River Pirates plundering Eagle County League

By MIKE KILROY Eagle Staff Writer

July 11, 2004 Last Updated: January 06, 2005 12:14 PM Amateur

FREEPORT - Slowly and steadily, year after year, it has worked to get to this point.

A piece here, another cog there. This baseball team was assembled to challenge the titans of the Eagle County League.

Finally, after just one winning season, one lone playoff berth and a woeful beginning that saw a 9-42 record in its first two seasons, Freeport is ready to challenge for a league title.

"Those first two years, the way we struggled," said player-manager Wayne Greiser, "that has made it all worth while."

Freeport is 18-3 after scoring eight runs in the final two innings for a 12-6 win over Harmony Friday and is in first place for the first time in its eight-year history.

It has taken a series from longtime force Saxonburg for the first time and is poised to do the same against Mars, another traditional power in the league.

And the River Pirates - a nickname coined for the team from its early beginnings - are doing it in a traditional way: with pitching and defense.

"This year we added a third arm to the pitching staff," Greiser said. "We always had two arms we could rely on, but we never had pitching depth."

Until now.

Freeport added Greg Fryman, a freshman pitcher at Virginia Tech, to the rotation with Jason Shaffer and Tim Buzzard. Fryman is 6-0 with 34 strikeouts in 30 innings and a 2.41 ERA.

The River Pirates have also received quality work from Greg Samsom, Bill Daugherty - who has three saves and hasn't been scored upon - and Chris McCartney.

Freeport has a team ERA of 2.22 and has given up just 60 runs in 21 games. Saxonburg has given up the second-fewest number of runs in the league at 84.

"It was kind of a conscious effort," said Ken Bissell, who, like many on the Freeport roster, has been with the team for the last five seasons. "We knew we needed a couple more pitchers. There is tons of hitting in this league."

The league average for runs scored in a game by a team is 5.5. Freeport is coughing up a little less than three per contest.

The River Pirates lead the league with three shutouts.

Freeport also has been scoring runs, averaging more than six per contest.

"We're hitting about the same as we always have," said Greiser, who is batting .388 this season. "We're just giving up a lot less runs."

Greiser is the only player left from the team's inception in 1997, a season in which the team floundered to a 4-21 record.

He took over as manager early in the season and has been at the helm ever since.

When the team started, it had a roster full of 18-year-olds - including Greiser - who were also full of themselves.

"When we started, we were all young and confident," Greiser said. "We thought, 'Hey, these guys are old, we can show them how it's done.' We were wrong."

Freeport went 5-21 the next season. But in 1999, it showed signs of life.

In 2000, the River Pirates recorded their first winning season at 17-12-1 but didn't make the playoffs.

The first playoff berth came last year. Freeport beat Butler in the first round before losing to Saxonburg in four games in the semifinals.

The loss was extremely beneficial because it showed Greiser what the team needed to compete with the elite - namely more arms to combat the lethal bats.

"Over the years, we added a pitcher here, a position player or two there, and last year was a big year for us," Greiser said. "We finally made the playoffs."

This year, Freeport added 32-year-old Don Dell to the mix. Dell played for the River Pirates in 1997 before leaving to play with the now-defunct Callery teams that won several league titles.

"He adds that experience we needed," Greiser said.

Now, Freeport is thinking big. But first, it must topple some history.

Saxonburg and Mars have dominated the league championship series for many years. Mars has 13 league titles and Saxonburg has one, but it has appeared in the championship series the last four seasons.

"I think it will be considered a disappointment if we come out with anything less than a league championship," Bissell said. "In years past, it was let's just make the playoffs. Now it's let's win a championship.

"But we know we're going to have to go through Mars and Saxonburg."

Saxonburg is 15-4 after a win on Friday. Mars, after a slow start, is 11-7 and averaging a league-best 8.1 runs per game.

"It's pretty tough playing against them," Bissell said. "You automatically know they are a tough team, and that messes with you. When we go into games with Saxonburg and Mars, we expect it to be a close game.

"Hopefully, teams will start thinking of us that way and will be afraid of us."