Scott Herberger, Alex Barth drove in Austin Benshadle, JV call-up Jordan Gust singled in Alex Barth and Marc Kadish, James Nowicki doubled in Gust and Gust scored on an Anthony Longarzo groundout.

"If we started the game like that, it would have been a different game," said Scarcella.

Trailing Frontier, 8-2, in the top of the seventh, Gust singled in Jeff Teplitsky and Alex Barth singled in Kadish and Gust. North left runners on second and third base when the game ended.

North scored a run in the fourth (Steve Barth singled in Kadish, who led off with a double) and the fifth (Teplitsky singled in Herberger).

Teplitsky finished 2-2 with a walk at the plate and got the loss on the mound.

Kadish went 2 for 4. Gust, Steve Barth, and Alex Barth each hit 1 for 4.

Ben Zwierzchowski got the loss on the mound versus Orchard Park. Gust hit 2 for 2 with two RBIs.

The Quakers' fourth and fifth batters in the lineup, Kyle Hoppy (3 for 4, single, double, three RBIs) and Joe Haak (two doubles, single, two RBIs) killed North's chances of success.

The Spartans opened the season with a 2-1 non-league loss at St. Francis on Tuesday, April 8. Each team used wooden bats and recorded four hits. Benshadle, Kadish, Fronczak and Longarzo each went 1 for 3.

Fronczak scored North's only run of the game in the second inning when Nowicki hit a sacrifice fly. St. Francis scored a run in the third and sixth.

Junior Matt Goraj pitched a great game (seven innings, four hits, one earned run, walk) but got the loss on the mound.

"He has great command of the plate," said Scarcella. "Everything he throws moves. A lot of his pitches led to pop flies and groundouts."

Scarcella said third baseman Alex Barth made two great plays on balls that were going in the gap.

Despite the 0-3 start, Scarcella was happy with his team's resiliency.

"We never gave up which shows me we're going to be somebody to contend with by the end of the season," said Scarcella.

North is off until Saturday at 2 p.m. when they face St. Joe's at Dunn Tire Park as part of the Robert E. Rich Memorial Classic. The tournament features public against Catholic schools. If North wins, they would play in the semifinals at either 9:30 or 11:30 a.m. on Sunday. The final is set for 2 p.m.

"I enjoy it," said Scarcella. "We'll use wooden bats, which means you have to play real baseball, like moving runners over. If you can't do that, you'll struggle."

North hosts West Seneca West and Lancaster on Monday, April 21 and Wednesday, April 23, respectively, and play at Clarence on Friday, April 25. All three games are 4:45 p.m. starts.