‘Dog’ mentality pushes Archbishop Wood past La Salle

SPRINGFIELD >> From the moment the Archbishop Wood baseball team arrived at La Salle College High School Monday afternoon, it was full of energy. Chanting could be heard from the team bus across the parking lot and players could not wait to get onto the field.

That energy continued over the next three hours as the Vikings handled previously unbeaten La Salle, 9-2, to create a tie atop the Philadelphia Catholic League standings with both teams sporting matching 6-1 records.

“I thought we played about as complete of a game as you can play,” Wood coach Jim DeGuiseppe, Jr. said. “I was really please with our guys. I thought our energy level was high the whole game.”

The Vikings energy stems from the team’s ‘dog’ mentality. ‘Dog’ was part of the team’s pre and post-game huddle and yelled at every positive play in between.

“It’s fairly new,” Wood’s Joey Lancellotti said of the mind-set. “It started as an inside joke between a lot of the players. We put it into the game, realized we were carrying a lot of energy with it and having some fun.

“It’s just about — we come out with a lot of energy. Let the dog out of the cage, keep fighting, keep biting. Come out with a lot of energy and strength and don’t let anybody put you down.”

It did not take long for Wood to have its energy translate into runs on the scoreboard. The team tallied three straight one-out singles in the top of the first inning followed by a Matt Cummiskey sacrifice fly and Corey Dower RBI single to quickly make it a 2-0 lead.

In the second inning, it was Sean Kelly who came up big for the Vikings. Batters reached on a walk and a single to kick off the frame and advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. After two outs, Lancellotti was intentionally walked with first base open. Kelly came up next and roped a two-run single into the outfield to give Wood a little more breathing room, 4-0.

“Saturday I got walked three times,” Lancellotti said. “It’s been something that’s happened constantly. So Sean (Kelly) always feels the need to step up with runners in scoring position and I think he’s doing a great job hitting behind me. I love it, just getting on base and knowing I have someone behind me to move me over and do the job.”

After La Salle cut the lead in half in the bottom of the third, Wood exploded for five runs in the fifth.

The inning featured just two hits, but La Salle made three errors, walked two batters and hit another. Lancellotti, Cummiskey, Dan Drumm and Bobby Heck each had an RBI in the five-run frame.

“We want to have good approaches, have quality at bats and put the pressure on their defense,” DeGuiseppe said. “By putting the ball in play, you’re putting pressure on their defense and I thought we did a really good job of that. That was one of the biggest things I was so impressed by and proud of our guys for today is we had that good mind-set to go out and do that.”

“We struggled handling adversity today,” La Salle coach Kyle Werman said. “We made a couple errors and you kind of saw a little bit of an implosion. I talked to our guys about handling some of those tough moments and how we have to carry ourselves when we face adversity. I think if you’re a casual observer with no scoreboard, you could tell who was winning and who was losing. That shouldn’t happen. We need to carry ourselves like we’re winning all the time.”

Wood pitcher Ryan Logan made sure that the nine runs on the board were more than enough. The left-hander allowed just four hits and two runs over 5 1/3 innings of work. He struck out four batters and — his only blemish of the day — walked nine.

“I thought Ryan (Logan) did a really good job,” DeGuiseppe said. “Here and there he fell behind a little bit, but I think Ryan showed his true competitive nature by battling through that. I can’t say enough about what he brings to this team from a mental toughness standpoint. He’s just an awesome kid. I’m glad he’s on our side.”

The Explorers two runs came in the third inning when Ryan struggled with control. After two quick outs, Ryan walked back-to-back batters. Andrew Ciarlone followed that with a two-run double the barely stayed inside Ward Field. Ryan walked two more batters to load the bases and put the tying run on second base, but forced a pop up to shortstop to end the threat.

Joe Peluso started on the mound for La Salle. He went two innings, allowing four runs on seven hits in the loss. He struck out two batters and walked two.