Hello there, welcome in to another installment of the Delco Baseball Now newsletter. We had a pretty light day overall on Tuesday night as one by one as the amount of teams we are covering as started to shrink, but the level of competition has gotten higher.
This edition will feature the first round of the Delco League playoffs, second round of the Mid-County playoffs, legion, Babe Ruth, and a brilliant start on the mound from Cristopher Sanchez in the Phillies win last night.
As always, we appreciate anyone who takes the time to subscribe to get these updates every day. Some people said they had some issues with the newsletter going straight to their junk folder (pretty funny objectively) so if you signed up and can’t find it, check there.
Delco League:
The series is far from over, but I would like to toot my own horn for a second as I predicted Mark Zuppo would be the series MVP in our first round preview on the podcast.
Church Road Park in Springfield is known as a field that doesn’t have a fence, but Zuppo created his own as he belted one into the trees in left center field. It was originally a triple but the umpires got together and called it a homer.
Recent Marple Newtown graduate Jack Maholick made his first career playoff start and gave Springfield exactly what they needed with one run over five innings. Recent Harriton graduate Charlie Belli threw two innings of shutout ball for the save.
Both of these guys are heading to Catholic University in the Fall.
As for Drexel Hill, Bonner alum Bryan Henry also turned in five sharp innings with one run allowed. Fellow Bonner alums Harry Carr and Austin Cannon drove in some runs as well as Neumann-Goretti alum Evan McCoach.
If these teams close out their current series, Springfield would play Wayne and Drexel Hill would play Upper Darby. One game at a time, though.
Mid-County:
Apologies to whoever “Cole” is on the Aston Valley GameChanger, but your teammates/coach did not put your last name on the roster so I don’t know who you are.
Congrats on the walk-off single in Game 1 and the complete game in Game 2, if someone lets me know your name I will add it in here.
Aston Valley will take on either the Clifton Outlaws or Top Lumber Expos. Clifton leads 1-0 and Game 2 of that series will be Wednesday night at O’Hara at 6:00 PM. Game 3 if necessary would be Thursday under the lights at Dermond at 8:00 PM.
MBSL:
I may be too washed up to be a Delco League starter, but I’m ready for a playoff run with the Drexel Hill Phillies.
I heard a lefty is pitching tonight so I will be useless in this one, but the rest of the playoffs I’m ready. This is our first year in the league so I’m not really sure what to expect here but I’m looking forward to it.
The Glen Mills Rays swept the Aston Marauders in the first round to get here. This series will be played on a very small field at Dermond Park, so anything can happen with fly balls. The series is being started early due to a wedding on Saturday for a Rays player, so the other semifinal series will not start until Saturday. Both will be over by Sunday, though.
Babe Ruth:
Is this Broomall-Newtown team the greatest team of all time?
It may be a bit early to say that, but they are absolutely crushing everyone that they play. Their closest game was an 8-2 win, and everything else was 13-0 or worse. We’ll see if anyone is able to compete with that offense today, as they can at the very least earn a spot in the knockout stage.
Prep Legion:
Narberth has made their way through the loser’s bracket and the mission is clear.
If they win two games Wednesday, they will be State Champions. I have never seen a bracket quite like this before, but there are currently three teams left and all three teams have one loss. Narberth will play Boyertown while Norchester awaits the winner.
Narberth showed that the bats are ready to go after yesterday’s 16-1 win over Swoyersville, but we’ll see if they have the arms to get through two games in a row.
MLB:
Everyone involved in choosing the NL All Star team should be fired.
They didn’t have Cristopher Sanchez, one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, and they also didn’t have Trea Turner who led the NL in hits. But good thing we put in a Brewers pitcher who has made five career starts!
Anyway, Sanchez was just dominant against Boston. He let up a solo homer but that was it, these guys looked lost against him. He has had great stuff since he came up to the big leagues but every year his fastball ticks up a little bit as well and now he is lethal.
Max Kepler homered, and he really needed that one mentally. Kyle Schwarber also homered as well, he didn’t necessarily need that one but it sure was nice.
With a rested up bullpen the Phillies will look to sweep the Red Sox before they head to New York to face the Yankees this weekend after an off day Thursday.