Hear Them Roar

	Democrat Photo by Rob Potter OUT AT THE PLATE: Tri-Valley’s Mike VonBourgondien (23) and Delaware Valley’s Rory Carrier look back to the umpire as he calls VonBourgondien out in Wednesday’s game. VonBourgondien was attempting to score on a fly ball, but was cut down by a good relay throw and Carrier’s tag.

Eight Straight Wins
For Defending Champ

By Frank Rizzo and Rob Potter
NARROWSBURG — May 19, 2000 -- The Bears are back.
After starting off the season with four straight loses, including two in Western Sullivan League (WSL) play, Tri-Valley now has won eight straight baseball games, seven of them in the WSL.
The latest for the defending league champs came on Wednesday, 8-6 over host Delaware Valley in Callicoon.
“We weren’t playing well,” said first-year coach Jim Kelly after his team crushed host Narrowsburg 17-7 on Monday. “(But) we didn’t get a complete team for a while — we were always lacking one of our starting nine for one reason or another.”
The main culprit in the early slump, according to Kelly, “was our defense. At one point we gave up 42 runs, and 28 were unearned. Our defense wasn’t there. Since then we’ve been outscoring other teams [by an average of] 12-6 and playing good defense.”
The league losses came to Delaware Valley (18-8 on April 7) and frontrunner Jeff-Youngsville (8-4 on April 14).
Shortstop Durk Pearston victimized Narrowsburg for the second time on Monday. On May 2 he went 3-for-4, including a homer, and drove in four runs as the Bears cruised 18-3.
In the second round game Pearston drove in six runs with four hits, including a double and a triple in support of winning pitcher Josh Lowitz.
Mike VanBourgondien added four RBI with four hits, including two doubles.
The Bears chased Indian starter Robert Taylor with five runs in the second inning and seven in the third to take a 14-2 lead.
Narrowsburg had runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the third, but Lowitz got out of the jam.
Narrowsburg scored four in the fifth against reliever Adam Moore, the big blow a two-run double by Matt Nordenhold (he had an RBI double in the third).
Later that inning, Taylor came up with the bases loaded and two outs, and tagged a ball to deep center, where James Paul made a nice leaping catch to save more runs from scoring.
“We’re looking to do well in sectionals,” Kelly commented. “The league title is out of our hands now.”
T-V (11–4, 7–2 WSL) was slated to play Jeff-Youngsville (11–0, 9–0 WSL) yesterday in Jeffersonville, weather permitting. Results were unavailable at press time.
Narrowsburg coach Scott Haberli was looking beyond the Bears (a Class C school) to a crucial game against Eldred the next day (unfortunately for the Indians, Eldred won 8-1 behind Craig Vandermark’s four-hitter, dropping them to 3–7 in WSL play).
“There’s a lot of pride on this team, and what went on in (the early innings Monday’s game) was unacceptable to me or them,” Haberli said apropos his team’s coming to life in the later innings.
The Indians need to beat both Livingston Manor and Roscoe in their remaining games to have a chance at making sectionals.