Boyertown rallies to top West Lawn

by Dennis Weller, Special to The Pottstown Mercury

Posted on June 7, 2006

BOYERTOWN -- Boyertown and West Lawn met Tuesday night in what could well be the first of many contests between the two this season, and the Bears survived their first true test of the year to pull out a 9-8 win.

West Lawn smoked the ball all over Bear Stadium early on and took a eye-popping 5-0 lead. But Boyertown kept chipping away through the middle innings, tied the Berks County League Red Division contest with four runs in the eighth, then won it with two out in the ninth when Garret Crable singled in Alex Neiman from second base.

Kenny Thorpe, Neiman, Crable and Nole Saylor each had three hits for the Bears (4-0 Berks Red Division, 8-0 overall) and Neiman picked up the win in relief.

"We showed a lot tonight coming from behind," said Thorpe, whose double with two down in the eighth scored Saylor and capped the four-run uprising that tied the score at 8-8. "This is the first time we've had to come from behind this year. It just shows a lot of character in the team."

That was the first time the Bears had not trailed all night after the Owls (0-3 Berks Red Division) ripped three triples while plating a run in the first and four in the second.

But the hosts started their comeback with two in the third on RBI singles by Saylor and Thorpe and added one in the fourth on another run-producing single by Saylor.

West Lawn padded its lead with a run in the seventh and two in the eighth to make it 8-4. But Mike Schwager walked to start the Bear eighth, Neiman singled, and Crable drove in two with a one-out double. Saylor followed with his third single of the game, Steve Bealer brought in Crable with a fly to center, and Thorpe drilled his double down the left-field line to tie it up.

The Bears won it with two down in the ninth on a single by Neiman, a wild pitch, a walk to Shayne Houck, and a ground single to left by Crable.

"We chipped away," said Thorpe. "We made their pitcher (starter Josh Smith) throw pitches. The coaches said we never strayed from our game."

"Defensively, we didn't make some good plays," said Boyertown manager Rick Moatz. "We need to do a lot of things better. But this is a bunch of guys, I think, who have it somewhere.

"We kept doing our thing, making them throw pitches, trying to take advantage of mistakes. We got some good base-running late in the game."

The Bears and Owls will play twice during the regular season instead of the usual one meeting since they have been moved into the same division this year. There should also be plenty of playoff opportunities between the two since West Lawn will host the Pennsylvania Region Two Tournament and Boyertown will host the Pennsylvania State Tournament at Bear Stadium.

"We approached it with a little more intensity," said Thorpe. "There's some history with West Lawn. All you have to do is look in the stands. There's a lot more people than there are for other games. Everyone has their rival games."

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