Getting band back together, Broomall-Newtown rocks
SPRINGFIELD » After weeks of waiting, Broomall-Newtown’s senior American Legion team finally got to play a game.
Marple Newtown’s run to the PIAA Class 5A quarterfinals had a lot to do with that.
Since 12 of the 18 players on the roster also played for the Tigers, and the PIAA prohibits athletes from competing for any other team while their team is still alive in the playoffs, B-N could not start its season until this week.
So, instead of being Game No. 10, Tuesday’s 3-1 comefrom-behind triumph over Springfield at Harry “Ace” Bell Field was just the second Main Line Senior American Legion game of the season for Broomall-Newtown.
“It’s great to have the band back together,” B-N manager Rick Woodcock said.
Springfield faced a similar challenge, although not as severe as Broomall-Newtown. Springfield Legion manager Jeff Kilgallen did not have as many players from the Springfield team that reached the PIAA Class 5A semifinals as BroomallNewtown, so the Legion squad was able to play five of the eight games it had on its schedule before Tuesday night’s showdown with B-N.
“I think I have seven varsity players (from Springfield) on the team,” Kilgallen said. “I brought up a bunch of JV guys for the last couple of weeks. It was fun for them. They got some good experience. This league is all about getting your games in. It’s tough to make up any games because the schedule is so compressed. So, if I could get nine, we played them.”
This game was a dogfight, just like the three meetings between Marple Newtown and Springfield during the high school season. Broomall-Newtown scratched out three runs in the fourth inning and rode a combined one-hitter from starter Steve Morrison and reliever Chris Annas to its second win in as many nights.
Morrison settled down after giving up a run in the bottom of the first inning on a single by Nick Gorman. The righty retired the last 13 hitters he faced before giving way to Annas in the sixth inning.
For Morrison, it was a bit weird that his first start of the Legion campaign came against Springfield. He earned the save in Marple’s 6-5 victory over the Cougars April 10. He came into that game with the bases loaded and threw a double-play ball to end the game.
“It was good seeing them,” Morrison said. “It felt good beating them three times during the season, but the fourth time felt good, too. It was fun.”
Morrison wasn’t overpowering, but extremely efficient. He threw 24 pitches in the first inning and finished with 61, according to Woodcock. Of the 15 outs during his stint, six came on ground balls, three were popups or line drives, three on strikeouts, two on fly balls and one on a caught stealing.
“My curveball was really working today,” Morrison said. “I’ve been rushing through my motion, but I slowed it up and it worked very well.”
Give Woodcock the credit for that adjustment.
“We talked that coming out of the high school season he had to work on changing his speeds better,” Woodcock said. “We’ve been talking about it for the past couple of weeks and today was finally a chance for Steve to come out and really shine and he did.
“He probably took 15 miles an hour off that curveball from his fastball and the difference was huge. He was rushing everything before and today he took his time with all the pitches. He struggled a little bit in the first inning, but then we talked. That’s the great thing about the Legion season is that you get to work with the kids without the pressure of the PIAA playoffs where if they make a mistake it costs them a run. Here, we’re able to work them and make adjustments and he did that. He did a great job.”
Morrison probably could have pitched longer, but Woodcock did not want to risk it.
“He hasn’t thrown off the mound in a game in probably five weeks,” Woodcock said. “I don’t want him to get a sore arm early in our season. It’s more important, to me, that I watch these arms. We have a couple of kids playing in the Delco League. Villanova wants Cameron Mathes to pitch once a week for Wayne. It’s the same thing with Scott Hahn (who also plays for the Marple Newtown Black Sox in the Delco League). So we don’t want to overwork guys.”
Morrison got all the runs he would need courtesy of a walk to Brian Protesto, a double by Corey Woodcock, and back-to-back suicide squeeze bunts by Annas and Bob Steven. Morrison threw one more inning before giving way to Annas.
“Chris had been doing a great job for us for years,” Woodcock said. “He did a great job for Friends’ (Central) so it’s really neat to bring all these kids from different high schools together on one team. They’ve been playing together since they were five-years-old so it’s a really fun team to experience.”