Glendora Eliminated by Mount Ephraim

It wasn't until the sixth inning of their second game in the District 14 tournament that finally scored a run.

Unfortunately, it was too little, too late as Glendora was defeated by Mount Ephraim, 6-1, in a losers bracket elimination game, knocking the team out of the District 14 tournament.

“Tonight, the hits weren't there,” said Glendora head coach Rick Boutilier. “It's kind of funny how you can scrimmage a team 10 days ago and score 22 runs, and then only come up with one a couple weeks later.”

Glendora scattered seven hits around during the game, three of them coming from left fielder Colin Carr. However, the big problem for the team was hitting with runners in scoring position. Six Glendora runners were left on second or third, really making a difference in the outcome of the game.

Mount Ephraim pitcher Andrew Fehr got out of jams in both the second and third innings by striking out the last two batters in each frame. Fehr threw five shutout innings, allowing four hits and one walk while striking out five.

Defensively, Mount Ephraim's infield seemed to be at the right place at the right time on ground balls. The first two batters during the sixth inning, Brandon Jones and Ricky Boutilier, both struck hard-hit balls, but they were hit right at Mount Ephraim infielders.

“We did hit the ball tonight,” said Boutilier, “but Mount Ephraim made plays on all the balls we hit.”

Glendora didn't do itself any favors defensively from the get-go. Mount Ephraim's first run came in the first inning, when Damon Meraz hit a double into center field. Glendora then proceeded to commit two throwing errors, one coming from center fielder Jake Rappaport when he missed the cut-off man, another from first baseman Michael Calabrese when his throw to third base went wide. Meraz scooted home for the first Mount Ephraim run.

Jones, who started the game on the mound for Glendora, pitched well in four innings of work. He held Mount Ephraim to four hits, two walks and one run, striking out one. He forced five ground balls as well as two pop-ups in the infield, keeping Mount Ephraim from hitting a lot of pitches hard into the outfield.

Glendora made a decent comeback attempt with two outs in the top of the sixth and their season on the line. Carr hit a double that one-hopped the left center-field fence to get on base. Dante Masino followed with a single to score Carr and make the score 6-1. Rappaport then hustled to turn a ground ball to shortstop into an infield single, putting the idea of a five-run comeback into Glendora's heads.

However, they came up short the next at-bat as Gian Liccketto went down swinging to end the game.

Mount Ephraim's tournament will continue as they will play Gloucester in another elimination game on Tuesday.

For Glendora, the 2011 tournament may have ended, but the journey has not for much of the team. With six 11-year-olds on this year's squad, Glendora will have a lot of returnees next season who make sure that 2012 isn't a repeat of 2011.

As Coach Boutilier said before leaving the field: “Next year, you'll be watching the District 14 champions.”

                    1  2  3  4  5  6     R  H  E
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Glendora     0  0  0  0  0  1      1  7  3
Mt. Ephraim 0  1  1  0  4  X       6  6  2
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W: Andrew Fehr

L: Brandon Jones

2B: Mt. Ephraim: Damon Meraz (2), Brett Duffy; Glendora: Carr