Delaware Valley

There was a magical presence in the air at Lackawanna County Stadium last Thursday that wasn't present at Arlington Stadium in Texas. On the same night Texas Rangers pitcher Nolan Ryan lost a chance for his sixth career no-hitter on a one-out ninth-inning single by the Detroit Tigers' Dave Bergman, the Delaware Valley baseball team was attempting to gain a berth in the gold-medal round at the Keystone Games. There wasn't any Bergman in the Delaware Valley lineup, however. And all the magic was in the other team's dugout.

On the final day of the Keystone State Games, only two local soccer teams won gold medals - down from the five teams that won gold last year. The Delaware Valley open female team, with eight Archbishop Wood graduates on its roster, repeated as champion with a 2-1 overtime victory over Blue Mountain-Nittany. The Delaware Valley junior girls provided the other gold medal by unseating Philadelphia, the defending champion, 2-1. The open team's winning goal was scored by Jen Richart at 92 minutes.

Pitching and defense, as expected, were the strong points of the Delaware Valley scholastic baseball team when the Keystone State Games began on Wednesday. But both the coaches and the players were surprised by the potent hitting, which led the team to a gold medal. The offense was shaky in the first game, but was outstanding in the final three as the team outscored its opposition by a combined 35-6. Del Val defeated Capital, 12-2, yesterday afternoon for its second gold medal in the last three years.

Josh Tyler hit a three-run homer and scored four runs and John Leith pitched six-hit ball over six innings as Delaware Valley crushed Philadelphia, 19-3, at Lafayette College yesterday in the opening round of the scholastic baseball competition in the Keystone State Games. Delaware Valley took a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning by capitalizing on the wildness of Philadelphia starting pitcher Dave Miller. Ed Rush led off with a walk. After a fielder's choice, Tyler, from Upper Perkiomen High School, drew the second of seven walks that Miller would give up in his three-plus innings.

The Delaware Valley Region collegiate baseball team posted two victories yesterday to earn a berth in the gold-medal game at the Keystone State Games. Delaware Valley will face Allegheny for the gold at 1 p.m. today at Lehigh University. Curtis King had three hits and two RBIs and Jim Carbo earned the victory on the mound, leading Delaware Valley to a 7-4 triumph over Blue Mountain yesterday morning. King, who was 2 for 4 with an RBI, scored two runs in a 10-0 win over Pocono yesterday afternoon.

The Philadelphia and Delaware Valley baseball teams in the Keystone State Games opened play against each other yesterday, just like last year. And Chestnut Hill Academy's David Miller and West Chester East's John Leith were the starting pitchers, just like last year. The result, however, was nothing like last year. Riding the left arm of Miller, Philadelphia won, 5-3, at Allentown's Bicentennial Park, avenging a 20-3 defeat of a year ago. "I just wanted to get a little revenge," admitted Miller, who struck out seven and walked four.

A second-half charge helped Delaware Valley win a second consecutive gold medal in scholastic boys' basketball, but the region had to settle for silver in two other basketball divisions yesterday at the 15th annual Keystone State Games. The scholastic team trailed by as many as seven points in the second half, but rallied for a 104-100 victory over Capital. Matt Carroll, who will be a sophomore at Hatboro-Horsham, scored 12 of his team's first 16 points and finished with a team-high 23. Abington's Pete Dinkins added 19, and Academy of the New Church's Atiba Blalark had 15. Philadelphia defeated Great Lakes, 105-97, to take the bronze medal.

Upper Darby's Brad Scace pitched a one-hitter yesterday to lead the Delaware Valley junior baseball team past Philadelphia, 9-2, in the Keystone State Games. Scace struck out eight and walked four in the fifth-place contest, which was called after six innings because of rain. Father Judge's Mike DeVincentis had a double for Philadelphia's only hit. Matt Miller and Pat Igo, both of Garnet Valley, each had two hits for Delaware Valley. All scholastic and collegiate baseball games were postponed because of rain, which means the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley teams will be scheduled to play as many as three games today.

Area baseball players had a tough time on the first day of competition at the 12th annual Keystone State Games yesterday. In junior male baseball, the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley squads lost their first games of a round-robin tournament. The Philadelphia team fell to Allegheny, 5-4. Pitcher John Sforza of Archbishop Ryan gave up just two earned runs in going the distance. Father Judge's Tim Gavaghan hit a two-run single, and George Washington's Ric Mruk added a double and a single.

We're not going to embarrass the principals here by using their real names. Besides it's always much more fun in a case like this to disguise identities in order to implicate the innocent. In any event this story could involve any one of the 117 businesses and organizations that, unfortunately, have chosen to use the term Delaware Valley in their titles. Recently, a principal in that firm or organization was talking to someone in Milwaukee, gamely trying to explain just what, exactly, the Delaware Valley is. Is it in Delaware?

Tuesday's Results Boys' Basketball STATE CLASS AAAA PRELIMINARIES Seneca Valley 53, Mifflin County 33 Shaler 81, Erie-Strong Vincent 60 Obama Academy 56, Butler 54 Delaware Valley 15 9 8 14 7 - 53 Council Rock North 13 11 12 10 0 - 46 DV: Angradi 24, Decker 9, Fragola 10, Schor 10. CRN: Rip Engel 14, Arron Goodman 6, Brandon Knotts 2, Kyle McCloskey 6, Matt McCloskey 2, Aaron Morgan 16. ...

ALTHOUGH it is a for-profit private school, Delaware Valley High School is licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as an alternative-education private provider, funded by tax dollars and equipped for students with motivational or behavioral problems who have been discharged from traditional schools. DVHS was founded in 1969 as a private school for troubled kids. Its president, Philadelphia attorney David T. Shulick, took over in 1999, when state law was changed to allow school districts to contract with private companies to take in students with disciplinary problems.

President Obama's new budget, to be submitted to Congress Monday, includes $31 million for continued deepening of the Delaware River navigation channel, two members of Congress said Sunday night. Supporters say deepening the 102-mile channel by five feet will allow bigger ships - and greater commerce - between Philadelphia and Camden and the Atlantic Ocean. Pennsylvania Sen. Robert P. Casey and Rep. Robert A. Brady, both Democrats, said they had learned of the decision, which was to be made public Monday.

TRY AS HE MIGHT, LeBron James will never top Kobe Bryant. Sure, James and the Miami Heat elicited more than a fair amount of boos when they visited the Wells Fargo Center on Friday. But that will be nothing compared to the venom thrown at Bryant tonight when he and the Lakers make their annual visit to the place many in Philadelphia contend he erroneously claims is his hometown. When it comes to drawing the ire of the Delaware Valley - well, except for that township on the Main Line where Bryant is "truly" from - King James is a court jester compared to Kobe.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Fox settled their lawsuit late Tuesday night, removing an impediment to the sale of the bankrupt team. In a motion filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the Dodgers said they were abandoning their attempt to market future media rights and will adhere to their contract with Fox's Prime Ticket subsidiary, which kept intact its exclusive negotiating window from Oct. 15 through Nov. 30 this year. Fox Sports Net West, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., sued the Dodgers in September, claiming that owner Frank McCourt's attempt to sell media rights for 2014 and beyond violated its current broadcast agreement.

WHAT'S THE prevailing thought most folks have while lying back in a dentist's chair? You got it . . . This dude better not hurt me !! And then there's Karon Keene, who is clearly not most folks. When asked what thoughts bounce around inside his head, especially when the dentist is wielding one of those many instruments of pain, he shrugged and said, "I want to do this someday. " The 6-3, 185-pound Keene is a center for Strawberry Mansion High's basketball team and, yes, he hopes to become a dentist.

Usually the last line of defense, John Bass became the team's source of offense on Monday afternoon as Delaware Valley Friends downed visiting Wyncote, 4-2, in a Tri-County League soccer match. Starting at center forward, Bass scored three goals, plus another that was recorded as an own goal by Wyncote. The sophomore is in his first year at Del-Val and has been the Dragons' regular starting goalkeeper. Suburban One. Eric Vare found the net two minutes into overtime to lift Central Bucks East to a 2-1 win at Quakertown.

On the day a CNN anchor and an NBA exec made news for coming out, Christopher Jones stopped by to explain why he felt his school was no place to be openly gay. Jones had chosen Delaware Valley College in Doylestown for its equine studies. He was thinking of working with horses and autistic children after graduation. And he was unabashedly out. He'd informed his parents in a letter before his 17th birthday, a date he remembers because he's kept his father's text-message reply: "I LOVE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING!

Here's a quick look at this weekend's local college football games: The No. 8 ranked Delaware Valley Aggies will have their work cut out for them as they travel to No. 3 Wesley (2-0) Saturday. The Aggies, who have had an impressive start, face off against a Wesley squad that's been a dominant force, outscoring aponents 81-6 in their first two games. Delaware Valley (2-0) will look to their veterans to hold off the Wolverines. Mid Atlantic Conference Player of the Week, Senior QB Matt Hatty has been tremendous early racking up a 66.1 completion percentage with 3 touchdowns.