CHESTER – Ashton Raines pitched one scoreless inning in relief for Wayne against Middletown in Game 4 of the Delco League playoff championship series at Chester High Athletic Complex Wednesday.
“I want to throw when we continue (Thursday),” Raines said, after surrendering one hit and striking out one as Wayne and Middletown completed seven innings tied, 8-8.
The game resumes with Wayne batting in the top of the eighth inning at 5:45 Thursday at Radnor High. A Middletown victory would give the Lions their first Delco League title, while a Wayne win would force Game 5.
Raines, who also pitched for Nether Providence Legion and the South Jersey Young Guns this summer, would like to see Wayne score in the top of the eighth and hold the lead, giving him his first Delco League win.
Kevin Mulvey, who threw the third through sixth innings, and Raines blanked Middletown on two hits after the Lions had banged out seven hits and scored eight runs off Wayne starter John Bernhardt, the winner in Game 1 of the series.
“I thought (Mulvey) was going to come out after the fifth,” said Raines, who is about to begin his senior year at Strath Haven High, where he plays for coach Brian Fili, who is Wayne’s manager.
“When he said he would go back for the sixth, I knew I had to get ready to go in there for the seventh.”
Mulvey, an All-Big East pitcher at Villanova University who was drafted by the New York Mets in 2006 and pitched two major league games for the Minnesota Twins and eight for the Arizona Diamondbacks, gave up only a fourth-inning single to Andrew Abrams, struck out seven and hit one batter in his four innings.
After he set the Lions down in the sixth inning, his teammates scored twice in the top of the seventh on a pair of walks, a hit batter and two sacrifice flies.
“He just knows how to use his pitches,” said Wayne catcher Ted Seiler, who had a two-run single in the fifth inning and was one of the Wayne batters who walked in the seventh. “He really mixes his pitches as well as anyone.”
Mulvey just completed his second spring as the pitching coach at Villanova. The 29-year-old native of Central Jersey, whose last major-league game was in 2010, joined the Wayne team last year.
“(General manager) Chuck Freeman asked me to play, and I owe a lot to him,” Mulvey said. “We’ve had sort of a pipeline with Villanova sending players to this team. I can’t say enough good things about Chuck and hope he’s doing well.”
Freeman hasn’t been with the team this season after the passing of his wife.
“We’re always thinking about him,” said Mulvey, who had a lot of good things to say about his teammates and the way they recovered from their early 8-2 deficit.
“Their backs were against the wall, but I have to take my hat off to them for the way they fought back. I just go out there to throw and try to have fun playing.”
Raines missed Game 2 of the series Saturday to take part with Strath Haven teammate Corey Ziring in the Big 26 Keystone Klash at Penn State University. Fili was their coach in the Klash.
“He really gave us a (gutsy) effort tonight,” Fili said. “Then as soon as (the game was suspended) he’s telling me he wants to pitch again (Thursday). You’ve got to like someone who does something like that.”
