Plajzer's HR carries Mt. St. Joe past Curley
8th-inning hit secures 4-2 win for Gaels' Floyd
By Pat O'Malley
Sun Staff

Pinch-hit for in the seventh inning, Todd Plajzer re-entered as a runner and then belted a two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to lift Mount St. Joseph over defending champion Archbishop Curley in the first round of the MIAA playoffs.  The top seeded and No. 4-ranked Gaels (21-8) got a clutch two-out single by winning pitcher Gavin Floyd in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at 2.

Floyd's hit and 41st RBI of the season came after the Gaels ran themselves out of what could have been a game-ending inning if a runner on second had not been thrown out at third on a grounder to short.  Plajzer, a senior catcher who was batting ninth as the designated hitter for freshman catcher Brian Bent, struck out his first two times up.  Matt Moynihan batted for him in the seventh and drew a walk with Plajzer re-entering as a runner and coming up in the eighth.

"We had a hit-and-run on, trying to make something happen," said Mount St. Joe coach Dave Norton referring to Rusty Potee reaching on an infield hit after Paul Harris had fouled into a double play on a hit and run.   "Todd has struggled all year long, but got the key base hit and that's the great thing about baseball."

Floyd (0.85 ERA) ran his record to an area best 11-1 on a four-hitter with nine strikeouts to end a hex with the Friars.  With two playoff wins over the Gaels last year on the way to the title and earning the fourth seed a second straight year with an 8-6 victory over the Mount last Monday, the Friars had a six-game winning streak vs. the Gaels.

Originally published on May 19 2000 in the Baltimore Sun

Calvert Hall stymies St. Paul's for 7-1 win
Gossman pitches 3-hitter to lift No. 2 seed Cardinals
By Lem Satterfield
Sun Staff

When Calvert Hall right-hander Brent Gossman's low-and-outside fastball got socked 415 feet over the center-field fence by Brent Weiss for a one-run lead in the fourth inning, it seemed a good omen for visiting St. Paul's.  But by the sixth inning, when Gossman struck out Weiss on a 2-2 count with the same pitch, his teammates had given him a three-run lead en route to a 7-1 first-round victory in yesterday's Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference double-elimination tournament.  The No. 2-seeded Cardinals (16-11), winners of seven of their past eight games, today will play at No. 1 seed Mount St. Joseph. St. Paul's will play host to Curley.  Calvert Hall likely will start ace All-Metro left-hander Ryan Kyle (7-1) today.

The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Gossman got stronger as the game went on, finishing with seven strikeouts and no walks and yielding only three hits on 95 pitches against 25 batters. Gossman, who improved to 4-3 overall (2-0 against St. Paul's), retired the side in the seventh inning, with two batters grounding out on nice grabs by shortstop Dustin Sparks.  Gossman's fastball clocked consistently between 86 and 88 mph, with a 90-mph fastball on his final pitch to strike out the last batter looking.  "First pitch, he [Weiss] got around on a good swing. Give him credit, but I thought I could get him the next time, so I went with the same pitch," said Gossman, who had beaten the Crusaders, 23-1, earlier this season. "When their best hitter goes down looking, I think it gets in their team's heads a little bit."

The Cardinals' offense, and six errors by the Crusaders, had something to do with that, too, as Calvert Hall scored twice in each of the fourth and fifth innings, and three times in the sixth.  Sparks, Mike Dziecichowicz and Nathan Barker - the latter in his first game back after missing two weeks with an injured shoulder - had run-scoring singles.  Mike Santmyer tripled and scored twice, Brian Anecharico had an RBI, and Stewart Kimmel had a single.

Gossman, who also had an RBI, said the Cardinals appear to have recovered from one of the worst starts in the 23-year tenure of coach Joe Binder, whose team had lost six straight games at one point.  "We were frustrated that we weren't hitting the ball," Gossman said.  "But Coach Binder never lost faith in us, so we wanted to win for him."

Originally published on May 19 2000 in the Baltimore Sun

Calvert Hall downs sloppy Mt. St. Joe
Kyle out-duels Floyd, 9-4; 7 unearned runs sink Gaels
By Pat O'Malley
Sun Staff

Calvert Hall's late-season surge continued yesterday with a 9-4 rout of Mount St. Joseph as the visiting Cardinals put themselves in position for their 11th Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A conference baseball title since 1984 and the eighth since 1990.  All-Metro left-hander Ryan Kyle (8-1) out-dueled Gaels junior All-Metro ace Gavin Floyd (11-2) for a second straight game and is now 3-1 against the latter over the past two seasons.

Floyd, who is 21-3 in two years, fell victim to seven unearned runs in the second inning, all coming after two were out. In contrast, Kyle was brilliant, tossing a four-hitter with nine strikeouts. Last year's All-Metro shortstop Allen Strick, who is noted for his defense, made two of the three St. Joe errors in the crucial inning.  After giving up eight runs, only one earned, Floyd was removed after four innings.  "Floyd is tough to beat; [that] was a big win for us," said Calvert Hall coach Snooky Binder. "We got a really big effort from Ryan. He had his curve working and threw pretty hard, really pumped up a few times."
Floyd, a 6-foot-5 right-hander, may have had his best stuff of the season while warming up and throwing a scoreless inning Wednesday before a rain and hail storm forced postponement to yesterday. When play resumed yesterday, Floyd was nowhere near as sharp as Kyle.

"I had real good velocity," Kyle said. "I was excited about this game because we beat them last time. I told the guys to get a few runs and I would take care of it."  The No. 4-ranked Cardinals (17-11) are 2-0 in the double-elimination tournament, after losing six in a row and falling to 9-9 several weeks ago.

The survivor of the No. 9 Archbishop Curley (18-12) at No. 3 Mount St. Joseph (21-9) semifinal on Tuesday must beat the Cards twice to win it.
"I like the situation we are in," Binder said. "It's going to be nice to take off the weekend."  The finals are set to begin Wednesday at a site to be determined and Curley has double incentive to make it there. The next Friars win would be coach Al Frank's 500th and give them a chance to defend their title.  "We were there [2-0] last year and we ended up losing the two [to Curley]," said Gaels coach Dave Norton. "The same thing can happen."

Originally published on May 26 2000

Mt. St. Joe finds cure in Floyd
Ace pitches Gaels into conference final vs. Hall
By Edward Lee
Sun Staff

Gavin Floyd didn't let bronchitis or the Archbishop Curley baseball team cause him too many problems.  The junior 6-foot-5 right-hander produced a complete-game, six-strikeout performance as fourth-ranked Mount St. Joseph sailed past the No. 10 Friars, 7-2, yesterday in a Maryland Interscholastic
Athletic Association A Conference semifinal at Harford Community College's Thomas Run Park in Bel Air.  Floyd's seemingly effortless domination of the defending conference champs propelled the Gaels (22-9) into today's final against third-ranked Calvert Hall, which downed Mount St. Joseph, 9-4, last
Thursday.

In that loss to the Cardinals (17-11), Floyd was victimized by seven unearned runs in the second inning and was pulled after four innings.  After the game, he was diagnosed with bronchitis, which sapped the All-Metro ace of his energy.  Yesterday, Floyd was not fazed by the illness as he made up for a lack of velocity on his fastball by moving his pitches to different parts of the strike zone and throwing a punishing curve.  "My control was pretty good," said Floyd, who improved to 12-2. "I felt that my arm wasn't fully healthy, but it was good enough to pitch."  Gaels coach Dave Norton said he was impressed with his pitcher's determination to put to rest his previous outing.  "Against Calvert Hall, he was off. Obviously, he wanted to come back and prove himself - not that he had to," Norton said.

And unlike that game, the Mount St. Joseph bats worked quickly and effectively against Archbishop Curley junior Dan Prevatt yesterday.  Senior shortstop Allen Strick hit a two-run homer in the first inning that started the Gaels rolling. After scoring an unearned run in the third, the Gaels picked up another run in the fourth on Matt Moynihan's bases-empty homer.  Seniors Paul Harris and Chris McAndrew got RBI singles in the fifth that chased Prevatt.  The loss prevented Friars coach Al Frank from attaining his 500th career win.

Originally published on May 31 2000

Byroade, Strick (5), McGingty (6) and Plajzer. Gossman and Kimmel.
HR: M-McAndrew. C-Gossman, Anecharico, Santmyer.

Calvert Hall takes title, 10-1
Comeback Cardinals make veteran coach wet, happy
By Lem Satterfield, Sun Staff

After Calvert Hall's BrentGossman struck out the game's final batter in yesterday's 10-1 championship rout of No.4 Mount St. Joseph, Cardinals coach Joe Binder almost reverted to his childhood.  The 61-year-old grandfather, nicknamed "Snookie," ran out and jumped into a pile of players celebrating their Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference title. He rolled around, and, later, delighted in being doused with a cooler of water.  "I still enjoy this. It's all about getting the kids to play to their abilities," Binder said. "At 18-11, our record is average by Calvert Hall standards, but with everything we've gone through, this is special - right up there with the best teams I've had."  For Binder, who has coached 21 years at Calvert Hall, the championship wasn't just his 11th crown in 15 title-game berths.  Neither was it just career win No.448 against 135 losses, a mark that ranks him fourth among Maryland's active winning coaches.

This year's third-ranked Cardinals (18-11) recovered from a six-game slide to win nine of their final 11 games, sending St. Joe into its fourth straight runner-up finish.  Gossman (7-3) won his fifth straight game, striking out 10 of the 25 batters he faced while giving up four hits and a walk on 102 pitches.
Gossman also hit a two-run home run in the first inning, part of Calvert Hall's nine-hit attack, and his pinch runner, Marco Muscella, also scored once.
Brian Anecharico and Mike Santmyer also had home runs for the Cardinals. Anecharico went 1-for-2 with a walk, a run scored and two RBIs, and Santmyer was 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs.  Stuart Kimmel (2-for-2, two runs) was hit twice by losing pitcher David Byroade. Rory Cernick was 2-for-4, and Joe DiChiara had an RBI.  Only Chris McAndrew's seventh-inning home run prevented the Gaels (22-10) from being shut out.

So Binder's actions were a release, and his team's victory the culmination of a season that was nearly the worst in his tenure: One that has him considering retirement. "Sometimes, when you try as a coach to do what you think should be done, it's not understood, and you upset people unintentionally," Binder said. "I want to savor this a while, and then start thinking about next year."  The 6-foot-3 Gossman's story involved losing 25 pounds to his present 210 pounds.  "I was a little fat boy, but losing weight helped me a lot throwing fastball strikes, with my curveball, and slider," he said.  Over the first five innings, Gossman faced 17 batters (two over minimum), struck out eight, walked one andretired six others. He stranded on third one of the two players who reached on singles. The other batter who singled was caught stealing.

The Cardinals, meanwhile, went up 4-0 in their four-hit bottom of the first inning, with Gossman's two-run home run scoring Dustin Sparks (two runs scored) for a 2-0 lead.

Originally published on Jun 1 2000