April 17, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local Sports

Chestnut Hill Academy’s varsity baseball team lost only its second game of the season Friday, April 11 to a hitting-rich Germantown Academy squad, 16 – 5. The team followed that loss with a dominating 14 – 5 victory over Friends Central last Saturday, setting its record for the season to 12-2.. Pictured, GA’s Tom Coyle throws to first as Brian Dones slides into second. For more photos visit www.chlocalphotos.com. (Photo by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.)

GA serves a loss to rebuilding Blue Devils
by TOM UTESCHER

CHA eighth-grader Nick Schreiber. For more photos of CHA vs. GA tennis, visit www.chlocalphotos.com. (Photo by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.)

In many high school tennis contests, there are one or two individual matches that are still going on well after the action on the other courts had concluded.

Unfortunately for host Chestnut Hill Academy, that wasn’t the case last Friday afternoon, when the visiting Patriots of Germantown Academy made short work of the Blue Devils. Winning every match in straight sets to claim a 7-0 victory, the Pats improved to 2-0 in the Inter-Ac League (they’d previously beaten Penn Charter) and 4-0 overall.

Friday’s setback, combined with an earlier loss to Haverford, resulted in an 0-2 record for CHA. The Blue Devils graduated two full-time singles players from last year’s team, and one other senior who saw action in both singles and doubles play. One of last year’s juniors, Will Griffin, also played singles in some matches, and this year he’s playing golf instead of tennis.

Late lapses cost Germantown Friends School softball
by TOM UTESCHER

GFS’ Marisol McKee

Playing on the road at The Academy of Notre Dame last Wednesday afternoon, Germantown Friends School battled the defending Girls Inter-Ac League champs through three scoreless innings, but then the visiting Tigers let the game get away from them.

The Irish put up two runs each time in the fourth and fifth innings, then doubled their total in the sixth frame to capture an 8-0 victory and raise their overall record to 2-3. Notre Dame remained 0-1 in the Inter-Ac, having lost its league debut to Agnes Irwin.

GFS, which has suffered Friends School League setbacks against Westtown and Abington Friends, slipped to 0-4 overall with Wednesday’s non-league loss. During the first half of the contest the GFS players proved that they were not physically overmatched, but in the late innings lack of focus among the Tigers helped turn minor glitches into costly mistakes.

Springside softball bops Bears
by TOM UTESCHER

Natalie Klotz, Springside pitcher on the verge of strking out a player. For more photos, visit www.chlocalphotos.com. (Photos by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.)

With a pair of softball victories last week, Springside School leveled its Girls Inter-Ac League record at 1-1 while improving to 2-1 overall.

The Lions pulled out a 5-4 non-league win at Delaware County Christian School on Tuesday, then returned home to knock off a league rival, the Baldwin Bears, by a 9-1 count on Friday afternoon.

Despite a solo home run by Devin McInerney in the fifth, the Lions lagged behind Delco Christian, 4-2, going into the seventh inning. A two-out, two-run hit by Jackie Bergey tied the contest for Springside, then Natalie Klotz singled home the winning run. The winning pitcher of record, Klotz struck out two batters and gave up a pair of walks.

On Friday, Klotz logged one strike-out and five bases on balls for Springside, which got all the runs it would need for the victory in the bottom of the first. With one out, Alexis Giovinazzo drew a walk and then moved to third on a bloop single down the right field line by Mary Trocky. Trocky stole second, then both baserunners came home when Bergey belted a hit through the left side of the infield.