3 arms, 1 title for Briarcliffe
Trio of hurlers clinches series win over Marple
NEWTOWN SQUARE » At one point in the Senior EDCO Baseball League season, the Briarcliffe pitching staff went 44 1/3 innings without giving up a run.
In the second and third games of the championship finals against the Marple Tigers, Briarcliffe pitchers gave up one run, and that came in Game 2.
Thursday afternoon, as he thought about his pitching plans for the fourth game of the best-of-5 series at Gable Field, Briarcliffe manager Vince Sculli III came to the conclusion that he would put the ball in the hands of three hurlers and hope they could keep the dangerous Tigers bats quiet.
Starter Kevin George went three innings, then Jared Morris worked a pair before Colin DiGalbo took on the role of closer. The trio limited the Tigers to four hits as Briarcliffe earned its second consecutive shutout, posting a 3-0 decision to claim the playoff title.
“Our pitchers certainly deserve credit,” Sculli said, after his squad gained a measure of revenge for its 2016 finals loss to Marple. “And our fielders really backed them up.
“I think what really held things together was the play behind the plate of Dan Dwyer. We call him Iron Man. We played 22 games this season, and he caught every single inning of every game.”
George gave up a single in the first inning and another in the second inning, but worked out of a basesloaded jam and a two-runners-on situation. He walked a pair of batters in the third inning, giving him five in his time on the mound.
“I was trying to keep us in the game and get outs,” George, who works in paving and excavating during the season and will return to Penn State-Abington next month, said. “They have a really good hitting team. I wanted to hit my spots, and if they hit the ball I knew I had great fielders behind me and they would make the plays.”
DiGalbo helped Briarcliffe to the lead before George threw a pitch. He led off the top of the first inning with a double and came around on Jim Calabrese’s one-out single.
“This team has played well together all year,” Calabrese, a Comcast sales representative and former Delaware Valley University player, said. “(Third baseman) Seamus McCaffrey and (outfielder) Kevin Finn were our biggest additions this year.
“There are about six of us who have played together for a while, and it’s become more like a family each season.”
The lead grew in the third when Ty Bluford led off with a double, moved up on Jim McDonnel’s sacrifice bunt, and scored as DiGalbo belted a long drive to center field for a sacrifice fly.
In the fifth, Corey Cahill hit a shot over the right-field screen for his first home run of the season.
“We tried to do things better this year after we lost to them last year,” Cahill said. “I went up there wanting a pitch to hit, and he put one right there and I got it.”
Morris retired the first five batters he faced, then walked Pat Shevlin. Dwyer did his part by throwing Shevlin out as he tried to steal second base.
DiGalbo gave up hits to the first two batters he faced, but he finished the sixth inning with a strikeout and two fly outs. He fanned the last two batters he faced in the seventh, then stood on the mound as he teammates celebrated.
“I’ve been working, playing ball, and working out,” DiGalbo said of his recent daily schedule as he gets ready to report to Kutztown University for his red-shirt sophomore season as the Golden Bears’ quarterback.
“After I gave up those hits, I trusted that my fielders could get me out of trouble. And they did.”
As DiGalbo prepared to throw the final strike of the game, someone made the statement “the next time he throws a ball in a game, it could go for a touchdown pass.”
“I hope that’s what DiGalbo said. happens,”