Haydel, Beerbohm pace NORD Boosters

By ERIC KNOPSNYDER  (REPRINTED)
The Tribune-Democrat

After suffering through the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and a season of scrambling to find games, New Orleans’ manager Joe Scheuermann was anxious to finally start the AAABA Tournament.

So anxious, in fact, that the Boosters’ game with Maryland State at Franklin Field on Monday began nearly 10 minutes before the scheduled noon start.

“I think everybody was kind of biting at the bit,” Scheuermann said. “They were ready, we were ready and the umpires were ready. And they were talking about rain, so we figured we might as well get started.”

Lee Haydel and Kyle Beerbohm made sure that it was a good start, as New Orleans beat Maryland State 7-2 in their opening-round game.

Haydel led off the game with a double and scored on Mike Hollander’s base hit to left. Haydel, a speedster who helped New Orleans beat the Johnstown Grays with a crucial bunt in last year’s tournament, had three hits, two RBIs and scored twice on Monday.

“Haydel ought to move to Johnstown. He looks like a big leaguer when he plays up here,” Scheuermann said with a laugh. “No, he’s a nice player. He’s got some skills. He stirs the drink. When he gets on base, we’re a pretty good club.”

New Orleans is also a pretty good club with Beerbohm on the mound. The left-hander, who plans to pitch for Louisiana State next season, gave up just four hits and two unearned runs in 6 1/3 innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out two before leaving with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand.

“He was trying to hide it from me, but I’ve seen him pitch for two years now and I know there was something going on,” Scheuermann said.

Beerbohm, who had faced teams using aluminum bats all summer, was happy to be going up against players wielding the more pitcher-friendly wooden variety.

“It feels great to face a wooden bat, finally,” he said. “Everything seemed to be working pretty good and I was able to keep them off balance.”

Maryland State threatened to tie the game in the seventh. Trailing 3-1, Joe Velleggia led off with a single and Patrick Nolan hit what Maryland State manager Dave Caplan initially thought was a game-tying two-run homer. Instead, it was caught by Haydel in left-center field, between the signs marking 380 and 390 feet.

“When it first left the bat, I did think it was gone,” Caplan said. “ It carried pretty well, but for some reason, it just stopped. I think if he had pulled it a hair toward left field, it was a tie ballgame.”

After Brett Caplan singled off Beerbohm, reliever Greg Chiles got Nick Natoli to hit a grounder to third baseman Craig Wescott. The ball skipped off Wescott’s glove, trickled past Hollander at shortstop and somehow made it into left field, scoring Caplan.

Chiles got out of the inning by getting David Walters to fly out and striking out Wade Keenan. Chiles pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings for the save.

Maryland State’s first run came on Nolan’s two-out triple, which scored Matt Anuszewski.

After giving up a two-run double to Drew Allain in the third, Maryland State starter Chris Prescott held New Orleans in check until the eighth inning. He left after giving up a one-out hit to Matt Gaudet and walking Andrew Hickman. Keenan relieved and gave up a two-run doubles to Kyle Roth and Haydel.

New Orleans will face Brooklyn today while Maryland State takes on Lansing in the loser’s bracket.