Rematches bring varying results in HCC baseball, softball

By Bob Balgemann

REPORTER

They played earlier in the season and now they were seeing each other for a second time. Such meetings produced different results in Week 5 of the Harlem Community Center baseball and softball season.

Team Yeoman, named for head coach Curt Yeoman, defeated Team Anderson. 11-5. when they met in the third game of the season. They were undefeated and alone in first place when they meet Gary Anderson’s club again, on July 5.

But that time Team Anderson prevailed, 9-4, to create a tie for first lace in the Midget Boys division.

“We knew it would be a battle, a close game,” coach Anderson said afterward. “But we were confident going in. We’ve been blessed with a good team with nine of 12 returning” from last year’s undefeated regular season and tournament champions.

While he said it was a total team effort there were some standout individual performances. Michael Anderson went 3-for-3 with a home run while Luke Pride also was a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate. Brandon Schwarz pitched four innings and got the win.

Others on the team roster are Brenden Bell, Eddie Alms, Nicholas Brown, Cole Buelow, Holden Goucher, Alden Gruner, Anthony Lombardo, Nathaniel Smith and Ian Vanbarriger.

It was a close game with Anderson leading early, 3-2, and then putting the game away with a late inning rally.

“Coach Yoeman has a very good team,” Anderson said. “I think we’ll see them again in the tournament,” when they will meet for the third and final time this season.

In another key game Pee-Wee Girls division leader Team Myers (7-1) rebounded from their first loss of the season to defeat Team Triplett, 13-7, in another rematch. In doing so, Myers opened up a two-game lead in their battle for the top spot.

More baseball, softball

In games played through July 7 there was little change in the various races among baseball and softball divisions.

Team Shields in Coach Pitch Boys division play became the first squad to reach the 10-win plateau. And they’re still in first place with an undefeated record. They have scored a lot of runs this summer and kept up the pace July 6 with a 22-4 victory.

Cross continues to stay close in this division with an 8-2 record and, most recently, scored a 16-2 victory. Meanwhile, Larys and Sterbenz each won for the sixth time while Broughton logged its fifth victory.

Myers (7-0) remains undefeated in the Bantam Boys division as do McWilliams (9-0) and Nehmzow (7-0) in Pee-Wee Boys play. James (8-1) and Yalden (7-3) are still in the chase.

Anderson picked up its 10th victory, 13-3 on July 7, to move one game up on Yeoman (8-1). Jensen (5-4), Watkins (4-4) and Larsen (4-6) are still battling for third place.

In Galaxy Girls competition Team Brassfield (8-1) continued its march to the title with a hard-fought, 6-3 win over Lauer (5-3), the former leader.

The Bri McKnight team remained unbeaten with a 7-0 record in Midget Girls action. But Wilhelmi is still close by at 5-1 while Miles now has four wins.

Team Hawkinson also remains undefeated, in Coach Pitch Girls play, at 9-0. Smith and Jensen are tied for second place with 4-5 records after Smith’s 13-2 win over Jensen on July 5. But Team Heatherman pulled a surprise July 7 by winning its first game of the summer, 7-3 over Smith. That kept Smith from claiming second place all by itself.