Throughout his playing days in Palmyra, Tyler Morder has certainly been part of his share of wins and championships. Morder brings a certain level of intensity to the diamond that makes him a winner, even before he steps between the chalk lines.
But while he has been a major contributor to those triumphs, Morder has never changed the course of a game – or even a season – in quite the same way he did on Thursday night at Earl Wenger Memorial Field in Fredericksburg. With his team in desperate need of a spark, Morder dared to be great.
Morder was a runner on third base with one out and his Campbelltown club locked in a 2-2 seventh-inning tie with home-standing Fredericksburg, in Game Two of a Lebanon County American Legion best-of-three semifinal series that F-burg already led 1-0. On a ball hit to the shortstop of a draw-in Fredericksburg infield, Morder stared his opponent down, waited until the fielder uncorked his throw to first base and then broke for home.
Now while Morder has some pretty decent wheels, what made the play successful was a tremendous ‘avoid-the-tag’, hand-slide away from Fredericksburg catcher Drew Bene. In the final analysis, Morder beat the play by a fairly comfortable margin and may have saved Campbelltown’s season.
The very next night, still riding the momentum created by Morder’s daring sprint, Campbelltown completed its comeback by winning the third and decisive game in the set.
Morder, who has committed to play baseball in college at Seton Hill, has also been an effective chucker for C-town, during its fourth straight run to the regular-season championship in the Lebanon County American Legion league.