The Phoenixville Athletics Senior American Legion

The Phoenixville Athletics Senior American Legion baseball team has a mixture of young, inexperienced high school players and several who are returning from college.
The A’s opened the season with Chester County League victories over Oxford and Pottsgrove on the road. Last weekend Phoenixville suffered a pair of losses. One was a 7-6 nail-biter loss to Spring City at Spring-Ford High School’s Ram Stadium Saturday evening. On Sunday, the A’s fell to Caln, 13-2, in a five-inning game ended by the 10-run rule at “Doc” Kennedy Field.
Phoenixville’s roster includes third baseman Jesse Daywalt, who started at second base for Chestnut Hill College as a freshman; as well as other players who are in college in Allan Moreland and Ryan Rogala. Daywalt batted second against the Caln Seabees while Moreland was the designated hitter and batted seventh. Rogala started in right field and batted fifth.
The rest of the starting lineup had Anthony Nattle in center field, Thomas Romano at shortstop, Cal Milano at second base, Derek Ryan catching, Mike Jones pitching, Gary Moses at first base and Matt Cohen in left field.
The remainder of the roster includes Dillon Fina, Will Daggett, John Wieland, Matt Pilewski, Tony Sierzega, Jon Wheel, Robby Werner and Corey Smith.
The manager is Jack Sturgeon and his assistant coaches are Craig Jeffers and Geoff Thomas.
The A’s have a capable offense and play suitable defense. However, they are limited in the most important category, pitching. Moses pitched some strong games at the end of the senior high school season and has looked sharp to start the Legion season too, The right-hander pitched well against Spring City in a 5 1/3-inning starting stint.
The rest of the pitchers are youngsters with limited varsity and Legion experience who are going through a baptism under fire. Sturgeon and his staff hope the pitchers improve as the summer season progresses with hopes of qualifying for the loop playoffs.
Ryan, Milano and Romano have also been selected to participate in the annual Carpenter Cup Tournament for senior high school players. The three players will be members of the Chester County ballclub for the Philadelphia tournament, targeted mostly for underclassmen, that is witnessed by numerous scouts and college coaches. Sturgeon will also serve as an assistant coach for head coach Bob Gottschall.
The first two rounds of the tourney will be played at the University of Pennsylvania and the last two rounds will be played at Citizens Bank Park.

spring sports teams

The 2008-09 school year is drawing to a close. The spring sports teams are in the final stages of state playoffs in baseball and softball. That is all that is remaining from another long season of sports activities.
The Spring-Ford and Owen J. Roberts softball teams in Class AAAA and St. Pius X in Class AA softball were the last teams still competing in the state playoffs before the school year ends with graduation.
St. Pius X saw its season end with an 8-0 loss to Brandywine Heights, the District 3 champion, Thursday afternoon in drizzling rain at Spring-Ford Area High School’s field in Royersford. Owen J. Roberts was ousted in the first round of states.
It is also that time of year when schools schedule end-of-the-year senior banquets to honor the student-athletes and coaches. I attended Phoenixville’s Tuesday night and Spring-Ford’s Wednesday evening. Both dinners were held at the Radisson Hotel in Valley Forge.
They were nice affairs. It is nice to see the players honored for all of their hard work and success throughout the year. Most of the students are also successful in the classroom and will be furthering their education in college. Some of them will continue to play sports. Others will not, but they have used sports as a tool to be accepted at the college of their choice.
Yusuf Brown and Miranda Peto were honored as Phoenixville’s outstanding senior boy and girl athlete. Andrew Cooper and Ashley Wood were honored as Spring-Ford’s top athletes.
The top athletes are voted upon by the head coaches at the respective schools. The selections are difficult because there are so many deserving candidates. Most often, the recipients are ahletes who have played more than one sport and been successful at all their undertakings.