Vroman's arm, Stecker's bat lift ICC to win

Chad Stecker drive in 3, Brett Vroman improves to 11-0 in the 15-1 rout.


By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call

 

On a night when his teammates scored 15 runs and banged the ball around Limeport Stadium for 17 hits, the pitching of Brett Vroman may have been overshadowed.

But even after ICC had completed a 15-1 rout of Limeport Sunday night to take a commanding 2-0 lead in a Tri-County League semifinal series, Pirates' manager Mike Brosious made sure to compliment Vroman.

''He's 11-0 now and it has been a quiet 11-0 because he picked up a lot of wins in middle relief, but he's probably our MVP this season,'' Brosious said. ''He completely shut them down. He has really found his groove right now.''

Vroman's pitching brought some calm to a night that seemed destined to get out of hand. Both teams scored first-inning runs and a fight nearly broke out after back-to-back tag plays at the plate.

But while his ICC team exploded for 12 runs on nine hits in the third and fourth innings, Vroman kept things under control by allowing just four hits over six innings. Brett Remel came on and tossed a scoreless seventh.

Vroman is in his first season in the Tri-Co. The Wilson (West Lawn) and York College graduate was brought into the local amateur league by York buddies Luke Pile and Scott Stewart.

''I love this team and this league,'' Vroman said. ''It took me awhile to get used to baseball again because I didn't play last summer due to injuries.

''I've been hit hard a few times this year. Tri-City has hit me hard. But a couple of times, when I got hit hard, my teammates bailed me out with a lot of runs.''

The Pirates scored plenty for Vroman Sunday as every member of the ICC lineup drove in at least one run.

Dave Stauffer's two-run double and Chad Stecker's two-run single were the big blows in the seven-run third.

Five different players drove in runs in the five-run fourth.

A.J. Peracchia, Brian Martin, Brent Bowman and Pile had three hits apiece. Stecker had three RBIs.

''From one through nine, we hit the ball tonight,'' Brosious said. ''But you still need someone to shut the door and Brett did that for us.''

Vroman was in command after giving up back-to-back doubles to Glenn Kushma and Jeff Cavanaugh in the first.

''I hit my spots and kept the ball down,'' Vroman said. ''The few times I got the ball up, they hit it hard, and, sometimes, they hit it at somebody. I'm grateful for that.''

Brosious was grateful for the lopsided win, but wasn't about to start making plans for the Tri-Co finals just yet.

ICC (30-6) can end the series with a Game 3 win Tuesday night at Bethlehem Township and move on to the finals opposite Lehigh Township. But more business is to be done against the Bulls (18-19).

''It's not over yet,'' Brosious said. ''They've beaten us and tied us twice this season. So, this is far from over. We've got to approach it like it's still a 0-0 series.''

The Bulls must quickly put the blowout behind them.

''Nothing went right for us,'' said Bulls player/-manager Chris Parsell. ''They're a good team. We tried to stop the bleeding and couldn't do it.''


ICC          107 511 0 — 15 17 0

Limeport  100 000 0 —  1   5  1


Vroman, Remel and K. Ruff; Kepczynski, Schultz (3), Parsell (4) and Vito. W: Vroman. L: Kepczynski.



keith.groller@mcall.com

610-820-6740

From The Morning Call -- August 9, 2004

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