Catching up...again

(Katie Leverentz is having a heck of a season for the Bears, with nine goals in 11 games.)

Whew....that's the typed version of me taking an exhale. Last spring, I didn't have this blog, and I didn't realize how crazy the spring sports season can be – which explains the bit of neglect to the blogosphere lately. For that, I apologize. I'm still working on how to juggle covering all of these spring sports (there's a lot), working on my horrendous golf game (getting better...barely) and trying to keep up with this blog (I'm a failure, I know). But I'm getting there, so bear with me, please.

Enough of my whining and excuses, though, here's a brief take on the EAHS sports teams. And I'll do my best to get back to daily updates. Cross my heart.

BASEBALL:
Tough loss for E-town on Wednesday, falling 5-0 to McCaskey after two nice wins over Cedar Crest and Hempfield. The Bears have three more Section One games ahead of them, starting today with Penn Manor, before getting back into Section Two contests. They're still very much in the section race, and should be in it until the end. Circle your calendars for next Friday, when E-town hosts Ephrata – that'll be a big one.

SOFTBALL:
Anna Libby keeps hitting bombs and the Bears keep winning. Libby hit two more on Wednesday, including a grand slam, giving her six on the season as E-town improved to 6-2 in league play. They are also very much in the thick of the Section Two race, although Solanco looks amazingly tough. Monday, May 5 will be the big E-town vs. Solanco game at 7 p.m. in the park. But there are seven games between now and then, and the Bears have to keep hitting to make that game that much more important.

GIRLS SOCCER:
Another team that just keeps winning. They've won three straight now, following that tough 1-0 loss to L-S in overtime – still their only loss of the year. They've scored more than three goals in a game only once this year and have to start putting up bigger numbers on offense, but that defense is amazing. They might only need two or three goals a game. Tuesday, April 29, they host L-S on senior night (don't forget to pick up your Chicken BBQ tickets for that night as well), as 7 p.m. in Thompson Stadium. HUUUUUUGE game for the Bears, who are two points behind L-S for the section lead.

Track:
Both teams are doing very well this season, with the boys at 3-1 and the girls at 2-2 in the section. Don't be surprised to see quite a few E-town athletes doing very well at the L-L meet on May 9-10, the District Three meet on May 16-17 and even the PIAA meet on May 23-24.

Boys Volleyball:
Break 'em up! The Bears have won three straight matches with a third place finish at the Red Knights Invitational sandwiched in there as well. They've won their last two by 3-0 margins and are getting better and better as the season progresses.

Boys Tennis:
The Bears fell to Cocalico on Monday, which was essentially a match for the Section One title, but are still a very respectable 9-2 with the L-L flight tourney coming up April 21-28.

OK, enjoy the weekend, and the weather. I'll be out shanking golf balls if anyone needs me.

More attention will be payed to the blog starting Monday. I give you my word.

Cheers.

Catching up

Hello out there, did you guys miss me this week? I missed you. C'mon, you missed me a little bit, right? Suuure you did.

My apologies for the lack of posts this week, we've been working to get out a special insert that will be coming in the paper on the 10th, and also working on our free mailing. That's right, EVERYONE in our coverage area will be getting a free copy of the Chronicle mailed to your house on the 10th. Didn't know it was your lucky day, did you? So I'm trying to make this week's issue look as nice as possible to lure those of you who aren't subscribers (tsk, tsk) into getting a subscription.

But enough of the excuses. After all, excuses aren't welcome here at The Bear's Den. So let's take a journey around the land of EAHS spring sports and update you on how the Bears are doing, in case you were wondering. Also, I'll have a couple of posts later today about some other things. I'm sure you'll be waiting with baited breath.

Baseball:
E-town tasted defeat for the first time yesterday, losing to Ephrata 9-1 to fall to 4-1 overall. The Bears outhit the Mounts 7-5, but couldn't seem to get those RBI hits that are so crucial. The Bears were supposed to play defending Section 2 champ Conestoga Valley today at home, but that game has been postponed until Tuesday at 4:15 p.m. I'll have coverage of that one in this week's paper. It'll be a good tune up for Wednesday's showdown with Solanco. I'll have something on that here on the blog.

The Bears have four games in five days next week (depending on weather), and it could be a huge stretch for them. They start at Garden Spot Monday, host CV Tuesday and Solanco Wednesday and round out by hosting Cedar Crest Friday. This is where deep pitching staffs become the strength of a team. Trust me, it's a luxury for coach Telenko to have guys like Preston Faith, Erick Baker and Steve Buller to start in ball games for his team. Anyway, big week for the boys next week.

Softball:
Hello, E-town offense. Welcome back.

After scoring 6, 4 and 4 runs in their first three games (and going 1-2), the Bears' bats have exploded for 11 and 10 runs in their past two games, both blowout wins over section opponents. E-town is now back over .500 at 3-2 overall and 2-0 in Section Two. On Wednesday night, the Bears blanked Cocalico 10-0 behind two home runs from all-star shortshop Becca Bigler and one homer each from Anna Libby (who's having a monster year at the plate by the way) and senior Kara Hernley.

Since E-town lost that tough 13-inning game against Donegal back on March 26, the Bears have outscored their opponents 21-1. That's how you bounce back from a tough loss.

They were supposed to play CV today, but that game has been pushed back to Tuesday, which means the girls will also play four games in five days – Monday vs. Garden Spot, Tuesday @ CV, Wednesday @ Solanco and Friday @ Cedar Crest. Like the baseball team, E-town's got good pitchers, which will be important for them in tough weeks like this one. Jillian Ditzler and Tricia Stone are an excellent 1-2 punch and their play will be huge this week for the Bears.

Girls Soccer:
Another week, two more wins for the Bears. Ho hum. They're still unbeaten at 5-0-1 and have looked stellar so far. Defense is their strong point, but the offense has been there for them the past two games.

On Tuesday, they were staring at a 2-0 hole at halftime against Garden Spot and rallied to score four goals in the second half for a 4-2 win. And last night against Lebanon, they absolutely dominated. They outshot the Cedars 33-0 and won 3-0. First off, to shoot 33 times in a soccer game is amazing and to hold a team without a shot OR a corner kick on top of that is pretty much the definition of dominating.

Three good tests await E-town next week – @ Ephrata Monday, @ L-S Wednesday, and home vs. Manheim Central Friday under the lights. If the Bears are still unbeaten after that stretch, their confidence will be sky-high, and deservedly so.

Boys Track:
The boys started their week with a relatively close 80-2/3 to 69-1/3 win over Ephrata on Monday to move to 3-0. Dustin Horning has been excellent in the 800 and 1,600 events and won both again on Monday. Josh McMasters also won two events. The Bears also got good efforts (again) from Jordan Hallman, Larrian Payne, John Romain and Greg Crawford. They've got a lot of good athletes that are very good at a lot of different events, and that's been evident so far this year.

E-town did lose its first meet of the year on Thursday, however, falling to Hershey 80-70. Winning for E-town were Romain, Horning (twice), Hallman, Chad Barninger, Shane Rosenberry, Payne (twice) and Crawford.

Girls Track:
The girls tasted their first defeat this year on Monday, losing to Ephrata 90-60. Despite the loss, there's a lot to be excited about for the Bears. Freshmen Audrey Bamford, Bailey Davis and Ann Romanauskas have been stellar and their upperclassmen have also been steady. Against Ephrata, the Bears got wins from Romanauskas, Bamford, Kirsten Hayes and Amy Stoddard.

E-town then tied Hershey 75-75 yesterday thanks to a strong showing by its throwers and jumpers, who outscored the Trojans 48-15. Earning wins were Bamford (three times), Davis (twice), Kayla Koser, Aubrey Reider, Kelly Sebzda and Caitlyn Eshleman.

Boys Volleyball
After a strong 2-0 start, E-town is now 2-2, losing both matches this week.

They fell to Garden Spot 3-0 on Tuesday and lost to Lancaster Mennonite 3-1 last night. Zach McElheny, David Kreiser, Connor Toews and Michael Cicero have been strong so far for the Bears, who are already halfway to matching last season's win total.

Lacrosse
The boys got back underway this week after a 10-day layoff between games. They lost to CV 11-8 on Tuesday night in a close game. CV outscored E-town 5-1 in the third period to pull ahead and beat the Bears. E-town got two goals from Randy Groff and one each from Matt Frye, James Bard, Corey Faus, Ganan Keck, Phil Roeder and Josh Ginder.

Last night E-town ran into a very talented Warwick squad and lost 12-4, getting goals from Keck, Roeder, Groff and David Latimore.

They aren't playoff contenders yet, but you can definitely see improvement in the program.

Boys Tennis:
The Bears remained undefeated under first year head coach Chip Diem with a 7-0 beating of Warwick in their only match of the week.

In singles, Alex Trimble, Colton Brown, Michael Sweigart, Drew Winey and Peter Davis all won. In doubles, Brown and Sweigart and Trimble and Winey won their matches. The Bears are now 4-0. They were supposed to play today as well, but that match was been moved to Tuesday at 4 at home against Penn Manor.

EAHS round-up

(Preston Faith and the Bears have been tough so far this season.)

Sorry for the lack of posts the past couple of days, but I'm back now, so lets take a look at how the EAHS spring sports teams have fared over the past week or so.

Baseball
We knew that E-town had strong pitching going into the season and, so far, their hurlers have really been dominant. On Monday, Preston Faith pitched a complete-game two-hitter as E-town beat Carlisle 5-2 and Erick Baker followed that up with a complete-game three-hitter yesterday as the Bears beat Donegal 7-3. Pitching is a major reason why E-town is off to a 3-0 start, but E-town has also played solid defense behind those pitchers and it hitting well. The Bears have at least seven hits in all three games so far this year.

I think that 10 run outburst in their first game that helped them beat Hershey was a big momentum builder for this team and that they are going to be tough for anyone in Section Two to beat.

Softball
E-town has had some defensive issues the past two games and have lost them both,to fall to 1-2 on the season. On Monday, E-town committed eight errors in a 7-4 loss to Carlisle and yesterday, E-town had eight errors again in a tough 13-inning loss to crosstown rival Donegal. The Bears have plenty of power in the lineup (Anna Libby has 2 homers and Becca Bigler has one) and have strong enough pitching to limit teams to low run totals, but they've got to clean up their defense. I think they will and that they'll get back on track beginning on Monday at Ephrata.

Girls Soccer
E-town is 2-0 now, after beating Solanco 2-0 on Tuesday afternoon. That powerful E-town defense flexed its muscle on Tuesday, limiting Solanco to just two shots. The Bears probably aren't going to put up six or seven goals a game, but they have enough offensive weapons to score three on any given night and that will be enough to make them tough to beat, especially with their defensive ability.

Track
Well, color me impressed at the boys and girls track teams. They looked good on Tuesday and both beat Donegal pretty handily. The boys have some serious sprinters on that team and if you blink during their 400 relay race, you'll miss them. They're that fast. But I think what will make them good this year is their depth. They have talent everywhere – throws, distance, jumps, hurdles, pole vault, sprints.

As for the girls, they looked good as well. Donegal won the majority of the sprinting events, but E-town controlled the throwing and jump events. It's a good sign for the Bears to see some freshman girls like Audrey Bamford and Ann Romanauskas win events at their first varsity meet.

Boys Tennis
The boys have started with two victories. (Side note: E-town's strong athletic year has continued through at least the start of the spring. As of today, the eight EAHS varsity teams have a combined record of 11-3 – with six unbeaten teams. Granted, it's still VERY early, but that a good start nonetheless. And now that I've jinxed them, expect a losing streak from everyone. Hey, just look at my NCAA brackets. Actually, don't, it's embarrassing. Sorry, I'm rambling). E-town gutted out a 4-3 win over Hempfield on Monday to start their season, and dominated McCaskey 7-0 on Tuesday to move to 2-0.

Boys Volleyball
E-town is 1-0 thanks to a 3-2 win over Ephrata on Tuesday. The Bears won the first two games before dropping the next two and sending it to a fifth game. In the fifth, E-town rolled 15-9 to secure the win. Michael Cicero had 17 kills and David Kreiser had six blocks.

Now that you're up to speed, I'll try and post more frequently to avoid long, borderline incoherent posts like this one. Back later today with track and volleyball season previews.

Until next time, stay classy Elizabethtown.

Cheers.

Boys Tennis preview

(Four of E-town's top five players are, from left, Peter Davis, Colton Brown, Mike Sweigart and Drew Winey.)

*Note: You can find all of these previews in this week's issue of the Chronicle.

Head Coach: Chip Diem, first season.

2007 Record: 10-2 overall.

Key Returners: Alex Trimble, sophomore; Colton Brown, senior; Mike Sweigart, senior.
E-town returns three talented, experienced players in Trimble, Brown and Sweigart.
Trimble is probably the team’s No. 1 player. As a freshman last year, he teamed with Sweigart to advance to the finals of the Lancaster-Lebanon League Flight Two doubles tournament. He also made it to the semifinals of Flight Two singles.
Sweigart will likely play third singles for the Bears. In the L-L Flight Tournament last season, Sweigart made the semifinals of Flight Four in addition to making the Flight Two doubles finals with Trimble.
Brown looks primed for a big season. He will play either No. 1 or No. 2 singles for the Bears and has the experience to have a successful season. He played Flight One singles in last year’s L-L tournament, going 3-2 and falling in the fifth place match. In doubles, he teamed with Shawn Newlin to advance to the semifinals of leagues and qualify for districts.
With a top three like this, E-town will look to continue its recent string of successful regular season.

Key Newcomers: Drew Winey, senior; Peter Davis, senior.
With more than half of the top five returning from last year, E-town will be relying on Winey and Davis to round out its top five.
Both are athletic players certainly capable of winning some matches, but do not have the varsity experience necessary yet to compete with the upper-echelon players in the league. But the Bears don’t need them to beat those types of players, and as fourth or fifth singles players, they will certainly hold their own and contribute to match wins for E-town.

Key Losses: Shawn Newlin; Dan Nguyen; Alex Herr.
The loss of Newlin will be felt the most for the Bears. He was one of the team’s best players for the past three years and E-town’s No. 1 singles player a year ago.
Nguyen and Herr also contributed at the varsity level and added depth to the lineup.

What they do well: Go deep.
It’s not often that a team loses its No. 1 player from the previous season, but still has an extremely strong and deep team coming back. The Bears return three of last year’s top five and have a plethora of athletic players waiting in the wings if they are needed to step in and contribute.
That depth should help the Bears, who have lost only four matches combined in the past two seasons.

What they need to work on: Building the tradition.
Quietly, the Elizabethtown boys tennis program has become an extremely successful one. They are a combined 19-4 over the past two seasons and continue to churn out quality players who get better as underclassmen and step up and dominate as seniors.
But E-town has to learn that it belongs with the Manheim Townships of the league. They have to play with that kind of confidence.

Outlook: Things look promising for the Bears again this season. They return a solid nucleus of players and also have some potentially outstanding newcomers. Watch for E-town to challenge for the Section Two title.
In singles play, they will be led by Trimble, Brown and Sweigart which may be as potent of a top three as you will find in the section. All three advanced deep into the L-L tournament last season and will likely find themselves there again. Don’t be surprised if more than one of them finds themselves in the district tournament as well.
Trimble has already experienced success at the varsity level and is only a sophomore, so he will be at the top of E-town’s lineup for the next three seasons.
With the experience and talent that E-town has on the roster and a young, energetic coach like Diem to put it all together, E-town could be looking at anywhere from eight to 10 regular season wins and quite a few players advancing deep in the L-L Flight Tournament in late April.