Mt. Airy Stars beat Hunting Park

Posted 6/14/16

Mt. Airy Stars pitcher Thomas Primosch has a bit of fun with catcher Ahmad Hall. (Photo by Jonathan Vander Lugt) by Jonathan Vander Lugt Summer baseball. What used to mean hot weather, Little League, …

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Mt. Airy Stars beat Hunting Park

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Mt. Airy pitcher Thomas Primosch has a bit of fun with catcher Ahmad Hall. (Photo by Jonathan Vander Lugt) Mt. Airy Stars pitcher Thomas Primosch has a bit of fun with catcher Ahmad Hall. (Photo by Jonathan Vander Lugt)

by Jonathan Vander Lugt

Summer baseball.

What used to mean hot weather, Little League, and relaxed play has since become filled with formalities. Travel teams dominate the area. Similar to the amateur athletic structure that AAU basketball offers, most of the region’s best baseball players run up and down the east coast during the year’s hottest months, playing in showcases or performing at combines, taking a child’s game and turning it serious.

For some, though, American Legion baseball still reigns. Its hold is weak in some places — just six teams dot Philadelphia county, running from Roxborough eastward into the far northeast. No team exists lower than the northern border of Center City.

On Thursday evening the Mount Airy Stars went to Hunting Park and won a fairly standard game, 8-3. Thomas Primosch, who attends Germantown Friends School, pitched five innings and gave up two runs.

“They weren’t hitting the fastball,” he said. He has a curveball that he’s willing to throw if he needs it, but the situation didn’t really call for it Thursday.

In the school season, Primosch struggled amidst high expectations. His mechanics were off for most of the year, but he made some adjustments towards the season’s end after having the chance to see some film.

It turned out that, as he lifted his left leg, he was doing so off-balance. His center of gravity was thrown off every time he reared back, disturbing his timing and keeping his release point from being consistent. His results started to turn around in his last three games of the school year, and the success has continued in the summer slate.

That much was certainly true Thursday, as his fastball was too much for Hunting Park’s hitters. He rode the heater to eight strikeouts in the first nine batters and finished with 10.

The Stars scored three through the first five before tacking on five in the sixth. Primosch pitched to the first couple Hunting Park batters in the bottom half, put them on base, and gave way to Colin Brown. Those extra five came in handy, because three HP runs came around to score.

That would be the last happening of note in the game, a victory that improved Mt. Airy to 4-3-2 on the season.

The tone of the game and mood of the team was notably light.

“It’s definitely more low-key in the summer,” Primosch said. “There’s not as much pressure, and you have the ability to work on some stuff that you wouldn’t be able to during the school season.”

Perhaps the biggest difference between high school ball and Philadelphia Legion, for the Mt. Airy team at least, is the diversity that the team offers. There are, by head coach Gerry Givnish’s count, five kids from Martin Luther King High School, two from Germantown Friends School (Primosch and southpaw teammate Sam Istvan), one from William Penn Charter School, one from Mastery North, two from Central High School, and another two that came back from college at Lincoln University to play ball.

“That’s my favorite part about this team,” Givnish said. “Seeing all of the kids from different schools play together.”

Primosch was in the same boat.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “I played on this team last year. It’s like a melting pot of guys from all different places.”

“I’ve played with a lot of these guys since I was nine,” he said. They go to different high schools now, “but we’re all boys. We’re all friends.

“It’s a good blend. It’s a fun group of guys. We have fun playing.”

That, more or less, is what it’s all about.

“We’re a joking, fun team,” Primsoch said. “I used to play on some travel teams where everybody was so uptight about themselves. The coach was yelling at everybody, but this is a really fun environment to play in.”

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