Pitching depth delivers Wayne another title
EASTTOWN TWP. >> After falling in the Delco League finals for the second time in three years, Wayne manager Brian Fili knew his roster needed an upgrade to add to the team’s collection of titles.
Fili didn’t just go out and bring in anyone in the offseason. He specifically targeted pitchers.
And so Fili brought in Alden Mathes, the Daily Times Player of the Year from Marple Newtown; Dom Piccone, an All-Delco selection out of Garnet Valley; and Tim Edwards from West Chester. Fili also convinced Cameron Mathes, Alden’s older brother, and Joe Peluso to return to the team after a one-year hiatus.
“You can never have enough pitching,” Fili said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”
Wayne started the season with 13 pitchers on the roster, but lost Ryan Buck, Tim Kane and Tim Carfey during the season for a variety of reasons, namely work schedules, and Piccone was shut down in the playoffs with a minor back problem.
Even with those losses, though, Wayne had enough arms left to celebrate its record 16th Delco League title with a 12-2 victory over Concord in Game 5 of the championship series at Devon Prep Sunday afternoon.
Alden Mathes pitched five innings to pick up his second win of the series and was earn finals MVP honors. Peluso and Edwards pitched one inning each to close it out. Together, the trio allowed five hits, four walks and struck out six.
“We have a lot of depth, old and young,” Alden Mathes said. “We mix it up. We have hard throwers, slow throwers, kids that mix in junk. I think we have six quality arms that we’re willing to throw out there in any situation. “
Concord’s Brad Scull was the most dominant pitcher in the series. He threw a shutout in Game 1 and a nohitter in Game 4 to get the franchise within one win of its first Delco League title. The Canes just didn’t have enough arms to seal the deal.
With Nate Sides away on vacation, Concord player/ manager Frank Saviski, penciled himself in as the starter, something he said he hasn’t done since he was 13.
“I’ve been a closer since my junior year of high school,” Saviski said. “One inning, two innings tops, and that hasn’t changed since I was 16, 17 years old.”
Saviski gave it a game effort. He went 4.2 innings and threw 119 pitches, but that was not enough to match the number of arms Wayne had available.
“We were talking in here (in the dugout) that you’re not going to win a championship in this league when you’ve got position players starting Game 2 and Game
3,” Saviski said. “It’s just not going to work. You need arms, real arms, bullpen, starting pitchers. We had that throughout the year, but a couple of guys got hurt. It is what it is.”
The quality of Wayne’s pitching staff showed through in the series. Alden Mathes did not pitch or play like a rookie. Mathes allowed two earned runs and fanned 12 in 11 innings in the championship series. He also batted .400 (6-for-15) with five runs scored and three RBIs.
Mathes showed his mettle in the clincher. Concord used a walk, an error, a bunt and two sacrifice flies in the third inning to tie the game at 2-2. But Mathes settled down and gave up two hits and a walk before giving way to the bullpen.
“That’s a great hitting team,” Mathes said. “I had to pitch my best to hold them down.”
James Dougherty, one of only three players from the
2015 championship squad, and Edwards combined on a four-hit shutout in Game 3. And even though he ended up with a no decision in Game 1 and a loss in Game 4, Cam Mathes gave up just two earned runs and struck out nine in
11 innings.
“There’s not one guy we throw out there that we don’t trust,” Fili said. “We trust all the guys we have. They’ve been here all summer and have pitched in big games.”
The payoff was another title.
“Brian did a great of recruiting,” said veteran second baseman Dan Williams. “These guys really stepped up for us. Alden was the MVP and did a great job for us on both sides of the ball. He delivered big for us and gave us a chance to get the bats going, get ahead and get a lead. They’ve come through for us all year.”