Monticello Tops Liberty

By Ted Waddell
JEFFERSONVILLE — April 28, 2000 -- Going into the top of the seventh, Monticello pitcher Terrance Hulse was sitting pretty on a scoreless two-hitter, as the Panthers led the Liberty Indians 5-0.
But the Monticello hurler had a couple of mental lapses on the mound, which allowed two runs to cross the plate on a pair of hits. Although a shutout eluded Hulse at the end, he led the Panthers to a 5-2 win.
The teams took to Lion’s Field in Jeffersonville as part of the Sullivan West Spring Break Tournament. Last year’s inaugural edition was called the Delaware Valley Spring Break Tournament, but after the recent merger, the tourney underwent a change of name.
Monticello won that inaugural tourney.
After the game, Monticello coach John Spear expressed relief at getting out of a bases loaded with no outs first inning and lamented leaving a lot of players stranded.
In the top of the first, the Indians had the bases stacked with no outs. Matt Stoddard nailed one to center field, but the runner failed to tag up from third. Joe Calacurcio hit it back to Hulse, and the Panthers executed a 1-2-3 double play to escape.
In the bottom of the first, Monticello’s leadoff batter, George Brandes, singled and later crossed the plate on a base hit by Josh Meddaugh.
In the second frame, Brandes walked with two outs and made it to second on an error, and then advanced to third on a wild pitch by Indians hurler Mike Poje. A double by Scott Coddington sent Brandes across the plate, and a single by Meddaugh knocked in Coddington to give Monticello a 3-0 lead.
In the fourth frame, Poje served up a walk to Brandes. The runner advanced on a base hit by Coddington, and then scored from third on a sacrifice by Meddaugh to up the lead to 4-0.
In the fifth, Justin Diaco reached on an error and advanced to second and third on a pair of passed balls. Mark Stofko sacrificed to drive in Diaco to close out the Panthers’ scoring.
“I thought about taking out my pitcher in the seventh inning, but he wanted to finish it,” said Spear. “He made a couple of errors at the finish to make it a little more exciting than it needed to be, but I think he was a little tired.
“We got a couple of early key hits, but we didn’t later in the game and we left a lot of men on base,” he added.
Coddington had three hits while Meddaugh and Brandes had two each for the Panthers, who advanced to play Fallsburg in the title game yesterday. Results were not available at press time.