Baseball: Lupoli, Burba handle heavy lifting for Garnet Valley

CONCORD >> As Garnet Valley’s baseball season nears its midway point, the Jaguars’ roles are undergoing the natural definition process. When Matt Lupoli’s on the mound, for instance, he knows his job. As does Matt Burba when penciled into the nine-hole in the lineup.And when those pieces of the puzzle fall into place as manager Rudy Shiller designs, the finished product isn’t necessarily pretty, but it’s usually effective. So it was Wednesday, when three hits and four Radnor errors added up to five Garnet Valley runs and a 5-1 Central League victory.

Most of the heavy lifting was done by Lupoli. The lefty hurler tossed six outstanding innings to notch his third win of the season, scattering six hits and striking out nine. His only walk came to his last batter leading off the top of the seventh, before he gave way to Will Wesolowski. Though Wesolowski made it interesting, allowing the inherited runner to score on Martin Connor’s single, loading the bases and bringing the tying run to the dish, he retired the potential tying run with a lazy pop fly to center that sealed the win.

Lupoli embodies what makes Garnet Valley (7-2, 6-2 Central) so dangerous. Only one of those wins this season has come courtesy of ace Mike Bechtold, saddled with a pair of tough-luck losses when matched against opponents’ top pitchers. But the ample supply of quality innings provided by arms like Lupoli and Monday’s winner Mason Miller have filled the back end of that rotation.

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Garnet Valley pitcher Matt Lupoli struck out nine and scattered six hits over six innings to earn the win as the Jaguars downed Radnor, 5-1. (Digital First Media/Anne Neborak)