Baseball: Kingsway beat Delsea in 8 innings

By Phil Anastasia

As combatants in a classic pitcher's duel, Bryan Dobzanski and Jason Phillips might be the ultimate odd couple.

Dobzanski is 6-foot-4. The Delsea senior is a powerful right-hander whose best fastball touched 95 mph on the scouts' radar guns on Wednesday.

Phillips is 5-foot-9. The Kingsway senior is crafty left-hander who figures his fastest pitch might have approached 75 mph. Or maybe 70 mph.

"It's an honor just to pitch against him," Phillips said of Dobzanski, a Louisville recruit and the focus of attention for the 10 or so scouts who stood in the trees behind the backstop with their radar guns and notebooks.

Kingsway beat Delsea 1-0 in a Tri-County Royal Division game in eight innings although neither Phillips nor Dobzanski figured in the decision.

But they dominated the action.

Making his first start of the season, Dobzanski was nothing short of sensational. He didn't allow a hit or walk in five innings of work. He struck out 11.

"I was happy with how I threw," Dobzanski said. "It was a good first start. I was getting that first strike, getting ahead in the count."

Dobzanski, a two-time state wrestling champion, said he relished the opportunity to pitch in front of scouts.

"I enjoy it -- all eyes on me," Dobzanski said.

Dobzanski mixed a blazing fastball that never dipped below 90 mph with a sharp curve. He faced just two batters over the minimum, with both base-runners reaching on infield errors.

He threw 73 pitches, 51 for strikes.

"It didn't feel like I threw 70 pitches," Dobzanski said.

Phillips (pictured) went seven innings, allowing two hits and walking one. He struck out five and got some sturdy support from Kingsway's defense, especially shortstop Garrett Hoagland (five assists).

Phillips said he threw four different pitches, but none with much velocity. He relied on location, movement and variety.

"He's a little more known than me," Phillips said of Dobzanski. "I just went out there and did what I could."

Both pitchers were done for the day when Kingsway pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the eighth. The rally started with an infield error, featured a bunt single by Hoagland and culminated with Matt Lesyk's walk-off RBI infield single.

But it was the big right-hander and the little left-hander who set the stage for a game that rumbled into extra innings with no score.

"You've got the flame-throwing right-hander and the pinpoint, change-speeds, crafty lefty," Kingsway coach Ian Enders. "They couldn't be less similar. It was amazing."

Delsea 000 000 00 -- 0 2 3

Kingsway 000 000 01 -- 1 2 1

WP: Ryan Lee. LP: Eli Helsel.

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