Vogl powers Roslyn past Fort
UPPER DUBLIN >> Steve Vogl was on a mission Thursday night.
The Roslyn outfielder, along with the rest of his Blue Hawks teammates, was disappointed in the offensive effort Tuesday night in a loss against Jenkintown. With a date against Lower Montco Legion rival Fort Washington on deck Thursday, Vogl wanted to get the runs rolling across home plate again.
It was mission accomplished for Vogl, who belted a triple and double and scored three times as Roslyn rebounded with a 9-1 win over the Generals at Upper Dublin High School.
“I just told myself I’m going to barrel and ball up and hit it as far as I can to center field,” Vogl said. “I did that twice and I think, against Jenkintown, some of us were squaring the ball up and it was going right to people and tonight we just found gaps.”
Fort struck first, tagging Roslyn ace Joe DiMaria for a first inning run when Kevin Keown singled home Elijah Peck. The Blue Hawks had gone quietly in the top half of the first, but they would flip momentum in the second.
George Jacob worked a one-out walk off Generals starter Jackson Campbell ahead of Vogl to set the
table. Vogl delivered by belting the first pitch he saw about 390 feet to deep center for an RBI triple.
Roslyn had made good contact on Tuesday but didn’t have much luck. Getting that kind of shot was a good sign in Vogl’s eyes.
“Sometimes I do that and try to do it again but might go after a bad pitch,” Vogl said. “Before the game, Coach (Mark Troyer) said be aggressive and jump on the first pitch you see that you want. I thought guys were laying off pitches they didn’t want and when they got one to hit, they were squaring it up.”
Campbell got the next batter on a groundout but Roslyn wasn’t done. Griffin Wittenberg was hit by a pitch and Jordan Grimaldi and Michael Yoast each drew walks. A couple wild pitches scored Vogl and Jack Gibbons running for Wittenberg before Jamie Burkhart came through with a two-run triple to left making it 5-0.
“I talked to them beforehand and said we played a good game (Wednesday) so just keep playing
the way you are and hitting the ball hard,” Troyer said. “The main thing I wanted them to do was stay aggressive in their counts. The first inning, I saw Fort up there being aggressive in their swings and said we needed to do the same thing.”
An inning later, Vogl got things going again when he drew a two-out walk. Cody Judge drove him home with a hard-hit double to left and back-to-back errors brought in two more.
Roslyn only had three hits, but eight runs midway through the third inning.
“You win with pitching and defense and we didn’t have either one tonight,” longtime Fort manager Gary Bonitatibus said. “We have a great rivalry with them, every game is a battle but I think this is one of the worst run differentials we’ve had against them in years. We deserved it, we did not play well.”
Roslyn’s last run came in the fifth inning. Vogl hit a shot a couple feet short of clearing the fence in center, settling for a leadoff double.
Judge moved Vogl up on a single and he scored on an infield hit by Jordan Grimaldi.
“We were finding gaps, they gave us a couple
breaks and we kept rolling,” Vogl said. “Tonight, I was good at laying off the balls that weren’t ‘that’ pitch. Sometimes, I’ll chase or swing at balls in the dirt but tonight I was able to lay off.
“I just have to get in the weight room a little more, then they’ll go out.”
Fort managed to pull two runs back in the bottom of the seventh, but otherwise couldn’t cash in on their chances against DiMaria. The Generals left runners on in the second, third and fourth innings but the bats couldn’t find a rally-starter.
“It’s one game, hopefully we bounce back (Friday) and get back to our kind of game,” Bonitatibus said. “Our pitching and defense have been pretty good, especially our pitching, up to tonight and our defense has been solid. I thought we hit decent tonight but didn’t put a lot of consecutive hits together.”
Both squads kick off a busy weekend of games with the start of the LML playoffs looming on July 7. It’s that short-term grind that Vogl said helped the Blue Hawks not dwell on Tuesday’s setback.
“You always have a game coming up, so you have to clear your shortterm memory,” Vogl said.