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Cetronia's Jarrell, battling cancer, uses his bat to lift team to a win
His two-run single keys a 10-6 Tri-Co
victory over the ICC Pirates.
By Ted Meixell
Of The Morning Call
Several reasons exist why Mark Jarrell, a twenty-something left-hander,
should not be playing first base for Cetronia of the Tri- County League,
much less slamming a clutch two-run single to key a 10-6 victory over the
ICC Pirates, as he did Tuesday night at Bethlehem Township Municipal Park to
clinch a playoff berth for the Longhorns (18-14).
Three
of the biggest are that he underwent surgery for testicular cancer in March,
went under the knife again on May 21 to have the lymph nodes removed from
the left side of his body -- and that his doctors would prefer him to sit
out the rest of this season.
Actually, Jarrell, an Easton High product, returned to the field when the
Longhorns beat Banko's A's 4-3 on June 24 -- just 34 days after the second
surgery.
"We
caught it [cancer] real early," he said, "and I'm doing fine - - although I
have to be monitored every three months. It was an ambition to come back,
and I really didn't push too hard. When I felt good enough, I just wanted to
come back and play.
"It's
one of those things to help you forget what you're dealing with for a
while."
Tuesday night, Jarrell's line drive single to right in the sixth inning
upped Cetronia's lead to 8-5 mere seconds after Luke Bricker walked with the
bases loaded to put it ahead for the first time. It added another run on a
groundout and added one in the seventh on Chris Peters' RBI single.
That
was enough for lanky right-hander Mike Coll, who shook off a bad first
inning (three runs on four hits) to hold off the Pirates (21-12).
In
this contest, ICC had already clinched a TCL playoff berth and was jockeying
for a better position; the Longhorns had all but clinched a berth and were
also jockeying for position.
The
'Horns jockeyed better.
"Yeah,
we did, didn't we?" laughed veteran Cetronia skipper George Horn. "The
fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh spots well, anything can happen. We could
move up a couple spots [from seventh], ICC could fall as low as seventh. Hey
they've got to play [league- leading] Gabelsville, Lehigh Township and
Tri-City." The latter two were tied for second.
ICC
led 5-3 after four frames behind starter Dan Smith, but Pirates' boss Mike
Brosious had to gamble: Sean McHugh and Dan Fazekas each needed an inning
for playoff eligibility, so Brosious used them an inning each.
"Yeah," he admitted, "that may have cost us a game, but I did get two more
pitchers qualified, and in the playoffs we need every available arm."
Cetronia 030 024 1 -- 10 13 2
ICC
301 100 1 -- 6 9 2
Mike
Coll and Chris Peters. Dan Smith, Sean McHugh (5), Dan Fazekas (6), Marty
Rowan (6), Eric Baran (7) and Kyle Ruff. W - Coll. L - Fazekas.
ted.meixell@mcall.com
610-820-6505
From The Morning Call --
July 17, 2002
Copyright
© 2002,
The Morning Call
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