By Steve Smull
LVBL News
EGYPT – There are a lot of teams in the Lehigh Valley Baseball League (LVBL) that want to get out on Sundays and have fun playing the game they love. Many of these teams in the Premier and AA Divisions also hope to win a lot of games. The Salisbury Falcons are one of these teams in the Premier Division. They have two things, well, pitchers, that separates them from every other team in the league.
Gabe Mosser and Justin Aungst.
Both were on display Sunday in a doubleheader battle of unbeaten teams. And both won their respective starts as the Falcons (4-0) swept the Lehigh Valley Cardinals (4-2) by scores of 8-3 and 9-8 to take sole possession of first place in the Premier Division.
Mosser, a Parkland High School, Shippensburg University, and current San Diego Padres pitcher, went six strong innings in Game 1, striking out nine. Aungst, a Salisbury High School, Saint Joseph’s University, and Blue Mountain League pitcher, threw a complete-game three-hitter in Game 2, striking out eight.
Both pitchers had item #3 on their baseball résumés scratched this summer due to the global pandemic. Mosser’s professional baseball career in the Padres minor-league system has been put on hold when major league baseball canceled their minor-league seasons. Aungst’s Blue Mountain League season with the Northampton Giants was also canceled.
The Padres’ and Giants’ losses are certainly Salisbury’s gain.
The Cardinals, like Salisbury, are a new entry in the LVBL in 2020. They also have something in common with the Falcons.
Two stud pitchers.
Steven De La Cruz is a former St. Louis Cardinals farmhand for four seasons from 2014 through 2017. In three starts in the LVBL this summer, he is 3-0 with 27 strikeouts and just seven hits allowed in 15 innings pitched.
Brian Ernst is a former Salisbury High School and East Stroudsburg product. Ernst pitched five professional seasons in Independent baseball leagues from 2013 through 2018.
There were two problems for Cardinals manager Ron Cahill coming into this much-anticipated matchup on Sunday.
One, De La Cruz was unavailable to pitch on Sunday. And two, his other former professional pitcher/player Ernst, tore his ACL in Week 3 and is out for the season.
Salisbury got out to an early lead in Game 1 and never looked back in an 8-3 victory. Brandon Black was 3-for-3 with 2 RBI and Joey Galantini was 2-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI for the Falcons.
Game 2 was much more competitive.
The Falcons got off to another quick start.
Quinn Warmkessel was hit by a pitch to lead off the game and Nic Ampietro singled to right field and took second base on the throw to third. Salisbury quickly had two runners in scoring position and Evan Kulig brought them both home with a two-run double for a 2-0 lead. Aungst was hit by a pitch and Galantini walked to load the bases. After a shallow flyout to right, Black continued his hot day with a two-run single to give Salisbury a 4-0 lead after half an inning.
The Cardinals would answer in the bottom half of the first with three unearned tallies.
Ben Piripavel leadoff and hit a grounder to shortstop, but he almost beat the throw to first base. The pressure his hustle created induced a wild throw for a two-base error. Matt Rosace and Jose Berrios drew back to back walks to load the bases with no outs. After a strikeout and a 1-2 fielder’s choice at the plate had Aungst one batter away from getting out of the mess, he threw a wild pitch that scored Rosace to cut the Cardinals deficit to 4-1. Joey Troxell then delivered a two-run single and it was now 4-3 Falcons after an inning.
Salisbury would get right back to work during the top of the second.
Nick Vangeli led off with a single to right but was erased at second base on a fielder's choice. Ampietro reached safely on an E-5 and then Kulig delivered an RBI single for a 5-3 Falcons lead. Aungst doubled in Ampietro and Galantini lofted a sacrifice fly that scored Kulig to make it 7-3 Salisbury. Then player/manager Brad Vangeli singled in Aungst and Black doubled in Vangeli and the Falcons suddenly had a 9-3 lead after 1 1/2 innings.
The Cardinals, to their credit, answered again in the home half of the second.
Isaac Jimenez was hit by a pitch to start the frame. After a wild pitch, he would score when Justus Darville reached on an E-6. Piripavel drew a six-pitch walk to put runners on first and second with nobody out. After a shallow flyout to right, Berrios singled in Darville to cut the Salisbury lead to 9-5. Niko Amory launched a two-run triple and then scored when Blake Fontaine reached on another error. Fontaine would get an RBI on the E-6 because there was less than two outs as the Cardinals were now only trailing 9-8. After Troxell walked to put runners on first and second, the Cardinals would run themselves out of the inning after a flyout to right turned into an 8-6-4 double-play to end the inning.
The good news for the Cardinals is that they would not allow another run the rest of the game as John Benitez (3 IP) and Rosace (2 IP) did not allow a run to score over the final five innings.
The bad news for the Cardinals is that they would not get another hit for the rest of the game as Aungst settled in and shut them down the rest of the way, allowing only two runners on a hit batter and a walk.
Salisbury had their sweep and took over first place in the Premier Division.
“I was tight in the first couple of innings,” said Aungst. “I felt like I was over-throwing to compensate for not feeling right so I took something off my pitches to get more movement in the third inning. I relied on my off-speed pitches more. They were doing a good job sitting on my fastball the first two innings. So I changed speeds more on them to get them off balance and obviously it worked.”
“It’s nice to get a win in a close game,” continued Aungst. “It shows that we can be resilient in tight games later in the season. We know we have to clean up the defense a little and also do a better job executing the offense as we did leave some guys on base today.”
“Our defense was very bad the first two innings,” said player/manager Brad Vangeli. “Justin grinded through it. He didn’t have his best stuff. He had trouble getting loose the first couple of innings and we didn’t help him defensively. This is our first doubleheader of the season. We played the first game and then sat around between games and did not even get loose for Game 2.”
“I don’t think we were mentally ready for the first couple of innings and it showed,” continued Vangeli. “We need to get better defensively against a team like that. They have a good lineup. We hit the ball great early, scoring nine runs in the first two innings. I am proud of how we hit the ball. We left some guys on base. We could have scored some more runs.”
Evan Kulig, a Salisbury High School and Moravian College product, was the star in Game 2 for the Falcons as he went 3-for-3 with a double, 3 RBI, and 2 runs scored. He also put on an impressive home run derby type display during two of his at-bats where he hit four balls well over the fence down the left-field line. The only problem was that all four bombs were foul.
“It’s all about having fun out here for me,” said Kulig. “I graduated from college two years ago, so if I have a bad at-bat I am not going to worry about it or get angry at myself. I am just looking for some good pitches to hit and hopefully, I can get my barrel on the ball.”
“When we clean up our defense, we are going to be the best team in this league,” continued Kulig. “We are going to be tough to beat this season.”
Cardinals manager Ron Cahill agrees with Kulig’s assessment of the Falcons.
“As far as I am concerned, they are the team to beat this year,” Cahill said. “Salisbury presents some unique challenges. They play loose and confident, they have outstanding pitching, and they have a solid lineup. I feel like they are not at full speed yet and will be getting better each week.”
“Our team battled hard all day,” continued Cahill. “We spotted them runs early in both games and that made it difficult to secure a victory. This wasn’t the best defensive performance for us as we committed more errors in one game than we had in all of our previous games combined.”
Cahill hopes to get another crack at Salisbury in the postseason.
“I think we can match up with them but we are going to have to play mistake-free baseball to beat them,” said Cahill.
In Game 2, Kulig was 3-for-3 with a double 3 RBI and 2 runs scored, Black was 2-for-3 with a double and 3 RBI, and Galantini was 2-for-3 for Salisbury. Berrios was 2-for-3 for the Cardinals.
