Chestnut Hill Sports

GFS exorcises Devils on the way to semifinal tourney loss
by ANDREW LAZOR

The Tigers of Germantown Friends School (18-2) legitimized their status as one of the area’s best baseball teams with an 8-6 thriller over Chestnut Hill Academy May 26. GFS earned a sizeable lead early by taking advantage of weak pitching, repeating the same formula that earned them a 9-1 win at home over the Blue Devils back on April 8. The victory sent the two-time Friends Schools League champions to Perkiomen the next day to face Mercersburg in the semifinals of the Independent School Baseball Tournament.

GFS scored two runs at the top of the first inning. Speedy junior Brett DiFelice responded in style for the Blue Devils, stealing second base after he was walked by Tigers starter Aaron Sommer. The next CHA at-bat had DiFelice trying for third. Junior GFS catcher Nate Gemberling-Johnson’s throw was unsuccessful, giving DiFelice home and putting CHA on the board 2-1.

More ties for CHA golf & Soowal
by TOM UTESCHER

Chestnut Hill Academy and Haverford School golfers are courteous to a fault; each team simply refuses to beat the other. In mid-May, the Blue Devils and Fords tied in both of their head-to-head regular season matches, and thus tied for the 2005 Inter-Ac League championship with identical records of 7-1-2. Last Tuesday, in the Inter-Ac Tournament at Aronimink Golf Club, they were at it again. In this competition, the top three individual rounds for 18 holes were added up to arrive at a team score, and CHA came away with a 231, while Haverford wound up with – you guessed it – 231.

Locals on show at national lacrosse tournament
by TOM UTESCHER

Instead of rolling across the pine barrens towards the Jersey shore last weekend, many of the area’s best lacrosse players headed up Route 309 to Lehigh University to participate in the unique stickfest that is the U.S. Lacrosse Women’s Division National Tournament.

Launched in the 1930’s as a gathering of club players, the tournament grew as colleges began to field teams in the sport, and high school athletes were added to the mix in 1985, when the event was staged at Germantown Academy. Today, you’ll find teams of 15 and 16-year-olds romping along just a few yards away from an adjacent field populated by national team players in their 20’s and 30’s, many with multiple world championships under their belts.

Malvern edges Charter for track title
by TOM UTESCHER

Going into the finals of the 200 meter dash, the second-to-last event of the day, meet host Penn Charter held a slim one-and-a-half-point (46-44.5) lead over the Friars of Malvern Prep at the Inter-Ac Track and Field Championships on May 21.

When Dan DiGiovanni, Trey Womack, and Tom McGarrigle gave Malvern a one-two-three finish in the race, PC fans who’d been doing their mental arithmetic knew that their team would be consigned to second place. By outscoring Charter 13-2 in the 200, Malvern went up by nine-and-a-half points in the team scoring, so even an ideal 6-0 swing in the Quakers’ favor in the 4 x 400 meter relay would not alter the outcome.

Mount lacrosse runner-up at AACA
by TOM UTESCHER

They say that it’s very difficult for a team to beat a particular opponent three times in one season, but apparently they didn’t say it to the lacrosse team at Merion Mercy Academy.

At the start of last week, fourth-ranked Mount St. Joseph Academy staged a 10-9 overtime upset of top-seeded Villa Maria in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies semifinals, but in the championship match three days later the Magic suffered a 16-5 setback at the hands of first-time finalist Merion Mercy, who had swept the home-away series between the two schools during the regular season. Those games had been much closer, one of them extending into overtime before the Golden Bears prevailed.