Frankford wins Public baseball title

WHEN IT came time to lead Frankford High's baseball team yesterday, Kidanny Cumba slapped together a 2-for-2 performance.

Like pretty much always, Cumba starred at shortstop and in the batter's box as the Pioneers, completing quite the amazing, turn-things-around run, claimed their third consecutive Public League championship with a 9-2 success over Franklin Towne Charter.

And then, in the dugout, maybe 5 minutes into assorted displays of emotion, the 5-8, 155-pound senior took the lead in making sure Edwin "Tito" Rohena would be properly feted.

With tears filling his eyes, and with his chest heaving, Cumba emphatically lifted the title trophy and bellowed, "This is for Tito!!"

Rohena, a 2009 graduate and twice a first-team All-City outfielder, lost his life Friday a week ago in a motorcycle accident on Roosevelt Boulevard.

Last Wednesday night, the Pioneers attended an event at the Juniata Park Boys & Girls Club designed to remember Rohena's good times and raise funds to give him proper funeral services.

Those services took place yesterday morning, then the procession passed Frankford's baseball field - slowly along Pratt Street behind leftfield, slowly along Large Street behind rightfield - before stopping so the players and coaches, in the midst of batting practice before heading to Ashburn Field, in South Philly's FDR Park, could interact with Tito's family and friends.

"It was very emotional," Cumba said. "Almost leaves you speechless. I can't say I've ever experienced a feeling like that on a baseball field.

"I didn't know Tito too much, but everyone spoke so highly of him and, of course, he was a helluva baseball athlete. You just knew how respected he was. To lose someone who was such a big part of our program just a few years ago . . . To see the pain everyone was feeling . . . Yes, I lost it. I kept telling his people, 'We're gonna do this for him.' I was saying it to him, too. And I thought about him a couple times during the game."

As the regular season ended, the Pioneers were almost in collect-the-uniforms mode.

They lost their final six contests to finish 5-8 in league play (one game was canceled) and two of those late losses were downright atrocious (by 13-1 and 16-0).

Then? They bested Thomas Edison, Olney and George Washington to seize Class AAAA honors, then added triumphs over Prep Charter (AA) and Towne (AAA) in the four-team Tournament of Champions.

Frankford's eight league losses were as many incurred by the last five Pub champs combined - Frankford went 13-1 in '12, 12-2 in '11 and 13-1 in '08; Central was 14-1 in '10 and 11-3 in '09.

Also, the eight setbacks rank second in Pub annals for a champion. GAMP went 5-9 in the '02 regular season before claiming four playoff wins by six total runs.

In speaking with his players afterward, coach Juan Namnun told them, "We got lumped up week after week, but we kept coming out here and tried to get better. One thing we were missing for a while was Frankford swagger. A couple weeks ago, we got it back."

Pause. "When you get the swagger back, you get this back!"

With that, to major applause, he held up the trophy.

The visiting Pioneers claimed a 1-0 lead in the first. Cumba, the leadoff batter, smacked a liner that knuckleballed its way to shortstop Stephen Callahan, and was dropped. He advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on Tim DiGiorgio's groundout.

Cumba also posted a two-run single in the second and an RBI single in the five-run fourth. In all, he went 2-for-4 with three RBI . . . and batted lefthanded in his final plate appearance. After crushing a foul ball into the rightfield corner, he went down looking.

"I'm a switch-hitter," he explained. "I'm trying to get back in stride lefthanded. Just wanted to try it there."

While Cumba and DiGiorgio, the football quarterback, halved six RBI, Towne provided plenty of help by committing six errors.

Frankford was guilty of none . . . unless you want to count the one charged to Cumba in the visiting sixth. Huh? While in the on-deck circle, Cumba told a teammate, "Yo, throw me some water." The plastic bottle came flying his way and, yup, he dropped it into the dirt.

Speaking of Frankford's serious downs, Cumba said, "It was different. Wasn't like that the two previous seasons. We faced a hard task. But I did think this was possible. All we needed was someone to pump us up."

And that someone turned out to be . . . "Yes, a couple times it was me," he said, beaming.

Also starring yesterday was Eduardo "Cheese" Sanchez, a senior righthander. In going the distance, he allowed four hits and five walks while punching out 11.

"I can't even explain this run," he said. "That first playoff win against Edison really boosted us. We came into the last inning down, then just left it all on the field."

Sanchez did not face Towne, the first charter school to appear in a Pub baseball final, during the regular season.

"That probably helped me," he said. "And it helped, I think, that I changed my approach during the game. I was going with first-pitch fastballs early, then switched mostly to curves. Just trying to keep them off-balance."

The Coyotes scored their runs in the third and seventh on RBI singles by Tim Hart, the losing pitcher, and Brian Bradley.

When Chris Hartman looked at a third strike to end it, Sanchez rumbled halfway toward the plate and jumped into the arms of catcher Carlos Ramirez. Soon, Dave Connolly, the outgoing Pub baseball chairman, was presenting the trophy. Other key moments: athletic director Jack Creighton, fulfilling a promise made when the season was lookin' quite gloomy, allowed Sanchez and first baseman Kevin Montero to snip parts of his Fu Manchu mustache; and assistant Joe Farina got cornered, then doused, beyond the dugout.

Later, in that third-base dugout, the Pioneers were posing for group shots when Namnun came to a quick realization. All day, he'd been wearing a light blue jacket over his jersey.

Off it went. He was wearing No. 19, which once belonged to Edwin "Tito" Rohena.