Announcement
JOHNSTOWN — This series had been anticipated, even predicted, by many since late May or early June.
The formalities are over. Defending playoff champion Delweld and current regular-season champ Martella’s Pharmacy will play Game 1 of the best-of-5 AAABA?League title series tonight at Point Stadium (7 p.m.).
“It seems like these two teams have been on a collision course all year,”?said Martella’s Pharmacy manager Chris Pfeil, whose team won the regular-season crown by three games over Delweld despite losing the season series between the teams, 5-4.
“Over the course of the season we separated ourselves from everybody else. It’s going to be a great series.”
Both top-seeded Martella’s and second-seeded Delweld swept their respective semifinal series against No. 4 Roxberry Creamery and No. 3 Berkley Hills Renegades.
“For the most part this thing was expected,” Delweld manager Chris DelSignore said. “It’s the series that we prepared for.
“We wouldn’t want it any other way. We definitely have a great deal of respect for each other on the field. These are two teams going after each other and trying to beat the other team. It’s highly competitive when we get out there between the lines.”
There are plenty of similarities beginning with the managers, who are two of the most recognizable and respected leaders in the local baseball scene.
Each man officially started in 1999, with Pfeil managing a fledgling Johnstown Grays franchise that eventually became Martella’s three years ago. DelSignore joined Delweld as the top assistant to manager Ross Kott when the team entered the league. DelSignore took the head job after Kott left. He briefly stepped aside to take a GM role in 2008 before returning to the field last summer.
DelSignore has managed AAABA?Tournament teams in 2003 – when Delweld advanced to the title round against Baltimore – 2007 and 2009.
Pfeil led the Grays to 231 wins in nine seasons, including AAABA?Tournament appearances in 2002, 2004 and 2005. He managed Martella’s in last year’s tournament as the Pharmacy replaced Washington D.C. in the 16-team field.
Since 2002, either Delweld (four times) or the Grays/Martella’s (three times as champ, once as runner-up) represented Johnstown in the AAABA?Tournament each year except 2006 (Principle Development).
Martella’s scored 40 runs in the nine games this season, one more than Delweld.
The teams produced co-Pete Vuckovich Award winners in Delweld’s Carter Lehman (8-0 including the playoffs) and Martella’s Scott Dixon (7-1 including the playoffs). Coincidentally, those two pitchers are tonight’s projected starters.
Martella’s Sam Watkins is the AAABA?League MVP, and Delweld’s Nate Plummer is the Bill Jenkins Award winner as top rookie pitcher. Martella’s Mike LeViseur won the league batting title with a .476 average.
“It has turned into a great rivalry,”?Pfeil said. “Both franchises have been very successful. Both of us have been in championship series seven of the last nine years.
“We’ve gone head to head. They bring out the best of us, and I think we bring out the best in them.”
Both teams have big-game players in the local league and players who have collegiate experience.
“Guys like George Roberts, Drew Westover, Matt Cornetti, Tyler Uphouse and Kody Reighard have been through this before,”?DelSignore said. “It’s important for the first-year guys to see it just is another baseball game and the stage isn’t too big for them. The new guys have adapted well to playoff baseball. It’s a been-there, done-that thing. It’s familiar territory this time of year.”
“Delweld has a lot of guys that have played in a lot of big games,”?Pfeil added.
“There is a great amount of poise in that dugout. They’re going to keep coming at you with their arms. One through nine in the order there’s not an easy out. Our pitchers are going to have to work and we have to play good defense behind them.”
Martella’s and Delweld have one other important similarity.
Both teams will advance to the AAABA?Tournament regardless of their playoff finish.
Johnstown will have two representatives in the tournament.
Martella’s secured a spot by winning the regular-season title. If Martella’s wins the playoff championship, then Delweld would be the second representative. Should Delweld win the playoff crown, then Martella’s would move on based on the regular-season title.
That doesn’t mean either team will lower the intensity level.
“I don’t think it changes either one of our approaches,”?Pfeil said. “First of all you have two very proud franchises. This is the team we measure ourselves against. This is the team that we wanted to play. They're the defending champions. I don’t think the fact that both of us are going to the tournament is going to affect the way the series is going to be played. I think both teams will go full-tilt after it.”
The playoff winner will be Johnstown’s official representative and will select its four pick-up players first. Martella’s and Delweld will not be permitted to pick up players from each other.
“For us second place is still the first loser,” said DelSignore, who was one of the local managers who opposed having two teams in the tournament. “It’s a multitude of different things. It’s a combination of wanting to be the host team but also to go out and try to beat Martella’s. It’s a competitive environment all the way around. You never want to head into a tournament on a sour note. You want to go into that tournament with a lot of momentum and try to play good baseball throughout the series.”
