High School Baseball: Lanza, Perkiomen Valley Vikings see 5-3 lead disapear in loss to Rams

Starting right-hander Mario Lanza scattered five hits throughout five innings in which he gave up just three earned runs to one of the most potent offenses in the Pac-10, but the Vikings could not close out Spring-Ford, falling to the Rams 9-5.

Perkiomen Valley jumped out to an early 2-0 lead as Lanza helped his own cause in the second inning by ripping a two-out, two-run single, plating Dave Leggieri and Kenny Wolfe.

“It was huge for us to get this win,” said Ram hurler Sean Larkin. “I didn’t have my best stuff today, but my teammates picked me up. We have confidence in each other, and know that we are going to do what it takes to give ourselves a chance to win.”

Spring-Ford, which improved to 2-1 in league play and 3-2 overall, was held in check by Lanza and the Vikings defense, which committed only one error in the contest, stranding nine runners in the process, and looked like anything but the Pac-10 championship contending club there were perceived as when entering the season.

 “We have to take our hats off to them,” said Rams Manager Bruce Brobst. “We have been behind many times before and feel comfortable coming from behind, but they had us scratching our heads.”

Lanza (5IP, 3 SO, 5 BB) kept the Rams hitters off balance through out the first five innings, working every inch of the plate and changing speeds, which helped silence the Spring-Ford bats .

Perk Valley (1-2 league) boosted its lead to 5-3 in the top of the fifth, as with the sacks full of Vikings, Kenny Wolfe, who had a great day going three-for-three with a run scored and 3 RBI as the designated hitter, hitting in the eight hole, crushed a 2-2 fastball to the wall in dead centerfield, clearing the bases.

 Anybody who has watched Spring-Ford baseball during the past few seasons knows that this group of young men have come back from adversity time and time again. They have an uncanny ability not to get rattled or panic, a fact that the Vikings were made painfully aware of Monday as a six-run, seven-hit sixth inning derailed Perk Valley’s bid for a win.

 “We have had a tough time getting started this season and I couldn’t say why,” said Rams shortstop Ricky Gorrell. “We know we can hit and work hard at it. If we stay patient, the hits will come and we know that. For whatever reason, their starter really had us guessing up there.”

The Vikings missed out on several golden opportunities to cash in on the plethora of base runners they had, stranded nine men on base throughout the tilt, and having two rallies quashed by two Spring-Ford inning ending double plays.

Following a similar scenario last week where the Rams surrendered seven runs in the seventh to Phoenixville, Larkin pulled all of the tricks out of his bag, picking off the last two Perk Valley runners of the base paths.

“I told the coach I wanted the ball in the seventh,” said Larkin. “When he pinch hit for me there, he told me to stay loose. After last week I really wanted to finish the game out.”

Perkiomen Valley had the Rams right-hander Larkin (7 IP, 5 ER, 6 SO, 6BB) on the ropes in three consecutive innings, but Larkin was able to pitch his way out of disaster, utilizing two double plays pulled off by his defense behind him to end Vikings' threats.

“We need to win games like this,” said Larkin. “We expect ourselves to play seven innings at 100 percent, and I don’t think we have had a great team game yet. They really came out and played us well; we have to give them credit. That’s a very good team. ”

 “Our kids played hard today," said Vikings manager Dave Feight. “We got a couple of big hits, but ran out of arms. They were hitting the ball hard there, and once they tied the game up, we started beating ourselves up.”

Perkiomen Valley              0 2 0   0 3 0   0 – 5  9  1

Spring-Ford                       0 0 2   1 0 6    x – 9  12  2

Perkiomen Valley      AB R H BI                 Spring-Ford             AB R H BI

Koffel cf                     2 0 0 0                     Medley lf                    4 2 3 2

Lanza p                      4 0 1 2                     Grablewski 2b            4 2 2 1

Kenney ss                   4 0 1 0                     Gorrell ss                   3 1 2 3

Malantonio c               3 0 0 0                     Hoff dh                     4 1 1 0

Martin cr                    0 1 0 0                     Vining cf                    0 0 0 0

Struss 1b                    4 1 2 0                      Oczypok                   3 1 1 1

Squartino rf                4 0 0 0                     Clarke 3b                  1 1 1 0

Martin lf                     0 0 0 0                     Conway c                  3 0 0 0

Leggieri 2b                 2 2 1 1                      Larkin p                   2 0 0 0

Wolf dh-p                   3 1 3 3                      Simmons ph             2 0 1 2

Moriarity 3b               0 0 0 0                      Cratsenberg rf          3 1 1 0

Delaney ph                 0 0 0 0

D’Ambrosio lf-p          2 0 0 0

Jabs ph-rf                  1 0 1 0  

Totals                      29 5 9 5                      Totals                      29 9 12 9

Perkiomen Valley         IP   H  R ER BB SO

Lanza                                5   5   3  3   5    3  

Wolf (L)                           .1   3   3  3   0    0

D’Ambrosio                     .2   4   3  3   1    0

Spring-Ford

Larkin (W)                        7   9    5   5   5    6

2B-Kenney, Wolf, Grablewski, Gorrell, Oczypok, Cratsenberg. 3B-Medley.  SB-Simmons.

Perkiomen Valley         IP   H  R ER BB SO

Lanza                          5   5   3  3   5    3  

Wolf (L)                     .1   3   3  3   0    0

D’Ambrosio                .2   4   3  3   1    0

Spring-Ford

Larkin (W)                  7   9    5   5   5    6

HBP-By Lanza (Conway). PB-Malantonio 2. WP-Lanza, Larkin.