Berks County

Past performances meant little yesterday at the 15th annual Carpenter Cup baseball tournament at Veterans Stadium. The teams with the two best winning percentages in tournament history failed to get out of the first round in the 16-team single-elimination tournament. In the opener, Berks County overcame a five-run deficit in the seventh inning to defeat five-time Carpenter Cup champion Olympic/Colonial of South Jersey, 7-6. Even with the loss, the Olympic/Colonial is 27-9 in tournament history and, at .750, still has the highest winning percentage.

Berks County manager Jeff Evans said his players weren't intimidated playing defending champion Olympic/Colonial in the first round of the Carpenter Cup - and then his team proved its mettle with a 7-3 victory at Veterans Stadium. "We knew about their reputation, but our kids are loose and came in here confident," said Evans, the head coach of Wilson West Lawn, near Reading. Four Berks pitchers didn't allow a hit through the first six innings as the winners jumped to a 7-0 lead.

There is no sign along the road letting you know that Camp Roberts is ahead. Only a small American flag marks the driveway, which winds back into the woods and out of sight. It might have stayed undiscovered had five youths from the camp not sneaked out one night in February, hot-wired a neighbor's 1995 Chevy Blazer, and roared off into the darkness. But once word got out - and, like everything else in this burg in northwest Berks County, it got out quickly - the locals went ballistic.

This was not a game that Ken Burns would want to have preserved for his next baseball documentary. In a contest that begged for a mercy rule to end it, Berks County embarrassed the Suburban One National stars, 17-13, in the Carpenter Cup tournament yesterday at Veterans Stadium. The game took 3 hours, 15 minutes to play. The losing team had more extra-base hits than the winners. The winning pitchers threw six wild pitches, but the losing catchers had four passed balls. And the two best pitchers during the regular Suburban One high school season - Brian Moyer and Justin Quinn - allowed a combined 12 runs and 10 hits in two innings.

Despite a constitutional challenge to a similar program in Berks County, the Chester County Prison Board yesterday decided to start charging inmates for medical care. Among the items to be charged to inmates' personal accounts will be over- the-counter drugs, treatment for self-inflicted injuries, and fake sick calls. If inmates can afford to buy cigarettes, they can afford to pay for contact-lens solution, aspirin, and even special soap, said County Commissioner Karen Martynick, who is a member of the prison board.

READING - Fire rescue crews recovered a Berks County man's body Sunday morning from the Schuylkill about 50 yards from where, witnesses said, he went into the river. Police identified the victim as John Yerger, 38, of Exeter Township, WFMZ-TV reported. He apparently was trying to wade across part of the river when swept away, the station said. The body was recovered after a search of the Schuylkill in Cumru and Exeter Townships in Berks County, close to the Scenic River Bike Trail, officials told WFMZ.

A Philadelphia man and three others were charged with trafficking $300,000 worth of heroin in Berks County, the state Attorney General's Office said Thursday. Randy Jimenez, 31, of Philadelphia; Angela L. Perdomo, 41, of New York; and David Garcia-Cruz, 32, and Erik T. Kinder, 38, both of Berks County, were accused of purchasing bulk quantities of heroin in Philadelphia and transporting the drugs to Berks. Attorney General Linda Kelly said the arrests were the result of a five-month investigation into the distribution and sale of heroin in the Reading area.

A Philadelphia man and three others were charged with trafficking $300,000 worth of heroin in Berks County, the state Attorney General's Office said Thursday. Randy Jimenez, 31, of Philadelphia; Angela L. Perdomo, 41, of New York, and David Garcia-Cruz, 32, and Erik T. Kinder, 38, both of Berks County, were accused of purchasing bulk quantities of heroin in Philadelphia and transporting the drugs to Berks. Attorney General Linda Kelly said the arrests were the result of a five-month investigation into the distribution and sale of heroin in the Reading area.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has released the solid-waste permit needed for Waste Management Inc. to proceed with its 73-acre expansion of the Pottstown Landfill. Facility manager Larry Bressman said construction at the expansion site began the day Waste Management received DEP's letter, dated last Monday. DEP approved the permit in November 1995, but the $29 million project stalled a year later, when the state Environmental Hearing Board ruled that both Berks County and one of its municipalities had not had an adequate chance to comment on the proposed expansion.