Inter-Ac/Independent routed by Sub. National/Bicentennial

Chris O'Brien starred in basketball at La Salle High (class of '81) and Drexel University.

If you're wondering which sport is favored by his son, who's also named Chris, the answer is . . . Anything but!

Chris the son is a 6-foot, 185-pound junior lefthander at Malvern Prep, and yesterday morning, at Richie Ashburn Field, he experienced the big-time downer of playing for an Inter-Ac/Independent team that was sliced and diced, not to mention, drawn and quartered, 18-0, by Suburban One League National/Bicentennial in the first round of the annual 25th Carpenter Cup Classic.

Soon, he'll begin preparations for his final football season, which will see him start at strong safety and perhaps play running back.

Hey, what happened to hoops?

"My dad encouraged me to quit," Chris said, laughing. "He was, like, 'I think you need to give this up.' "

He added: "I was in the fifth grade, playing in a summer league game, he was the coach, we only had six players there, and I fouled out in the first quarter. He kind of knew that sport wasn't for me. I was a little too aggressive.

"You'd figure he would push me to play, but, nah, that wasn't the case. I'd already fallen in love with baseball by then, anyway."

When O'Brien strolled to the mound yesterday, it was somewhat surprising that no one had to shove him. With only one out in the second inning, the score was already 9-0 and Suburban had sent rockets to all locales against Villanova-bound righthander Matt Lengel (Haverford School).

The Drexel Hill resident restored order with a strikeout and fielder's choice. Overall, he worked 2 innings, allowing two hits and as many runs (one earned), while striking out two. One of his more effective pitches was a knuckle-curve.

"I was just going out there to try to stop the bleeding," he said. "It was almost like the game was over, anyway. I just wanted to have fun and get some innings in."

And threaten the world record for least amount of time between pitches.

"I like to keep a good tempo," he said. "I like to stay on top of the hitters. Make it feel like I'm attacking them."

Through eight innings, I-A/Indy owned only one hit, a third-inning single by Vince Rondolone (Haverford School). With one away in the ninth, Nick Bateman (Malvern) guided a one-out single to right and moved up on a balk. There was anticipatory glee in the dugout as Andrew Amaro (Penn Charter, nephew of Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro) singled to center, but . . . Mike Tentilucci (Council Rock North) gunned down Bateman at the plate.

Suburban amassed 19 hits, six for extra bases. The losers were charged with seven errors, and lenient scoring decisions prevented several more.

Sons/nephews of former city leagues stalwarts did much of the damage. Holy Ghost Prep's Greg Olenski Jr. (dad: basketball at Cardinal Dougherty) went 3-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI. Council Rock South's Jerry Mulderig (uncle Kyle: baseball at Father Judge) went 2-for-2 with a homer and sacrifice fly for three RBI. CR North's Tim Filer (father Bob: basketball/baseball at Archbishop Ryan; uncle Tom pitched in the majors) went 2-for-3 with a triple. CR South's Bill Fleming Jr. (dad: football/baseball at Frankford) singled and scored a run. Oh, and assistant Dan Kusters (coach at CR North) was a first-magnitude pitcher/hitter at Archbishop Wood.

The Inter-Ac routinely sends players to Division I programs, and even to pro ball (three current/former players were drafted last week), but this was the tournament's biggest shutout win and the third-most lopsided contest, behind 22-2 and 27-8 frolickings.

"We have some talented kids," O'Brien noted. "I sure thought we'd do better than this. But they attacked our pitchers and kept us from getting anything going."

As the game progressed, the question became, "Will Chris O'Brien Sr. really sing 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' during the seventh-inning stretch?"

PA man Dan Baker, who knows Obie from his Drexel days, had promised so beforehand. (Obie didn't hear the announcement. The sound system does not exactly split eardrums. Plus, Baker was kidding.)

"I'm glad my dad didn't sing," Junior said, laughing. "You would not have wanted to hear that. He was in his business clothes. He wasn't going to walk out in front of all those people and sing."

The players, resigned to their fate, kicked back and tried to keep things light in the later innings.

"We were joking about the game, the weekend, the summer, everything," O'Brien said. "Anything to occupy ourselves. That was a long game."

It's not easy when a baseball team loses by six three-pointers. *