Yes, a baseball score: DeMatha 29, Pallotti 1

By David Driver
Posted: March 19, 2010

On Thursday afternoon the Notre Dame basketball team was upset, 51-50, on the first day of March Madness by Old Dominion University, which is a member of that giant-killer of a league (remember George Mason?) named the Colonial Athletic Association. “We defended like heck to keep giving ourselves a chance to win,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey told reporters after the game. “We couldn’t get two offensive possessions in a row to kind of give us a little bit of confidence.”

Brey’s alma mater, DeMatha Catholic High in Hyattsville, had a much better offense a few hours later at the Riverdale Rec Center in Prince George’s County. The Stags’ baseball team began its season with a 29-1 victory against St. Vincent Pallotti of Laurel in a non-league game. It was a beautiful day for baseball — and a great day for hitting. The Stags hit three long homers and the 29 runs was seven more points than the Irish scored in the second half of their loss to ODU, which happened to have 29 points after intermission in the win over Notre Dame.

DeMatha, which hosts powerhouse Calvert Hall on March 25, is one of the top baseball programs in the region. Pallotti coach Pat Courtemanche, whose team is in the B Conference of the MIAA, said after the game: “Everyone wants to be like DeMatha. It is a great program. You have to play the best to be the best. We are a very young team. We had six errors. You can’t do that against a team like DeMatha.” It was the second game of the season for Pallotti.

Pallotti senior and North Laurel resident Mark Piccirelli, who played two years at Hammond High before transferring, started for the Panthers but was replaced in the second: “If that was their first game, I would like to see them at the end of the year. DeMatha is always a good team. You never know what you are going to do against them,” said Piccirelli, one of the top hitters for Pallotti last season.

Rob Hughes, who started at first base for Pallotti, came on to pitch during the second inning. DeMatha led, 14-0, after two innings in a game that was stopped after Pallotti batted in the top of the fifth. “We lost a few guys (to graduation), but I think we have the talent to make that up. We just need to focus and build our team chemistry,” said Hughes, a Howard County resident.

Comment on this entry • No responses

Plenty of local players in March Madness

By David Driver
Posted: March 18, 2010

Among the Prince George’s County products in the NBA are Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City), Michael Beasley (Miami) and Ty Lawson (Denver). But the future is also bright a step lower. The all-rookie team in the Atlantic 10 Conference was announced last week and two are from Prince George’s: freshmen Chris Braswell (Capitol Heights) of Charlotte and George Washington’s Lasan Kromah (Greenbelt), who played at Eleanor Roosevelt in the tough Class 4A Prince George’s league. Kromah had 18 points on Tuesday as GW ended its season at home with a loss to VCU in the first round of the CBI tournament.

Another local player in the Atlantic 10 is Rafael DeLeon, a senior reserve from District Heights who plays at league champ Temple. The Owls open play Thursday at 12:30 p.m. against Cornell in the NCAA tournament. The Temple women will face James Madison on Sunday in the NCAA tournament in Norfolk, Va. LaKeisha Eaddy, a former River Hill standout, is a senior guard for Temple and averages 8.7 points per game. The Temple-JMU winner most likely will face powerhouse UConn, which plays Southern in the first round, on Tuesday in Norfolk. Another River Hill product at the Division I level is Brittany Gordon, a junior who averaged 6.4 points per game this season at Virginia Tech.

David Potter, who played at Laurel High before transferring to the IMG Academy in Florida, is a senior starter for Clemson. The Tigers will face Missouri on Friday in March Madness. Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell, a Maryland native, and associate head coach Ron Bradley are both former assistant coaches at the University of Maryland. Former Laurel High standout Aaron Gill played for Bradley at Radford University.

Speaking of the Atlantic 10, former River Hill High standout Kevin Steenberge must be happy for his alma mater, the University of Richmond. The Spiders were ranked in the top 25 nationally earlier this season and will face St. Mary’s on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. Richmond made the league title game and was among the top teams in the A-10 in regular-season play but are a No. 7 seed, which seems low. Steenberge has played pro ball this season in Japan after earlier gigs in Spain, Poland and The Netherlands. “Every country has been unique, and I have certainly had a ton of fun in them all,” he wrote from Japan recently. “I would have to say the most rewarding has been Japan, with Holland in a close second.” He had a season-high 15 points in a game on March 14.

It also is worth noting that the career of George Mason senior Louis Birdsong, a former Mt. St. Joseph standout, came to an end in dramatic fashion on Tuesday night in Northern Virginia. The Patriots, playing at home against Fairfield in the CollegeInsider.com tournament, were leading by 27 points in the second half before the visiting Stags came back and forced overtime on a long 3-pointer with less than a second to go in regulation. Fairfield then won in overtime, 101-96, in what published reports are calling the biggest comeback in NCAA postseason history. Birdsong, who worked out regularly at the Columbia Sports Center while in high school, came off the bench and had four points and three rebounds in 14 minutes.

Earlier in the day Mason announced that all-league player Cam Long would miss the game because of a suspension and the school also announced 6-7 freshman Kevin Foster plans to transfer to be closer to his home in Florida. That could mean even more playing time next season for Jonathan Arledge, a senior center for the KIMA charter school that plays some of its home games at the Laurel Boys and Girls Club. Arledge, a center, turned down offers from Georgetown and other schools to sign with Mason. He is a former student at Meade High.

Comment on this entry • No responses

Towson AD: No extension for coach Kennedy

By David Driver
Posted: March 12, 2010

Pat Kennedy, who just finished his sixth season as the men’s basketball coach at Towson University, has a record of 68-117 with the Tigers. His team was 10-21 this season after being eliminated March 6 in the second day of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament in Richmond to eventual champ Old Dominion. Kennedy has one year left on his contract, and Towson athletic director Mike Hermann told me Thursday night he does not plan to extend that deal or make a coaching change before next season.

“We are disappointed with the finish. Any time you have 20 losses (in regular-season play) and end up with 21, that is not acceptable,” said Hermann, who was in Harrisonburg, Va., to watch the Towson women fall to UNC-Wilmington, 50-30, in the CAA tournament. “We played some of our best basketball in February and into March. That is really what you want to be doing. They have some very good recruits coming in. I think the future is brighter for them.”

But what about the status of Kennedy, who also coached at Iona, Florida State, DePaul and Montana before coming to Towson in 2004? It should be noted Hermann, who became the Towson athletic director in 2006, did not hire Kennedy. It also should be pointed out that buying out or “eating” a contract during these economic times, even at a mid-major program such as Towson, would be a hard sell at a state school.

“We will play it out and see what happens. I don’t think there will be a change. I just think we need to play it out and see what happens.”

Is there any chance Kennedy would get an extension before next season? “I don’t think there will be,” Hermann said.

Kennedy’s overall mark is 484-428 in 30 seasons at the Division I level. He was 124-60 at Iona, 202-131 at Florida State, 67-85 at DePaul and 23-35 at Montana.

Comment on this entry • No responses

The good, the bad and the ugly for Howard products

By David Driver
Posted: March 12, 2010

On Wednesday night, Haliena Snowden, a Howard County resident, was named all-academic honorable mention in the Colonial Athletic Association. Less than 24 hours later her college career was over at Towson University. Talk about the good, the bad and the ugly.

Snowden and the Tigers, who beat Maryland, CAA regular-season champ Old Dominion and defending CAA champ Drexel this season, made just five of 28 shots from the field in the first half and shot 21.4 percent for the game in a 50-30 loss to No. 10-seeded UNC-Wilmington in the first round of the CAA women’s tourney at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. Towson, the No. 7 seed, set a CAA tourney record for fewest points in a game.

Snowden, a North Laurel resident and starting senior forward, had 6 points and 3 rebounds but had 7 turnovers and made just 2 of 12 shots from the field. “The shots, they just didn’t fall,” Snowden, a Seton Keough graduate, said after the game.

Laurel High graduate Kandace Davis, another starting senior forward for Towson, had two points and six rebounds in her last college game. Said Towson coach Joe Mathews, who won two games at Towson in his first season in 2001-02: “I am really perplexed and disappointed with our performance tonight. We could not get a shot to fall.” Towson ends the season 15-15 overall.

UNC-Wilmington will play Friday at 5 p.m. against host and second-seeded JMU. “It is a great challenge for us. The atmosphere will be great because they have a great fan base,” said Ann Hancock, the UNC-Wilmington coach.

It was a much more relaxing day for former Mt. Hebron star Amy Mallon, the associate head coach for Drexel and a member of the Howard County athletic Hall of Fame. Last year at JMU the Dragons beat the host school in the tourney title game and earned a berth in March Madness. This season Drexel is the No. 4 seed and will play Friday at 2:30 p.m. against the No. 5 seed, Delaware, which beat George Mason in the first round Thursday.

The Blue Hens are led by rookie and player of the year Elena Delle Donne, a former University of Connecticut recruit who averaged 26.9 points per game in regular-season play and scored 54 points — yes, 54 — in a game at JMU in February. Mallon was busy scouting the Delaware-George Mason game Thursday, trying to figure out a way to slow down Delle Donne, who scored 58 points in two games this season against Drexel.

Other Baltimore-area players in the CAA tourney include Northeastern senior Kim Carr (Woodlawn High), Delaware redshirt freshman Danielle Parker (Dulaney High), Drexel sophomore Tyler Hale (Towson Catholic), Drexel sophomore Ayana Lee (Seton Keough) and Drexel freshman Ashley Davis (Arundel High). Carr had nine points Thursday as Northeastern beat Georgia State, 46-42. The Huskies will play top-seeded ODU on Friday at noon. Parker had seven points and six rebounds for Delaware in the win over Mason. The CAA title game is Sunday, with the winner getting an automatic bid to the national tourney.

Comment on this entry • No responses

Atholton grad gets a hit in spring training

By David Driver
Posted: March 11, 2010

Most, or make that all, of the hype regarding young prospects in the Washington Nationals system has centered on Stephen Strasburg, the pitcher who threw two scoreless innings on Tuesday in his first spring training game. But a former high school player from Howard County also had his time in the Florida sun a few days earlier for the Nationals, though he got little attention for his efforts.

What makes the debut of Fulton’s Steve Lombardozzi, who graduated from Atholton High School, interesting is that unlike Strasburg, the second baseman has been around pro baseball nearly his whole life. His father, also named Steve, was a second baseman for the Twins who hit .412 in the 1987 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. The younger Steve was born nearly a year later. Then, after a season at St. Petersburg Junior College following high school, he was drafted by the Nationals in the 19th round in 2008.

The younger Lombardozzi had been working with minor league players in Viera, Fla., when he was summoned to join the Nats for a split-squad spring training game March 4 in Jupiter against the Florida Marlins. He entered the game in the sixth inning and then came to bat in the eighth against left-handed reliever Dan Meyer, a former pitcher at James Madison was among the most effective lefties out of the bullpen last year in the National League. But Lombardozzi drove in a run with a hit in a 10-4 loss. It was his first at-bat in a major league spring training game.

“First pitch,” he said of the hit. “I was pretty nervous. When I was standing on first it was a very cool feeling, thinking of family listening to the game online. It was pretty cool. It was unreal. I still really can’t believe it. It was awesome to be out there with big leaguers.”

His father is in his first season as the infield coordinator for the minor league department of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Lombardozzi begins this year as the No. 28 prospect in the Nationals’ system, according to Baseball America. You can guess who is No. 1. In fact, Lombardozzi, who hit .296 at low Class A Hagerstown in the South Atlantic League last year, could find himself on the same team with Strasburg when the minor league season begins April 8. They could both be with the Potomac Nationals in Woodbridge, Va., in the high Class A Carolina League. “I am trying to have a great spring training and see where they place me,” Lombardozzi said.

He has already taken a step in the right direction.

Comment on this entry • No responses