MOOSIC – Mountain View’s Dylan Thomas was recognized as one of the top senior baseball players in the entire Lackawanna League with his selection for the inaugural Field of Dreams All-Star Game, which was played Sunday at PNC Field.
Thomas, the only Susquehanna County player chosen to participate in the game, was also the only no-show on game day Sunday.
The Lackawanna League let a five-run, sixth-inning lead get away, then recovered to beat the Wyoming Valley Conference, 8-6, in eight innings.
Thomas was chosen after going 5-1 as a pitcher with an 0.75 earned run average and 60 strikeouts in league play. He also batted .359 with 16 runs scored and eight RBI while leading the Eagles to the Lackawanna League Division 4 title with an 11-1 record.
Mountain View also advanced to the District 2 Class AA semifinals before losing to eventual champion Lakeland.
Chris Gaetano led the Lackawanna League to its victory Sunday, rushing from Scranton Prep graduation ceremonies to go 2-for-3 with four runs scored.
WEEK IN REVIEW
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – The Binghamton Mets took over the Eastern League Eastern Division lead.
The Mets won three straight games from the previous division leader, the Portland Pirates, May 25-27 to force a tie for first place.
Binghamton then took over the division lead the next day with an 8-5 win over the Altoona Curve.
The Mets finished the week with a 33-24 record and two-game lead.
Rafael Montero pitched the second win over Portland, then worked seven scoreless innings to get the win in a 7-0 victory over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats Saturday. Montero allowed just five hits while improving to 6-3 with a 2.72 ERA.
“If you look at the way he pitches, his command is so good he could pitch anywhere right now,” Mets manager Pedro Lopez said of Montero, a 21-year-old from the Dominican Republic who made his first appearance with Class AAA Las Vegas earlier this season in a brief call-up.
Montero was also part of a combined shutout in the win against Portland. He has won his last three starts, giving up just two runs in 19 innings while striking out 18 and walking three.
“It was our first outing that we’ve seen him and he can throw any pitch and any point in the count,” Portland manager Kevin Boles said of Montero, a right-hander who is regarded as one of the New York Mets top prospects after going a combined 11-5 last season. “There's a reason why he has the numbers he has. He is very impressive.”
Lopez said that other than adjusting his pitch sequence to reduce the number of pitches he needs to get through innings, there is little more to ask for from Montero.
“He doesn’t throw anything over the middle of the plate,” Lopez said. “Everything he throws is on the corners.”
In professional hockey, the Syracuse Crunch won three straight games, two of them by shutout, to eliminate the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Eastern Conference finals.
Syracuse won the best-of-seven series, 4-1.
The Crunch posted 2-0 and 4-2 wins in Wilkes-Barre Wednesday and Friday, then finished off the Penguins with a 7-0 rout on home ice Saturday. Going back to the previous week, Syracuse won four straight after the Penguins took the opener.
Cedrick Desjardins made 22 saves in the shutout when Syracuse took the series lead with the first road victory.
Brad Thiessen made 20 saves while giving up one or fewer goals for the fifth time in seven playoff starts.
Syracuse added an empty-net goal in the final five seconds.
Brett Connolly scored in the final two minutes of the second period to force a 2-2 tie Friday and Ondrej Palat put the Crunsh ahead in the first two minutes of the third period.
Philippe Paradis had a hat trick and Desjardins made 23 saves in the clinching win.
In high school baseball, pitching and defense ruled the day when the District 2 championships returned to PNC Field in Moosic with four games on Memorial Day.
The four winning teams combined to allow just one run.
Old Forge defeated Lackawanna Trail, 1-0, in the morning final in Class A.
Lakeland shut out Mid Valley, 6-0, in AA and Abington Heights blanked Valley View, 5-0, in AAA in afternoon games.
Wyoming Valley West edged Scranton, 2-1, for the Class AAAA title under the lights.
In high school softball, the Lackawanna League won two of four District 2 titles.
Old Forge defeated Lackawanna Trail, 6-1, for the Class A championship and Valley View shut out Berwick, 2-0, for the Class AAA title.
Hazleton Area downed Williamsport, 1-0, in the District 2-4 Class AAAA final. Holy Redeemer edged Holy Cross, 4-3, in AA.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Trenton Thunder was scheduled to open an Eastern League series in Binghamton against the Mets Tuesday night. The teams play against Wednesday night at 6:35 and Thursday at 10:35 a.m.
Trenton opened the week as one of two teams tied for second place, joining Portland two games behind Binghamton.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
STEWART GETS THRILLER AT DOVER
Tony Stewart and crew chief Darien Grubb
DOVER, Del.—Tony Stewart won his 23rd Sprint Cup victory in a thrilling, come-from-behind finish over Juan Montoya.
The scenario for Stewart’s win began on lap 381 of the 400-lap race.
Montoya and Johnson were the leaders on the race’s last restart, with Stewart back in sixth. Johnson moved out front and had pulled away from the rest of the field, when NASCAR said, “Not so fast,” and gave Johnson the black flag for jumping the restart.
Johnson was penalized and sent to the tail end of the field.
Meanwhile, Montoya was the new leader. He was never able to put any distance between himself and the rest of the cars, and Tony Stewart, who was second, began to gain on him.
By lap 396, Stewart was knocking on Montoya’s rear bumper.
On lap 397, Stewart made a clean pass to the outside for the lead, while all Montoya could do was wave ‘bye-bye’.
The win was Stewart’s first in the last 30 races, and came after a dismal showing by his team this season.
“Man, it’s been such a tough year,” said Stewart. “Yesterday it seems like we were going backwards. They (the team) worked hard all night to get me here.”
Montoya’s second-place finish was his best of the year.
“The car was a little tight,” said Montoya. “I think I run a good race, but near the end I couldn’t hold off Tony.”
Jeff Gordon almost passed Montoya, but had to settle for third.
“We needed a good finish,” said Gordon. “The car was good and we needed that last caution. We were a team on the move, but we didn’t quite have a winning car.”
Kyle Busch, winner of Friday night’s truck race was fourth, followed by Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Jimmy Johnson finished 17th.
“He (Montoya) wasn’t going,” said Johnson. I had already checked up, and at some point I felt like I had to go. It’s a judgment call on NASCAR’s part.”
Top-10 points leaders after 13 of 36: 1. Johnson-473, 2. Edwards-443, 3. Bowyer-423, 4. Kenseth-399, 5. Harvick-399, 6. Earnhardt-398, 7. Kahne-392, 8. Keselowski-375, 9. Kyle Busch-374, 10. Menard-371.
TWO TIRES ARE BETTER FOR LOGANO
Joey Logano took two tires on the final pit stop in Saturday’s Nationwide race while others took four. The decision put Logano in the lead on the final restart, and gave him the position he needed to win.
Logano trailed race leader Kyle Busch by nearly 5-seconds prior to the pit stop. During the stop, which was made under caution, Busch became mired in traffic, and was never able to regain the lead.
“It feels great to get back in Victory Lane,” Logano said. “This is my favorite race track. Really the winning call was on that last pit stop, when (crew chief) Jeremy (Bullins) made an audible and decided to do two tires.”
Brian Vickers ran second, followed by Matt Kenseth, Trevor Bayne, Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Sam Hornish, Austin Dillon, Regan Smith, and Kyle Larson.
Top-10 leaders after 11 of 33: 1. Smith-411, 2. Hornish-384, 3. Vickers-369, 4. Allgaier-368, 5. A. Dillon-358, 6. Kligerman-355, 7. Sadler-347, 8. Scott-343, 9. Larson-322, 10. Bayne-321.
“ROWDY’ KYLE TAKES DOVER TRUCK RACE
Kyle Busch pulled way from the rest of the field on a restart with four laps to go to win Friday’s truck race at Dover.
Busch started fifth and had to fight traffic throughout the early stages of the race, and was never able to dominate. He didn't take the lead until he passed David Starr on lap 142 of the 200-lap race.
“It was unbelievable how loose it was following those guys,” Busch said of the early racing. “I had to get outside of their wake and kind of move around, and that's where I started making up some ground. It was more later in the run than it was early in the run.”
It was Busch’s second win of the season, and the 32nd of his career.
Matt Crafton, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Brendan Gaughan, Timothy Peters, Johnny Sauter, Joey Coulter, Darrell Wallace, and John Townley rounded out the remaining top-10 finishers.
Top 10 in Points after 6 of 22: 1. Crafton-245, 2. J. Burton-215, 3. Gaughan-210, 4. Sauter-202, 5. Blaney-201, 6. Buescher-200, 7. Dillon 188, 8. D. Wallace-180, 9. Paludo-176, 10. Armstrong-176.
MORE SAFER BARRIERS NEEDED
After taking a hard hit into the wall at Charlotte, Jeff Gordon said there needs to be more Safer barriers.
"I found the one off of (Turn) 2 here (Dover) and they haven't fixed that one. I saw somebody in the Truck Series found it, too. I understand their theory is they go through their testing and see where multiple impacts have happened and highest impacts and those things.
“But, I've got to tell you, that hit at Charlotte was one of the hardest I've had in a race car. And the type of impact it was, I got hit from the left so it shifted everything to the left, and then I hit the wall on the right so I went from left to right. I had a rough week. I didn't quite understand the pain that I was feeling that night until I went back and watched the video and realized the angle that I hit as well as the fact that there was no Safer barrier.
“I had no idea there was no Safer barrier at that dogleg on the front stretch. That blew my mind that there wasn't one. I mean, there's one at the start/finish line and it stops and then there's one at Turn 1. It goes around to Turn 2. That kind of shocked me. So, I certainly said something and when I get the opportunity, I'll talk to others as well about it.
“As I've learned in the past, they're going to look at those circumstances and make their calls based on that. Me sitting down and having a conversation with them isn't necessarily going to change that, but it doesn't mean it's going to stop me from doing it.”
Weekend Racing: The Trucks will at Texas Motor Speedway, while the Nationwide cars are at Iowa, and the Cup teams will be at Pocono.
Fri., June 7, Camping World Trucks, race 7 of 22; Starting time: 9 pm ET; TV: SPEED.
Sat., June 8, Nationwide Series, race 12 of 33; Starting time: 8 pm ET; TV: ESPN.
Sun., June 9, Sprint Cup Series, race 14 of 36; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: TNT.
Racing Trivia Question: Which year did Kurt Busch win his only Cup championship?
Last Week’s Question: How many road races does NASCAR have on the 2013 Cup schedule? Two, they are at Sonoma, CA, and Watkins Glen, NY.
You may e-mail the Racing Reporter at: hodges@race500.com.
