Mers Pub got off to a real slow start this season going 1-3-1 in the first five games, however they have turned it around late in the season winning their last three games to run their record to 7-6-1. The last two wins were dominating victories with a combined score of 50-6. After blowing out O’Shea’s Pub two weeks ago 23-1, the Mers Men smoked an understaffed Barco Construction team 27-5 in eight innings. Mers was just solid and domineering right from the get-go. The infield play from George Cohan, Joe Girimonte, Al Vasquez, Tom Vella, Joe Fanning, and the always-solid first base play of Jim Filecccia was outstanding and turned a number of nice double plays.
The outfield was almost flawless and Joe Fanning’s pitching, combined with the great Mers defense, blanked the Barco bats four of the eight innings. John Longo made the play of the game from his catcher’s position. With Barco looking to make a game out of it they had loaded the bases and no outs when the batter at the plate tipped a ball straight down in front of the plate into the heavy dirt. Longo pounced on the barely fair ball grabbing it. He stepped on home plate forcing the runner on third and threw on to first for the 2 to 3 double play. The Mers offense was simply overwhelming with 37 hits on the night and three big innings of 5, 8, and 6 runs crossing home plate. Big George Cohan was 5 for 5 on the night with a monster home run and 3 RBIs. The always consistent Tom Vella was also a perfect 4 for 4. Mike Magro (4 RBIs), John Longo, Jack DeBobis, and Bill Sutherland all were 4 for 5. Big time rookie, Ron Paola, who is healthy again after an early-season injury, continued his hot hitting going 3 for 4 along with Mers other rookie, Al Vasquez.
The game between Moby Drugs and McCourt and Trudden Funeral Home featured tough defense and strong pitching from both squads. There weren’t many hits and few runs until the 6th inning when Moby exploded with 8 hits and 6 runs. M & T came on strong late in the game, but it wasn’t enough, as Moby went on to a 14-7 win.
Report from Aug. 7
Barboy held a slim 4-3 lead over Moby Drugs in the 7th until John Cafarella and Henry Hasemann hit back to back triples giving Moby the lead 6 to 4. Barboy came back scoring 2 more runs in the bottom of the 7th, but in the 9th, John and Henry answered, blasting back to back triples once again giving Moby the victory, 10 -8.
On a gorgeous and festive night, Barco Construction continued their fine play and overcame a stubborn Changing Times Pub team 14-10. Barco started out quickly with a run in the 1st on Dave Saur’s RBI sac fly but CT responded immediately with two in their half. Barco edged in front again with two in the 3rd on Russ Graham’s 2 run HR and one in the 4th on Jim Hose’s hit before CT bounced back again with four in the 5th to go up 6-4. Barco was then able to string together numerous hits to plate nine in the 6th to take the lead for good. Dave Saur’s 2 run triple was the big hit in the inning but the key was all the other RBI hits by Steve Jacobson, Jim Weilmann, Kevin Moloney, Dennis Ryan and Tony Ranieri that kept the inning going, along with Jim Hose who had the distinction of having two RBI producing hits in one inning as the team batted around. CT did fight back again scoring three more to close the gap to 13-9 but “Ricky Ricardo” Pedone added an insurance run in the last inning (8th) on a sac fly that along with a last inning DP that allowed Barco to finally dispatch the battling CT crew. Defensively Barco played well especially RC Dave Saur and LF Dennis “Grandpa” Ryan who made another circus grab (aka a Jeff catch) to help douse a CT rally. Rumor has it Dennis was running everything down, but when will he be able to walk w/o pain again? Honorable mention goes out to relief pitcher Jim Weilmann who pitched a good game despite being hampered by a muscle pull. The win avenged an early season loss and improved Barco’s record to 11-2 for the year.
Are you familiar with the books Where’s Waldo? Barco’s version is “Where’s Terry” (McPartland)? This just happens to be the price you pay when your children are excellent athletes and they play all over the country, which gives them dibs over most everything on mom’s and dad’s social calendar. This past week he traveled to Hawaii with his daughter Kelly, who was invited by college lacrosse coaches to be a member of an elite group of high school players to be so honored. Congratulations Kelly! By the way, why didn’t Val get to go? Also congrats go out to Tony and Denise Falcone on the marriage of their son Bob to wife Tiffany (but on a Friday night? – only kidding).
