Rich Thompson earned his way back into the leadoff spot while helping the Lehigh Valley IronPigs land an International League playoff berth with their first winning season.
Thompson then played the role of a leadoff hitter to perfection in the IL semifinals to put the IronPigs into the best-of-five Governors Cup Championship Series against the Columbus Clippers.
The Montrose graduate opened two of the three semifinal games with a hit, a stolen base and the first run of the game to start the IronPigs on the way to victories in close games where runs were at a premium.
Thompson showed throughout the season that he is not ready to slow down.
At 32 years old, he led the league in runs scored with 81 and stolen bases. He was successful on 48 of 52 stolen base attempts during the regular season.
Thompson hit .276 in 124 games with 25 doubles, five home runs, 30 RBI and 37 walks.
When the playoffs opened, Thompson increased the rate of his output. He went 4-for-12 (.333), stole two bases and scored three of the 10 Lehigh Valley runs.
The IronPigs won, 4-2 and 3-2, at home Thursday and Friday. They clinched a series sweep in Pawtucket with Saturday’s 3-1 victory.
Thompson singled, immediately stole second and scored in the bottom of the first of the opening win.
In Pawtucket, he started Saturday’s game with the same scenario. He also started the sixth-inning with a double and scored again for a 3-0 lead.
Thompson sandwiched 2-for-4 efforts with a double in each game around going 0-for-4 in the second game. Even then, the center fielder still contributed with a sacrifice.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Chris Snee was starting at right guard when the New York Giants opened the season Sunday in Washington.
The start was the 97th straight for the Pro Bowl lineman who is a Montrose and Boston College graduate.
Snee has started all 108 games of his National Football League career. He missed the final five games of his rookie season in 2004 and has been in the lineup for every Giants game since.
In high school sports, the rain and flooding that disrupted the county throughout last week delayed most of the Lackawanna League sports schedule.
By the time the weekend was over, eight of 16 scheduled Lackawanna Football Conference games had been played, but the two games in Susquehanna County were still waiting to be played Monday with Susquehanna hosting Holy Redeemer and Montrose hosting Northwest.
Girls’ volleyball, which is played inside, was the only sport to get in more than half its scheduled Lackawanna games for the week. Five of eight matches were played.
Only six of 22 boys’ soccer games and five of 22 golf matches were played, along with four of 14 girls’ soccer games and two of 14 girls’ tennis matches. None of the four cross country cluster meets for boys’ and girls’ teams were held.
COLLEGE CORNER
Keystone College has opened its women’s soccer season with three straight overtime contests.
Alysa Borick, a freshman midfielder from Forest City, has goals in two of those games.
Borick scored unassisted in the first half Saturday when the Lady Giants lost to Rosemont College, 3-2, in the Colonial States Athletic Conference opener to fall to 1-1-1 overall.
Taylor Lewis, a freshman midfielder from Mountain View, is also listed on the Keystone roster but has not appeared in a game yet.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Montrose is at Western Wayne Friday and Susquehanna is home against Nanticoke Saturday in non-league football games.
Our record predicting second-week football games that were completed prior to Monday was 7-1 (87.5 percent), making us 18-5 (78.3 percent) on games involving Lackawanna Football Conference teams this season.
This week’s predictions, with home team in CAPS: WESTERN WAYNE 48, Montrose 15; SUSQUEHANNA 43, Nanticoke 32; Hanover Area 28, MID VALLEY 6; LACKAWANNA TRAIL 45, Mid Valley 0; OLD FORGE 46, Northwest 3; DELAWARE VALLEY 24, Hazleton Area 21; SCRANTON 22, East Stroudsburg South 0; East Stroudsburg North 45, HONESDALE 25; Scranton Prep 49, CARBONDALE 0; GAR 30, LAKELAND 10; RIVERSIDE 40, North Pocono 21; Valley View 45, COUGHLIN 9; ABINGTON HEIGHTS 48, Tunkhannock 3; Holy Cross 44, HOLY REDEEMER 17; West Scranton 24, DUNMORE 16.
In professional baseball, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs are scheduled to be home in the final three games of the best-of-five series for the International League against the Columbus Clippers beginning Thursday. Games Four and Five are Friday and Saturday, if necessary.
Columbus, which swept the Durham Bulls in the semifinals, was scheduled to be home for the start of the series Tuesday and Wednesday.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com.
Harvick Triumphs At Richmond
By Gerald Hodges; The Racing Reporter
RICHMOND, Vir. -
Kevin Harvick won his fourth race of the season and the 18th of his career as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin claimed the final Chase spots they held provisionally entering the race, but not without some struggles.
Harvick beat Jeff Gordon out of the pits after the last caution on Lap 385 of the 400-lap race and drove away from the four-time champion. Carl Edwards passed Gordon for the second spot and challenged Harvick for the win, but Edwards ran out of time, finishing .139 seconds back.
Kevin Harvick in Richmond's Victory Lane.
“The guys on pit road had just a great last pit stop and were able to get us the track position,” Harvick said. “I struggled on the restarts getting going with the (gear) ratios that we had, so to be in control of that last restart I felt was pretty important, to get going.
“That last run there, we were actually too tight - Carl was actually a little bit better - and then, with about three or four laps to go, I just locked it on the bottom and hoped for the best there. So it all worked out.”
Edwards led the most laps but the race ended before he could make a move on Harvick.
“We were still running third when the next caution came out (on Lap 384), and we still should have been able to win that race,” said Edwards. “I just didn’t get a good enough restart, didn’t get by Jeff to have a lap or two once I got to Kevin.”
Gordon ran third, followed by David Ragan, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin and Mark Martin.
This race had everything, far beyond the dash to the finish. It had a heroic effort from Hamlin, who recovered from a hard hit on Lap 8 to secure a spot in the Chase for the sixth straight year.
Dale Earnhardt damaged his Chevrolet during lap 8, but fought hard to hang on to a position in the top-10 in the standings - and succeeded when attrition turned the numbers in his favor.
“We just kept working it and trying to fix the car,” said Earnhardt, who finished 16th and wound up 10th in the standings. “It was tore up pretty bad in the front end, had a lot of camber, was really loose in (into the corners) and wouldn’t turn in the middle.
“But we worked on it and worked on it. …I’m proud to be in the Chase. I feel like I’m a good enough driver to be in the Chase - my team is good enough to be there.”
Clint Bowyer was another driver that made a valiant effort, but it was not good enough. He was edged out by Denny Hamlin for the last spot in the chase.
There was a renewal of the Kurt Busch-Jimmie Johnson rivalry, as the two drivers took turns knocking each other into the Turn 2 wall. Busch got the better of the exchange by far, coming home fifth to Johnson’s 31st.
The 2012 Chase field is now complete. Points for the Chase drivers have been reset and the first of ten races will be Sept. 17 at Chicagoland. 1. Kyle Busch-2012, 2. Harvick-2012, 3. J. Gordon-2009, 4. Kenseth-2006, 5. Edwards-2003, 6. Johnson-2003, 7. Kurt Busch-2003, 8. Newman-2003, 9. Stewart-2000, 10. Earnhardt-2000, 11. Keselowski-2000, 12. Hamlin-2000
KYLE BUSCH GETS 51st NATIONWIDE WIN
RICHMOND, Vir. - Kyle Busch found a way to stay out front with a car set up for short runs and pulled away during the final green-flag run to win Friday night's Nationwide race.
Busch got the opportunity for his career-best 51st Nationwide Series victory and his eighth of the season in 19 starts when Carl Edwards, who had dominated the race, lost three spots during the final round of pit stops under caution.
“Carl was certainly really, really good there, and I thought at first we were probably a third-or fourth-place car, and then kind of worked on it and made it a second- or third-place car,” Busch said. “We were keeping up with Carl, and then, on that final pit stop, my guys really put the pressure on, knowing how quick they'd been on pit road all night - and they did it once again.”
Edwards ran second, .696 seconds behind Busch. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. retained the series points lead with a third-place finish. Ryan Truex came home fourth, followed by Kenny Wallace,Elliott Sadler, Aric Almirola, Reed Sorenson, Justin Allgaier and Joe Nemechek.
Top-10 leaders after 27 of 34: 1. Stenhouse-950, 2. Sadler-934, 3. Sorenson-905, 4. Almirola-882, 5. Allgaier-875, 6. Leffler-826, 7. K. Wallace-786, 8. S. Wallace-765, 9. Annett-744, 10. Scott-736
ROCKINGHAM GETS TRUCK RACE
Rockingham Speedway will host a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in 2012. After an eight-year absence, NASCAR will be back.
This is a big deal for the region. In fact, it is such a big deal that Governor Beverly Perdue was on hand last Wednesday to make the announcement. The race will bring an approximate $7.5 million to the region according to the governor. That’s people eating in local restaurants and staying in local hotels. That is a huge economic impact.
Rockingham Speedway President Andy Hillenburg has worked tirelessly over the last four years to get to a point where NASCAR could come back to the track and the last step was the investment of nearly $1 million for the installation of Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barriers. The SAFER barriers are scheduled to be installed in two phases, with the first phase happening this month and the final sections in December.
It’s not often a track get’s a second chance like this, but now it’s time for race fans to step up and support it. Rockingham has about 34,000 seats, and hopefully, they will all be filled for this event.
Weekend Racing: It’s on to Chicago’s 1.5-mile oval for all three of NASCAR’s major series’.
Fri., Sept 16, Camping World Trucks Fast Five 225, race 18 of 25, Starting time: 8 p.m.; TV: Speed.
Sat., Sept. 17, Nationwide Dollar General 300, race 28 of 34, Starting time: 2:30 p.m.; TV: ESPN2.
Sun., Sept. 18 Sprint Cup Geico 400, race 27 of 36, Starting time: 2 p.m.; TV: ESPN.
All times are Eastern.
Racing Trivia Question: Which Cup team does Brad Keselowski drive for?
Last Week’s Question: How many drivers will be in this year’s Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship? Answer. Twelve.
You may contact the Racing Reporter at hodges@race500.com.
Katie Zefran never knew she was leading the Jackman Memorial Girls’ Golf Tournament until she had it won.
That was exactly the way Zefran wanted it.
“I thought I was in the hunt,” Zefran said. “At the turn, I didn’t know I was in first place. I didn’t really want to know where I stood.”
Zefran followed up a 39 on the front nine at Scranton Municipal August 23 by shooting 38 on the back nine to finish at 3-over-par, 77 for a three-stroke victory.
“I was surprised,” Zefran said. “I knew I was capable, but didn’t think I would win.
“There are four real good female golfers in the league.”
Zefran made three birdies to emerge on top of the preseason event over what may be the strongest field of girls’ players in Lackawanna League history. The first birdie came on the par-5 opening hole.
“That really helped set the tone for the day,” Zefran said. “That was real exciting for me.”
Zefran drove the green on the par-4 eighth for another birdie then pitched close enough over the water on the par-4 14th for one more.
In the fourth season of high school golf, Zefran is a starter on what is otherwise a boys’ team for league matches. She won two of her first three match play contests to being league play.
Zefran also was on the varsity basketball team for two years and soccer team for one before deciding to concentrate on golf.
Katie is the daughter of Jim and Linda Zefran of Browndale.
