Railers win fourth ACBL title in past five seasons
Nearly halfway through the season, the Allentown Railers didn’t look like the team the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League has come to expect in the eight seasons they’ve been in the league.
After starting 8-8, the team went 18-4-1 over its last 23 games and ended up winning the ACBL title for the fourth time in five seasons with a 9-3 win over the North Jersey Eagles Tuesday night in New Jersey.
“The guys just stuck with it,” manager Dylan Dando said. “They just stuck with all of the things we preach and talk about. It came together for us and once we got it rolling, it stayed rolling.”
The strong second half was accomplished with a minimum of personnel changes.
Infielder Robby Lamm, a Whitehall High and DeSales University product, was added as well as Christian Argentieri and Alejandro Santiago to the pitching staff.
“It was choppy at the beginning with a lot of rain,” Dando said. “On the original schedule, we had a built-in stretch of seven days off and then we had a rain out before that stretch and after it. So there was a point where we didn’t play for 10 days and we were sluggish when we came back from that and got swept in a doubleheader by the Ocean Ospreys. That put us at 8-8, but from then on, we got rolling and never stopped.”
Allentown won four out of five playoff games.
“Every championship is great because it’s hard to win in that league because all the teams are good and pretty much anybody can beat anybody on any given day,” Dando said. “We’ve done a lot of winning over the eight years we’ve been around. It’s crazy. But it’s hard to win a championship because those playoff series are difficult.”
Ryan Brown, the team’s online broadcaster, did some research and discovered several impressive stats.
“Entering the championship series, Ryan had us at 216-97, so we ended the year 218-98 alltime,” Dando said. “That’s a .690 winning percentage. We won seven regular-season titles in eight years and made five appearances in the championship series with four titles.”
Dando felt it was one of the best teams he has had in terms of listening and learning.
“We work hard on being good at the small details,” Dando said. “We want our guys to focus on each pitch.”
The team’s strength was its bullpen in East Stroudsburg University product Justin Guidos, Frank Driscoll and Michael DeLeon-Torres.
“Once any of those guys got in there with the lead, the game was over,” Dando said.
Driscoll and DeLeon-Torres will split the league’s award for the reliever with the most saves — each had five.
Another quality that distinguished this team was the progression the players made.
“There was a major difference in a lot of these guys from the beginning to the end in the way they went about their business,” Dando said. “That’s awesome to me because they’re going to go back to their schools and have opportunities to be really successful with their college programs.”
Dando has talked about the winning culture he wants with the Railers. While the primary mission of the ACBL is to develop players for college programs, Dando has always believed that winning is part of the developmental process.
Budding broadcaster
Ryan Brown spent the summer with the Allentown Railers as an intern. He’s the son of longtime Pittsburgh Pirates TV broadcaster Greg Brown, who has the signature phrase “Raise the Jolly Roger!” after a Pirates win.
During the all-star break Greg Brown came to Allentown and the two of them worked a Railers game together.
The 20-year-old Vanderbilt student said he found the Railers by using the alphabetical listings of summer league teams and found the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League first and the Allentown Railers were listed first for the ACBL.
Brown added a sense of professionalism and flair for the Railers online and had a genuine passion for the game and interest in the team.
Dando appreciated having him around.
“I was with him every day during the season,” Dando said. “He brought a lot to us and was a big part of our team. He wasn’t just he announcer, he was part of the team and the championship with his work ethic and how good he is at what he does and how much better he tries to get every day. He was awesome with his work on social media and the attention he brought to Allentown and for the players.”
Dando said that by Wednesday morning, just hours after the team won this year’s championship, he began the process of building a team for 2020. His first recruit?
Ryan Brown.
“We’d love to have him back again next year,” Dando said.