July 15, 2007
By John Sahly Staff Writer
Dolan and Murphy starting pitcher Juan Potolicchio’s mannerisms on the mound are those of a man who knows he belongs in the circle.
A man totally in his element, Potolicchio growls after pitches. He laughs. He grunts. He listens to his teammates call him Poto, Shooter, Juan-O and 33 (his number).
He pumps his fist after strikeouts, which means he does plenty of fist pumping. He sticks his tongue out after throwing a mistake pitch.
And that’s when he says he’s not even feeling that comfortable.
Most important for the Shamrocks fastpitch softball team, he knows how to win.
Potolicchio proved that on Saturday night in the first round of the playoffs in the AFSA Classic at Stuart Sports Complex, making big pitch after big pitch in Dolan and Murphy’s 4-3 win in eight innings against the Bloomington Stix.
“I didn’t feel that comfortable,” Potolicchio said. “But we played really good defense and we were having a real good time on the field.”
In eight innings, the right-hander struck out 14 batters and allowed three runs. But he didn’t settle into a groove until after the third Stix run crossed the plate. Potolicchio was rattled early for two runs because two errors, and then gave up a home run in the third to Chris Delont.
After that, Potolicchio settled in, and at one point struck out six in a row.
“I don’t think Juan threw more than one bad pitch the entire night, and that was the home run,” said Dolan and Murphy manager Robin Reder. “He slowly got it going and really got into a groove.”
Potolicchio kept his team in the game and when the game went to extra innings, as if his job wasn’t hard enough, international tiebreaker rules state that the inning starts with the batting team putting a man on second base.
It didn’t matter to Potolicchio, who struck out the side.
In the bottom of the eighth, with Dave Perkins starting at second and moving to third on a wild pitch, it was the offense’s turn to reward its starting pitcher.
P.J. McKinney hit a soft ground ball up the first base line to drive in Perkins and end the game.
“I was pretty much running on anything,” Perkins said. “McKinney had one heck of an at-bat and did enough for us to win.”
With the win, Dolan and Murphy will play the winner of Green Bay and Benton Harbor today at Noon, with the winner advancing to 2 p.m.’s championship game.
Dolan and Murphy 6, Benton Harbor Planggers 3
In the final game of pool play, the Shamrocks came from behind to defeat Benton Harbor, 6-3, to clinch second place in their pool. There was a three-way tie for first between Dolan and Murphy, Thomson Merchants and Circle Tap. After tiebreakers it was determined that Circle Tap was first, Dolan and Murphy second and Thomson third.
Jarod Gutesha led Dolan and Murphy on offense by going 2-for-3, including a two-run home run and a double.
Starting pitcher Jonas Mach threw seven innings, allowed only three hits and struck out eight. All three runs came in the second inning.
“There was a bit of a lull there early but Jonas really started to get going after that,” said Reder.
World Tournament Pairings
The ISC World Tournament in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada announced its pairings for the Aug. 10-18 tournament. Dolan and Murphy is matched-up against Portland, and will play at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 11.
jsahly@scn1.com AFSA Classic
