Amaro keys Penn Charter's win over Episcopal Academy

The kid's last name is Amaro, and he's doing his senior project with one of the city's four major sports franchises.

No need for hints, right?

You might be surprised to learn, however, that Andrew Amaro is not seated at the right hand of Uncle Ruben each time he reports to Citizens Bank Park and that his career goal, though it does involve baseball, is not exactly a match.

"I want to major in sports management," Andrew said Tuesday. "Then I want to be a Division I baseball coach. I would love that challenge of trying to put together a good team with a limited number of scholarships.

"Playing Division I baseball and having an uncle who's a vice president [general manager] of the Phillies, I feel that'll definitely help my resumé."

Amaro, a 6-foot, 175-pound senior, is a Maryland signee, and Tuesday, with an RBI double and a strong defensive dandy, he helped Penn Charter subdue visiting Episcopal Academy, 11-6, in an Inter-Ac League game that required 2 hours, 41 minutes.

In early June, Amaro, first baseman John Loughery (also a star quarterback; now committed to a year of prep school at Wyoming Seminary, near Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) and scorekeeper Dan Lawn will offer their senior project, "Phillies . . . More Than Just Winning," in a PowerPoint presentation.

Here's hoping there'll be some shots of Andrew in tough-guy mode.

"For part of our duties," he said, "it's like we're security guards. We sit by the doors of private suites and make sure people have tickets for those. They don't open until game time. People want to go in early. We remind them that if they want hard liquor, they have to go Harry the K's. Just Sunday night, a couple people got mad at us. What can you do?"

Otherwise, the guys have sent out mailings, including tickets for an upcoming open house, and roamed the stadium to make sure the fan experience is first class.

"Our seats are in the first row of the 400 level behind the first-base dugout," Amaro said. "Three games so far. It's fun. We don't just stay there, though. We walk around. We give them our thoughts on the new scoreboard. Make sure the concession stands are flowing. The Phillies know they won't be a 100-win team [forever], but they always want the fan experience to be top-notch."

This variety of a senior project is nothing new for the family. Andrew's brother, Rob, now playing at Virginia, did likewise 2 years ago, along with fellow diamond star Mark Rhine (Wake Forest).

The Amaros' dad, David, played at Penn Charter and Duke, as well as in the minor leagues, and now runs a successful AAU program called the Bandits. Andrew, a lefty swinger with large amounts of speed and quickness, committed to Maryland in October of his junior year.

"It was great that Maryland offered me that early," he said. "I felt I was ready for the ACC because all of the competitive baseball I'd played, thanks to my dad's team, and it was cool to think about being able to go against my brother. I had trust that the coaching staff would be determined to win, just like I am.

"Maryland sees me batting first or ninth. I'm trying to do a better job of leading off innings with hits. Sometimes I start to run as I'm swinging. It seems I hit way better when I don't do that."

Amaro, a Bensalem resident, lined to left, popped to shortstop, juiced a run-scoring double to right and topped a ball in front of the plate. That worked out great, because misplays produced two runs.

In the seventh, pinch-hitter Robbie Ibarguen dribbled a roller wide of first base. Loughery's sprawl did not succeed, but Amaro ranged all the way over and tossed to reliever Sam Agre.

After being held hitless through three innings by junior righthander Burk FitzPatrick, PC posted five apiece in the fourth and fifth and one more in the sixth against Bill Kacergis. Junior shortstop Kenny Koplove, who's already committed to Duke, led off all three innings. He contributed a single and two doubles and scored three times. Loughery singled twice, while Jared Massaro (double) and Nick Lamb (single) stroked hits to bring in two runs apiece.

The win went to soph righthander Ted Foley, who entered with nobody out, one run in and the bases loaded in the fourth. He worked three innings of shutout ball and benefited as PC rallied from a 4-0 deficit; he helped himself with two perfect sacrifices.

For Episcopal, Connor McCarren went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI.

The Amaros' baseball prowess goes back three generations. The grandfather, Ruben Sr., was a Phillies shortstop and the great-grandfather, Santos Amaro, is considered an all-timer in Mexico (to which he emigrated from Cuba).

"I'm proud of my name," Andrew said. "I want to do things that'll assure it's continued to be respected around the Philadelphia area, and I want to be known as a competitor."

Even as a pseudo security guard. *