Raiders Clobber Beavers « Lebanon Sports Buzz

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Raiders Clobber Beavers

Apr 28, 2015
Jeff Falk
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BY JEFF FALK

LEBANON – Baseball is an everyday game, rooted in repetition and based on approach. Cultivating habits is absolutely essential for realizing success.

Good habits are difficult to fall into. And bad habits are hard to break.

The Elco baseball team continues to work on its playing habits. And it would seem that Lebanon Catholic’s could use some work as well.

On Tuesday afternoon at Fifth Ward Athletic Field, the Raiders’ improving baseball habits were just as apparent as the Beavers’ deteriorating ones, as Elco dominated Lebanon Catholic 19-0, in a Lancaster-Lebanon Section Three-Four crossover contest shortened to three innings by the 15-run mercy rule. Spurred on by a 13-run, top-of-the-first-inning rally, Elco pitching retired all nine Beaver batters it faced to register an abbreviated perfect game.

The Raiders’ victory came less than 24 hours after they had suffered a tough 3-2 upset loss to Lebanon High. Elco has alternated wins with losses over its last seven outings.

Elco, which was ranked 14th in the latest District Three Class AAA power rankings, improved to 10-5 on the year and 8-5 in Section Three.

The Beavers, who experienced throwing strikes and recording outs, plummeted to 0-12 on the season and 0-11 in Section Four. Lebanon Catholic, which dressed ten players, has been out scored by a combined margin of 158-1 this spring.

“That’s huge,” said Elco head coach Chris Weidner of habits’ importance in baseball. “Even with things like proper fielding techniques. We want to do well, and not get lackadaisical with that. We want to continue to do things right all the time. The thing we’re working on right now is our approach at the plate.

“No, we don’t have good habits at the plate,” Weidner continued. “We need to do a better job of adjusting to pitches and pitchers. We sometimes need to change our approach.”

After the game, Lebanon Catholic co-head coaches John Gates and Glenn Meck weren’t immediately available for comment.

The Raiders approach at the plate in the bottom of the first inning seemed to be OK – patient, selective and taking what Lebanon Catholic gave them. In all, 19 Raider batters were afforded an opportunity to practice what Weidner had been preaching.

After Elco’s lead-off hitter was retired, 11 straight teammates reached base, and all 11 came around to score. The Raiders collected ten hits, were the recipients of three free passes and a hit batsman.

Elco, which substituted freely throughout the at-bat, received three RBIs apiece from Travis Zimmerman and Cole Blatt, two from Aaron Deitz and single RBIs from Ben Ginder, Gavin Hain, Cole Miller and Ryan Risser.

“For us, we brought some JV guys along and they all played,” said Weidner. “For me, it was great to get those guys in and get some other guys at-bats. We went station-to-station and tried to be as respectful as possible. I’m going to give a world of credit to those Lebanon Catholic kids going out there and putting the uniform on everyday.

“It’s two different games (Monday and Tuesday),” Weidner continued. “For our big picture perspective, that game (the loss to Lebanon) hurt us. We were sitting 14th in the district rankings and that loss pushed us to 19th. In our big world, we’re looking at things we’d like to accomplish. Last year we missed out on that 16th spot (the final one) by zero-point-whatever.”

Right-hander Aaron Deitz and left-hander Cody Good combined on Elco’s abbreviated perfect game. Deitz got the win by retiring Lebanon Catholic in order in the first, and Good worked the second and third frames and recorded four strikeouts.

“Districts is our goal,” said Weidner. “That’s why Monday hurt. It was a 3-2 ball game and we didn’t hit. When we do good things, we’re right there. For us, it’s a big world view right now. We’re trying to scratch and claw, and hopefully find ourselves in that district field.

“It’s about respect for us in the section, getting some and maintaining it, from the other teams in the section,” added Weidner. “I don’t think we took this team lightly, just because of the sour taste in our mouth from Monday. And I think they’re (his players) going to come ready to play tomorrow (at Donegal).”

Elco brought the 15-run mercy rule into play with a six-run second-inning. Thanks to six walks and another hit-batsman, Deitz, Blatt, Ben Ginder, Gavin Hain and Zimmerman drove home Raider runs.

“We were playing station-to-station,” said Weidner. “But you’ve still got to do proper things and do things correctly.

“The bottom line is that they (the Beavers) have kids who haven’t played baseball in a few years,” Weidner added. “It’s a credit to them, holding things together and finishing out the season.”

Lancaster-Lebanon League

Section Three Standings

TEAM	LEAGUE	OVERALL
Donegal	10-2	13-3
Manheim Central	9-3	11-4
Northern Lebanon	8-4	9-6
Elco	8-5	10-5
Cocalico	5-6	6-8
Lebanon	5-8	6-10

Elco 2015 Results

DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	RESULT
03/28	Hamburg	1:00 PM	W 5-4
03/30 *	Manheim Central	4:15 PM	L 2-3
04/01 *	@Lebanon	4:15 PM	W 3-0
04/02 *	Donegal	4:15 PM	W 3-2
04/06 *	@Cocalico	4:15 PM	W 13-11
04/08 *	Northern Lebanon	4:15 PM	W 4-3
04/10 *	@Lancaster Catholic	4:15 PM	L 2-7
04/13 *	Pequea Valley	4:15 PM	W 12-2
04/15 *	@Columbia	4:15 PM	W 10-0
04/17 *	Annville-Cleona	4:15 PM	L 0-12
04/22	Lancaster Mennonite	4:15 PM	W 7-1
04/24 *	@Manheim Central	4:15 PM	L 2-12
04/25	@Tulpehocken	7:00 PM	W 4-1
04/27 *	Lebanon	4:15 PM	L 2-3
04/28 *	@Lebanon Catholic	4:15 PM	W 19-0

PIAA District Three

Class AAA Power Rankings

AAA School W L T Rating

1 West York Area 12- 1- 0 0.776005

2 West Perry 13- 1- 0 0.755023

3 East Pennsboro 10- 2- 0 0.731871

4 Spring Grove Area 12- 4- 0 0.722282

5 Lampeter Strasburg 11- 5- 0 0.705201

6 Shippensburg Area 10- 3- 0 0.705130

7 Twin Valley 10- 3- 0 0.684998

8 Donegal 13- 3- 0 0.677187

9 Northern York 11- 4- 0 0.674849

10 Greencastle Antrim 8- 5- 0 0.651216

11 Manheim Central 10- 4- 0 0.648951

12 Northeastern 10- 7- 0 0.641459

13 Palmyra Area 8- 6- 0 0.628054

14 Berks Catholic 11- 4- 0 0.620098

15 Eastern York 10- 5- 0 0.612708

16 Eastern Lebanon County 9- 5- 0 0.606435

17 Hamburg Area 12- 6- 0 0.605528

18 Boiling Springs 7- 5- 0 0.600483

19 Daniel Boone 6- 8- 0 0.588370

20 Northern Lebanon 9- 6- 0 0.587208

21 Middletown Area 5- 7- 0 0.574384

22 Bishop McDevitt 6- 8- 0 0.572647

23 York Suburban 8- 5- 0 0.564737

24 Littlestown 9- 5- 0 0.563645

25 Gettysburg Area 7- 7- 0 0.533496

26 Susquehannock 6- 9- 0 0.529784

27 Wyomissing Area 7- 6- 0 0.520278

28 Cocalico 7- 8- 0 0.518731

29 Fleetwood Area 7- 9- 0 0.517229

30 Big Spring 6- 10- 0 0.502318

31 Bermudian Springs 8- 9- 0 0.496665

32 Kennard Dale 5- 10- 0 0.464165

33 Conrad Weiser 4- 10- 0 0.457724

34 Susquehanna Township 3- 12- 0 0.453530

35 Dover Area 2- 13- 0 0.375302

36 James Buchanan 3- 9- 0 0.353979

37 Milton Hershey 1- 9- 0 0.328062

Lancaster-Lebanon League

Section Four Standings

TEAM	LEAGUE	OVERALL
Lancaster Catholic	13-1	13-4
Annville-Cleona	8-4	9-6
Columbia	3-9	5-10
Pequea Valley	3-10	3-14
Lancaster Mennonite	2-9	2-12
Lebanon Catholic	0-11	0-12

Lebanon Catholic 2015 Results

DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	RESULT
03/30 *	@Columbia	4:15 PM	L 0-15
04/01 *	@Annville-Cleona	4:15 PM	L 0-12
04/02 *	Pequea Valley	4:15 PM	L 1-15
04/06 *	@Lancaster Catholic	4:15 PM	L 0-12
04/08 *	@Lancaster Mennonite	4:15 PM	L 0-14
04/10 *	Donegal	4:15 PM	L 0-17
04/13 *	@Lebanon	4:15 PM	L 0-10
04/15 *	Manheim Central	4:15 PM	L 0-13
04/17 *	@Cocalico	4:15 PM	L 0-7
04/18	@Antietam	2:00 PM	L 0-12
04/27 *	@Annville-Cleona	4:15 PM	L 0-7
04/28 *	Elco	4:15 PM	L 0-19