Fixes for Philly for playoff spot By FRANK PINTO Sports Reporter FSPSOO4@PSU.EDU The baseball postseason is soon coming. Every year it comes with the turn of summer into fall. Once again this year, the Philadelphia Phillies find themselves in familiar territory. This year, like so many years before, they are battling for playofF contention. Last year they missed the playoffs by one game to the Houston Astros, who eventually would advance to the World Series. As of September 18, with 13 games left to play in the regular season, they are only 1 game out of the Wild Card lead, trailing only the Los Angeles Dodgers The Wild Card., established in 1995, is awarded to the team with the best record who haven’t their division If the Phillies expect to win the Wild Card this year, they must do a few key things in the final three weeks of the season Photos courtesy of the Philadelphia Phillies 1. Starting Pitching: The Phillies weakness this year has, no doubt, been their starting pitching. None of their starters on average have allowed less than 4 runs a game, the closest being Brett Myers with an ERA of 4.05. The teams cumulative ERA hasn’t been much better; it’s the fourth worst in the National League. The other teams in the race for the Wild Card all have good starting pitching. The Florida Marlins have Dontrelle Willis (a finalist for the 2005 Cy Young a\yard) and the San Francisco Giants have Jason Schmidt (7th in the league in ERA). The Phillies don’t have the luxury PSH baseball out scores Delco 10-4 By 808 MASCHMEYER PSH Baseball Coach RZMIO@PSU.EDU Penn State Harrisburg (3-0 in PSUAC, 3-2 overall) knocked off the defending PSUAC Eastern Conference champions PS Delaware, 10-4. The win was the 3rd straight for the PSH hardballers as they sit alone at the top of the South Division. PSH jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning when Austin Kulp (Newville/Big Spring) opened the game with a lead off walk. Adam Wright (Dauphin/CD East) followed with a single up the middle. Kulp moved to third on a fly out to right and Wright followed that by swiping 2nd on a stolen base. Sean Frailey (Middletown/ Middletown) scored Kulp with an RBI ground out. PSH upped the lead to 2-0 in the third inning when Garret Piper (Carlisle/Big Spring) drew a 2-out walk. An error on Sean Frailey’s ground ball and a walk to John Stephens (Galloway, NJ/Absegami) loaded the bases. Kris Aumiller (Mechanicsburg/ Cumberland Valley) legged out an infield hit, which allowed Piper to score. PS Delco cut the PSH lead to 1 by scoring a run in the home half of the 3rd without a hit, only to have PSH double that lead in the top half of the sth. Adam Wright singled to right and Garret Piper reached on an error. After a Sean Frailey ground out moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd, John Stephens laced a 2-run single to center to give PSH a 4-1 lead. PS Delco added another run in the bottom of the sth to cut the lead in half yet again. However, PSH iced the game over the next 2 innings. PS Delco brought in their ace pitcher - who could not of having a top-of-the-line starting pitcher like Schmidt or Willis. If the Phillies still want to stay in this race for the playoffs in the coming weeks, their pitching must tighten up and stop costing them leads late in the games. 2. Left Fielder Pat Burrell and Second Baseman Chase Utley need to start hitting: Pat Burrell, while having 25 home runs, is only batting .254 this season. Even worse, Burrell is hitting .225 when there are runners in scoring position Chase Utley, who earlier in the season had a 35-game hitting streak, is batting just .194 in the last 30 games. are key players in the Phillies the Wild fjelder Pat Burrell (L) and second baseman Chase Utley Card, need to start hitting the baseball better so they can give protec- They need tion to the Phillies' top home run hitter, Ryan Howard." keep the PSH bats at bay. Matt Carroll (Lemoyne/HUN School of Princeton) opened the 6th inning by reaching base on an error. After an out, Austin Kulp drew his 2nd walk of the game. Adam Wright moved the runners into scoring position by grounding out to second, setting the state for Garret Piper’s 2- run double down the left field line. Piper would then score on Sean Frailey’s booming double to deep right field giving PSH a 7-2 lead. In the 7th, PSH added 3 more runs when Jeremy Witner (Weatherly/ Weatherly) reached on a walk and Matt Carroll singled. Both runners moved up on Drew McGuire’s (Duncannon/Susquenita) ground ball out. Austin Kulp followed with a 2-run single up the middle and later scored on another Garret Piper base hit. Wes Erdman (Halifax/Halifax) picked up his first win of the year. Despite hitting 5 PS Delco batters, Erdman only gave up 4 hits and 4 earned runs in 7 innings of work and struck out 3. Erdman did not allow a PS Delco hit until the sth inning. Matt Berfield (Summerville/Brookville) pitched 2 scoreless innings of relief, allowing a hit, walking a batter and striking out 4. FYI - Wright, Piper & Stephens led the offense with 2 hits each. Kulp and Piper each scored 3 runs. Piper had 3-RBIS, with Kulp, Frailey and Stephens adding 2-RBIS each. The defense played errorless defense, turned another double play and perfectly executed a 8-6-5 putout to stop a PS Delco rally in the 7th. Penn State Harrisburg - 10 Penn State Delaware - 4 Next game, Saturday September 23rd vs Penn State York, DH (o' Middletown HS to start hitting the baseball better so they can give protection to the Phillies top home run hitter, Ryan Howard. The Phillies as a team haven’t done well hitting either, their cumulative batting average this year is the third lowest in the National League at .265. 3. They Need to Beat Teams with Bad Records The last couple games the Phillies play will be against teams that have records under .500. That is to say, they’ve had more losses than wins. Among these teams are Win Over Mont Alto Easy for Men's Soccer By MARIAM ELHADRI Staff Reporter MUE 117@PSU.EDU Despite the cold weather on the fields of Penn State Harrisburg on Wednesday evening, two teams from Penn State commonwealth campuses were ready to play a heated match. This intercollegiate competition was a matter of young versus old. The predominantly freshman team of Mont Alto faced rival and sister commonwealth campus Harrisburg, whose roster consists mostly of returning players. Mont Alto’s inexperience early in the season defied them against the Harrisburg team in their search for their first win. Coming off of an exhausting loss in overtime, losing 2-3 against Abington this past Saturday, Harrisburg was looking for this win to intensify their morale and their 1-1 record. Player Chris Shishko stated, “We are fired up to win. It was a tough loss then, but now it is the motivation for today’s game.” Looking for their first win of the season, Mont Alto entered this game 0-2, knowing how crucial of a win it could be for them as well. Both teams took time to find any kind of rhythm it needed. After the first ten minutes of predominantly midfield play, an easy break allowed senior Vedran Divkovic to place the first goal of the game. Harrisburg had many opportunities and multiple shots as they dominated through the first half, but Mont Alto goalkeeper Cole Daniel protected many from becoming goals. Late in the first half, a well-placed free kick by a Penn State Harrisburg team captain, Daniel Saenez, led to a header in the net by freshman Ben Richards, making the score 2-0 at the half. 'Bad ne By KRIS AUMILLER Guest Reporter KRASOIB@PSU.EDU What a difference a year makes. The Penn State Harrisburg baseball team is looking to improve on its 10-19 record from last year and is off to a great start. "We are not the “Bad News Bears” of last year,” said coach “Morris Buttermaker,” who really prefers to be called Bob Maschmeyer these days. There are obvious differences between the two campaigns such as losing the season opener by only 6 runs instead of 19. The roster has undergone a near complete overhaul. Ten new players on the roster, 5 of which are regular starters, have made immediate impact and increased the depth to a team who had 11 on its roster last spring. When asked about his new players Maschmeyer said, “the new guys being here have also stepped up the play of the players from last year. No one wants to lose their spot.” The team has changed conferences this year as well. The PSUAC South Division has a much lighter Introducing the Penn State Harrisburg baseball team, no longer the Bad News Bears of the previous year. Whereas last season PSH was blown away, this season, iti's the competition that does not know what to do with itself. Bottom row (I to r): Kevin Bowman, Wes Erdman, Austin Kulp, Kevin Kreider, Sean Frailey, Garret Piper, Drew McGuire, and Kyle Mongold. Top row: Head Coach Bob Maschmeyer, Greg Yetter, Jeremy Witner, Kris Aumiller, Andrew Haden, Adam Wright, Matthew Carroll, John Stevens, and Assistant Coach Jim Tetkoskie, '92. Not pictured Matt Berfield and Ryan Dinger. Parents, grandparents, and college students slowly began to trickle into the stands to support the teams. Die-hard fan and sophomore at PSH, Chris Brown is reliably at every match wearing a kilt, painted face, and his mind on his sleeve. He said, “I am just trying to bring the school spirit atmosphere back to Penn State Harrisburg. Men’s Soccer is one of the best programs we have here and 1 encourage fan support from anyone.” As it got deeper into the match, the crowd got more involved in motivating the players to stand their ground. The Harrisburg defense was only tested a few times during the entire game, in which goalkeeper Andrew Geib quickly altered their play. With impressive defense played by Ben Richards and Mike Marion, the Mont Alto offense struggled to find its attacking ground all match. Junior, Ben Suarez of PSH found an opening to add the third goal of the match. Soon after, freshman Mikael Zapata-Rotz scored the fourth and final goal off an assist from Saenz to complete the 4-0 shut out. When asked about the win, head coach Mark Brown jokingly said, “Coaches are never satisfied.” He believed that the flow of the game was a “start-stop performance.” He said, “There were times where we raised the level of intensity, but we just could not find the continuity or steady performance we were looking for.” Optimistically projecting for the rest of the season, Coach Brown believes the team will just get stronger from here as they adapt to his new system and get used to new players. Replicating last year’s shut out of 4- 0 against Mont Alto, the players of Penn State Harrisburg were satisfied, but always wanting better. THE CAPITAL TIMES s bears' no longer travel schedule; however it also has another group of teams to see more often. “There’s no change. We are here to win games, not worry about teams.” As for the teams that beat the lovable, losing Lions last season by double digits, revenge is a little sweet. Maschmeyer said, “If it doesn’t feel a little nice, I shouldn’t be coaching. (Coach Jim Tetkoskie ’92 and I) are here to be competitive, teach, and be prepared to win.” For the rest of the fall, Maschmeyer and the Lions have 6 games remaining. However, the program continues to grow. “We continue to be looked at by student transfers and incoming freshman. The players are better and understand the game. Coaching is easy when you have good players.” However, there continues to be a lagging problem for this reporter and the rest of his team, a field on campus. Every team needs a home. Since the team was started last year, it has played games on three different fields and practiced on two. “We need a home field on campus,” Maschmeyer said. “This program will begin our (NCAA) Division 111 provisional PA high court to decide if Paterno's salary will be made public knowledge By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press Writer HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided to review a lower-court ruling that would make public the salaries of Penn State football coach Joe Patemo and other high-ranking university officials. The high court on Tuesday agreed to take up the appeal by Penn State, Patemo and three administrators, who are challenging a decision by the State Employees’ Retirement System to release pension-related information. The one-page order said Supreme Court Justice Cynthia A. Baldwin, who chairs the Penn State Board , of Tmstees, did not participate in considering or deciding the matter. ACommonwealth Court panel ruled 3-2 in August 2005 that the salaries were public under the Pennsylvania | Right-to-Know Law, but Penn State appealed, arguing disclosure would violate individuals’ privacy rights. Jan Murphy, a reporter with the Patriot-News of Harrisburg, first sought salary information in December 2002 for Patemo, since retired budget officer Richard Althouse, executive vice president and provost Rodney A. Erickson, and senior vice president and treasurer Gary C. Schultz. The retirement system agreed to give Murphy the information she sought, but her request has been on i hold while the university appeals the case. The Patriot-News has argued that Penn State employees should not be given preferential treatment by having details withheld regarding the state-sponsored pension plan. “Because Penn State employees can elect to be part of the system, which in this case these gentlemen September 25, 2006 status next year. As of right now we are the only PSH team that will not have a home field to call their own.” It isn’t just the coach who is worried about this. Players need a home field to get used to, so they can have a little bit of that home field advantage. “It’s rough on the infielders,” said third baseman Matt Carroll. “We never know when a bad hop is coming in a game.” The Lions are 3-2 this season with a 3-0 division record. A good division record in the fall is a great boost for when the playoffs start in the spring. The last home game that you can come out and see is October 7 at Middletown High School at 12 p.m. Batting Average: John Stevens, .583 Sean Frailey, .429 Austin Kulp, .368 RBI; Garret Piper, 6 Austin Kulp, 5 John Stevens, 4 Matt Berfield, 1.40 Wes Erdman, 2.33 Greg Yetter, 2.92 Photo courtesy of Penn State Harrisburg Athletics did, then they should be treated no differently than any other state employee,” newspaper lawyer Craig J. Staudenmaier said Wednesday. Penn State has said releasing salaries would be unfair to people hired with the understanding their salaries would be private. The school also has voiced concerns about how disclosure might harm morale or help rival institutions hire away faculty. The Penn State administration said it was pleased the high court granted review. University officials believe “the confidentiality of individual employee salaries is protected by an individual’s common law right to privacy,” the school said in a statement. Staudenmaier speculated that argument before the court could take place early next year, w ith a decision coming perhaps a year or 18 months after that. Pennsylvania’s four “state-related” universities, Penn State, Temple, Pittsburgh and Lincoln, are exempt from the government’s Right-to- Know Law. But the law does apply to the retirement system. New Penn State hires can choose between the state pension system or the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund. With so many new sports, The Capital Times actively seeks sports reporters. Anyone interested can stop by E-126, call 948.6440, or send an e-mail @ captimes@psu.edu
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