It was hugs all around after Callahan and Towne finally got the result they wanted. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTO
By the time the fourth inning was over at Camden’s Campbell’s Field on Tuesday night, Franklin Towne Charter had one hit and trailed by four runs to Olney, a team they just couldn’t seem to beat.
After so much hard work and sacrifice to get there, Towne was headed right for a third straight crushing defeat in the Public League baseball championship game. The Coyotes were dead in the water, and there was just no way they could overcome six fielding errors, 13 hits from a team that had their number and a labored effort on the mound from their best player, right?
Wrong.
Trailing 5–1 entering the top of the fifth, Towne bit back. A costly error — the theme of the game, as both teams combined for 11 fielding blunders — led to the team’s second run, and sophomore shortstop Rob Henry doubled in another. Suddenly, the Coyotes were back in business, and they were far from finished.
With runners on second and third, Olney opted to pitch around senior pitcher Steve Callahan, who drew a four-pitch walk. Junior designated hitter Cristian Diaz — who had looked silly striking out on three pitches in his previous at-bat — then lined a laser double into the left field corner, clearing the bases and giving his team a 6–5 advantage. A seesaw chess match ensued for the final three innings, but Towne took advantage of some inopportune Olney mishaps en route to a thrilling 9–7 victory for the school’s first-ever league baseball title.
When Callahan, who gave up seven runs, 13 hits, surrendered four walks and threw 130 pitches, got Olney’s Giovanni Ortega to line out to second for the game’s final out, pandemonium ensued. Towne had waited three long years for this moment, and they were going to enjoy it with every ounce of their being.
“You don’t know how happy I was to get that hit,” Diaz said. “It was the best feeling of my life. The best. I saw the bases loaded and just wanted to try to bring in some runs; the pitcher gave me a fastball inside and I just did what I had to do. I’m so proud, because there were moments when we had our heads in the ground. We made errors and stranded runners, but I kept telling them to keep their heads up because there was a lot of baseball to play. We weren’t done.”
They sure weren’t. Towne, which had to play two games less than a half-hour apart on Friday just to get to this one, finally found the magic it had been searching for. Olney had already beaten the Coyotes twice — once in the regular season, once in Friday’s semis — by a combined three runs, so the frustration, and then the relief, were equally palpable.
“I kept telling everyone in the dugout after the fourth inning that we weren’t even hitting yet,” said Henry, who scored the winning run in the seventh inning. “We had one hit to that point and we were down four runs, but I knew that once we started hitting, it would come.”
But it didn’t come easy. After Towne took the 6–5 lead, Olney tied it right back up in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single by Oscar Sanchez. In the sixth, Towne first baseman Zack Beltran, in the midst of a major hitting slump, singled, got to second on a grounder and scored on a throwing error by the shortstop, giving the Coyotes a 7–6 lead. Again, Olney responded thanks to a single, throwing error by Henry, another single and an RBI grounder, ensuring a deadlock heading into the final inning of play.
Henry and Callahan opened the seventh with walks. Diaz flew out to left, but Henry later swiped third base and scored the winning run on a wild pitch by Cesar Loya, who had relieved Olney starter Joseph Gomez. Towne pushed across an insurance run on an RBI grounder by Brendan Beltran, and by that point, the Coyotes had little doubt of the outcome. Aside from a two-out error by Henry in the home seventh, Callahan had little trouble finishing the Trojans off.
“It’s almost like it was written for us, and all we had to do was go out there and act it out,” Towne head coach Chris Lauber said. “Every single one of them had that feeling that they were not going to lose, and it means so much for each one of these guys to say they did it. It told them, ‘We are that team, we are that good.’ They’re a part of a team and program that is respected; for them not to be remembered as a team of runner-ups, it just boosts the confidence and morale of everybody.”
And of course, in the end, it all came back to Callahan. Sure, he may not have had his best stuff, and yes, you better believe he was tired, but there was no way he was coming out of the game. Down 5–1 in the fourth and Callahan teetering on the edge, Lauber visited the mound but never considered pulling his senior leader, later saying “I didn’t think of taking the ball from him for a second, and I know he wouldn’t have given it to me. Whether we were down 8–1 or tied, it was his game to finish.”
Callahan is a different kind of teenager, one that can quote Buddha, Sigmund Freud or Paulo Coehlo’s The Alchemist at a moment’s notice. He’s a kid that goes so hard in practice that Lauber often has to rein him in so he doesn’t hurt himself. That style of play has earned him the unconditional respect of his coaches and teammates, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more fitting leader in any sport anywhere in the city.
During the trophy presentation on the field, Callahan was the first to joyfully hoist his prize, and there was no doubt in anybody’s mind who would be the first to hold it. He had obsessed about the moment for years, and finally, it belonged to him.
“I never doubted my team, and I kept on telling them we were going to win this game,” said Callahan, his voice cracking with emotion. “Coming in, I was very confident, and they all saw it. I’ve been here before and I’ve felt losing; I didn’t like that feeling. To win it and to finish my baseball career like this, it’s the greatest feeling.”
Callahan had trouble finding the words, and probably for the first time in his life, admitted he was speechless. But nobody else had the same problem when talking about the heart, soul and everything in between of the Towne baseball program.
“I promised this dude at the beginning of the year that I was winning it for him,” Henry said. “It was his last shot, and he worked his butt off all year and throughout his career. He deserved this. To score that winning run, I felt like I helped fulfill his dreams.”
Added Lauber: “Top to bottom, it was all for him. If you ask every one of these guys, they would all say they did it for Steve. He had such a gutsy game, and that’s who he’s been for us since his freshman year. To show it so consistently, I’m just so proud of him. He has that type of determination to be able to will the rest of the team into stepping up big.”
In fact, when Olney issued the “unintentional intentional” walk to Callahan to load the bases in the fifth, he turned and said something to Diaz before trotting down to first base. Asked later what he said to his junior teammate, Callahan replied, “Just stroke it, baby!”
Diaz didn’t disappoint.
With the clock approaching 10 p.m. and Towne athletic director Spencer Parcells attempting to wrangle everyone up for a trip back over the bridge to Philadelphia, Callahan lingered in the first base dugout. His jersey was unbuttoned, revealing a black T-shirt with a yellow Batman logo on it.
It couldn’t have been more fitting, as Franklin Towne’s Dark Knight was surveying the spoils of a program he helped save, one that was in the gutter before he showed up.
Callahan couldn’t talk, but then again, he didn’t have to. The smile of satisfaction plastered all over his face said it all. ••
Cristian Diaz had the biggest hit of the night, a bases-loaded double that cleared the bags and gave Towne a 6–5 lead in the fifth inning. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTO
Callahan was well north of 100 pitches but was able to gut his way through a complete game victory. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTO
Public League baseball chairman Barry Strube (right) presents the trophy to Callahan after the game. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTO
After losing in the title game each of the last two seasons, there would not be a third. Towne celebrated the 9–7 win in a gleeful dog pile. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTO
At long last: Steve Callahan and the Franklin Towne Charter baseball team hoist their first-ever Public League trophy after surviving Olney in a 9–7 classic. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTO
