Sons of desert jump out on top
Chandler on the map with win

By Mark Rogoff
Special Correspondent

The scuttlebutt around Williamsport hasn’t really involved the West champs from Chandler, AZ. No one’s talked about them, no one knew anything about them, and chances are no one had even heard of Chandler.

The buzz so far in 2003 has revolved around Saugus’s dramatic 2-1 win over Ohio Friday afternoon and Boynton Beach’s hard-throwing righty Michael Broad, whose fastballs were so fast some could make out a comet trail behind them.

But now it’s time to add Chandler to the conversation. With their 5-1 win over Delaware Saturday, the boys from the desert made their presence felt clearly. A 4-run 5th inning broke a 1-1 tie and guided Arizona to their opening-game win in front of 12,500 at Lamade Stadium. The big inning came on the heels of leaving runners in scoring position in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings.

“We have spurts (like that) where these kids come through,” said Chandler manager Eddie Malone. “We’ve (left runners on base) so many times, but any kid could come up and get a base hit.”

Tyler Kem started off the frame with a one-out solo homer to right-center off Delaware’s Scott Dougherty. Back-to-back doubles by Cory Bernard and Tim Fowler plated the 2nd run of the inning, and a 2-run homer clubbed by Matt Potter closed out the scoring. In the blink of an eye, Delaware was trailing 5-1.

Kem hadn’t homered since the district tournament. It was his first hit in 20 at-bats dating back to August 3, the date of Arizona’s first regional tournament game. He couldn’t have picked a better time for it.

“I was looking for a fastball down the middle,” he said. “I found it. And I drove it.”

“We were just trying to get out of grand-slam range,” added catcher Tim Fowler.

Dougherty, Delaware’s version of the gregarious Jose Lima, tried to help himself out in the 4th when he sent a moon shot to right-center field. As the crowd rose to its feet in anticipation of a tie-breaking, solo home run, Chandler right fielder Aaron Hardenburg calmly made the catch within a few feet from the outfield fence. One batter later, Skibicki sent one deep to left-center, but again an Arizona outfielder was there to catch the near-miss home run.

“It just so happened that they didn’t go over,” said Arizona second baseman Cory Bernard. “We got lucky, I guess.”

With the score tied at 1-1 after 2.0 innings, Chandler starter Matt Potter was pulled from the game because of a sore arm, a mid-inning change that has occurred before, according to the righthander. Justin Rosales came on in relief and shut down the Wilmington offense, escaping a few threats including the warning-track catches in the 4th. He picked up the win, allowing just 3 hits and striking out 4 in 4.0 shutout innings.

Dougherty, meanwhile, took the loss, giving up 5 runs on 7 hits. He struck out 9.

“He wasn’t his sharpest today,” said Delaware head coach Joe Mascelli. “He battled through it. He did a pretty good job. He would not give up. He’s a gamer.”

The Mid-Atlantic champ’s Kip Skibicki brought home Vince Russomagno with an RBI double to make the score 1-0 in the first. Arizona quickly responded in the bottom half when Cory Bernard’s opposite-field solo home run knotted the score at 1-1.

“I felt relaxed,” Bernard said. “And I knew we were in it after that. I was just trying to get a hit because it was out first game in a long time.”

The Chandler club won’t have to wait a while to play again. They’re back at it tomorrow afternoon when they take on Texas at 1:00 p.m. in Volunteer Stadium.

“We don’t want to be too excited,” Fowler said. “We don’t want to win just one game. We want to win the whole thing.”