Mounts Bolstered by Returning All Stars

Chicks dig the long ball.

Or so we were told in those late '90s Nike commercials featuring Braves' aces Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine.

And as much as reigning Lancaster-Lebanon League champion Ephrata would like add to more glamour, glitter and gloss to their game by going yard, by scraping the sky over War Memorial Field with rain-inducing drives, muscling the ball is just not the Mountaineers' style.
 

"As much as they'd like to carry themselves as the Gashouse Gorillas and hit the ball over the fence, while it's sexy, it's not realistic because we play in one of the bigger parks in the league," said longtime skipper Adrian Shelley, now in his 14th season at the wheel of the Mounts' program.

"The type of team we are currently is the team we need to embrace. We're opportunity-seekers. Our style of play the last couple of years is that we hang around and nip at your heels."

Ephrata's scrape-and-scrap style may be best personified by Paul Larusso.

The 5-foot-5, 150-pound sophomore shortstop claimed the starting position last season. In the process, he continued the team's recent run of freshmen starters in the middle infield.

Three years ago, Mark Lowrie, who now mans the Mounts' hot corner, was a freshman starter at short. At the time, he teamed with then-freshman second baseman Brok Martin. The latter still starts at second and, according to Shelley, projects out to start every game of his high school career.

Before Larusso and Lowrie there was Reid Martin and Shaun Hagy, a pair of sterling shortstops who started as freshmen. Martin was an all-star on a pair of section title teams and currently plays for Alvernia University.

Hagy helped lead Ephrata to its first L-L title in 2003 and played Division I baseball at Rhode Island.

"We're always trying to infuse younger guys into the system," Shelley said. "I see no reason to keep a kid on the JV team as a ninth grader if he can compete on the varsity level. And if I do bring him up, he'll play."

The careers of Hagy, Reid Martin and Brok Martin, Lowrie and now Larusso are proof of that.

What sets the latter apart from other freshmen in the L-L Baseball League is what Shelley calls Larusso's "special hands."

Said Shelley, "He's got quick hands, D-I hands. His hands are already at the level where we aren't going to improve him much."

Happily for the Mounts, Larusso is likely to improve on his own.

"He loves the game," Shelley said. "It's the only sport he plays."

Larusso showed early last season that he not only had the skill to start on the varsity, he also had the will.

"He's a quiet kid but he has the demeanor to play at this level," Shelley said. "He showed he was not going to back down from the competition.

"Paul was one of the reasons we were able to compete for the section and league titles. He's very steady and will make a highlight play or two. He has room to improve, especially at the plate, but he's a special player."

The Mounts have a few of those. Their starting lineup for today's L-L opener at War Memorial against Solanco looks like the one they put on the field at Clipper Magazine Stadium for the L-L championship game against Manheim Central last May.

Tim Murray, the left fielder and leadoff hitter, is one of five L-L all-stars Shelley will put on the diamond. First baseman Andre Hoover and second baseman Brok Martin give Ephrata an all-star tandem on the right side of their infield. The latter, an all-league star, bats cleanup.

Designated hitter Branden Rutt and southpaw hurler Dusten Rutt complete the champs' list of returning stars.

"I think the thing that has to be managed at this point is that everybody is aware of your status -- from opponents to supporters -- and that creates expectations," Shelley said.

"Not that we haven't had that respect before. But it precedes you into the ballpark. We're not going to sneak up on anybody. We're going to have to punch them in the nose early."

Sounds like the Mounts might be muscling up after all.