Delco Christian taking confident approach in final
NEWTOWN SQUARE — As the postseason beckoned two weeks ago, Delco Christian baseball coach Jeff Wisnewski knew the lay of the land.
He knew that the third-seeded Knights’ path toward achieving their goal of a District One Class A title would, in all likelihood, run through No. 1 Christopher Dock, a matchup that will come to fruition Wednesday at 4 at Methacton. Wisnewski saw how disastrous that collision was in the regular season, a 15-1 win for Dock at DC’s place.
What Wisnewski didn’t know was that he’d get a helping hand instilling the underdog mentality that the Knights (9-6) have used to propel a second-half resurgence this spring, one with a message that — though he was on the wrong side of the moral — proved poignant for the current crop.
That someone was former New York Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson, who regaled the Knights about his experience in the 1960 World Series. The eight-time All-Star earned MVP honors in that series despite his Yankees losing in seven games to the Bill Mazeroski-led Pirates, the diminutive second baseman becoming still the only player on a losing World Series team to garner the MVP award.
In that series, before the homer off the bat of Richardson’s opposite number flew out of Forbes Field for the Game 7 walk-off win, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates, 55-27. The Pinstripes had beaten the Pirates, 12-0, 10-0 and 16-3, and had won just about every imaginable statistical category possible … except the win-loss column.
With the message offered by the 79-year-old Richardson — who has become active nationally in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes since his playing days and whose granddaughter, Amy Carnall, is an administrator and softball coach at DC — resonating with players, Wisnewski’s task of moving his team on from a sputtering start was made easier. What happened early in the season, against Dock and others, is of no consequence Wednesday.
“I think it totally gives us the confidence,’ catcher Dylan Campbell said. “Baseball is a very unpredictable game. It’s not like any other sport. Teams that are stacked get beat, and things like that happen. I think the unpredictability of baseball and the knowledge that we can fundamentally close the doors on Dock gives us the confidence.’
Wisnewski is careful in how he crafts the underdog rhetoric. There were mentions of “Rocky IV’ in his speech to the team before Tuesday’s final tuneup practice, but that’s not to mythologize Dock (15-4). The Pioneers are a talented team to be respected, but not feared.
“I know that we’ve been playing well so far and I know our potential,’ outfielder Josh VanMeerbeke said. “I know that we can do it. So I don’t think it’s underdog as in, ‘˜oh I don’t think we can do it, it’ll be a longshot if we win.’ I think it’s very doable.’
Part of the disparity in records between Dock and Delco Christian (9-6) is due to the Knights’ slow start. Pitcher Danny Browne, who tossed a shutout in the semis against No. 2 Jenkintown and will likely toe the rubber Wednesday, missed three weeks early in the season, including the Dock game.
He’s a pertinent example of how much the Knights have improved, but the team around him has also grown incrementally, imbuing the group with its self-belief. “I think we’ve definitely matured a lot,’ said Campbell, in his first season at the school after transferring from St. Joseph’s Prep. “We had a good attitude going in, but just as we’ve gotten stronger and wiser as the games have gone on, we’ve gotten more game-ready, I guess. We’re better at knowing what to do in certain situations and stronger as a team.’
Though the Knights haven’t played in a district title game since 2007, some of the players have experienced the championship atmosphere. The roster includes several members of the district-title winning football squad in the fall, while Browne was a driving force on the basketball team’s run to the second round of the PIAA Tournament.
It feeds a zeitgeist of winning at the school that the baseball team is eager to contribute to.
“Being a main part of (the basketball team), it’s a great feeling and I would love to have it again and share it with other kids on our team,’ Browne said. “… It helps me prepare for the game knowing what I need to do, just focus on things I need to do for myself and things I need to avoid.’
Richardson, in a stellar career on which he called time after 12 seasons at just 30 years of age, played in seven World Series, winning three of them. The five-time Gold Glove winner finished with a career .308 batting average in the Fall Classic in what turned out to be the dying days of the Yankee dynasty.
That CV doesn’t necessarily qualify him as an expert on the underdog mentality, but his lessons reinforce a sentiment that is already palpable within the Knights.
“I think we’re still a little bitter about some of the losses we had early in the season, so I think we really want to leave the season with a bang,’ VanMeerbeke said. “And so no matter what we do, I know we’re all hungry for a win and we all want to play our best and see what happens from there.’
In the Class AAA title game:
No. 7 Sun Valley vs. No. 1 Holy Ghost Prep
Spring-Ford, 4 p.m.
By the seeds and the records, the Vanguards’ (9-11) run to the title game may seem a Cinderella story, with the last chapter coming against the heavily-favored Firebirds (18-3). But to doubt the Vanguards undersells the difficulty of the league they emerged from, a Ches-Mont overwhelmingly populated by Class AAAA programs.
With La Salle-bound CJ Pruitt, who struck out 15 in a one-hit dispatching of No. 2 seed Chichester in the quarterfinals last Tuesday, on the mound Wednesday, the Vanguards have a chance to spring a major upset. But Sun Valley is hardly just Pruitt, as they proved in a 5-1 win over No. 3 Radnor in last Thursday’s semifinal. That game featured not only a strong performance on the mound by Christian Bateman, but hitting up and down the order and enough timely hitting in one big inning (the five-run third) to get the job done.
