Greco shapes Broomall-Newtown’s win
MARPLE » Vince Greco’s arm is fresher than most at this point in the baseball season.
The Broomall-Newtown pitcher, a 2016 graduate of Marple Newtown, didn’t throw at all during his freshman campaign at Widener.
“I was out with a back injury, missed the whole fall and spring,” he said. “I’m kind of getting back into the swing of things. I’m just trying to get better.”
Greco looked strong Wednesday at Marple Township’s Thomas Field in the Main Line Senior Legion final against Springfield. He threw a three-hit shutout with three strikeouts in four innings of work to help Broomall-Newtown roll to an 11-0 victory for the Legion title.
B-N and Springfield both advance to the Region 3 tournament in Spring Side, beginning Saturday.
“I feel fresh,” Greco said. “The frustrating part was that my back felt bad, but my arm felt great. That kind of hurt all year. I’m glad to be pitching again.”
Greco stranded Brandon DiChiacchio, who reached base safely via an error to lead off the game, at third base in the first inning. Dave Bingaman and Jared Morris began the second with backto-back singles, but Greco retired the final two batters on strikeouts. In the fourth, Greco danced out of a firstand-second, two-out jam.
“I was looking to get strike one, that was the most important pitch,” Greco said. “I wanted to get ahead in the count and throw all of my pitches for strikes. And if you can do that, I feel like you can get every hitter out, especially when you have a team that hits the way we do. We have a good team going into the regional.”
Greco and relief pitcher Steve Morrison, who was lights-out in his three innings of work, were the beneficiaries of plenty of offense. Leave it to a bunch of Marple Newtown kids to put a licking on Springfield. During the high school season, Marple Newtown defeated Springfield on three occasions, including in the District 1 Class 5A game. That success eventually carried over to the Main Line Senior Legion finals, as B-N defeated Springfield two nights in a row by a combined score of 16-1.
Seven starters in the B-N lineup — Alden Mathes, Cameron Mathes, Scott Hahn, Luke Cantwell, Luke Zimmerman, Corey Woodcock and Kevin Merrone — were regulars on the Marple Newtown varsity team. On Springfield, DiChiacchio, Layne Kelly, Bingaman and Morris all started for the high school club. Mike Conran, who started on the mound Wednesday, logged varsity innings in the spring. The Springfield Legion team also consists of O’Hara players Nick Kutufaris, Luke Sprague and Cole Sprague.
B-N hit for power Wednesday as Woodcock, Zimmerman and Alden Mathes all homered. Woodcock belted a grand slam down the leftfield line and Mathes’ two-run dinger shattered an unlucky spectator’s sun roof. Zimmerman launched a three-run bomb to dead center field.
“It’s about the sixth or seventh time we’ve played them this year, and you get used to seeing them,” said Zimmerman, who also walked twice. “You get used to the pitches they have, what you can and cannot hit, and you’re just used to seeing a lot of their guys hit and pitch. It’s fun playing against them. It’s fun beating them, too.”
Surprisingly, BroomallNewtown entered the Legion postseason as the fifth seed. Springfield was No. 1. You can attribute B-N’s early struggles to the overlap of seasons. Marple Newtown advanced to the quarterfinals of the state playoffs, while Springfield came within a win of playing for a state title.
“Since we were playing in high school, we missed about the first half of our (Legion) season,” said Zimmerman, a rising senior. “We finished as the second-to-last seed for the playoffs, but obviously we’re not the secondto-last seed. We’re a lot better than that. Springfield beat us 1-0 in the semifinals, but we came back and got them.”
Alden Mathes finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs. All-Delco Cameron Mathes walked twice, singled and scored two runs. Hahn, another All-Delco, went 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored as the designated hitter.
Morris, an All-Delco pitcher, paced Springfield with two hits. The big righthander, who isn’t known for his speed, was thrown out trying to swipe third base for the final out of the game. The attempted steal drew laughter and friendly jeers from his teammates in the dugout.