Palmen Goes the Distance for the Phantoms

The scoop-In an epic pitchers' duel, Phoenixville starter Dave Palmen and Steelers right hander Jason Hydier battled through nine grueling innings before the Phantoms finally broke through on the board scoring their lone run as Bryan Furr raced home with the winning tally on a double off the bat of Mike Anthony with two outs in the top of the ninth inning. Pottstown stranded 10 men on base in the loss and had the winning runners in scoring position in the sixth and seventh innings, only to fail in pushing them across the plate.

Phantom of the game-There is quickly becoming a shortage of worthy adjectives that have yet to be been used in desribing the outtanding efforts of Phantoms hurler David Palmen, who worked out of three scoring jams en route to a complete game nine-inning shut out in which he retired 10 men in a row at one point and fanned four while walking two. UNBEATABLE, let's try that for now.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

R

H

E

Phoenixville

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

6

0

Pottstown

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

5

0

Other key performers-Mike Anthony is an obvious choice as he drilled the game winning double, which scored Bryan Furr who led off the frame with a walk, to give the Phantoms a 1-0 lead. Furr was also on third base in the seventh inning, as he led off the inning with a single and reached base in the fifth on a fielder’s choice. Phoenixville back stopper Chris Demey had a great day blocking balls in the dirt to keep Pottstown runners from advancing and performed to perfection with his battery mate.   

Inside the lines-“This was huge win for us” said Palmen. “It’s playoff time and you know there can be games like this. About the sixth inning I realized what kind of a game I was in and really started thinking about what this game meant to us. After seven innings the adrenaline kept me going. I really wanted to finish this game and Coach had enough confidence in me to leave me in.”

Say what? -“Wow what a game,” said Phoenixville manager A.J. Gray. “We got excellent pitching and played a very strong defensive game. A win against a good team like this will always help your confidence going forward, but we have to focus on playing our game.”

Next on the schedule-The No. 2-seeded Phantoms will host Spring City on Monday night at 6 p.m., with a berth in the championship game on the line as the Red Sox came from behind to defeat the top seeded Big Dawgz in extra innings 10-9 at Owen J. Roberts High School.

Extra innings-The Baby Steelers defense completed two double plays and the Phantoms completed a twin killing of their own in the contest, in which there were no errors recorded by either team. Time of the game was  2 hour and 26 minutes in what was, at times, sweltering heat on the turf of Sundstrom Field.