Phantoms manager Jack Sturgeon said it best following Wednesday nights Pioneer Athletic Conference inter divisional 10-2 loss to Perkiomen Valley.
“They just outplayed us on many levels,” said Sturgeon. “I have to credit Perkiomen Valley. They played a great game and exposed a couple of our weaknesses. Fortunately they are things we can work on though to improve.”
After allowing the Vikings (2-2 league) to grab an early 1-0 lead, the Phantoms got on the board in the second inning as Vinny Nattle roped a double into the gap in left center, scoring Jon Wheel, who had crushed a one-out triple.
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Phoenixville (2-2) again cut into the Perk Valley lead as Colin Ammon delivered with two down, slicing a double down the line scoring Tony Sierzega, who had singled and stolen a base to get into scoring position. Ammon was stranded at second as Mike Jones went down swinging.
Jones (5 IP, 6 SO, 4 BB and 4 ER), who struggled a bit last with his control last week against Spring-Ford, was sharp and had his fast ball exhibiting great movement as it cut through the brisk air.
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“I thought Mike got into a nice groove,” added Sturgeon. “In this cold and this early in the year I am not going to burn up his arm. We are going to need him and I thought he did a solid job for us tonight, but he was at 98 pitches.”
The Phantoms had no answer for Perkiomen Valley starter Ryan D’Ambrosio, who is being recruited by the U.S Naval Academy. Once he settled in after the third inning, he allowed just one base hit in the closing four frames, while fanning 10 Phoenixville batsmen.
Perk Valley was able to run all night as they pilfered six bases, which led to scoring opportunities that the Vikings took full advantage of, posting two runs in the fourth and four runs in the sixth to salt the game away.
“We need to work with our pitcher and catchers on keeping runners tighter to the bag,” said Sturgeon. "Tonight, I think they got a jump more on our pitchers. We need to do a better job there.”
The Phantoms, who were overall pretty solid in the field, were hurt by the mistakes they did make as Perk Valley utilized their committing of two throwing errors to put up two unearned runs.
The glaring issue that Sturgeon and his staff have tried to address is finding a few more arms to help shoulder some of the pitching load as the season wears on, but as Sturgeon noted that is not always easy to do.
“That’s one disadvantage we have as a small school,” added Sturgeon. “It’s not an excuse, but it is s fact that we don’t have as many kids to try out for the team, so it’s no coincidence we don't have as many pitchers. I think our guys have done a good job so far.”
Phoenixville 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 - 2
Perkiomen Valley 1 2 0 2 1 4 X - 7
Phantoms AB R H RBI
Kaye 3 0 1 0
Sierzega 4 1 1 0
Romano 4 0 0 0
Allen 1 0 0 0
Ammon 3 0 1 1
Jones 2 0 1 0
Fina 1 0 0 0
Wheel 3 1 1 0
Nattle 3 0 1 1
Naile 3 0 1 0
Vikings AB R H RBI
Koeffel 1 3 0 0
Lanza 4 2 3 0
Kenney 4 1 2 4
Malantonio 4 0 0 2
Strass 4 0 1 1
Squartino 3 0 2 0
Jabs 0 0 0 0
Leggieri 1 2 1 0
Moriarty 0 0 0 0
Wolf 1 0 1 1
Klein 2 0 0 0
D’Ambrosio 2 0 0 1
Duhaney 0 1 0 0
Martin pr 0 0 0 0
Pitching IP R ER H SO BB
D’Ambrosio 7 2 2 7 10 3
Jones 5 6 4 7 6 4
Fina 1 4 3 2 0 3
2B- Ammon, Kenney 3B- Wolf, Wheel
