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LaurelFrom page 16potato ... Laurel is a small school, but it has one of the biggest followings in the league ... New Castle was fortunate to escape in the third inning without being scored on. With Wellman on third, Gary Fennick fell away from what would have been a wild pitch, but the ball struck his bat.•Alas, Laurel’s joy and hopes lasted for only one day. The next afternoon, Ellwood City erupted for seven runs in the sixth inning, waltzed away with a 12-0 victory over the Spartans, and wound up winning the race by two games over New Castle.The protest which had been lodged by Laurel in its first game with Ellwood City also became a moot point, but it was interesting while it lasted.Back on May 4, Laurel made its way to Ellwood City for the makeup of a rained-out game, but by starting time no umpires had appeared at the Ewing Park Field. After a 40-minute delay, Phil Tammaro, a nearby resident, consented to work the game by himself.He started out doing just that, calling all the plays from behind the mound. Midway through the fourth inning, Frank “Fats” Cu-bellis, who had been called at his home in New Castle and asked to report to the game, arrived and was put into service behind the plate.Cubellis was a PIAA-sanc-tioned umpire, which Tammaro was not, but Cubellis had no equipment with him so he borrowed a chest protector and shin guards from the Ellwood City dugout.After working an inning and a half that way and after being struck several times by foul balls, Cubellis found the equipment uncomfortable. So he shed it and went behind the mound to call balls and strikes from there the rest of the game.This is not to say the volunteer umpires did not do a good job. Under the circumstances, they did. But it was an important game played under less than ideal conditions, and Laurel lost by a 3-0 count.A few days later, Laurel coach Bob Collins lodged a protest with the WPIAL through Frank Crawford of Monaca, the section chairman. Collins’s complaint was that neither Tammaro or Cubellis had been scheduled to work the game and he did not know that Tammaro was not a PIAA official. In fact, nobody seemed to know who the originally-assigned umpires were.The whole thing became academic when Ellwood City endedthe season two games ahead of the pack and would have taken the title anyway had the protest been upheld and had Laurel won the game.Coach Bill Spellman took his Wolverines into yet another WPIAL tournament where they reached the semifinals before losing to Kiski Area, 7-5.•Meanwhile, underdog Laurel walked off with its share of postseason honors.Drespling emerged as the batting champion with a .462 average, while Gary Fennick hit .405 and Roth .395. Roth also was the league’s best pitcher, allowing only three earned runs in 39 innings, striking out 52 and walking only eight en route to a 5-0 record.Drespling also made the All-Section at catcher, along with shortstop Fennick, outfielder Wellman and Roth.It was a big year for the Spartans, but only the first of many that were to follow.(Blast from the Past is a weekly feature which chronicles local athletes and sports events from years past. Vosburg is retired managing editor from The News.)
Newspaper Details
New Castle News Weekend
New Castle, Pennsylvania, US
Sat, Jul 16, 1994
Page 19
Full Page
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USA 06 Dec 2023
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