BASEBALL: Bears well-stocked in arms race

A.J. Bogucki

Dan Woodley

Tyler Bauman

By Darryl Grumling
dgrumling@pottsmerc.com
Twitter: @MercSmokinD

If you believe the old adage that baseball is "90 percent pitching," Boyertown figures to be a handful in the Pioneer Athletic Conference this spring.
Veteran Bears coach Todd Moyer has a well-stocked mound arsenal that should make the defending PAC-10 champs the team to beat.
For starters, there's University of North Carolina-bound ace right-hander A.J. Bogucki - last year's All-Area Player of the Year. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Bogucki, who went 6-1 with a 2.94 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 52.3 innings, is No. 68 on the MaxPreps.com Top 100 high school baseball senior rankings for this year and is the top-ranked scholastic player in Pennsylvania by prepbaseballreport.com.
But the Bears' mound corps goes well beyond their top gun.
Senior left-hander Dan Woodley would be a No. 1 on virtually any other team in the state. Woodley, who is headed to East Stroudsburg, went 5-3 with a 1.98 ERA and 51 strikeouts over 35.1 innings last year.
If that's not enough, lefties Tyler Bauman and Brandon Griesemer and righties Mitch Renninger and Luke Stong provide all kinds of situational options for Moyer.
Bauman, who tossed two innings of two-strikeout, one-hit shutout relief to get the save in Wednesday's league-opening 3-2 win over Perkiomen Valley could be the sleeper on a staff that will be tough to solve should the Bears' lineup figure out a way to score some runs.

For Dennis Weller's area baseball preview capsules, click here

The Sweet 16

By Darryl Grumling
dgrumling@pottsmerc.com
Twitter: @MercSmokinD

The field for the first (and likely last) Smokin' D March Madness Mercury-area athletes Twitter tourney has been pared from 64 to 16.

The Smokin' D March Madness Mercury-area athletes Twitter tourney is down to the final 16.

The Hertzog regional appropriately has a couple of soccer players left in the Pottsgrove duo of @ThE_BiZzLE_ and @MollyOllyOxnfry, but top seed @misbehavndehavn of Boyertown will be tough to take down.

In the RoFo regional, top seed @putitDAOnOnme advanced with a hard-fought second-round win over PJP teammate @offthe_WALLS. The PV football duo of @ToastedCinnaBON and @allofDLIGHTs is still in the hunt, along with Spring-Ford's @HottieGulati.

Top seed @what_thekell is tearing through the Grumling regional, which will see a baseball-themed Sweet 16 matchup between Pottstown's @PresidentReag and Phoenixville's @hit_N_it_YOGI.

The Seeley regional, not surprisingly, is chock-full of Spring-Ford hopefuls, highlighted by a much-anticipated battle between siblings @insertCOYNEhere and @COYNErback11. In earlier action, OJR's @smh_at_smh was left shaking her head after a tough second-round loss to Spring-Ford's @YouCant_Zme, and Spring-Ford's@takeACHILLYpill edged Pottsgrove's @Riled_Up13 to complete an all-Rams remaining bracket.

If Spring-Ford wins, I want to hear this ...

A real winner

Spring-Ford's Sammi Haas, shown here holding the District 1-AAAA championship trophy, has had a big hand in the 50-3 combined record of the Rams' basketball and field hockey teams thus far as a senior.

By Darryl Grumling
dgrumling@pottsmerc.com
Twitter: @MercSmokinD

Charlie Sheen likes to talk about Winning, but the haywire Hollywood star doesn't have anything on Spring-Ford's Sammi Haas.
Haas, a 5-foot-7 senior guard, has been a starter all season for the Pioneer Athletic Conference and District 1 champion Rams (31-2), who face District 3 No. 5 seed Cumberland Valley (26-6) for the PIAA Class AAAA girls basketball championship Friday night at 6 p.m. at Hershey's Giant Center.
Back in the fall, Haas also started for the Rams' PAC-10 championship field hockey team, which won its first 19 games before falling in its district tournament opener.
That adds up to a 50-3 overall mark (94.3 percent) for teams Haas has been on this year.
That's some serious winning.
For The Mercury's state championship preview package, click on the links below:

Spring-Ford seeks golden culmination

Spring-Ford vs. Cumberland Valley breakdown

Spring-Ford's Stipa a star generations in the making

March Madness, Twitter-style

By Darryl Grumling
dgrumling@pottsmerc.com
Twitter: @MercSmokinD

It's that time of the year when everybody fills out their NCAA men's basketball tournament brackets and March Madness is in full swing.
With the @PottsmercSports closing in on 2,000 followers, I had initially planned on writing a blog post about my 10 favorite Twitter handles of our Mercury-area athletes that follow us. But then I thought of this:

Couple of quick qualifiers, I tried my best to limit it to high schoolers, those that follow us and the ones with the most creative handles. To those that didn't make the cut or who I plum forgot, my apologies.

True Brit

Spring-Ford's Brittany Moore (10) matched her season high with 14 points in Tuesday's 58-44 PIAA-AAAA second round win over Wallenpaupack.

By Darryl Grumling
dgrumling@pottsmerc.com
Twitter: @MercSmokinD

In addition to the obvious on-court talents that make Spring-Ford's girls basketball squad so special, the Rams have a couple of other qualities that make them such a formidable foe.
Most notably toughness: both mental and physcial.
The Pioneer Athletic Conference and District 1-AAAA champion Rams have displayed a laser-like focus in the 31 games heading into Friday's PIAA quarterfinal against Dover.
In addition, they've shown an ability to gut it out through some nagging injuries.
Senior guard Brittany Moore suffered a high ankle sprain a few weeks before practice started, but made a remarkable recovery and wound up not missing any games. Though she admitted she was only about "70 to 80 percent" when the season tipped off, Moore has been back to full throttle since the second half of the regular season.
She matched her season-high with 14 points in Tuesday's 58-44 second-round win over Wallenpaupack, her third double-figure scoring effort over the past four contests.
Teammate Shelby Mueller, meanwhile, limped off the court at Villanova University's Pavilion during the third quarter of the District 1 final against Mount St. Joseph with an apparent ankle injury. Fortunately for the Rams, she was able to eventually re-enter the game.
Though she missed a few days of practice, Mueller was back in the starting lineup for the state tourney opener against Hershey.
And finally, fellow starter Sammi Haas had to leave the PIAA first-round game against Hershey after suffering a blow to her rib area during the fourth quarter of the Rams' 59-41 win. Haas, a staunch defender who does all the little things, was questionable for Tuesday's game but wound up starting and contributing six points, three steal, two assists and two rebound.

(For a preview of Spring-Ford's state quarterfinal against Dover, set for Friday at 6 at Garden Spot, click here).

WRESTLING: PAC-10 quintet shows mettle at states

Boyertown freshman Jordan Wood went 46-2 on the year and was the PIAA Class AAA runner-up at 220 pounds.

By Darryl Grumling
dgrumling@pottsmerc.com
@MercSmokinD on Twitter

The practice room is the crucible where top wrestlers are forged, while the mats at Hershey's Giant Center serve as the final proving ground for the state's best of the best.
Over the weekend, five Pioneer Athletic Conference competitors earned the rare and rewarding distinction of bringing home PIAA-AAA medals.
Boyertown freshman Jordan Wood finished second at 220; Methacton's Tracey Green took sixth at 285; and the Owen J. Roberts trio of Derek Gulotta (113), Colby Frank (125) and Gordon Bolig (182) finished eighth.
Wood, just 14 years of age, finished 46-2 on the season - seeing a 32-bout winning streak halted in the state final by three-time PIAA champ Thomas Haines of Solanco.
For a closer look at Wood's phenomenal run and recap of PAC-10 performers at the state tourney, be sure to read Don Seeley's wrestling package in Tuesday's print edition of The Mercury and online at www.pottsmerc.com.

Farewell to a pair of PAC-10 queens of the court

Boyertown's Kaitlyn Eisenhard (31)

Methacton's Kelsey Watson (22).

By Darryl Grumling
dgrumling@pottsmerc.com
Twitter: @MercSmokinD

While Spring-Ford successfully began its quest for PIAA gold Friday night, two of the Pioneer Athletic Conference's best players - Boyertown's Kaitlyn Eisenhard and Methacton's Kelsey Watson - saw their standout careers come to a close.
Eisenhard and the Bears fell 57-39 to Central Dauphin and Watson and the Warriors were beaten 46-34 by Cardinal O'Hara in Class AAAA openers.
A four-year starter, the 6-foot-1 Eisenhard finished her career with 1,420 points, 17th in area history.
She averaged 15.7 points and more than 10 rebounds per game this year for Boyertown (19-10), which made its second trip to states in three years.
Watson, a 5-10 forward bound for Kutztown University, averaged a PAC-10 best 16.4 points per game and 9.3 rebounds to help the Warriors (24-7) reach the league final for the second straight year and earn their first PIAA berth since 2008.
For more on this dynamic duo, read the girls basketball notebook in Monday's edition of The Mercury and online at www.pottsmerc.com.

GIRLS BASKETBALL: The Dao is up at PJP

Pope John Paul II sophomore point guard Lauren Dao is averaging 9 points over the Golden Panthers' past four games.

By Darryl Grumling
dgrumling@pottsmerc.com
Twitter: @MercSmokinD

The stock market has been on a roll of late.

And when you're talking about the Pope John Paul II girls basketball team, the Dao has been also performing strongly in recent weeks.

Lauren Dao, the Golden Panthers' 5-foot-4 sophomore point guard, has provided a spark for PJP's run to the PIAA tourney for the first time in its three-year history.

In addition to her main responsibilities of handling the ball, finding the open player and leading the break, Dao is also starting to become a legitimate offensive option for the Golden Panthers.

After averaging 4.7 points for the first 19 games of the season, Dao has averaged 9.0 ppg over the past four games. She contributed a career-best 12 points in a 58-49 Pioneer Athletic Conference semifinal loss to Methacton, then scored 24 combined points in three District 1-AAA games -- including a nine-point effort in a 44-30 victory over Lower Moreland that punched PJP's state tourney ticket.

Dan the (Stat) Man

Spring-Ford stat-man extraordinaire Dan Miscavage, and his brother Alex, right, hard at work at last week's District 1-AAAA girls basketball championship at Villanova University.

By Darryl Grumling
dgrumling@pottsmerc.com
Twitter: @MercSmokinD

I like to joke around during football season that the running clock is "the sportswriter's best friend."

For anyone who has covered the Spring-Ford girls basketball team this winter, though, that title belongs to Dan Miscavage.

Miscavage, who wears many hats at Spring-Ford - he's the assistant athletic director as well as a social studies teacher - puts together a full statistical box score for each Rams home game.

And take it from someone who has done full boxes for high school games for more than 20 years - that is no small feat.

With my litany of added responsibilities during the past couple years, most notably live tweeting and shooting video, Miscavage's much-appreciated work has made my job a lot easier.

Many a fellow sportswriter has marvelled at Miscavage's handiwork when they've covered games at Spring-Ford. It almost has the feel of a college or professional event, with rosters and statistical information available to fans and media members alike upon entry to the gym.

Now that the Rams have hit the road for the remainder of their postseason, Dan and his brother Alex (who serves as his spotter) also make the trips to the various venues - much to the delight of those of us covering the game.

So here's a heartfelt tip of the cap from those of us on press row to Dan the (Stat) Man for a job well done.