Baseball / Angels looking for Premier promotion

Angels looking for Premier promotion

Date:  Source: Lehigh Valley Baseball League

By Steve Smull
LVBL News

LOWER NAZARETH -- Many baseball players have pregame superstitions incorporated into their pregame routines. 

Hall of Famer Wade Boggs of the Boston Red Sox was famous for eating chicken before every game. Boggs was obviously obsessive compulsive because he would also always take batting practice at 5:17 p.m. and run his pregame sprints at 7:17 p.m. before every night game in addition to eating a lot of chicken.  

Grant Hershman of the Lehigh Valley Angels in the Lehigh Valley Baseball League (LVBL) did not admit to eating chicken before every game, but he did say he throws a football as part of his pregame routine.

“I got up early this morning and started throwing the football around 8 a.m.,” Hershman said before his 11 a.m. start in Game 1 of the Angels doubleheader Sunday. “I like throwing the football before the game. It’s a heavier ball and it’s a different throwing motion. Doing this works different muscles that don’t get as loose throwing a baseball. It helps get that wrist pronation, too.”

Clearly his pregame routine is working early in the LVBL season as Hershman threw a no-hitter in Week One and followed that up with another gem in Week Two as he helped lead the Angels to a 4-1 win over the Nemesis in Game 1 of a twin bill.

Hershman had another no-no in the works through four innings Sunday before Joey Troxell of the Nemesis led off the top of the fifth with a line-drive single off the outstretched glove of the third baseman.

“I felt alright in the first inning, but something clicked in the second inning,” added Hershman. I felt like I was throwing harder than I usually do and locating well.”

Hershman issued his only bases on balls of the game in that first inning. However, after that “something clicked” for him, he struck out 10 batters over the next five innings and allowed only two hits during that span. Hershman admitted he was tiring a little bit in the seventh, where he surrendered three of his five hits. 

He lost his shutout with two outs in the seventh when Troxell battled his way through a six-pitch at-bat and lined an RBI single to left. Hershman finished with a five-hitter, striking out 11 in his complete-game performance. He threw 67 strikes in his 92-pitch effort.

“Grant is a very efficient pitcher,” said Player/Manager Thomas Bonilla after the game. “He threw a no-hitter in our opener and picked up where he left off today.”

Bonilla has high expectations for his Angels team in their inaugural season in the LVBL.

“Our goal is to win the championship this season,” Bonilla added. “I don’t want to be looking ahead to next year, but our goal is to earn a spot in the Premier Division in 2021. We are looking to make a statement in the AA Division this year in hopes of getting promoted to the Premier Division next year. We are holding ourselves to a high standard for the 2020 season.”

Caleb Gross, a Liberty High School product, who currently had an abbreviated freshman season at Scranton University, was the only player in the game to have an RBI and a run scored as he finished 1-for-2 with a walk. His college season ended after just seven games due to the pandemic. 

However, Gross hopes to have this summer season go the distance and he echoed Bonilla’s sentiments after the game about his team’s expectations for the 2020 season.

“We want to win,” Gross said. “We have eight pitchers who can all throw pretty well. So we expect to win a lot of games this season.”

Hershman, a Bethlehem Catholic High School product who is attending Lehigh, gave Bonilla a lot of credit for putting this talented squad together.

“Thomas did a good job assembling this team,” Hershman said. “He brought in a lot of talent from the area. We added several players from Liberty (high school) and our Wanderers legion team as we are replicating that Wanderers team a bit here.”

On the Nemesis side of the ledger, Troxell, a veteran of the Blue Mountain League (BML) and King’s College product, led the way going 2-for-2 with a walk and an RBI. 

During their seventh-inning rally, Drew Mclaughlin got things going with a one-out single and Connor Michel followed with a line-drive single to right. However, Mclaughlin was gunned down at third base as Connor Morro of the Angels threw a rocket from right-field to nab him for the second out. Michel hustled to second base on that putout. After a wild pitch, Troxell lined a single to left to score Michel for the lone Nemesis run.

Another notable performance from Team Nemesis came from their starting pitcher, Everett Horton.

Horton, an Emmaus High School product and upcoming sophomore at Penn State-Harrisburg, also saw his freshman season go down in flames after just 12 games due to the pandemic. 

After a slow start, Horton settled down and finished strong. He allowed infield singles to Gross and Justin Schmoyer before Sam Kraihanzel laced a pitch up in the zone for an RBI single to left to give the Angels a quick 1-0 lead just three batters into the game. 

However, after that, Horton struck out eight and only allowed two more hits in his five-inning stint. The two runs he allowed in the third inning were unearned.

“I felt good. My arm felt good today,” Horton said. “This was my first start in a while. I filled up the count to the first two batters, but then I just got into a flow. I managed to keep that flow and stayed in the strike zone.”

Despite some deep counts, Horton did not issue a walk in his five innings and kept Team Nemesis in the game. 

Team Nemesis are also a first-year squad in the LVBL in 2020, and despite being young, they have a lot of talent, losing two close games to start the season.

Troxell is the veteran player who played with Hellertown from the BML last year and he is the on-field leader of this team.

“Our goals here are to get guys time on the field,” Troxell said. “We want to get everyone at-bats and reps on the field. Anything beyond that is extra. We ask the guys what they are trying to work on for the summer and try and put them in a position to work on those things.”

Scott Stewart stepped up to manage this team at the last second as LVBL President Ron Cahill put this squad together just weeks before the season started.

“I want to make sure every player gets their playing time on this team,” Stewart said. “I want to make sure the players are going to play the positions that they are going to play in college or high school so they can prepare for their upcoming seasons.”

Stewart is also very familiar with the Angels roster.

“I know most of the players on the Angels,” Stewart said. “I knew Grant was going to come out and throw strikes. That’s what he does. We just didn’t get the bat on the ball (in Game 1).”

In Game 2 of this doubleheader, the Nemesis won 7-2 to get their first win to raise their record to 1-2. The Angels fell to 2-1 after that loss.