North Pocono at Jersey Shore box score, June 4, 2012
I found the first scorebook I used on the baseball beat the other day, still opened to the last game of that season: a PIAA Class AAA first-round game between District 2 champ North Pocono and District 4 champ Jersey Shore on June 4, 2012. No doubt, this was one of the weirdest, or maybe most puzzling, games I’ve covered. The Trojans offense that season was the best I’ve seen since I’ve been on the beat – hitters with pop up and down the lineup. But Jersey Shore went on to win the game, and for whatever reason, this game remains up there with the most memorable I’ve witnessed. So, let’s take another look at it.
The matchup
North Pocono was an offensive juggernaut in 2012. The Trojans scored 178 runs in 18 games. Ten times they scored more than 10 runs in a game, and eight of those times they scored more than 13 runs. They routed Berwick, 10-0, in the District 2 championship, the program’s first title.
- Six starters batted .400 or better: Ray Grapsy (.459), Billy Nelson (.415), Joe Kaspar (.412), Randy Darrow (.409), Justin Haddix (.407) and Joey Runco (.400). This was the first year the PIAA required teams use BBCOR bats, and as we’ve seen since, .400 is not an easy number to reach.
- Five players drove in more than 15 runs — Grapsy (29), Nelson (28), Kaspar, Runco and Adam Misiura (15 each).
- Four scored more than 20 runs: Runco (32), Grapsy and Nelson (22 each) and Haddix (21).
- Grapsy and Nelson combined to hit 14 home runs
- With Billy Nelson, Nick Jaggars and James Brown on the roster, the Trojans were a few letter additions and subtractions away from having Willie Nelson, Mick Jagger and James Brown on the team. That would have been a musical powerhouse of a lineup.
Jersey Shore entered the game as back-to-back District 4 champion. Tellef Notevarp tossed an eight-hit shutout in the district final.
The showdown was part of a doubleheader at Bowman Field in Williamsport and was originally scheduled to have a 6:30 p.m. start, but a rain delay in the earlier game pushed first pitch to 8:21 p.m. The teams were waiting in the stands for a very, very long time. That was the first part of the weirdness. With so much standing around, the playoff energy slowly drained.
The game
Notevarp started against Nelson. Nelson held his own, working around a leadoff double to pitch six innings with only one earned run against his record. He allowed three hits, struck out eight and walked two.
NP: North Pocono able to work around the double as Nelson gets a ground out and two strikeouts, including one on a knee-buckling curve.
— Times-Tribune sports (@sportsTT) June 5, 2012
NP: Easy three-up, three-down second inning for Nelson, who ends the frame with another strikeout.
— Times-Tribune sports (@sportsTT) June 5, 2012
NP: Lucky for North Pocono, Billy Nelson is sharp. Five strikeouts through three innings. #pitchersduel
— Times-Tribune sports (@sportsTT) June 5, 2012
NP: Billy Nelson is fired up. Makes back-to-back gold glove plays to start the fourth, then end the inning with his sixth strikeout.
— Times-Tribune sports (@sportsTT) June 5, 2012
But Notevarp managed to do something only one other pitcher had accomplished against North Pocono that season: beat the Trojans. The crafty righty faced the minimum through three innings, five batters in the fourth (he walked Runco, who went on to steal second and third, and hit Nelson with a pitch), and then faced the minimum over the last three innings. North Pocono’s only hit came with one out in the seventh — a single by Grapsy. North Pocono worked counts and hit some balls hard, but they found defenders. Jersey Shore won, 2-0.
NP: Jersey Shore starter Tellef Notevarp looks sharp early. Three strikeouts — all swinging — through two innings.
— Times-Tribune sports (@sportsTT) June 5, 2012
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NP: Jersey Shore’s Notevarp holds set. Strikes out the side in the top of the fifth. Seven Ks for him so far. — Times-Tribune sports (@sportsTT) June 5, 2012
NP: Notevarp posts another 1-2-3 inning. The Trojans are quickly down to their final three outs, but Nelson, Grapsy and Kaspar are due up. — Times-Tribune sports (@sportsTT) June 5, 2012
NP: North Pocono has four base runners tonight. Three via walks, one HBP. Three outs to go, no hits against Notevarp.
— Times-Tribune sports (@sportsTT) June 5, 2012
Digging deeper
- Notevarp struck out seven. It tied for the fourth-most strikeouts against North Pocono that season. Across the three games where the Trojans struck out more than seven times, they scored 33 runs.
- Notevarp walked three, only the fourth game that year where North Pocono failed to walk more than three times.
- North Pocono scored fewer than six runs for only the third time. The other games: a 12-1, five-inning loss to Scranton Prep, and a 2-1 win over Scranton, in which they were no-hit by Joe McCarthy and DJ Navoczynski. Like the game against Jersey Shore, the one against the Knights was also a night game.
- North Pocono hasn’t taken the shutout lightly. Since the Jersey Shore game (45 games), the Trojans have been shut out only three times: Against Valley View in 2013 by John and Max Kranick; against Dave Manasek and Abington Heights in 2014; and in a no-hitter by Scranton’s Jack Kelly in 2015. Pretty impressive run of offense for North Pocono.
- Jersey Shore is 1-2 against District 2 (three games against Abington Heights) since the game. All three games have been decided by one run.
I’ll try to revisit more random games from my scorebooks every week during the offseason. Stay tuned.