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Caroline Banas wins high jump to clinch at least share of division title for Holy Redeemer girls

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Insurer says child told Paterno in ‘76 Sandusky molested him

ALLENTOWN &#8212; Matt Wotherspoon could have have been nervous making his Triple-A debut for his hometown team on Thursday night.Sure there were butterflies, but that feeling was no different than the usual nervousness surrounding any outing.The Crestwood grad made quite an impression with the RailRiders at Coca-Cola Park, pitching two scoreless innings allowing just one walk and struck out two while finishing Scranton/Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s 10-1 victory over Lehigh Valley.&#8220;I&#8217;m just trying to do my thing out there and no matter what level I&#8217;m pitching at, I&#8217;m going to try to do what works for me,&#8221; said a calm Wotherspoon, who entered the game with SWB leading 10-1.&#8220;All I&#8217;m thinking about is attacking the strike zone when I&#8217;m coming into a baseball game, especially in that situation where we&#8217;re up a bunch. I&#8217;m trying to attack the strike zone, pitch to contact and just get outs.&#8221;Pitching in a game for the first time in six days after throwing four scoreless innings for Trenton on April 29, the right-hander needed to throw just 29 pitches (19 for strikes) to the seven batters he faced. Becoming the first pitcher from the Wyoming Valley Conference to ever pitch for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre franchise, Wotherspoon struck out the first batter he faced, Ryan Jackson needed seven pitches to do so. After walking Darnell Sweeney, the IronPigs leadoff hitter, he promptly fanned Cam Perkins and got one of Philadelphia&#8217;s top prospects Nick Williams to pop out to end the eighth inning.Wotherspoon went back to the mound for the ninth and had a 1-2-3 inning facing the Nos. 4, 5, 6 batters in Lehigh Valley&#8217;s lineup.&#8220;I think it&#8217;s just an extension of what I have been doing, just trying to pound the strike zone,&#8221; Wotherspoon said. &#8220;That last inning, faced a couple lefties, throwing sinkers, got some early contact &#8230; That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m trying to do just stay aggressive with the fastball and force them into contact.&#8221;Wotherspoon relieved Richard Bleier, who pitched his best game of the year in three appearances. The left-hander went seven innings allowing just one run. After giving up a run in the bottom of the first inning, he faced just two batters over the minimum over his last six innings. He tossed a season-high 93 pitches with just 30 of them going for balls. He walked just one and fanned four.&#8220;I was definitely happy I left it at one and didn&#8217;t let two other runs in,&#8221; said Bleier about the first inning when the IronPigs left two runners on base after getting their only run. &#8220;I knew going into the game, and the first inning that if I could get through the first inning it was going to be alright because I felt pretty good with my stuff.&#8221;Bleier and Wotherspoon were helped immensely by the offense.The bats got going in the top of the third inning, after the first two outs were recorded and with none on base. Pete Kozma led the charge with a single to right that just went under the glove of IronPigs first baseman Brock Stassi. Eight more SWB batters came to the plate after Kozma.The big blow was a moonshot, monstrous three-run homer by Aaron Judge giving the team a 3-1 lead. Judge&#8217;s fifth homer of the season was his second in as many games and third in his last five games. Nick Swisher added an RBI-double for the fourth run, and another run crossed the plate on a wild pitch.IronPigs starter Mark Appel was cruising until Kozma singled retiring the first eight batters of the game and striking out four. But after Kozma&#8217;s hit, he walked three, uncorked two wild pitches and allowed four more hits in the frame. And the RailRiders made him pay for the wildness sending 11 to the plate.&#8220;Once Pete got on base and got everything started, everything just kinda fell into place,&#8221; Judge said. &#8220;Mark&#8217;s a really good pitcher and has really good stuff, but just giving our hitters a second chance to see him, a lot of our guys were working long counts so we got to see all of his pitches. So I feel like once we were able to get around that second time, they got a pitch and tried to drive something.&#8221;SWB made the IronPigs pay again with two outs later in the game, in the sixth inning. The RailRiders also took advantage of more free passes when Gregory Infante hit Kozma and walked Judge. Then with two outs, Gary Sanchez pulled a homer just over the fence into the left field corner. The three-run shot put the RailRiders in front 8-1.Deibinson Romero joined in the home run fun in the seventh inning with a two-run homer. It was not only his first longball of the season, but also his first hit in 13 at-bats as the RailRiders took a 10-1 lead.The IronPigs went ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the first when Tommy Joseph singled in Darnell Sweeney with two outs off Bleier.RailRiders 10, IronPigs 1RailRiders`AB`R`H`BISolano 2b`4`1`1`0Judge lf`4`2`1`3Sanchez c`4`2`2`3Heathcott cf`5`1`1`0Swisher dh`5`0`1`1Refsnyder rf`4`0`1`0Parmelee 1b`3`1`0`0Romero 3b`4`1`1`2Kozma ss`3`2`1`0Totals`36`10`9`9Lehigh Valley`AB`R`H`BISweeney 2b`3`1`2`0Perkins lf` 4`0`0`0Williams cf`4`0`0`0Joseph dh/1b`4`0`2`1Knapp c`4`0`1`0Stassi 1b/p`3`0`1`0Hunter rf`3`0`0`0Nina 3b`3`0`0`0Jackson ss`3`0`0`0Totals`31`1`6`1RailRiders`005`003`200` &#8212; `10IronPigs `100`000`000`&#8212;`1LOB: IronPigs 5, RailRiders 5. DP: IronPigs 0, RailRiders 2. 2B: Swisher (2). HR: Judge (5), Sanchez (4), Romero (1). SB: Solano (1).RailRiders`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SOBleier (W, 1-0) `7.0`6`1`1`1`4Wotherspoon `2.0`0`0`0`1`2Lehigh Valley`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SOAppel (L, 3-1)`5.0`6`5`5`4`6Infante `2.0`3`5`5`1`0Garcia `1.0`0`0`0`0`0Stassi `1.0`0`0`0`0`2WP: Appel 2Balk: BleierHBP: Kozma (by Infante)Umpires: HP: Ryan Additon. 1B: Derek Mollica. 3B: Jansen ViscontiT: 2:25 Att: 7,373<style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Crestwood grad tossed two scoreless, hitless innings</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Dave Rosengrantdrosengrant@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>T.L. ExpressThe RailRiders scored 10 two-out runs to defeat the IronPigs 10-1 on Thursday night at Coca-Cola Park for their third straight victory. Crestwood grad Matt Wotherspoon made his Triple-A and RailRiders debut pitching two scoreless innings and finished the game.Today&#8217;s Game: The IronPigs host SWB at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown with a scheduled first pitch at 7:05 p.m.Today&#8217;s Probable Pitchers: RailRiders RHP Anthony Swarzak (1-3, 4.18) versus IronPigs lefty Alec Asher (1-0, 0.00)On Deck: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre returns home on Saturday for a 4:05 p.m. start against the IronPigs as part of a four-game, home-and-home series. Saturday&#8217;s game also begins a nine-game homestand at PNC Field, the longest homestand of the season.Riding the Rails: Outfielder Ben Gamel, the reigning International League Rookie of the Year, finally received a promotion to New York on Thursday. In a corresponding move, right-hander James Pazos was optioned from the Yankees to the RailRiders.On Radio: All RailRiders games can be heard live on The Game Radio Network (100.7-FM, 106.7-FM, 1340-AM, 1400-AM, 1440-AM) with John Sadak and Darren Headrick.HOW THEY SCOREDIRONPIGS FIRST: Darnell Sweeney singled and moved to second when Cam Perkins grounded out. Nick Williams grounded out, Sweeney to third. Tommy Joseph singled to score Sweeney. Andrew Knapp singled. Brock Stassi grounded out. IRONPIGS 1-0RAILRIDERS THIRD: Chris Parmelee popped out. Deibinson Romero struck out. Pete Kozma singled. Donovan Solano walked. The runners advanced on a wild pitch. Aaron Judge homered. Gary Sanchez singled. Slade Heathcott singled. Nick Swisher doubled to score Sanchez. Rob Refsnyder walked to load the bases. Heathcott scored and the runners advanced on a wild pitch. Parmelee walked to load the bases. Romero popped out. RAILRIDERS 5-1RAILRIDERS SIXTH: Romero flied out. Kozma was hit by a pitch. Solano flied out. Judge walked. Sanchez hit a three-run home run. Heathcott flied out. RAILRIDERS 8-1RAILRIDERS SEVENTH: Swisher flied out. Refsnyder singled. Parmelee reached on a fielder&#8217;s choice, Refsnyder out at second. Romero homered. Kozma flied out. RAILRIDERS 10-1</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Dave Rosengrant at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @tldrosengrant</shirttailMeta></div>

Crestwood grad Matt Wotherspoon debuts in SWB RailRiders blowout