BY JEFF FALK
EPHRATA – There is no remaining residual pressure on the Annville-Cleona baseball team. The Little Dutchmen have got what they came for.
All that remains is simply ‘bonus baseball’.
On Saturday morning at Ephrata’s War Memorial Field, the underdog Little Dutchmen dropped an 8-0 decision to Ephrata, in the opening round of the Lancaster-Lebanon League postseason. Annville-Cleona fell behind early, then experienced offensive difficulties squaring up Mounts’ starter Adam Schwartz.
With the result, Annville-Cleona, the runner-up from Section Four, slipped to 12-8 overall. Ephrata, the champion from Section Two, moved to 18-3 and into Tuesday’s 4 p.m. L-L League semifinal, back at War Memorial Field.
The Little Dutchmen’s next action will come on Wednesday in a unique and innovative season-finale against Brandywine Heights, in what will ammount to a play-in game to the District Three Class AAA tournament, at Ephrata’s War Memorial Field.
Annville-Cleona was situated sixth in the latest Class AAA power rankings, with Brandywine Heights sitting seventh, mere percentage points behind the Little Dutchmen. When both teams were left with postponed games they could not make up, the schools agreed to play each other, in a previously unscheduled contest that will ultimately decide the final Class AAA playoff berth.
“I don’t want to say we’re young,” said Annville-Cleona head coach Mike Miller. “But we have a lot of new starters. They have played well. I think this is a successful season. We didn’t give up. We overachieved. I don’t think anyone thought we were going to be here. Our kids have good attitudes right now.
“Over the last ten years, I think we have a good history of coming down here and playing well (in the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs),” continued Miller. “We normally play teams tight. Eight-to-nothing is a little farther than we wanted. But I don’t think our kids backed down. They weren’t intimidated.”
Ephrata got to Annville-Cleona starter Sal ‘Sonny’ Biondollo for a quartet of first-inning runs. After Biondollo retired the first hitter he faced, the next three Mount batters reached base, but Ephrata would score three of its runs with two outs.
The big blow was a two-run triple off the bat of Blake White, which teammate Andrew Thomas followed up with a run-producing single. Earlier in the at-bat, clean-up hitter Zack McGillan had driven in the first Mount run with a single.
“I think that goes a long way,” said Miller. “They (the Mounts) got off to a good start. Four in the first wasn’t the way we wanted to start. The fact that they’re a bigger school, we’re not used to seeing a lineup that has good hitters one-through-nine. They’re tough throughout the whole lineup.
“I thought they (his players) played hard,” Miller continued. “The defense was excellent. We made the plays we should’ve made. And we had runners on third base a couple of times. I’m proud of the way they played.”
Annville-Cleona bunched hits in only one at-bat against Schwartz, before he departed to start the sixth inning, and just twice overall. The Little Dutchmen created first-and-third situations in both the first and sixth innings, but each time they came with two outs.
Schwartz and reliever Hunter Johns combined to scatter Annville-Cleona singles from Adam Long, Hunter Kelley, Andrew Long, Mason Moore and Jeremy Bours. The Little Dutchmen were retired in order in the second, fourth and seventh innings.
Schwartz, a right-hander, struck out five and didn’t walk a batter in his five innings of work.
“I thought we hit the ball well,” said Miller. “We had some good at-bats. I thought the kids went up there with a plan. If you’re going to win in the playoffs, you’ve got to hit guys like that (Schwartz).
“Give him (Schwartz) a lot of credit,” added Miller. “He mixed his pitches well. He got ahead in the count. Most of our hits were with two outs.”
Ephrata padded its lead to 7-0 with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. After Mounts Tim Beever had led off with a double and Dylan Embiscuso with a bunt single, teammates Ricky Bromirski and McGillan drove them home.
“It was probably more of a laid-back approach,” said Miller. “We wanted Sonny to be fresh for Wednesday. If the game would’ve been zero-zero, I don’t know what would’ve happened.
“I though Sonny did well,” Miller added. “This is the third time he’s pitched at this field. They’re (the Mounts) a tough lineup. You don’t get too many breaks.”
The Mounts added yet another run in the bottom of the fifth, courtesy of White’s lead-off safety and Beever’s run-scoring single.
Biondollo fanned three and walked one, before giving way to Tyler Long in the fourth.
“It was (Athletic Director, Tommy) Mr. Long’s idea,” said Miller, of the end-of-the-season, newly scheduled game with Brandywine Heights. “It’s kind of like a playoff game. We were going to be so close in (power ranking) points. It’s at a neutral site, and this way it’s in our hands. Whatever happens, happens.”
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2018 Annville-Cleona Baseball Results
Date | Opponents | Results | |
4/05 4:15 pm |
Lancaster Catholic at Annville-Cleona |
4 5 |
|
4/06 7:00 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Lancaster Mennonite |
4 3 |
|
4/09 4:15 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Columbia |
10 0 |
|
4/10 4:15 pm |
Pequea Valley at Annville-Cleona |
5 7 |
|
4/11 4:15 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Lebanon Catholic |
7 0 |
|
4/12 4:15 pm |
Lancaster County Christian at Annville-Cleona |
1 11 |
|
4/13 4:15 pm |
Garden Spot at Annville-Cleona |
5 3 |
|
4/17 4:15 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Northern Lebanon |
8 4 |
|
4/18 4:15 pm |
Lebanon at Annville-Cleona |
0 2 |
|
4/20 4:15 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Elco |
5 2 |
|
4/23 4:15 pm |
Manheim Central at Annville-Cleona |
3 1 |
|
4/26 4:15 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Pequea Valley |
1 2 |
|
4/30 4:15 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Lancaster Catholic |
1 4 |
|
5/01 4:15 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Cocalico |
1 14 |
|
5/02 4:15 pm |
Lancaster Mennonite at Annville-Cleona |
3 13 |
|
5/04 4:15 pm |
Columbia at Annville-Cleona |
0 10 |
|
5/05 3:00 pm |
Pine Grove at Annville-Cleona |
8 7 |
|
5/07 4:15 pm |
Lebanon Catholic at Annville-Cleona |
0 7 |
|
5/08 4:15 pm |
Tulpehocken at Annville-Cleona |
5 4 |
|
5/12 10:00 am |
Annville-Cleona at Ephrata |
0 8 |
AAA | School | W | L | T | Rating | TWP | OWP | TWPW | OWPW | TWPL | OWPL |
1 | Oley Valley | 13- | 5- | 0 | 0.643912 | 0.740642 | 0.525688 | 13.9 | 174.0 | 4.9 | 157.0 |
2 | Lancaster Catholic | 14- | 4- | 0 | 0.633963 | 0.790698 | 0.442398 | 13.6 | 150.2 | 3.6 | 189.3 |
3 | Upper Dauphin | 14- | 2- | 0 | 0.633945 | 0.843972 | 0.377246 | 11.9 | 129.2 | 2.2 | 213.2 |
4 | Biglerville | 15- | 5- | 0 | 0.624540 | 0.752604 | 0.468018 | 14.5 | 169.8 | 4.8 | 193.0 |
5 | Susquenita | 14- | 6- | 0 | 0.577930 | 0.677596 | 0.456116 | 12.4 | 161.1 | 5.9 | 192.1 |
6 | Annville Cleona | 12- | 7- | 0 | 0.539705 | 0.621849 | 0.439306 | 11.1 | 159.6 | 6.8 | 203.7 |
7 | Brandywine Heights | 9- | 7- | 0 | 0.514258 | 0.559375 | 0.459116 | 9.0 | 148.0 | 7.1 | 174.3 |
8 | Pequea Valley | 11- | 9- | 0 | 0.510789 | 0.543367 | 0.470971 | 10.7 | 173.6 | 9.0 | 195.0 |
9 | Trinity | 5- | 11- | 0 | 0.419659 | 0.323718 | 0.536920 | 5.1 | 156.7 | 10.6 | 135.2 |
10 | Lancaster Mennonite | 7- | 11- | 0 | 0.416129 | 0.366071 | 0.477311 | 6.2 | 156.2 | 10.7 | 171.1 |
11 | Tulpehocken | 6- | 13- | 0 | 0.406162 | 0.301887 | 0.533608 | 5.6 | 181.0 | 13.0 | 158.2 |
12 | Schuylkill Valley | 5- | 14- | 0 | 0.391783 | 0.257453 | 0.555964 | 4.8 | 196.5 | 13.7 | 156.9 |
13 | Delone Catholic | 5- | 12- | 0 | 0.387636 | 0.278997 | 0.520417 | 4.5 | 182.3 | 11.5 | 168.0 |
14 | Hanover | 1- | 18- | 0 | 0.258168 | 0.045093 | 0.518593 | 0.9 | 179.9 | 18.0 | 167.0 |
Lancaster-Lebanon League
Section Four Standings
League | Overall | |||||||||
W | L | PCT | W | L | PCT | RS | RA | |||
Lancaster Catholic | 14 | 2 | 87.50 | 14 | 4 | 77.78 | 106 | 42 | ||
Annville-Cleona | 11 | 5 | 68.75 | 12 | 8 | 60.00 | 107 | 41 | ||
Pequea Valley | 9 | 6 | 60.00 | 10 | 9 | 52.63 | 92 | 69 | ||
Lancaster Mennonite | 5 | 10 | 33.33 | 6 | 11 | 35.29 | 95 | 96 | ||
Columbia | 3 | 14 | 17.65 | 3 | 17 | 15.00 | 51 | 182 | ||
Lebanon Catholic | 0 | 15 | 0.00 | 0 | 17 | 0.00 | 0 | 63 |