April 3, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local Sports

CHA baseball edges Berwick High School
by Justin Goldman

At bat, CHA’s Steel Russell hits a deep drive to right field, bringing Mike Mattei home. For more photos visit www.chlocalphotos.com. (Photo by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.)

CHA got just the timely hitting it needed on Saturday afternoon (March 29) in a 2-1 nail-biting victory over visiting Berwick High School. The Blue Devils struggled with runners in scoring position all day, but Steel Russell hit a deep drive into the right-field gap that one-hopped the fence and scored Mike Mattei who had singled in the previous at-bat.

“I thought we would play better, but for whatever reason; traditionally we don’t play well on Saturdays” said head coach Stan Parker. “I thought we were a little lethargic and made a lot of mental mistakes.”

One of those fundamental mistakes included an error on the normally incredibly sure-handed Mattei at shortstop that allowed the only Berwick run to score in the top of the third inning.

Rams butt CHC racquetmen
by TOM UTESCHER

QUALIFIED CHAMPIONS: Mount St. Joseph Academy’s 200-yard medley relay team – (left to right) sophomore Laura Pospisil (freestyle), sophomore Danielle Kouch (breaststroke), senior Jackie Hain (backstroke), and senior Caroline Menapace (butterfly) —  qualified for the PIAA Class AA State Swimming and Diving Championships, held at Bucknell University on March 14 and 15.  The relay placed fifth in the consolation finals with a time of 1:54.63, earning them 13th place overall in the event.  Kouch finished third in the consolation final of the 100-yard breaststroke (1:08.98) – good for 11th place in the event, while Hain took 5th in the consolation final of the same event (1:09.11), finishing 13th overall.  In the final team standings, the Mount finished in 35th place.

Last Tuesday afternoon, the Chestnut Hill College tennis team traveled down along the Wissahickon Creek until the Griffins arrived at Philadelphia University.

The host Rams defended their home turf vigorously, improving their spring season record to 4-4 by handing CHC an 8-1 setback. The Griffins, whose lone victory came at first singles courtesy of freshman Carson Richter, went home with a 3-2 mark.

Although both schools are members of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, there aren’t enough conference members fielding tennis teams to make it an official CACC sport. With new teams coming on line next year, tennis should become a full-fledged conference sport in 2008-2009.

Philly U’s second singles player, senior Alex Richter, is a cousin of the Griffins’ Carson Richter. In the geographical sense, they are distant cousins, since CHC’s Richter comes from Lafayette Hill, while Alex grew up in Guatemala.

The related racquetmen did not face one another in singles competition, but they did in the first doubles match. Here, Alex Richter teamed up with freshman Tom McAvoy to give the Rams an 8-2 pro-set victory over Carson Richter and his CHC partner, senior Shane Lesher.

Mount lacrosse on early roll
by TOM UTESCHER

With five different players each scoring two or more goals, the Mount St. Joseph Academy Magic cruised to an 18-9 victory over the Sewickley School in their lacrosse home opener last Saturday. Sewickley, which hails from near Pittsburgh, headed back west with an 0-2 mark, while the Mount improved to 3-0. In road games earlier last week, Mount St. Joe knocked off Gwynedd Mercy Academy, 17-8, and Springfield (Montco) High School, 13-7.

CHA, Springside quads making progress
by TOM UTESCHER

In the second installment of the annual Manny Flick racing series on the Schuylkill, Chestnut Hill Academy and Springside School scullers each came away with a second and a third place finish last Sunday.