April 3, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

CHA baseball edges Berwick High School
by Justin Goldman

At bat, CHA’s Steel Russell hits a deep drive to right field, bringing Mike Mattei home. For more photos visit www.chlocalphotos.com. (Photo by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.)

CHA got just the timely hitting it needed on Saturday afternoon (March 29) in a 2-1 nail-biting victory over visiting Berwick High School. The Blue Devils struggled with runners in scoring position all day, but Steel Russell hit a deep drive into the right-field gap that one-hopped the fence and scored Mike Mattei who had singled in the previous at-bat.

“I thought we would play better, but for whatever reason; traditionally we don’t play well on Saturdays” said head coach Stan Parker. “I thought we were a little lethargic and made a lot of mental mistakes.”

One of those fundamental mistakes included an error on the normally incredibly sure-handed Mattei at shortstop that allowed the only Berwick run to score in the top of the third inning.

With runners on second and third in the bottom of the inning, Russell hit a screaming line-drive single to left that should have scored two runs, but Mattei got a late break on the ball and Berwick did a good job of hitting the cut-off man and Mattei was subsequently nailed at home.

The Blue Devils managed to load the bases in the bottom of the fourth inning, but John McCallister, who almost always puts the ball in play, struck out to end the threat.

“In Florida, we tackled a lot of the mental aspects of hitting, thinking about where we are in the game, who’s pitching, where the runners are, and your job at the plate. For some reason, all of those things weren’t there today,” Parker said.

Two innings later, CHA threatened again, putting runners on second and third with two outs, but McCallister once again struck out, leaving the Blue Devils empty handed.

“Hitting with runners in scoring position was not a problem for us when we were down in Florida,” Parker said. “But it was for us today which goes back to the lethargy.  You have to give credit to Berwick, who pitched very well. They played Malvern tough the day before, so they are definitely talented, but we didn’t show very good plate discipline.”

A bight spot for the Blue Devils was their pitching. The CHA hurlers managed to give up no earned runs, and despite three errors behind them, pitchers Bobby Martz, who started the game, and Erik Hubbard, who pitched the final three innings and ended up getting the win, managed to pitch out of some tough jams.

“We pitched very well today,” Parker said. “Bob started things off for us nicely and Eric Hubbard did a good job when he came in.”

The Blue Devils have more nonleague action this week with games against Springfield on Thursday and Shipley on Friday. After that, they hit the ground running, with two of their next three contests against Inter-Ac foes Haverford School and Germantown Academy.

“We are going to focus in practice a lot on fielding because we are still committing too many errors,” Parker said. “Fielding the groundball, good footwork, throwing the ball properly, setting yourself before you make a throw, all the little things that will help us in the field.”

Even with these mistakes, it is still early in the season and Parker likes his team moving forward into the Inter-Ac.

“We are ahead of where I thought we would be,” he said. “We have pitched a lot better than I thought we would and the struggles in the plate and the field will improve with practice.”

If the Blue Devils do improve in those areas, they will definitely make noise in the Inter-Ac for the second straight year.