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Mounts advance to league playoffs
By TODD RUTH
Ephrata Review
Published: May 07, 2008 8:39 AM EST
EPHRATA - There was a time this season when it looked as if Ephrata would coast to a
Section Two title and into the L-L League Baseball Playoffs.
Then
after a six-game, mid-season losing streak, and with the section title all
but gone, many wondered if the Mounts would even make it to the post-season
after such a great start.
Yes, it's been a topsy, turvy baseball
season for the Mounts. But the bottom line is Ephrata is indeed in, not
only the L-L League but District Three playoffs as well.
Ephrata
clinched second place in Section Two and a berth in the post-season with a
13-1 win over Cocalico Friday. The Mounts got home runs from Brandon
Strenko and Adam Stahl while riding the one-hit pitching of Steve Tretter,
Curt Kolp and Doug Houtz to grab the big win.
The Mounts, who host
Manheim Central in a non-league regular season finale Wednesday (4 p.m.),
will open the L-L Playoffs Saturday with a first-round matchup opposite
Section Four champion Lancaster Catholic at War Memorial.
Game time
is set for 1 p.m.
While Ephrata suffered through that tough
mid-season stretch, it did come mostly in crossover games vs. Section One.
Coach Adrian Shelley said Tuesday he thought his team actually benefited
from that stretch of the season despite the six-game skid.
"I
think the major difference was being able to survive that stretch, from a
psychological standpoint, and to understand the benefit of playing those
opponents and facing that kind of pitching," he said. "I thought if we
could hold it together and remain in the playoff picture, the light would
stay on at the end of the tunnel. The irony of that stretch is that, while
we were losing, we were facing the best pitching in the entire league and
every one of those teams (Township, Warwick, South Western, Cedar Crest,
Hempfield, and E-town) is a District qualifier. So, while it was a rough
road, we came out of it a better, more prepared team."
Monday
afternoon at home, the Mounts exacted sweet revenge on Garden Spot, which
had handed Ephrata its first loss of the season back in
mid-April.
Trailing 4-1 heading to the bottom of the seventh, the
Mounts rallied for four runs in their final at bats to win a dramatic 5-4
decision. Matt Woolley ripped a two-out, game-winning two-run single to
seal the walk-off victory.
The win was Ephrata's fourth-straight,
and helped the Mounts finish 10-6 in league play.
To see Ephrata in
this position is a credit to the coaching staff and players. The Mounts,
who start two freshmen (Mark Lowrie and Brok Martin) and really don't have
a dominant pitcher, clearly were left for dead after that six-game skid but
came a long way in a short period of time.
"I am proud of our
players for hanging in there," Shelley said. "We went from playing Manheim
Township in, what was then, a marquee match-up, to falling into an abyss
that really challenged our mental toughness and our belief in ourselves as
a team. We hit a spell, at a tough time in the schedule, where we came
unglued in some areas that we traditionally pride ourselves on. However, we
weathered the storm, mainly because we never pointed any fingers. I told
them that if they were going to look for answers, they should start by
looking in the mirror, and that I would do the same. I've noticed a lot
more gray hairs because of it ..."
In addition to the Cocalico and
Garden Spot games, Ephrata earned a 4-3 win over CV last Thursday and
turned back Solanco last Wednesday by a 10-5 decision.
Turning to
the post-season, the Mounts enter with some playoff experience from 2006,
and a big run to Regionals in legion ball last year which should help them.
However, Shelley said the trials and tribulations of the regular season
should aid his team as much as anything else.
"This isn't their
first time to the dance," Shelley said. "Most importantly, it will be this
year's regular season experiences that will be most useful to this group
because we all went through it together. If our schedule hasn't prepared us
for the post-season, nothing will."
"We have a senior-laden group,"
he continued. "I'd love to see them make some noise in the post-season and
make a run at another league title. Based on our record and the schedule
we've played, we're a bit of a wild card, so at the very least, we should
be an interesting-watch."
It all starts Saturday against upstart
Lancaster Catholic, which defeated Lancaster Mennonite, 1-0, in a playoff
for the Section Four title.
"They're young, but talented," Shelley
said of the Crusaders. "They swing the bat well, and have one or two
pitchers who can beat you on any given day. I think the teams from Section
Four often get discredited because they are smaller schools who are
supposed to be inferior on paper. If you buy into that, you might get
10-run ruled. We have to play fundamentally-sound baseball and execute in
those situations that are often the
difference-makers."
«««
Cocalico closed out
the season with three losses this past week to finish at 2-14 in Section
Two play.
Monday afternoon, visiting CV pounded out 12 hits in a
10-0 decision in five innings. And prior to dropping their game vs. Ephrata
on Friday, the Eagles came up short in a 7-1 loss at Garden Spot last
Wednesday.
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