Catholic League's Elmes plays to his strength

CHRIS ELMES offered a rather unique explanation for why pitching was his only duty through his final three seasons for Archbishop Ryan.

"Because I can't play any other position," he said.

Really? He's that bad?

"I played some third base as a freshman," he said. "That was it. Never did anything else except pitch."

Elmes then mentioned that he went 1-for-16 in the ninth grade. Ouch. That translates to an .063 average.

"I'm not talking about batting . . . though I was bad at that, too," he said with a laugh. "In the field, I meant. I actually stopped one out of 16 ground balls."

Elmes relayed that scenario at close to 7:30 last night at Richie Ashburn Field, in South Philly's FDR Park. The Catholic League had just fallen, 8-3, to Suburban One American/Continental, in the first round of the 28th annual Carpenter Cup Classic, but the 6-2, 210-pound Elmes, a righthander bound for Penn State Abington, had escaped unscathed.

Despite allowing four hits, he hurled two shutout frames and was able to record three strikeouts.

Relying almost exclusively on fastballs and curves, Elmes worked the third and fourth. The first of his innings became dicey when two-out singles by the eighth and ninth hitters loaded the bases.

When asked whether he'd felt a hint of nervousness at that point, Elmes gave a quick, steely-eyed response.

"I was confident," he said. "Just trying to get the last out."

And he did, via a punchout.

On a team filled with fresh-faced kids who could likely pass for eighth-graders, Elmes looked quite different. Since graduating on June 3, the redhead has been growing a beard.

"Can we leave that part out?" he said.

Not really.

"Ah, just figured I'd try it," he said. "It's the red-hair, Irish thing. I'm likin' it, but I'm not going to keep it all summer. Maybe just another week."

Unfortunately for the CL, due to assorted reasons, some of the better seniors opted not to play. Elmes gave not even a hint of thought to joining them.

"This is cool. This is fun," he said. "You play against these guys all season, then you come here and get to make new friends with all of them. It's like this is your last part of high school. The last thing you do before you go off to college.

"My approach out there was to pound the strike zone and let the fielders play; I know they're good."

Mostly, yes. But in the first inning, with Tom Mullin (St. Joseph's Prep) on the mound, two miscues helped the winners post a three-spot. The only earned run in that outburst came on a solo homer to right by Tyler Kirkpatrick (Methacton). The other big hit was a two-run single in the seventh by Brady West (North Penn).

For the CL, soph Mike Christy (Lansdale) went 2-for-2 with two runs scored while one RBI apiece went to Preppers Tim Rafter and Chase Standen. Standen's came in the ninth, right after Matt Hull (Lansdale) fired a leadoff triple to center. The only other pitcher to keep the winners off the board was Dan Furman (Bonner-Prendergast; two whiffs in one inning).

Elmes, who lives in Parkwood, plans to major in architecture.

"Buildings, I guess," he said. "Or whatever needs to be done."

Ah, versatility. Better late than never.