O'Deair, Smith lift West Lawn

by Don Stewart, Reading Eagle

Posted on July 14, 2006

This year's West Lawn Legion team has standouts all over the place, the most notable being pitcher Josh Smith, who draws big league scouts for his starts.

But the Owls' most underrated player might be third baseman Craig O'Deair. The recent Wilson grad has been Berks Legion's version of Eric Chavez in the field this season.

Offensively, he's picked up his production enough for coach Tony Matz III to play him at the cleanup spot.

“As a third baseman, he's a weapon,” Matz said. “I can't say I've ever seen anything like him down there. You throw some offense on top of that, he's having a great year.”

O'Deair backed up his typical stellar fielding at the hot corner with a big night at the plate Thursday, leading West Lawn to an 11-4 rout of Exeter in a Berks Legion League playoff opener at Owls Field.

He finished 4-for-5 with a triple, two doubles, four runs and three RBIs. Smith (6-0) gave up one run in seven solid innings to get the win against a Blue Jays (20-10) team that two regular-season wins against the Owls (18-10).

“We came into this game knowing that it wasn't going to be an easy one,” O'Deair said. “We come into every game looking to play as hard as we can.”

Exeter starter Anthony Fegely (4-3) walked two consecutive batters in the first. O'Deair smacked a flyball that sailed over the right fielder's head for a two-run triple, then scored on a Ryan Ebner groundout.

West Lawn added two more runs in the second with the help of two errors. The Owls then led the third off with a walk and a pair of singles before getting a pair of runs on a Marcos Sabolis sac-fly and a Greg Strupp bloop single.

Meanwhile, Smith retired the first 10 Blue Jays he faced, making that 7-0 gap look like a crater.

“He's the type of pitcher that can completely shut down your offense,” Exeter coach Ernie Weller said. “It's a tall order beating him from a 0-0 game, let alone spotting him seven.”

The Jays finally got a hit in the fourth, picked up a run in the fifth to cut it to 7-1, then got a one-out single from Tommy Rivas in the sixth. But O'Deair delivered a shot to the gut, snagging a Greg Marks liner and zinging it back to first in time for the double play.

“Every time I get the ball, my buddy's dad always yells: ‘Here comes the rifle,' ” O'Deair said. “I knew I had him.”

The Owls added three more runs in the sixth as Smith hit an in-the-park home run and O'Deair delivered an RBI double. O'Deair led off the eighth with another double and was driven home on a pair of groundouts.

“A couple of their walks and some of their errors really turned into a lot of runs for us,” Matz said. “We got some key hits, including O'Deair's triple in the first. There was a lot of offense there, taking advantage of some of their miscues.”

Third-seeded West Lawn, last year's league runner-up, advances to a winners bracket semifinal today with No. 2 Gregg Post (7 p.m. at George Field). No. 6 Exeter will face No. 7 Kutztown in a 5 p.m. elimination game at Pineland Park.

“We've been in this position before,” Weller said. “We're ready to make a run through the losers bracket.

“But we've gotta play better than we did tonight.”

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