Nazareth completes sweep of East Stroudsburg in Northampton County American Legion baseball semifinals

FROM THE MORNING CALL

East Stroudsburg and Nazareth both had the same number of hits in Game 2 of the Northampton County American Legion baseball semifinals.

Nazareth just had better timing.

No. 4 Nazareth completed a two-game sweep of top-seeded East Stroudsburg with a 10-3 victory Sunday at Walter C. Fry Memorial Field in Nazareth Borough Park.

The scoring started early as Nazareth made the most out of pitcher James Hartman's control problems in the first inning. After drawing a walk to open the game, Shane Siebler scored on a wild pitch. Karl Keglovits hit an RBI single and Mike Garzillo scored from third on a double play to stretch the lead to 3-0.

"We did a very good job running the bases and forcing them into mistakes," Nazareth manager Jason Brown said. "That's the way we try to play baseball around here; we try to play aggressive offensively, force the other team into mistakes and then take advantage of them."

Nowhere was the aggression of Brown's team more evident than in the top of the third. Leading 4-2, Nazareth completed a double steal when Garzillo and Siebler stole second and third base, respectively.

Next, as Keglovits grounded out to shortstop Daniel Alicea, who made an acrobatic play to record the out at first, Siebler scored from third and Garzillo came all the way home from second, narrowly beating a play at the plate.

"I've been trying to get (Garzillo) to be more aggressive," said Brown, who was giving Garzillo a stop sign at third. "He's a very heads-up player, he's an intelligent player but sometimes he plays a little conservative.

"If you play aggressive baseball and you catch teams on their heels, you can make things happen. But, that was even a little too aggressive for my liking."

Still, Garzillo's risky play paid off and it gave pitcher Taylor Magditch more than enough support.

Trailing 8-3, East Stroudsburg loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth, but Magditch ended the rally by striking out Hamlet Rosario and getting Mike Agosto on a groundout to end the inning.

"(Magditch) pitched well for Nazareth," East Stroudsburg manager Kevin Hezel said. "Every inning we had runners on, we just couldn't get that one hit and he pitched out of it. So, I give him a lot of credit."

Due to a postponement earlier in the series, Nazareth was forced to play visitor in its home venue, which Magditch, who surrendered five hits and three runs in six innings, admitted was a confusing situation when he looked at the scoreboard.

When the pitcher was finally told in the fourth inning that his team was the away side and that they weren't actually trailing the game, it went a long way in calming him down.
"It settled my emotions down a little bit," Magditch said, smiling at his mistake.

Keglovits, who pitched a complete game in the first contest of the series, had two hits and five RBIs, including a hard-hit triple to right field in the seventh.

"My coach worked with me in the cage earlier in the season and taught me how to go to the opposite field because I usually pull the ball," Keglovits said. "I waited longer on the ball and I just hit it into the gap."

Dan Shepherd gave Nazareth its 8-3 lead in the fifth with two-out single, which got by a diving Joseph Romano at second base and plated Siebler and Ben Schmitt.

"If we don't get that hit and they do get a clutch hit when they had the bases loaded, it's 6-5 and it's a nail-biter," Brown said of Shepherd's timely knock.

Dan Fezza notched two hits and two RBIs for East Stroudsburg, which seemed to be one big play away from making the game interesting.

"If it hadn't been for the couple of runs they got early and one pitch here or there that let them extend the inning, it's a whole different game," Hezel said.


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