News Archive

August 16-17: Fredericksburg, PA
August 22-24: Bridgewater College, VA
August 29-31: Tom's River, NJ
September 5-7: Scranton, PA
September 19-21: Woodbridge, VA
September 26-28: Mechanicsburg, PA
October 3-4: Old Dominion University, VA
October 12: Pittsburgh, PA
October 18-19: Frederick, MD

5TH ANNUAL PENNSYLVANIA WOOD BAT SHOWCASE
SEPTEMBER 26-28, 2003

The Aces hosted the 5^th Annual Pennsylvania Wood Bat Showcase this past weekend in Mechanicsburg. The team opened up the tournament with a 9-1 win over the Carroll Country Rangers, avenging an earlier loss that the Rangers had place on them in the Gardziel tournament. Five pitchers combined to limit the Rangers to 3 hits, led by Paul Knutson who threw only 9 pitches during his 1-2-3 inning, striking out two. On the hitting front, Irv Sleighter, Nathan Nehf, and Lance Brown each went 2 for 3 in this game, with Nathan driving in 3 runs and Irv chipping in with 2 more RBIs.

Some of these could have come in handy during the Saturday games. Early Saturday morning the Aces played the Berkshire Red Sox and came out on the short end of a 8-0 score. A strong pitching performance by the Red Sox limited the Aces to 5 hits over 8 innings, while getting 11 hits and taking advantage of the 8 walks given up by the Aces staff.

On Saturday evening, the Aces took on the New Jersey Twins at Creekview field. Again, strong pitching limited the Aces to a single hit over 8 innings, while the Twins got all the runs they needed in the first two innings, scoring twice and walking away with a 3-1 victory.

Sunday afternoon, the Aces faced the Mid-Maryland Red Sox, a team who had beaten them pretty soundly earlier in the year. In a good, old-fashioned baseball game, the Aces made the most of their 7 hits to earn a hard-fought 4-2 victory. Riley Cameron's 2 run double in the 9^th proved to be the game winner. The seven Aces' pitchers used in the game gave up only 3 hits to the Red Sox , while walking four and striking out six. Two standout plays by shortstop Nathan Nehf, highlighted the defense showcased during this game. In the 5^th inning, Nathan went prone to his right, back-handing a hard hit grounder, coming up firing, and getting the runner at first. Again in the 8^th, with runners at first and second, Nathan went deep in the hole to snag a high chopper, and was able to erase the lead runner at 3^rd, This limited the Red Sox to a single run in the inning and preserved the lead at the time for the Aces.

Overall, the hitting was led again by Irv Sleighter, who batted at a .455 clip (5/12) and had 3 RBIs over the weekend. Lance Brown (3/7) and Riley Cameron (2/5) also batted .400 or better for the tournament. Our pitching staff allowed only 10 earned runs during the tournament and limited the opposition to a .224 collective batting average. Shayne Wilkinson and Dustin McClain each threw 4 innings of shutout baseball, with Irv Sleighter and Paul Knutson each pitching 3 scoreless innings.

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