Catholic League

It's been a long time since the Catholic League walked off with a Carpenter Cup title. But it used an unusual play in the fifth inning to earn its third title overall and first since 1990 by beating Delaware County, 8-2, at Citizens Bank Park last night. With his team holding a 2-1 lead, Tim Hoban of Roman Catholic ripped a two-out single up the middle and stole second base before Sean Barksdale of Cardinal O'Hara drew a walk from Tim Gibson of Haverford High. Kennedy-Kenrick's Lenny DelGrippo, who led the Catholic League with a .636 batting average in the tournament, hit an infield single to short.

Joe Parisi, coach of the Catholic League's entry in the Carpenter Cup scholastic baseball tournament, knew that he had a wealth of talented hitters at his disposal when the tourney opened last week. "You look at the nine guys in our starting lineup and you can see that any one of them could bat second, third or fourth for anyone else (in the tournament)," Parisi said. Parisi had many reasons - 19 to be exact - to be proud of his squad's hitting prowess yesterday as the Catholic League outslugged Mercer County, 11-4.

  Brandon Hollomon The speedy, elusive tailback carried 189 times for 1,428 yards and 15 touchdowns last season in aiding the Burrs' march to a 12-3 record, the PIAA Class AA state semifinals, and the area's No. 9 ranking. Hollomon, also a cornerback in West's new 3-4 defense and a dangerous kick returner, earned first-team all-league honors on offense. In a state playoff opener, he rushed 33 times for a career-best 216 yards as the Burrs ousted District 2 titlist Dunmore, 13-0.

Archbishop Wood's Mike Ewing failed to defend his Catholic League boys' individual cross-country title Sunday at Belmont Plateau, but the Vikings won their second straight team title and fourth in the last five years over second-place St. James and third-place North Catholic. Thanks to Ewing's second place finish, Brett Amberson's eighth-place finish, Brian Moroney's 14th-place finish and Curt Burkholder's 21st-place finish, the Vikings recorded 71 points, while St. James finished with 107 and North Catholic with 126. "This was one of our most solid team efforts ever," said 14-year Wood coach John Sharp.

It will be regular-season champion Kennedy-Kenrick hosting Conwell-Egan and Archbishop Carroll at Cardinal O'Hara in today's semifinals of the Catholic League field hockey playoffs. Game times are 3 p.m. The Kennedy-Kenrick Wolverines, who finished regular-season play at 9-0, will be seeking their first playoff championship since 1997. The Eagles were 6-3 in league play to finish fourth. O'Hara and Carroll finished with 7-2 marks, but the Lions got the nod for the No. 2 spot in the playoffs by virtue of their win over the Patriots.

Girls' high school basketball junkies should get their fill Sunday when the Catholic League holds its annual tip-off tournament at Gwynedd-Mercy College in Gwynedd Valley. The first of the day's seven games pits defending Northern Division champion Archbishop Wood against Cardinal O'Hara, the Southern Division and overall league champion, at 9 a.m. The last game, Bishop McDevitt vs. Little Flower, is scheduled for 6 p.m. "It's a good chance for college coaches to see a bunch of basketball games all in one day," said coach Brian Duross, whose Archbishop Wood team is coming off a loss to Regina (Ohio)

It won't happen tomorrow, and it might not happen for several more years, but there exists the possibility that Bishop Kenrick, of Norristown, will withdraw from the Catholic League. Athletic director Dave Smith confirms that Kenrick sought admission to the Pioneer Athletic Conference, which recently expanded from eight to 10 teams by taking in Great Valley and Owen J. Roberts. But he denies that the school now is trying to join the Suburban One League. "I hope people don't get the idea that we're looking to abandon the Catholic League," Smith said.

With three of the league's football-playing schools set to close in June, Catholic League athletic directors on Thursday approved a proposal by football coaches to divide the league into two divisions. As it previously did, the five-team Red Division (Class AAAA) will include Archbishop Ryan, Father Judge, La Salle, Roman Catholic, and St. Joseph's Prep. The six-team Blue Division, a mix of Class AAA and AA schools, will consist of Archbishop Carroll (Class AA), Archbishop Wood (AAA)

No player would want it any other way, but there is an unintended consequence that comes with Archbishop Carroll's long streak of Catholic League girls' lacrosse titles. "It actually puts some pressure on the girls," coach Lorraine Beers said. "No one wants to be the one that breaks it or loses the streak. " There was no need for worrying about that Thursday. Archbishop Carroll beat St. Hubert, 20-2, in the Catholic League semifinals at Neumann University. Carroll will go for its 13th straight championship Monday against Cardinal O'Hara at Neumann at 6 p.m. O'Hara advanced to the title game by beating Archbishop Wood, 10-5, on Thursday.

It was definitely not your typical rundown. But then again, scoring the winning run in a quarterfinal playoff game on your 15th birthday isn't the usual way to celebrate turning another year older, either. For Lansdale Catholic freshman Ashley Seal, both were parts of her special day Thursday, as the Crusaders defeated Archbishop Ryan, 5-0, to advance in the Catholic League softball playoffs. Seal walked in the third inning and advanced to second on a sacrifice by Jenna Gibbons.

This story has been corrected. Chase Standen's batting average at the time of All-Catholic team voting was .436, not .409. NEXT YEAR, maybe Chase Standen can be stationed at a middle-infield spot for St. Joseph's Prep's baseball team. Then everyone could decide whether he's better at turning a doubleplay or a phrase. The 6-2, 190-pound Standen, the rightfielder and cleanup hitter, so far has limited his extracurricular activities to sports. But he earns straight A's in advanced- placement English and will spend his final year writing for the school paper.

Dom Lorusso always told his athletes that good things happen to good people. On the final day of his 40-year coaching career, perhaps his team decided it was time to pay that lesson back. The Valley Forge Military Academy baseball team sent Lorusso into retirement by throwing a combined no-hitter Thursday in a 10-0 defeat of visiting Phelps. Lorusso, who has been the athletic director since 2007, has also served as the head wrestling coach and the director of health and physical education.

Brett McCrossen stroked a two-run double in the sixth inning to seal Archbishop Wood's 7-3 win over visiting Archbishop Ryan on Wednesday in the first round of the Catholic League playoffs. The senior outfielder finished 3 for 4 with a run scored and three RBIs. He had a one-run double in the third. Scott Boches, a senior righthander, posted the win as he struck out nine batters and walked two in seven innings. Also in the first round: Pat Vanderslice struck out 10 and scattered five hits to guide Bonner-Prendergast past visiting Cardinal O'Hara, 5-3. Public.

EVERYONE HAS heard the extra-rough rumor: Because of budget miseries, sports will not exist during the 2013-14 school year in the School District of Philadelphia. Now comes an offshoot rumor: If the district does save sports, it could order teams to withdraw from the PIAA as one of several potential cost-cutting measures. Two athletic directors told the Daily News they could picture such a scenario. "This is the first time I've heard this," said Robert Coleman, the czar of Pub sports, as well as the District 12 chairman.

For the first couple of innings in Thursday's Catholic League softball showdown between Conwell-Egan and Cardinal O'Hara, whatever one side's pitcher did, the opposing hurler replicated. O'Hara's Molly Rafferty got a couple of Eagles to ground out in the top of the first, so Conwell-Egan's Gina Massaro went out and did the same to the Lions in the bottom of the inning. Rafferty got a key strikeout in the first, and Massaro followed with one of her own. There was a rhythm to this pitchers' duel.

TIM O'NEILL allowed himself to feel only minimal joy a shade after 6 p.m. Wednesday. After all, like almost always in the program's two generations of existence, Bishop McDevitt High's baseball team found itself on the wrong side of the hyphen in a Catholic League game. But this time, against visiting Lansdale Catholic, the score was respectable, at 3-1, and O'Neill, a 6-foot, 170-pound senior righthander, slapped together quite the performance. Thanks mostly to a wicked curve and an even more impressive changeup, O'Neill limited the Crusaders to one hit, a second-inning single by Patrick Duggan that proved to be inconsequential.

BISHOP JOSEPH McFadden had been the head of the Diocese of Harrisburg for nearly three years when he died yesterday morning, but many people in Philadelphia say the Overbrook native's hometown ties never weakened. McFadden awoke yesterday in a Philadelphia rectory feeling ill, then was taken to nearby Holy Redeemer Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:40 a.m., the Philadelphia Archdiocese said. The cause of death has not yet been determined. He was in town for a meeting of the Catholic Bishops of Pennsylvania.

"That stinkin' curveball. " The comment came from a frustrated Archbishop Carroll supporter after Archbishop Wood's Scott Boches had recorded one of his seven strikeouts late in Tuesday's Catholic League Blue Division baseball game. The senior righthander mostly kept the host Patriots guessing with his tricky curveball, and with the aid of three home runs in a small ballpark, the Vikings triumphed, 7-3, in Radnor. "It's really been my 'out' pitch this season," Boches said.