Cockill, Wayne right at home in new park
PLYMOUTH TWP. » After three games at Villanova Ballpark at Plymouth, shortstop Dan Williams still finds it a little weird that Delco League power Wayne is not playing its home games at Radnor High School this season, but he’s not complaining.
“It’s still baseball,” Williams said. “We have a good group of guys and it’s still fun.”
With Radnor’s field under renovation, Wayne had to find a suitable place to play, and with the scarcity of fields, one venue was not enough. The club had to find two places to hold its 16 home games.
During the week, the Villanova Ballpark at Plymouth is home, which is where Wayne blanked Marple Newtown Wednesday night, 6-0, to move back into sole possession of first place. Wayne will play 10 games in the park Villanova built.
The other six home games will be played at Odorisio Park in Wayne.
“We found out in February or March, just around the time the schedule was being done,” Wayne manager Brian Fili said. “Nick (Ducomb, the Delco League president and Marple Newtown manager) was gracious enough to wait to see where we were going to go. This came up pretty quick.”
Fili placed a call to Villanova coach Kevin Mulvey to see about the availability of the Wildcats home facility. Fili is a Villanova grad, too, and Mulvey pitched for Wayne after his major league career was over. Mulvey put Fili in touch with Phil Brady, the assistant parks and recreation director in Plymouth Township.
“We able to work something out,” Fili said.
It’s a longer drive for some of the players, but the benefit is that they get to play on a field with a turf infield and a grass outfield.
“We miss Radnor,” Williams said. “We had a lot of good years there, but this is a great facility. We’re very appreciative of Villanova for letting us use it.”
Wayne starter Tom Cockill certainly found the plush facility to his liking. The young lefty went the distance to snap Marple Newtown’s fivegame winning streak and knock the Black Sox into second place. Cockill allowed five hits, fanned three, issued no walks and 10 of the outs he recorded came on ground balls, which is just the way he likes it.
“I’ve always been a ground ball guy,” Cockill said. “I was that was in high school (at La Salle) and in college (Mercer County and Lock Haven). “In high school, I topped out around 80 mph. I gained a little more velocity in high school, but I stayed a ground-ball pitcher and let my fielders do the work.”
The key, though, was no walks.
“I don’t like walking hitters,” Cockill said. “I pitch to contact, don’t put anybody on.”
It was an effective approach. Cockill blanked a Black Sox team that came into the game first in runs scored (63) and runs per game (7.9). Marple Newtown did have five hits, one more than Wayne, and had four of its five baserunners reach second base, but could get a run home.
“You have to tip your hat to Cockerill,” Ducomb said. “He threw a real nice ballgame. He kept our hitters off balance all night, and it reflected in the score.”
Wayne did not bash the ball around the park. Wayne only had four hits, but it was walks, hit batters and wild pitches that doom the Black Sox.
Wayne took advantage of wildness on the part of MN starter Matt Lupoli to break the game open. Alex Tappen and Bryan Rubin scored on wild pitches in the second inning for a 2-0 Wayne lead. Williams drew a bases-loaded walk in the third inning and Tadden followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-zip. After Mike Raimo walked to drive in a run, Williams followed with an RBI single to close out the scoring.
That was more than enough support for Cockill, who retired the final nine hitters he faced after Seth Bower’s leadoff single in the fifth inning.
“He was very efficient, not a whole lot of stress,” Fili said. “He only allowed consecutive hits once in the game. He was hitting a lot of spots. I talked to the home plate umpire (Dennis Dunn) after the game and he said he was hitting the corners the whole game. Anytime you can stay away from the middle of the plate you’re going to be very effective.”
Fili pitched that way during his career and Cockill bore a striking resemblance to the way his skipper use to pitch.
“He throws harder than I did,” Fili said with a smile. “I’ll give him that much.”
Cockill had a smile on his face, too. He likes Wayne new digs.
“It’s a nice field, a true infield, no bad hops,” Cockill said. “It’s great. I’ve been to the other field, too. That’s not a bad field, either.”
Elsewhere in League: CHESTER 7, MIDDLETOWN 2 » Tristan Kevitch threw four strong innings in relief to get the win and help Chester snap a twogame losing streak. Kevitch allowed four hits and fanned eight in four innings.
Bob Williams provided the big blow on offense with a three-run homer. Bay To added two hits including a triple and two runs scored. the Delco