Karwowski posts victory

By: Sean Moylan
   Coming in, the Florence 12-year-old Little League All-Star baseball team was expecting to fight for a possible District 12 title. Unfortunately, Florence was dealt a severe blow when star hurler Kendrell David came down with an arm injury and was unable to pitch.
   Moreover, with his right arm hurting, David was unable to play center field or third base, two positions where he has shown off his cannon of an arm in the past. He did brave it out at second base, where he made throws any way possible to record outs.
   "Losing Kendrell (David) as a pitcher hurt us because of the pitch count," added Florence manager Tom Karwowski. Nonetheless, Florence did make the Final Nine.
   Moreover, Florence began Final Nine action with a stellar 5-2 win over Princeton at Lawrence on Friday. T.J. Karwowski pitched a good game (5 1/3 innings, five hits allowed, two runs, three K’s) to earn the victory. Jonathan Wilkins worked 1/3 of an inning in relief and Greg Perri got the final out of the game to earn the save.
   "T.J. (Karwowski) pitched well," said Karwowski, who gave the Princeton batters different looks by using three hurlers.
   Florence trailed 1-0 when Karwowski crushed a ground-rule double to plate two runs in Florence’s three-run fifth. Then Heath Fillmyer (2-for-4, run) put the game out of reach with a two-run single in the sixth. Wilkins had a double in the contest. Bret Butler singled and scored a run for the winners. Dakota Benish and David also had base knocks while Aaron Salaga, Shawn Carmignani and Perri each scored a run for the winners.
   Despite a terrific pitching performance by Perri (5 1/3 innings, six hits allowed, three runs, 4K’s), Florence fell into the losers’ bracket with a 3-0 loss to Washington on Saturday.
   "Greg was great," added Karwowski of Perri’s pitching performance. Florence threatened in several innings as David had two hits and Fillmyer, Karwowski, Butler and Matt Sovak each had a hit. However, it could not put a run across the board.
   Then on Sunday, Bordentown eliminated Florence with a 14-2 win. Ben Horner played well in the outfield throughout the tourney. And Florence had a good tournament even though David never threw a single pitch. Florence will now compete in a second tournament at Allentown, which is scheduled to get underway this weekend. David may not play because of his arm injury.