By Steve Smull
LVBL News
SALISBURY – Some of the core players of the 2020 Salisbury Falcons entry in the Lehigh Valley Baseball League (LVBL) played for Salisbury high school and won District XI 2A titles in 2011 and 2013. This group is hoping to start another run of championship trophies together in the LVBL. The Falcons (17-1) finished their inaugural season with a 9-2 win Sunday over the Alpha Braves (13-5) to sweep the best-of-3 Premier Division finals series.
Salisbury player/manager Brad Vangeli put together a team of ten Salisbury high school graduates, one current Salisbury high school player, and four other players from Lehigh Valley schools. One of those four players is Gabe Mosser, the former Parkland high school and Shippensburg University product, and current San Diego Padres minor league pitcher. Mosser would start Game 2 for the Falcons.
The Braves would make Mosser work during the top of the first. Alpha player/manager Zach Vegh singled up the middle to lead off the game. A ground ball to short looked like a double-play to many, but the first-base umpire disagreed, so that play ended up being a 6-4 fielder’s choice. After a strikeout, Mike Kromar stole second, and Collin O’Connor doubled to left-center on the next pitch to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. Chris George singled to rightfield, and Rick Vegh walked to load the bases. However, Mosser buckled down and got a strikeout to end the inning.
Mosser gave up three hits and threw 28 pitches in the top of the first. But he settled in quickly, allowing just three more hits on just 53 pitches over the final six innings.
The Falcons would get on the board in the bottom of the second. Dan Findlay doubled down the left-field line. He advanced to third base on a 4-3 putout. Nick Vangeli hit a slow roller down the third-base line for an infield single and an RBI to tie the game at 1-1.
Alpha grabbed the lead right back in the top of the third when Kromar hit the first pitch he saw for a home run that just cleared the fence in left field to give the Braves a 2-1 lead.
Salisbury then took control of the game in the bottom of the third. Quinn Warmkessel doubled to start the frame. Nic Ampietro reached on an error for his second straight at-bat to put runners on the corners with nobody out. After Ampietro stole second base, Tyler Tocci singled in both runners to give the Falcons a 3-2 lead. Tocci took second base on the throw home. After a pop-up and a groundout that advanced Tocci to third base, Brad Vangeli flared a single to right field to give Salisbury a 4-2 lead.
Bryan Schoch led off the bottom of the fourth with a single down the left-field line for the Falcons. CJ Tocci sacrificed Schoch to second base, and Sam Undercuffler singled home Schoch with a hard-hit base knock to left field to give Salisbury a 5-2 lead. The single was the first hit of the season for Undercuffler.
“He got his first hit of the year in the biggest game of the year,” said Falcons player/manager Brad Vangeli after the game. “He had two strikes on him against one of the best pitchers in the league. That was awesome to see.”
What was also awesome to see for Vangeli was how his team did not sit on their lead. The Falcons would score runs in each of their final five innings.
Justin Aungst was hit by a pitch to start the bottom of the fifth. An E-5 put runners on second and third. Brad Vangeli lifted a deep flyout to left-center for a sacrifice fly, and Salisbury led 6-2.
Brandon Black led off the bottom of the sixth with a single. After a couple of strikeouts, Tyler Tocci walked, which set the stage for Aungst to put an exclamation point on his stellar season and the game. Aungst blasted a 1-1 pitch well over the center-field fence for a three-run big fly to give the Falcons a 9-2 lead.
Mosser would sit the Braves down 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh on seven pitches to clinch the Premier Division championship.
“This was a good experience for me,” said Mosser. “I got some work in this summer. Pitching in a game is completely different than throwing bullpens. So throwing in this league was beneficial to me. I am thankful that this team gave me an opportunity to play here this summer. It was fun.”
“This is the longest that Gabe (Mosser) has gone all year,” said Salisbury player/manager Brad Vangeli. “He came back from a Saturday wedding this morning. We are thankful that he made the drive to get here. Gabe and Justin (Aungst) are the two best pitchers in the league, and we knew that coming into the season. And they proved it. Their strikeout-to-walk ratios are incredible, and both of their ERAs are under 1.60.”
Salisbury had their most consistent stretch of scoring runs during the playoffs. They hit well when it counted most.
A case in point is their catcher Quinn Warmkessel. He finished his season strong with five hits during the championship finals. No other player on either team had more than three hits.
“I knew I had to break out of a slump for the finals, so I decided to choke up on the bat and load earlier,” said Warmkessel. “It worked. Our team hit well in the postseason. We didn’t score less than seven runs a game during the playoffs.”
When asked to talk about his summer on this Salisbury team, Warmkessel said, “It’s a very different experience, but it’s a very good experience because I saw faster, more experienced pitchers. So when I transition back into high school baseball, I should be ready to hit anyone.”
“Warmkessel is a 17-year-old kid, but you would never know it by the way he hits the ball and handles the pitching staff,” said Brad Vangeli. “He is way beyond his years for a 17-year-old kid who is a senior in high school.”
Nic Ampietro, a Salisbury high school and Moravian College product, also had a positive experience this summer with the Falcons.
“This is my first winning season in this league,” said Ampietro. “So it was great to win the championship. And winning it with your friends makes it special. It is also nostalgic to play on your home field, where we won a couple of league championships in high school.”
“When we have this squad together, we tend to mesh well and win a lot of games,” continued Ampietro. “We haven’t missed a beat. We might not be as good as we were in the past, but we are still competing well against some good teams in this league.”
Brad Vangeli was happy to have a season after the global pandemic canceled numerous baseball leagues across the region and the nation.
“All the other leagues in the area were shut down,” said Vangeli. “Ron Cahill did a great job getting this league together. It was a shortened schedule, but we were all thankful just to be playing. We had a lot of doubleheaders.”
“We felt like we would get hot when we needed to, and we did that in the playoffs,” continued Vangeli. “The Braves made some errors again today, so we needed to take advantage of that, and we did. We have a great group of guys. This is probably the most fun I have had playing baseball since 2013 with a group of guys I have known for so long. Winning makes it a lot of fun, too.”
Asked about his plans for 2021, Vangeli said, “The majority of this team should be back to defend our title.”
