Washington Township Senators 35+: WT Senators 40: 8 - Cherry Hill Tigers: 0

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Game Played 8/29/2009 11:00AM  

Senators Repay Year-old Debt, Eliminate Tigers 8-0
The Washington Township Senators continued their run towards a title here in 2009, eliminating the always tough Winslow Tigers with an 8-0 white-washing at Washington Township High School on a humid Saturday morning — it was the same exact score by which the Tigers knocked the Senators out a year ago.

John DiPietro tossed seven shutout frames to pick up the win, and Bruce Shaw finished up with two shutout innings of his own. Dave Koerner was the hiting star, banging out three doubles and driving in two. Shawn Senior took the defeat for Winslow.

The Senators were opportunistic on offense all morning, and that was most evidenced in the very first inning.

Koerner doubled with one out and moved to third on Frank Izzi's grounder to first. Bruce Stowell then drew a walk to put runners on the corners.

With Mike Pavlik at the dish, Senior made a few of his nasty tosses to first to try to catch Stowell napping — as he had done twice in Game #1 of this series. But on one of his moves to first, Koerner broke for the plate and slide home safely ahead of the throw to give the Nats big 1-0 lead. And Senior then fanned Pavlik to make the run even bigger.

And it was more "Dodgerball" in the second.

Ken Bevenour muscled a leadoff single into left, and after Allan Stowell fanned, Joe Collins repeated the feat, albeit to right field, to put runners on first and second.

Angel Rivera's walk loaded the bases with one out, and Alan McNulty lifted a sacrifice fly to center to give DiPietro an early 2-0 buffer.

DiPietro breezed through the first four innings, allowing singles to Ernie Ley in the second and to Rich Dickinson in the third, and a two-out walk to Doug Kepple in the fourth. And the Senator offense continued to produce, pushing three runs across on Senior in the fourth.

Pavlik singled sharply to left to start the inning, and Senior walked Bevenour. After fanning Allan Stowell for the second time, Collins slugged an RBI double to left and Rivera topped in infield grounder to bring home the Senators fourth tally. A wild pitch by Senior then allowed Collins to scamper home for a 5-0 lead, and McNulty walked. Senior escaped even more damage by retiring Don Davis on a pop behind the mound.

The Tigers got a one-out runner in the top of the fifth on an Ernie Ley single, but a nice 6-3 doubleplay by Jim McAllister ended the frame, and Kepple took the mound to start the bottom of the fifth.

The Tiger veteran hurler — author of last year's back-breaking 8-0 shutout of the Nats in the semi-finals — proceeded to do what he always does to the Senators, which is toss zeroes. He allowed just two baserunners from the fifth to the seventh frames, fanning four and holding the Nats scoreless.

DiPietro had his most difficult inning in the sixth, as Dickinson singled and Drew White walked to start things. But after a brief visit from manager Izzi, the former Nat Cy Young hurler retired Ken Ley, Brian Ahern, and Kurt Ley consecutively to preserve the shutout. The righthander then pitched a 1-2-3 seventh before yielding to Shaw.

The Senators built the stack higher in the eighth, finally breaking through against Kepple for a three-spot exclamation point.

Davis, Dave DeRuchie and McAllister all stroked one-out singles to load the bases, and Koerner smashed his third double of the game to bring home a pair, but McAllister was tossed out at third on the play.

But Izzi got the Nats yet another insurance run, singling to right as Koerner scored the eighth and final tally.

After a shutout eighth, Shaw made things interesting with two-out in the ninth. The righthander walked pinch-hitter Joe Davis, hit pinch hitter Cosmo Dignio with a pitch, and then walked a third pinch-hitter, Dave Thornton, on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases.

No matter — Kurt Ley hit a soft pop over the bag at second that nestled into the waiting glove of a very happy Rivera, and the Senators had bought another trip to the finals, and a measure of revenge for last year's pasting and elimination at the hands of the Tigers.

DiPietro was masterful on the morning, harkening memories of playoffs past. The veteran hurler allowed just four singles in seven innings of work, walking two and fanning one. The Senator offense was led by Koerner's three doubles, and Collins added two hits to the Nat 11-hit attack.

Now it's a waiting game, as the Senators sit back and see who emerges from the Marlin-Red Sox series, which resumes tomorrow at Bob Meyer Park with the Sox holding a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three. If the Fish should win, the rubber game of that series would probably be Saturday, September 12. If the Sox win, the finals would begin on that day at Washington Township High School. It is hoped that if the Marlins win tomorrow, the two clubs might find a way to get an evening game in prior to the 12th to decide things so that the finals could being that Saturday.

Notes: Tiger skipper Dave Kasen went with his ace for the game, as most managers would have. But given Kepple's success against the Senators, you had to wonder how things would have gone had #44 started the game...these two clubs have had quite the back-and-forth over the years, deep in the playoffs, and you can feel the respect on both sides — everybody knows they are in for a ballgame, and nothing is taken for granted. And it's FUN...yhe Senator defense was perfect on the day, as they made every play. And they had to, too, because the Tigers struck out just once in the game. Rivera's great play at secondbase to start the game set the tone, and it went from there. McAllister had a great game at short, collecting six assists and several putouts, and the Senator outfield also threw the leather, with Koerner, Bevenour and Izzi all making nice running catches. The Tigers made just one error, but there were balls hit by the Senators that might have been catchable.