Owls deal Bears first loss in league

by Dennis Weller, Special to The Pottstown Mercury

Posted on July 8, 2006

WEST LAWN -- Boyertown had already clinched the top seed in the upcoming Berks County Legion League playoffs the night before. West Lawn, on the other hand, still had hopes of capturing the second spot when the two sides met in a Red Division contest Friday night at Owls Field.

West Lawn did what it had to do as it wrapped up its regular season league schedule with a 7-2 win, and, in the process, handed the Bears (16-1 Berks, 27-3 overall) their first league loss. The Owls (14-4, 17-9) now must hope that Boyertown beats Gregg Post when the Bears visit the Keys tonight to finish their Berks slate.

Boyertown collected 11 hits, three each by Nole Saylor and Dan Wolfgang, but did not get on the board until the eighth inning against Owl starter Dexter Jablonski. Shayne Houck (4-2) went six innings on the mound for the Bears and took the loss as John Schultz tripled twice for the winners.

It was the second straight two-run game for the Bear batters, who had beaten Shillington by a 2-0 score on Thursday to wrap up the top seed and two home games when the playoffs start on Thursday. But manager Rick Moatz had more than the lack of scoring on his mind.

"I’m not so much concerned about that as I am about getting some of the little things done and making the routine plays," he said. "We’ve got to do a better job of hitting the ball early in the game."

The Bears wasted a one-out triple by Dan Wolfgang in the second and a two-out double in the fifth by Brandon Sullivan. They also failed to score when they put together two hits in the same inning for the first time in the sixth. Defensively, three errors led to three unearned Owl runs.

West Lawn scored a pair in the first on a leadoff hit by Josh Smith, a triple by Schultz and a groundout by Craig O’Deair. The hosts added two in the fourth on two singles and a two-out error and two more in the fifth as Schultz knocked his second triple of the night. Houck left the mound trailing by a 6-0 score.

"All the runs weren’t his fault, but a good pitcher finds a way in those situations to get out of it," Moatz said concerning the 15-year-old right-hander. "He’s still trying to learn that and what to throw when. We’re pretty happy with the way he threw if we didn’t make the errors."

Boyertown scored its runs on a leadoff single by Steve Bealer, a double by Saylor and a one-out single through the middle by Alex Neiman. The Bears continued to hit the ball hard against Jablonski, who was over the 100-pitch count for the night by then. But center fielder Eddie DeJesus grabbed a liner off the bat of Mike Schwager and then threw Neiman out at the plate after a hit by Cody Kulp.

The night wasn’t a complete loss for the Bears, who went down on strikes three straight times in the ninth against reliever Schultz.

"We played some different guys tonight," said Moatz. "They got some good experience."

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