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August 16, 2009

AAABA Sidelights | Boosters dominate awards

Anonymous The Tribune-Democrat Sun Aug 16, 2009, 11:33 PM EDT

In addition to winning the championship of the 65th annual AAABA Tournament, New Orleans dominated the post-tournament awards.

Boosters’ center fielder Lucas LeBlanc was named tournament MVP, right fielder Scott Fabre was the batting champion and shortstop Beau Boudreaux received co-RBI leader honors along with New Brunswick’s Steve Nappe.

LeBlanc batted .371 with

13 hits, including three doubles, three triples and a home run, scored 14 runs, drove in eight runs and was 9-for-9 in stolen bases.

“It means a whole lot (to be named MVP),” LeBlanc said.

“I’m really happy we won and this is just an added thing for me. Winning the title was

10 times better.”

Fabre was 13-for-26 for a .500 batting average with two doubles, two triples, seven runs scored and nine RBIs.

Boudreaux and Nappe, both wearing No. 13 for their respective teams, had 10 RBIs apiece.

The other award presented after Sunday’s championship was the sportsmanship trophy, which went to the third-place Bonnie Rams of Brooklyn.

•••

Proven winners: Johnstown’s Delweld (3-2) improved its all-time AAABA Tournament record to 16-10 while Chris DelSignore’s mark as the field manager now is 11-6.

Delweld has advanced to the tournament in 1999 (3-2), 2003 (5-2, national runner-up), 2007 (3-2), 2008 (2-2) and this year. DelSignore was an assistant coach to manager Ross Kott in 1999 and general manager of the team managed by Rick Roberts in 2008.

This was the first tournament appearance for Martella’s Pharmacy (2-2), but manager Chris Pfeil and his coaching staff had been there before in 2002

(3-2), 2004 (4-2) and 2005

(4-2) with the former Johns-

town Grays team. Pfeil’s record as a tournament manager is

13-8.

•••

Local ties: Delweld traditionally has had tournament success by utilizing a lot of the region’s talent.

This year, the roster included 14 players with roots to high schools in The Tribune-Democrat’s coverage area, while two others, Drew Westover (Flinton) and Andy Smithmyer (Altoona) reside nearby.

Players with ties to Pitt-Johnstown, Mount Aloysius and St. Francis add a local flavor.

“These kids grow up with this tournament,” DelSignore said.

“They’re the ones (as young children) on the dugouts when teams get eliminated asking for hats. They dream about playing in this and they know what they’re playing for all summer.

“It’s easy to bring an out-of-town kid in and he doesn’t get it sometimes. But these local guys, we’re going to roll with them as often as we can because there is local talent in this area. It speaks for itself.”

•••

No-no noteworthy: After Delweld’s Drew Shaulis pitched a no-hitter in Friday’s 4-1 win over Martella’s, he officially became the sixth hurler to toss a no-hitter in the tournament.

The AAABA Tournament record book had five players listed who had thrown “no-hit, no-run” games, with the most recent in 1973.

That led members of the media and statisticians to wonder if anyone else had thrown a no-hitter while allowing one or more runs.

AAABA National Committee member and historian Jim McElroy confirmed Saturday that no one else had a no-hitter while giving up a run.

That means the list of no-hitters includes: Shaulis; Joe Kerrigan/Charles Porter of Baltimore (20-0 over Newark in 1973); Bob Grossman of Washington (8-0 over Maryland State in 1969); Howie Stethers of Washington (8-0 over Baltimore in 1960); Arnold Umbach of Birmingham (5-0 over Johnstown Hahn Packing in 1960); and Hugh Waln of Washington (1-0 over Johnstown Lincoln Street Garage in 1950).

That means a Johnstown team has been on the right side of a no-hitter once but has been on the wrong side three times because Shaulis had his in an all-Johnstown matchup.

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