LOMA wins 2nd Pendel title in three years
LOMA wins second Pendel title in three years
For the seventh time in history, the LOMA baseball squad won the PENDEL championship at Alverthorpe Park Saturday afternoon in a 7-3 game four victory over the Horsham Astros.
With the win, LOMA wins its second championship in the last three seasons and its seventh overall.
For the fourth game in the best of five series, the game stayed scoreless heading into the fifth inning.
In the top of the fifth inning, LOMA got on the board first thanks to an RBI single from Bob Drozdowski to give his team a 1-0 lead.
Drozdowski’s brother, John, later got the biggest hit in the very next at bat with a grand slam to give LOMA a 5-0 lead.
“Nothing was really going through my mind at that moment,” said Drozdowski. “I’ve been playing baseball for so long and I know it only takes one swing or one at bat to lift the team’s spirits up.”
LOMA wouldn’t stop there as the team got three more hits in-
cluding an RBI single from John Contoudis to gain a 6-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth.
The Astros didn’t take long to respond from the big inning as they got a walk and two singles to make the bases loaded with only one out.
Horsham later got on the board with an RBI groundout from Jesse Goldstein to make the score 6-1.
In the next at bat, Mark McCouch gave his team two more runs with a tworun single to make the score 6-3 after five innings.
In the top of the sixth inning, Dustin Kology made the Astros pay for scoring by reaching third base on a leadoff triple.
Kology later scored in the next at bat on an RBI single from Tim Lecompte for the seventh and final run of the game.
With McCouch now pitching in relief for LOMA, the Astros tried to come back with a single and a walk to leadoff the bottom of the seventh, but three quick outs got LOMA out of the jam and secure the 2018 PENDEL title.
Highlighting the win for LOMA was starting pitcher Matt McDonough who pitched 4.2 innings giving up only five hits and three runs for the championship win.
“Winning always feels good,” said McDonough. “This is my first year being on the team and it’s great to win the championship on my first season.”
LOMA head coach Mike Whitaker was thrilled for his team winning the second PENDEL championship in the last three seasons.
“It’s a great feeling because these guys put in a lot of work,” said Whitaker. “These guys mixed up their schedules and everyone cares about this game.”
“We were actually hoping for the grand slam from John,” added Whitaker. “I’ve seen him hit some big home runs over the years and he’s been playing for us for a long time.”
McDonough earned the championship win for LOMA on the mound while Matt McAllister earned the tough loss after giving up five earned runs for Horsham.
LOMA 7, Horsham 3
1234567RHE L00006107130 H0000300363 WP: McDonough 4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB,1K LP: McAllister 5.0 IP, 11 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 2 BB,4K Notable Hitters (LOMA): J. Drozdowski: 1-for-4, Grand Slam, 4 RBI Contoudis: 3-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI Kology: 2-for-3, 3B, 2 R Notable Hitters (Horsham): McCouch: 1-for-4, 2 RBI Goldstein: 1-for-4, 1 RBI Mattice: 1-for-2, 1 R