Brewers, Tigers pit bats against pitching
Rain, thunder push back start of series
The Ambler Brewers can’t seem to start a Perky League playoff series on time this year.
It’s not their fault, but both of their series openers have been delayed a day thanks to weather-related interference, with a quick-hitting heavy rainstorm in the area causing Monday’s game with the Lansdale Tigers to be pushed back to Tuesday at 5:45 at Temple Ambler.
Tuesday’s forecast is hot, but clear so it should allow the start of what looks like a very intriguing series. No. 4 seed Lansdale brings plenty of offense into the best-of-five game series while top-seeded Ambler has had stellar pitching all season.
The Brewers were pushed to the limit in the first round by Valley Forge, taking the series 3-2 with a 4-2 win in Game 5 behind a game outing from Andy Noga and a game-winning solo home run from Pennridge graduate Danny Long. Lansdale meanwhile, handled No. 5 seed Pottstown in four games.
In the other semifinal, defending champion Norristown, the No. 2 seed, takes on No. 3 Nor-Gwyn.
All season, Ambler’s formula for winning has been simple. Ride good pitching, play stout defense and lace together a couple of runs. While the Brewers aren’t an offensive juggernaut, they haven’t had to be with a rotation that includes Doug Brown, player/manager Pete Moore, Noga and Hatboro-Horsham senior Colin Kennedy.
Brown (2.00), Noga (1.87) and Moore (1.40) all have miniscule ERAs while Kennedy’s is high at 5.73, he’s only thrown 11 innings in his four appearances. Bill DeBoer and Long, who was a highly successful reliever in high school at Pennridge, have been two of the Brewers’ top relievers.
Lansdale has a top counter in Brett Moyer, who brings a 1.52 ERA into the matchup despite a 5-4 record. Moyer, who has thrown 50.2 innings has given up 27 runs but just 11 of them earned. The Tigers will also look to Jon Fischer and Anthony Civitello as starters while Mike Ferrier, John Fitz and Matt Kress have been contributing in relief and some starting roles all season.
As well as the Ambler pitchers have thrown, they’ve also had strong defense behind them. In the Game 5 win over Valley Forge, Ambler started two recent high school graduates in Long at short and Blake Rapoport at second base but both were up to the task.
Noga said what’s helped the squad is willingness of guys to come out to the field early and take some extra reps, whether it be grounders, fly balls or even swings. Rapoport, a Wissahickon grad committed to play at Lehigh, said he, Long and third baseman Chris Kersey, who currently plays at Lehigh were out three hours early for Game 5 to take infield practice.
Clean defense will be key against a Lansdale offense that has seven players with at least 14 RBI and nine players with double-digit runs scored. Rob Zinsmeister has been the Tigers’ most productive hitter, bringing in a .447 average in 25 games, all starts, driving in 20 runs and scoring 32 himself.
Joe Casselberry has been Lansdale’s main run-producer with a team-best 27 RBI and a .341 average. Of all Lansdale players with at least 20 games player, five have a batting average north of .320 while Cody Clarke as a .455 average in his eight games, all starts.
Rapoport has been very productive for Ambler in his 11 games, batting .429, scoring nine times and driving in seven. Kersey has a team-high 26 hits on a .333 average, driving in 19 runs and Nick Fasano has the team lead in RBI with 25.
While the Brewers don’t often need many runs to win a game, the offense may be asked to score at a bit higher rate in this series, given Lansdale’s ability to put up runs. It’s another perfect example of the classic matchup between good hitting and good pitching.
Whichever is more consistent over five games will go a long way in determining which team moves on to the championship series.