Finally!
A night for baseball without rain!
We certainly deserved one with how tough this last week has been, and Thursday night helped get us caught up a bit in our local action including little league sectionals, Senior Legion and Delco League.
As always, make sure to subscribe for free to get daily updates on everything going on in the area this summer:
Little League 11U:
For the second consecutive tournament, Ridley will look to battle out of the loser’s bracket and win twice in the championship game.
They did against NELL in the District 19 Tournament and they will look to do it again when they take on Upper Providence, who beat them on Wednesday night.
Ridley does have the home crowd behind them as they are hosting the tournament. Should they win this game they will have a very quick turnaround to the if necessary game at 11:00 AM.
Should they win both, they would advance to the state tournament at Valley East Little League, about two hours away in Drums, PA, starting on July 21st.
I have never heard of Drums, PA, either.
Senior Legion:
I loved playing legion for Nether Providence, which does not appear to have a team anymore.
We won the program’s only State Championship in 2014 and I think it’s great for the area that legion ball seems to be making a bit of a resurgence.
A ton of the recognizable names from our high school guys are playing this summer, both guys that are committed and guys that are not committed.
Brian Heck, Justin Heck, Michael Coleman, Ryan Friel, Mikey Klawansky, Sam Bohnenkamp and I’m sure some more guys were all first or second team All-Delco for us and they are playing in these playoffs which is great for the league.
All the guys just mentioned will face off Friday night at 6:00 at Dermond Field, otherwise known as the Drexel Hill/Llanerch Hills Little League complex’s big field.
An interesting note here: UDHL is expected to start Upper Darby pitcher Pat Callahan, who has not allowed a single earned run in a little over 30 innings this season.
Delco League:
Upper Darby had a golden opportunity to challenge Wayne for the #1 seed in the Delco League playoffs, but Wayne came up clutch to stay in first for the time being.
The playoff picture is starting to take shape. Wayne and Upper Darby will finish 1 and 2 in whichever order and both get a bye which is usually the case. Springfield looks like third place is theirs to lose.
Fourth place, fifth place, and sixth place are all pretty close with Drexel Hill, Chester, and Aston Valley. Ridley’s loss to Narberth really stung but they are still only a few points back of Aston Valley for the sixth spot.
Narberth is only four games back, but they are really running out of time. According to the schedule, the last regular season game will be Saturday, July 19th.
Babe Ruth 13U:
Another tournament being hosted in Delco, we love that!
This time it will be the Babe Ruth 13U tournament, where three out of the six teams participating will be from Delco. Broomall-Newtown has been a Babe Ruth powerhouse, and they are joined in the tournament by Ridley and UDHL.
All games will be played at Thomas Field in Broomall, attached below is the link to find game times:
https://www.leaguelineup.com/schedules.asp?url=pababeruthleague&divisionid=1060243
Phillies:
After an off day in California, the Phillies will be back in action Friday night at 9:40 PM. Thankfully, only one of these three games will be the super late start as Saturday’s game is a prime time FOX game and Sunday is a normal afternoon game in West Coast time, which means 4:10 here.
It would be nice to get a little bit of momentum going into the break after a disappointing series in San Francisco. They certainly have their top three pitchers ready to go in this one, so let’s get some offense to support that.