Gamber shoulders offensive load for Concord
CONCORD » Shoulder issues are nothing new to Cole Gamber, but when his balky wing acted up a few weeks back, he figured the time was ripe to step back.
His Concord Canes were well on their way to securing a berth in the Delco League playoffs, so the outfielder spent a couple of weeks trading the dugout bench for one in a physical therapist’s office, hooked up to an electric stimulation cuff on his shoulder.
“It was all in my shoulder, the electrodes,” Gamber said. “I guess I’m a robot now.”
He certainly was a hitting machine at the plate Tuesday night.
Gamber belted a pair of home runs, including the go-ahead tworun shot in the top of the sixth inning as No. 4 seed Concord drew first blood in its best-of-3 playoff series with No. 5 Springfield, 7-3, at Garnet Valley High School.
The series shifts to Springfield High School Wednesday as the Colonials look to keep the quarterfinals alive.
Gamber’s R-and-R served him well, acquired robotics or not. In the fourth inning, he lit into a delivery by Springfield starter Ryan Joyce that carried out over the fence in left-center field to halve the Concord deficit to 3-2.
In the sixth, after Ben Faso reached on a gap-splitting double, Gamber was sitting on a firstpitch fastball from reliever Liam Nihill. He got it and scorched a nodoubter over the wall in left, scattering a middle school soccer practice.
“I saw it dead red, saw both of them dead red,” Gamber said. “They were there for me. Time off normally hurts me, but in this instance, it actually helped me out a little bit.”
Concord went on to cushion the lead with a five-run sixth, but the Canes trailed most of the way. It required a battle from starter Andrew Belfiglio to keep Concord in touch.
Belfiglio scuffled through six innings, particularly a rough first three that saw Springfield jump out to a 3-1 edge. But he belatedly settled down in the fourth, due in part to a sharply hit double play started by Bryan Kirk at second base. “I was just kind of hoping for short inning eventually, and a it came,” Belfiglio said. “… That fourth inning, it was that first quick inning where I felt that I could keep going for a couple more.”
Springfield struck early, in part due to Belfiglio’s control issues. Norm Donkin singled in the first inning and scored after a pair of wild pitches, one a third strike. Tony Gallo clubbed the first of his two doubles in the second inning to score Eric Bergman, then Gallo sprinted home when Steve Trainor’s single to right was mishandled.
But Belfiglio settled in, allowing leadoff hits in the fifth and sixth before retiring three straight batters each. That offered the Concord bats a little time to awaken.
“What I was trying to do was hold them off, because I knew our bats would come through,” Belfiglio said. “Cole just kind of made it happen, as he does.”
Gamber backed up his former Penncrest teammate with the dingers, which helped pry open the floodgates. Billie Buckwalter added an RBI double in the sixth and Jake Carr, who lofted a sac fly in the first inning, tacked on a tworun double.
“At first, we were saying, stay in on him, try to stay low and get some singles out of it,” Gamber said. “Fortunately I got a hold of one and it kept going, kept going. It was a good feeling, definitely for the team.”
Frank Saviski entered in a nonsave situation to close with a 1-2-3 seventh that sends Concord to within one game of the semis. And Gamber, shunning his robot side to summon a little emotion, is excited for the chance to close it out Wednesday.
“Luckily now we’re here,” he said, “and hopefully we’ll be there tomorrow and get the win.”
Also in the Delco League: WAYNE 3, MARPLE NEWTOWN 1 » Jimmy Kingsbury and Riley Degen combined to allow just three hits, striking out 10, and Mike Raimo went 2-for-2 with a run and two RBIs as No. 3 seed Wayne jumped out to the lead in the best-of-3 series.
Eli Chase worked 5⅔ strong innings for sixth-seeded Marple Newtown, making the franchise’s first playoff appearance in its 15th season. Liam Bendo drove in the lone run.
Marple can even the series Wednesday at Marple Newtown High School at 5:45.