BY JEFF FALK

LANCASTER – Baseball is all about timing, literally and figuratively. So are intangibles like karma and chemistry.

It may be that the Anville-Cleona baseball team’s time just hasn’t arrived yet.

On a brilliant Monday evening at Lancaster Catholic High School’s Riley Field, the promising Little Dutchmen absorbed a key 4-1 setback at the hands of a more polished hometown Crusader crew. The Little Dutchmen experienced difficultes generating any type of sustained offense and generally lacked the type of attention to detail required to defeat a club the caliber of Lancaster Catholic.

Annville-Cleona had begun the spring with six straight victories, including a 5-4 season-opening come-from-behind triumph over the same Crusader club. But since, the Little Dutchmen have gone 3-4, and now find themselves down two games to Lancaster Catholic in the Lancaster-Lebanon Section Four standings, with four league games remaining.

Annville-Cleona is 9-4 overall and 8-4 in the section, while Lancaster Catholic improved to 10-3 on the season and 10-2 in the ciruit. The Crusaders have won the last three L-L Section Four crowns, and five of the last six.

The Little Dutchmen were situated fifth in the latest District Three Class AAA power rankings.

“It’s a rivalry,” said Annville-Cleona first-year head coach Mike Miller, of the Crusaders. “They like beating us. It’s a big deal for our kids to beat them. It’s good competition.

“They were one game up on us in the section coming in,” continued Miller. “Every game is important now. With this, we’re just focusing on tomorrow. We’ve got to get as many wins as we can.”

The Crusaders touched Little Dutchmen starter Sal ‘Sonny’ Biondollo for a pair of unearned runs in the home half of the opening inning.

Lancaster Catholic’s ‘crooked number’ was fueled by a pair of Annville-Cleona errors. It also included an RBI-hit from three-hole hitter Dillon Marsh and a Bryce Behmer sacrifice fly.

“I thought our defense let us down,” said Miller. “Sal pitched well enough to win. We’ve got to start bringing our best game, every game.

“It’s been off and on,” Miller continued. “Sometimes it’s a lack of concentration. I don’t want to say ‘nerves’, but if you want to win the bigger games, we’ve got to play better. It comes down to who makes the least mistakes. But it’s not a lack of effort.”

Annville-Cleona shaved its deficit in half, and got on the board in the top of the third inning.

It began with a walk to Ben Miller and continued with a Lancaster Catholic error. Little Dutchman Tyler Long came through with a two-out RBI-single to make it 2-1.

Annville-Cleona also threatened in the top half of the fourth inning, thanks to singles from Conor Williams and Miller. But they were left stranded on base.

The Little Dutchmen registered a total of four safeties, against Crusader starter Nick Breznak.

“I think a positive that we can take away is that we can hit thesee guys,” said Miller. “I thought it was pretty even. They (the Crusaders) had that long ball Behmer’s shot in the bottom of the fourth).

“Sal pitched varsity for half the year last year,” added Miller. “Ben Miller was the only other starter back from last year. But they’re (his players) not young. At this time of the year, no one’s young. They’ve seen a lot of baseball.”

Biondollo tossed six solid innings of seven-hit ball. He whiffed seven, didn’t issue a free pass and two of the seven hits he surrendered went for extra-bases, including the solo dinger in the fourth.

“It was a great job of hitting,” said Miller of the Crusaders’ solo shot that made it 3-1. “Sal was hitting his spots. You can’t have that many errors. Those are things we can control.

“He’s (Biondollo) got to hit his spots,” Miller added. “He has

 

good velocity on his ball. I think we had one walk. He’s learning to pitch. He used to be able to line up and fire it.”

Lancaster Catholic padded its lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth.

The Crusaders did their damage after Biondollo had retired the first two batters he faced. Dylan Pawlowicz scored on Alex Kukic’s single.

“I don’t think we’re ever too high or too low,” said Miller. “We haven’t given up too many runs. The pitching has kept us in games. But we haven’t scored a ton of runs.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to view more go to https://lebanonsportsbuzz.com/photo-gallery/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2018 Annville-Cleona Baseball Results

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lancaster-Lebanon League

 Section Four Standings

	League			Overall
	W	L	PCT	W	L	PCT	RS	RA
Lancaster Catholic	10	2	83.33	10	3	76.92	76	22
Annville-Cleona	8	4	66.67	9	4	69.23	65	25
Pequea Valley	6	5	54.55	7	8	46.67	68	61
Lancaster Mennonite	4	7	36.36	5	8	38.46	75	72
Columbia	3	9	25.00	3	11	21.43	35	130
Lebanon Catholic	0	12	0.00	0	13	0.00	0	42