Wayne County Babe Ruth Teeners’ League Semifinals

Renegades wreak revenge

Defending league champ Tusten Chiefs ousted by longtime rival

By RICHARD A. ROSS

NARROWSBURG, NY - When it comes to the playoffs in the Wayne County Babe Ruth Teener’s League, it’s a sure bet that the Tusten Chiefs and the Remax Renegades are going to meet up somewhere along the line. Over the years, especially during the tenure of Chiefs’ coach Joe Curreri, the Renegades have been the Chiefs’ most salient nemesis. Last year was an exception as the Chiefs wrangled with the Honesdale Eagles for the championship.

The Chiefs made history by winning the 2006 title, with a 9-4 series-clinching win in the third game of the set. Looking to get back to defend their title against the Eagles, the top team in the league this year, perhaps the Chiefs took the Renegades a little too lightly in their semifinal match up on July 8.

With home field advantage, earned by dint of their South Division title, the Chiefs came in with a 13-2 record, which earned them a bye in the opening round. They split their season series with the Renegades with both games decided by a single run. In their first meeting, the Renegades eked out a 6-5 victory, but the Chiefs won the second game, a pitching gem by both squads, by the score of 1-0.

In that game, Curreri sent veteran Torin Frey to the mound. Greg MacArthur followed suit and finally Cody Fredo came on to close the game and preserve the shutout. The Renegades got a sterling outing from number-two starter Eric Sandercock, who gave up only one run.

Now in the heat of this playoff win-or-go home semifinal, Renegades coach Bill Phillips sent Sandercock back to the hill again. Playoff schedule delays against Hawley had caused him to use his ace Evan Padua in that match up, which was won by the Renegades and allowed them to advance to take on the Chiefs.

Winning baseball games on any level comes down to three things: timely hitting, good pitching and solid defense. Give the Renegades high marks on all three in this game. They got the hits they needed in the big spots, including two-run homers from first baseman Chris Henderson and Sandercock. The first blast came off Chief’s starter Fredo; the second, off reliever Mike Pierce, who had come on quickly to bail out Frey, who had walked three straight batters in his brief relief stint following Henderson’s blast to right.

A sweltering July afternoon, a car with a decorated windshield and a banner behind the bench, both of which celebrated the Chiefs, greeted a crowd of onlookers.

After a scoreless first inning, the Renegades got on the board when Evan Padua reached on a throwing error and then stole second. A passed ball moved him to third. John Lang worked out a walk and moved up on a stolen base, before Tanner Meyers brought in both runners with a single.

Sandercock kept the Chiefs off balance at the plate, inducing flies, and striking out a fair share of young men in blue, who often went after pitches out of the zone. Henderson’s two-run blast in the fourth gave the Renegades a 4-0 lead.

Prior to their turn at bat in the fourth inning, Curreri gathered his troops and told them, “The fourth inning has been our best and we need runs now.”

The Chiefs had gone hitless until the fourth inning when, perhaps inspired by the coach’s plea and a sense of urgency, Mark Tesseyman roped a single. Torin Frey’s subsequent double put runners on second and third. Mike Pierce drove them in on a single to halve the deficit with the score standing at 4-2.

Needing to keep the Renegades in check was going to be key, if the struggling Chiefs were going to get back in the game. Unfortunately, they allowed a run to score in the top of the fifth with an untimely error. After Padua got on with a two-out single, Henderson singled and Padua was held up after rounding third as a throw from Frey in left field came in to catcher Jeremy DeGori, who had Padua caught off third. But his throw sailed over Tesseyman’s head and Padua scored, despite another gunshot throw from Frey that was a bit offline at the plate. That made it a 5-2 game.

The Chiefs went quietly in the bottom of the fifth as Sandercock recorded his fourth of eventual six strikeouts. Knowing the ability of the Chiefs to stage a comeback rally, Phillips urged his team to add to their lead. Alex Hicks had an RBI single, and Sandercock drove him in with a two-run blast to right off a previously effective Pierce, who left a fastball up, which the Renegade veteran scorched to make it 8-2.

The Chiefs got two runs back in the bottom of the sixth, as Greg MacArthur walked and stole second. He scored on a double by DeGori, who was then driven in by Frey. After Pierce was hit by a pitch, the Chiefs had a chance for more, but Austin Sauer flied out to deep left on a hard hit ball. The Chiefs now trailed 8-4.

In one of their better moments, the Chiefs erased the Renegades in the top of the seventh, with help from a 6-4-3 double play begun by Bobby Warden’s fine fielding and quick throw to second. The relay to first got Padua. The Renegades did get runners on second and third with a walk and a double by Lang, but Meyers banged a grounder back to the box to end the inning.

But when it came to last licks, the Chiefs experienced the same scant serving they had dined on all day. A leadoff walk by Bobby Warden was followed by a strikeout of Mike O’Reilly. Ryan Alsdorf was victimized by a great catch of a liner by Meyers, who doubled off Warden to end the game.

Curreri and his team were clearly disappointed by the loss. It was the swan song for Frey, Warden, Tesseyman, MacArthur, Owen and Sauer, all of whom will continue to play on their high school baseball teams in the spring of 2008. Warden plays for Eldred and the rest play for Sullivan West.

“You can’t win a game if you have trouble getting the ball over the plate, you make errors and you don’t get timely hitting,” said Curreri.

Phillips was pleased that his team answered the bell. “In the beginning of the season, we weren’t getting those hits when we needed them. Today we did,” he said.

The Renegades, who also have a number of players in their last Teeners’ season, will try to avenge a loss to the Honesdale Eagles, as they get ready for a best of three championship series, slated to start at Honesdale High School on July 10.

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