Wednesday, April 2, 2003

By Vincent Lewis
SJSports Staff Writer

It was an inning that Audubon wanted to forget, but one to remember for the Panthers baseball team from Collingswood High School. Trailing by a run after the first inning, Collingswood’s bats came alive breaking open their Colonial Conference game against last year’s South Jersey Group 2 champions. The Panthers scored nine runs in the second inning and then eight more runs to end this game early. Both Roy DiLiberto and Chris Brown hammered three run homeruns to highlight Collingswood’s 20-8 victory against Audubon.

So far this season, Audubon has stumbled out of the gate losing their first two games at home. The Green Wave lost their opener against Haddonfield and were looking to turn things around quickly. They will look to pick up their first win of the 2003 season at Gateway on Friday, as they will take on the Gators. Collingswood on the other hand have started out strong. The Panthers were scheduled to open their season with three straight road games before hosting their home opener against Haddon Heights. They defeated Lindenwold to earn their first victory of the season.

The way things started out in this game, it seemed as if it would be a pitcher’s nightmare. Starting pitcher Zack Akers would watch his pitching opponent struggle in the first inning as the Panthers’ Chris Brown hit a three run homer. Audubon would respond as they greeted Akers rudely as Joe Flacco led off the inning with a solo home run. Audubon continued to score as they sent nine batters to the plate taking a 4-3 lead after one inning. Collingswood would give Akers a ton of issue runs in the next inning.

Sending twelve batters to the plate that was highlighted with seven consecutive batters reaching base, Collingswood scored nine runs re-taking a 12-4 lead. The Panthers would continue to build on their lead as DiLiberto reached on base his first three at bats including a three run shot in the third inning. Collingswood would end this game early as they built a comfortable lead to pick up the win.