Colin Gimblet from Calvert Hall College and North Harford’s Kevin Mooney are the final 2012 recipients of Extra Innings’ Baseball Player of the Week Award.
Gimblet helped produce another MIAA A Conference championship for the Cardinals. In the deciding game of the double elimination tournament May 21 at Ripken Stadium, the junior singled in the only run in the bottom of the sixth inning for a 1-0 decision over Archbishop Curley.
“I was looking for a good pitch with two strikes,” said Gimblet, whose hit scored Alex Pastorius. “Once that hit went through, I had a big wave of relief come through my body. We had an angel with us tonight.”
The Cardinals (29-6) came out of the losers’ bracket and had to beat the upstart Friars in back-to-back games to secure their first title since 2009. The Towson powerhouse has claimed six of the last eight MIAA A championships.
Mooney helped North Harford reached the Class 3A state championship round with one of the best pitching performance in recent years in the state postseason. The University of Maryland recruit pitched a perfect game as the Hawks defeated North Hagerstown, 4-0.
The senior righthander needed just 77 pitches for his masterpiece, striking out 13. Mixing a back-breaking curve with a change and running fast ball at times in the high 80’s, Mooney fired 58 strikes and only 19 balls, never going to a three-ball county on any hitter and to two balls on just four hitters, including the last two batters, each of whom he struck out to close out perfection.
“In our conference championship game [6-0 win over Rising Sun in UCBAC final May 9], I had a no-hitter going into the seventh and their No. 3 guy came up and bunted for a hit,” said Mooney, who allowed two hits Saturday, but suffered his first loss of the season (8-1), 4-2 loss to James M. Bennett in the state finals at Ripken Stadium. “I was frightened they [North Hagerstown] were going to try and bunt, was absolutely terrified they would bunt, but they didn’t.”
Week 1 winner: Joe Kotler, Severn School
Week 2 winner: Tyler Henderson, Glenelg Country School
Week 3 winner: Danny Blair, Gilman School
Week 4 winner: Alex Murphy, Calvert Hall College
Week 5 winner: Kevin Crawford, Lansdowne
Week 6 winner: Evan Covelly, Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Week 7 winner: Mike Payne, Digital Harbor
Week 8 winner: Cody Morris, Reservoir
Week 9 winner: Colin Gimblet, Calvert Hall College
Week 10 winner: Kevin Mooney, North Harford
In conjunction with Extra Innings Baltimore North, the VSN staff selected a weekly winner in each sport to be recognized as the Extra Innings Player of the Week. Each winner was featured in an article on VSN and will receive an Extra Innings Player of the Week Award to commemorate their selection.
Each article was distributed throughout VSN and be permanently displayed in the Extra Innings Player of the Week page within VSN. Click here to access this site. Awards were based on performances from Sunday through Saturday during the spring season.
