Shook and Barbaro Lead Albany to Back to Back Titles
Hatfield PA- Jim Shook took home his second consecutive MVP of the Liberty Bell Classic by firing two complete games on Championship Sunday! In the first game Shook threw a complete game allowing 5 hits and no earned runs. Shook got the ball in the finals and completed his day by allowing no earned runs and only 3 hits. In total Jim Shook allowed 0 earned run while striking out 13 and gaining two complete game victories on the day!
The second victory was not easy as the defending Liberty Bell champs were playing a talented team from Camden, New Jersey; the Roberto Clementes who beat the Angels earlier in the tournament 3-2. This day was all Angels right from the beginning- Billy Behrle lead off the game with a walk, after one out tournament Co-Mvp Dan Barbaro launched a long single off the right field wall scoring Behrle. A walk and a single by John Fiorita loaded the bases for Joe DeMarco who promptly singled up the middle driving in Barbaro, Carlos Maldonado finished up the scoring with a sacrifice fly to give the Angels a 3-0 lead off of former minor leaguer Wilton Mendenzo.
Shook then went to work striking out two of the first three hitters and taking a shutout into the fifth inning when the Clemente team touched the Angels for two runs all unearned, the Angels regained their composure and tacked on a run in the fifth on another DeMarco RBI single. Then the Angels put the game away with two runs in the seventh when Keith Daley singled, Fiorita singled for his third hit of the game and DeMarco got his fourth hit of the game a single to right, Maldonado drove in his second run of the game with a RBI single and Shook capped his MVP performance with a sacrifice fly that drove in the final run. Shook got the final three outs and the Angels celebrated back to back titles.
The Angels were led in the tournament by Dan Barbaro who hit .571 with 2 homeruns, John Fiorita hit .500 with two doubles and 5 RBIs, Carlos Maldonado hit .467 and was a menace on the basepaths, Joe DeMarco hit .417 with a double while catching all 5 games and Eric Joyce played a solid defense while hitting .417. Jimmy Rogers also hit .471. The Angels pitching staff of Shook, Joe Ullman, Kenny Ward and Walter Sepleuvada allowed 7 earned runs in 34 innings pitched.
-- Edited by QJensen on Wednesday 6th of October 2010 07:17:08 AM
big time win fella's. congratulations. i have been saying it for awhile now,some of the best baseball in the country is played right here in the capital district. glad to see that the younger divisions are carrying on the tradition. hey baseball
You young guns!!! Great Job Albany Angels. As Pete Westphal states, we've got some talent in this area. Have you ever thought of heading to Florida, play in the Classic? Congrats to all you players.
Congrats Angels! Some day you guys will head to sunny Fla. for the Fall Classic and bring home another ring. Fabulous job, guys.
The Angels success really isn't surprising given the talent we've had in this region over the years - from the likes of Johnny Evers, Matty Fitzgerald Sr., Ed Phelps Sr. and Claude Tibbitts to Bill Harrell to John Kraweicki, Bob Weaver, Gary Holle, Mickey Brantley, Dave Palmer and Dave LaPoint to Dave Cerutti, Tim Stauffer to ... and the list goes on and on and on ...
Hope some of you can remember some other guys who made it to the bigs. We've had a ton of guys play at the minor-league level.
