Falcons Still Trying to Figure out Which Way is Up

6 years ago
Falcons Still Trying to Figure out Which Way is Up

May 8, 2019
Jeff Falk
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Baseball, Cedar Crest, FEATURE STORIES
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BY JEFF FALK

SOUTH LEBANON – The current regime set out to change the culture of baseball at Cedar Crest, to turn around its climate, to re-invent the program. And for the most part, the Falcons have accomplished that.

But one of the key ingredients of a successful program is consistency.

On a warm Tuesday afternoon at Cedar Crest High School, the Falcons put forth a disapointing effort during a 9-1 setback at the hands of the Warwick Warriors. Cedar Crest fell into an early hole and didn’t have the sticks to pull itself out of it.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the loss was that it appeared the Falcons needed a positive result to prolong their season. In the latest District Three Class power rankings, 8-11 and 7-10 Cedar Crest was listed 11th in an AAAAAA classification which takes ten teams for its playoff tournament.

But the team ahead of the Falcons in the power rankings, Penn Manor, also lost, 7-1 at Daniel Boone. There also remains a possibility that the Falcons could pick up one more non-league game between now and District Three’s May 15th deadline to complete their 20-game allotment for this spring.

The loss was Cedar Crest’s sixth in its last seven outings. Last season, the Falcons had worn the Lancaster-Lebanon Section One crown.

For Warwick, the outcome moved it to 12-6 overall and 11-5 in Section One.

“It truly is what it is,” said Cedar Crest head coach Josh Brown, when asked if his club had earned a postseason berth. “We can play with anyone. We’re right there. When we get down big-time, it’s a huge hole for us to dig out of.

“The season was a step back,” continued Brown. “I thought we’d have a better year. The guys who weren’t hitting, weren’t hitting all year long. You can only win so many games 1-0. When you play good baseball teams, you’ve got to hit.”

It took Cedar Crest all of one half of an inning to fall into that hole. Well, actually it was two pitches.

Lead-off hitter Brendan Martin homered on the second pitch of the game to give the Warriors a 1-0 edge. The Warriors would go on to add two more top-of-the-first-inning runs, courtesy of John Seibert’s two-run single.

But the Falcons made it 3-1 in the home half of the opening inning, after Hunter Bojanic singled and swiped second. Nate Shaeffer drove Bojanic home with a two-out single.

“They (the Warriors) pitch the ball well, but we’ve got to do a better job hitting,” said Brown. “The guys who should be hitting the baseball, like our Section One all-stars, are not barrelling it up. They hit the ball in practice.

“It’s disappointing,” Brown continued. “I can’t explain it. I think it’s more psychological than anything. There were times this season we played great. But that’s (the psychological) a difficult aspect to coach.”

After the first inning, the Falcons’ bats fell silent. From the first frame on, Cedar Crest managed but one hit – Alex Shutter’s single in the bottom of the seventh.

From the first through the sixth innings, 15 Falcon hitters in-a-row were retired, a streak that ended with a walk to Kyle Poorman with two outs in the bottom of the sixth. For the game, Warwick pitching struck out a total of ten Cedar Crest batters.

“It was terrible,” said Brown. “We haven’t been hitting since the Lebanon game (on April 18th). Our pitching is what’s been keeping us in it. But they (the Warriors) hit the baseball well today. We only gave them one run. But we couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.

“Once they (his players) got down 5-1, 6-1, the dugout got down,” said Brown. “(Starting pitcher Justin) Frazier didn’t pitch like he usually does, and he got down on himself.”

Warwick upped its advantage to 5-1 with two runs in the top of the second inning. Zach Shertzer and Josh Farina knocked home ‘mates, after the frame had begun with an Evan Rohrbach triple and a walk to Dagen Young.

It became 7-1 Warriors in the top of the fifth, thanks in part to Ethan Heller’s single and a Cedar Crest error. Warwick produced its final two runs an at-bat later, when Colby Martin contributed a run-producing single and the Falcons committed two more errors.

“It was nothing but positive, especially for the seniors,” said Brown of the post-game address to his troops. “We battled in a lot of games this year. There’s a small possibility we can still get into districts. We have one game left that we can play. Penn Manor lost, so there’s a chance we can get in (to districts).”

For the game, Warwick collecteed a total of ten hits.

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

2019 Cedar Crest Baseball Results



Date	Opponents	Outcomes
3/27 4:15 pm	Cedar Crest at Hempfield	2 4
3/29 4:15 pm	McCaskey at Cedar Crest	4 1
4/01 4:15 pm	Manheim Township at Cedar Crest	3 1
4/03 4:15 pm	Cedar Crest at Penn Manor	14 4
4/04 4:15 pm	Cedar Crest at Warwick	2 12
4/06 2:00 pm	Northern Lebanon at Cedar Crest	0 10
4/08 4:15 pm	Cedar Crest at Lebanon	12 2
4/10 4:15 pm	Lampeter-Strasburg at Cedar Crest	3 5
4/12 4:15 pm	Conestoga Valley at Cedar Crest	3 7
4/15 4:15 pm	Cedar Crest at Elizabethtown	10 2
4/17 4:15 pm	Cedar Crest at Solanco	1 2
4/18 4:15 pm	Lebanon at Cedar Crest	0 12
4/22 4:15 pm	Ephrata at Cedar Crest	3 2
4/24 4:15 pm	Hempfield at Cedar Crest	6 2
4/27 11:00 am	Cedar Crest at Exeter Township
4/29 4:15 pm	Cedar Crest at Manheim Township	2 3
4/30 6:30 pm	Cedar Crest at McCaskey	9 5
5/01 4:15 pm	Penn Manor at Cedar Crest	11 2
5/06 7:00 pm	Cedar Crest Palmyra at In The Net, Palmyra	2 5
5/07 4:15 pm	Warwick at Cedar Crest

Lancaster-Lebanon League

Section One Standings



	League			Overall
	W	L	PCT	W	L	PCT	RS	RA
Hempfield	15	1	93.75	17	3	85.00	155	52
Warwick	11	5	68.75	12	6	66.67	113	40
Manheim Township	9	7	56.25	13	7	65.00	103	64
McCaskey	7	9	43.75	9	11	45.00	83	59
Penn Manor	7	9	43.75	8	11	42.11	79	62
Cedar Crest	7	10	41.18	8	11	42.11	97	79

PIAA District Three

Class AAAAAA Power Rankings

AAAAAA	School	W	L	T	Rating	TWP	OWP	TWPW	OWPW	TWPL	OWPL
1	HEMPFIELD	17-	2-	0	0.788910	0.928731	0.618018	20.9	228.6	1.6	141.3
2	Dallastown	15-	2-	0	0.766964	0.916883	0.583730	17.7	206.0	1.6	146.9
3	Manheim Township	13-	7-	0	0.697296	0.744131	0.640053	15.9	239.7	5.5	134.8
4	Red Lion	12-	4-	1	0.689526	0.804478	0.549028	14.7	186.7	3.6	153.4
5	Waynesboro	16-	2-	0	0.688909	0.910448	0.418140	18.3	127.7	1.8	177.7
6	Warwick	11-	6-	0	0.687319	0.736986	0.626614	13.5	223.2	4.8	133.0
7	Wilson (3)	10-	7-	1	0.662306	0.678765	0.642189	12.5	225.7	5.9	125.8
8	Central Dauphin	10-	8-	0	0.629191	0.659459	0.592197	12.2	194.0	6.3	133.6
9	Cumberland Valley	7-	7-	0	0.612664	0.603448	0.623927	8.8	197.0	5.8	118.7
10	Penn Manor	8-	11-	0	0.593066	0.536986	0.661609	9.8	249.8	8.5	127.8
11	Cedar Crest	8-	10-	0	0.583709	0.551724	0.622801	9.6	224.8	7.8	136.2
12	J P McCaskey	8-	11-	0	0.581208	0.533693	0.639283	9.9	241.1	8.7	136.0
13	Reading	8-	10-	0	0.524392	0.536313	0.509823	9.6	179.1	8.3	172.2
14	Governor Mifflin	5-	14-	0	0.496984	0.348703	0.678217	6.1	245.8	11.3	116.6
15	Central York	5-	14-	0	0.474287	0.337176	0.641867	5.9	228.7	11.5	127.6
16	Conestoga Valley	4-	14-	0	0.442441	0.289308	0.629604	4.6	226.5	11.3	133.3
17	Carlisle	3-	15-	0	0.436367	0.237013	0.680022	3.7	225.2	11.8	106.0
18	Harrisburg	3-	11-	0	0.424257	0.278626	0.602250	3.7	168.6	9.5	111.4
19	Central Dauphin East	2-	15-	0	0.368441	0.162866	0.619700	2.5	212.7	12.9	130.5
20	Chambersburg	1-	16-	0	0.358558	0.088968	0.688056	1.3	204.8	12.8	92.9
21	York County School of Technology	4-	13-	0	0.342766	0.232416	0.477638	3.8	162.3	12.6	177.5
22	Lebanon	1-	18-	0	0.327138	0.073955	0.636583	1.2	237.4	14.4	135.5