Brad Frace has experienced the dark side of baseball, having been cut twice from Nazareth Area High School's JV team and missing the first three weeks of Nazareth's American Legion season last month after having his appendix removed.
That was the back story of the pitcher manager Jason Brown sent to the mound Saturday afternoon in Nazareth's game against Salisbury in the opening round of the Region 2 American Legion Baseball Tournament at Bear Stadium in Boyertown, Pa.
But Frace, a left-hander, became the big story of Game 2 of the tournament, pitching seven brilliant innings while leading the 15-time Northampton County League champions to a 4-3 win over Lehigh County League runner-up Salisbury 4-3.
Nazareth (18-8-2) advances to the winners bracket where it will face the winner of Saturday night's Boyertown-Pottstown game at 7:30 tonight. Salisbury (16-8) faces the loser of the Boyertown-Pottstown game at 1 p.m. in the double-elimination tourney.
Frace gave up just five hits and only a first-inning run while throwing 99 pitches and striking out three against three walks.
"How about Brad Frace?" Brown said. "He didn't play high school baseball until his senior year and he missed the first three weeks of our season with the appendix deal. The kid is just thrilled to be in the starting rotation. He throws a two-seam fastball that cuts away from right-handed hitters. He can throw it in good spots and he throws it for strikes. He made a lot of good Salisbury hitters look average."
"I just threw my fastball," said Frace, who was cut his freshman and sophomore years from the Nazareth JV team and didn't go out for it as a junior. "I threw maybe 10 curveballs, tops. I just tried to keep the ball away from everybody."
Salisbury, comprised of almost the entire Salisbury High School team that dominated the Colonial League while reaching the PIAA Class AA semifinals in the spring, scored a first-inning run off Frace on Justin Aungst's RBI single, but couldn't do anything else against the slender 5-foot-10 righty over the next six innings.
"(Frace) shut down the middle of our lineup," Salisbury manager Scott Heppenheimer said. "Our hitters were getting repeatedly frustrated that they couldn't hit him."
All four of Nazareth's runs were unearned as the result of six Salisbury errors, five of them coming in a three-run sixth off starter Nic Ampietro. Jake Suarez started the rally by reaching first when right fielder Zach Seitz dropped his fly ball and stole second.
Anthony Gaetaniello laid down a sacrifice bunt and reached base when catcher Evan Kulig threw the ball away at first, scoring Suarez. Shortstop Javier Rivera bobbled Tyler Pastor's ground ball, allowing Gaetaniello to score. Jake Carty then drove in Pastor by dumping a single to right.
Nazareth got an all-important insurance run in the top of the ninth on Salisbury's sixth error and a booming triple to left by Tanner Buss.
That run was significant because Nazareth had to weather a two-run single by Ryan Utsch in the ninth off Carty, who came on in relief in the eighth, but got out of it to earn the save.
NAZARETH (ab-r-h-bi) Gaetaniello cf 3-1-1-0, Pastor rf 4-1-1-0, Hallman c 3-0-1-0, Carty 1b/p 4-0-1-1, Talmadge lf/1b 4-0-0-0, Snyder ss 4-1-0-0, Trenberth dh 3-0-0-0, Kline lf 1-0-0-0, Buss 3b 4-0-1-1, Suarez 2b 4-1-1-0, Frace p 0-0-0-0. Totals 34-4-6-2.
SALISBURY (ab-r-h-bi) Vangeli cf 5-0-0-0, Kulig c 3-1-1-0, Aungst 2b/3b 4-0-1-1, Ampietro p/2b 3-0-0-0, Rivera ss 3-0-0-0, Adams c 1-0-0-0, Cooperman 3b/p 3-1-0-0, Kresley lf 3-1-2-0, Seitz rf 2-0-0-0, Santanasto rf 2-0-1-0, Utsch 1b 4-0-2-2. Totals 33-3-7-3.
Nazareth (18-8-2) 000 003 001--4 6 1
Salisbury (16-8) 100 000 002--3 7 6
E -- Pastor, Kulig, Aungst, Rivera 3, Seitz. DP -- Salisbury 1. LOB -- Nazareth 5, Salisbury 7. 2B -- Kresley. 3B -- Buss. HBP -- By Carty (Cooperman). S -- Gaetaniello. SB -- Gaetaniello, Suarez 2, Kulig 2, Rivera. CS -- Gaetaniello, Carty, Kresley.
Frace, Carty (8) and Hallman; Ampietro, Cooperman (6) and Kulig, Adams (6). W -- Frace. L -- Ampietro. Save -- Carty.
WP -- Ampietro. Umpires -- HP: D. Houck; 1B: E. Houck; 3B: Mike DiGiacomo. T -- 2:13. A -- 150.