Diamonds Surge Ahead

After qualifying for the playoffs by the skin of their teeth, the York Diamonds played one of their better games of the season in defeating the Toronto Cardinals 13-7 last night at Keelesdale Park.

Eric Foley was dominant scaterring three hits and striking out 9 in 7 innings of work. Jeremy Service pitched two solid innings in relief. Due to a shortage of arms, the Cardinals had to go deep into their pitching staff and allowed a whopping 9 hit batsmen on the night.

York's offense was keyed by a returning Rob Hofstetter, who reached base 4 times, including a long two-run home run and a double. Don Cantwell blew the game open with a three run single as Neil Parekh managed to score all the way from first base with the third run. Cantwell had a total of 4 RBI's on the night and Parekh chipped with three. Rick Trotta had 2 hits and 2 stolen bases and Ray Victorino and Fabio Vazzano also had 2 hits for the Cardinals. Don Cantwell called a brilliant game behind the plate for the Diamonds, who were also aided by strong defense from Rudy Naraine, Paul Freeman, and Rob Hofstetter.

Manager Paul Freeman almost cracked a hint of a smile in his postgame sitdown with the media masses, which totalled 638 for this playoff series and had these words, "We finally had all 18 guys out there tonight and it was a great help to have everybody playing in positions they were comfortable with. After I learned of Jeff Hofstetter's lack of ultimate frisbee prowess, I was a bit worried and I know he was disappointed in not being able to play....but the rest of the guys stepped up big time. Bammer was awesome behind the plate and Eric was dominant. He had the deuce working and threw strikes. Rudy was solid in the field and we were really patient at the plate. The nine hit batsmen were interesting to watch, but they were all accidental and fortunately we escaped with a few minor bumps and bruises. I thought Rob Hofstetter had a great first game back after the birth of his son Owen. The contributions of our bench were great as well with Brian Hofstetter, Jason Stober, and Jeff Castronaro all getting hits, Jeremy pitching well, and Victor getting a walk and catching well."

When asked about his own catch to snuff out a Cards rally, Freeman remarked that "I thought it was way over my head, I just reached up and luckily it went in my glove." Eric Foley was asked to describe his method for getting hit by pitches after taking 2 in the game and said, "My brother Steve has an interesting method whereby he just lets the ball hit him and break bones in his hand, but I actually tried to get out of the way, I just wasn't quick enough I guess.

Jeff Hofstetter made his debut coaching third and had a quick one-liner for the media when asked to assess his own performance, "At least there were no frisbees flying at me, them suckers can really hurt."

The masses tried to get a comment from shortstop Rudy Naraine but he was too busy eating ribs and and an entire chocolate mousse cake to say anything.

Date: August 19, 2004     Time: 7:30pm      Venue: Keelesdale Park