Maryland Bays

The San Francisco Bay Blackhawks managed to do what the Maryland Bays couldn't, outshoot Albany on penalty kicks, 4-3, and win the American Professional Soccer League championship.In front of a home crowd of 12,411 in San Jose State Stadium, San Francisco used goals by Townsend Qin and Marcelo Balboa to even the finals at one game apiece, with a 2-0 victory in Game 2.It then was forced to out-shoot Albany on penalty kicks, when the 30-minute mini-game ended in a draw.For Albany it looked like a replay of the semifinal, where it had defeated the Maryland Bays.

Virginia's women's lacrosse team got off to the start it wanted in yesterday's Atlantic Coast Conference tournament opener against Maryland. The No. 7 Cavaliers jumped on the No. 8 Terrapins with three goals in less than 2 1/2 minutes and the defending ACC champs went on to a 15-11 victory at M&T Bank Stadium. Virginia will meet No. 3 Duke for the title tomorrow at 1 p.m. Maryland's defense succeeded in holding the Cavaliers' top goal scorer, Tyler Leachman, without a goal, but Virginia had so many offensive weapons that the Terps struggled to contain them all. Cary Chasney led the Cavaliers with five goals while Amy Appelt, Kate Breslin and Nikki Lieb had three each.

The Maryland Bays, regular-season champions of the American Professional Soccer League, will continue their youth soccer clinic program this fall.The clinic program is conducted for individual teams throughout the Baltimore-Washington area. A Bays player will direct a team practice for up to an hour and a half.For more information, contact Rob Ryerson at the Bays' office: 880-0047 in Baltimore and 301-206-2500 in Washington.

GERMANTOWN - Supporters of the Maryland Bays' under-14 boys team have grown accustomed to a halftime shift. It's not any adjustment made on the field, but rather above it, coming from the fans themselves who are used to finding the overwhelming majority of play on whichever end their Bays are attacking. Yesterday at the Maryland SoccerPlex proved no different, despite the fact that the Bays were making their debut in the Snickers U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships. The Baltimore-based club picked up right where it left off in state and region play, jumping on the Eagles of Alpharetta, Ga., from the start, eventually getting the all-important first goal in the 20th minute en route to a 3-0 opening-round win that was both bold and comforting.

Pete Caringi will be introduced as the new soccer coach at UMBC tomorrow.Caringi, 35, spent the last 10 seasons at Essex Community College and branched out to the professional game last summer, directing the Maryland Bays to the American Professional Soccer League championship.Caringi will be a full-time employee of UMBC, working as an instructor in the department of health and physical education in addition to directing the Retrievers' Division I soccer program. He informed Bays owner John Liparini of his decision today and said that he will give up his head coaching job with the Bays.

Professional outdoor soccer will return to Baltimore in May when the city begins play in the 37-team United States Inter-Regional Soccer League.The official announcement of Baltimore's entering the largest outdoor soccer league in the country will come Jan. 15 at a downtown news conference being held in conjunction with the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Convention.Ben Neil, general manager of the new Baltimore franchise that will be called the Bays, said yesterday the team's coach and several players would be introduced at the news conference.

The Maryland Bays, who play the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks for the American Professional Soccer League championship Saturday in Boston, are hinting they want to keep their home base in Columbia.Owner John Liparini met with Howard County officials today to discuss a possible upgrading of Cedar Lane Park and also the possible construction of a 10-15,000-seat arena at Howard County Community College.The Bays averaged 1,698 spectators per game this year. Last year the figure was 1,074.Attendance at the last four games of the season averaged 2,664.

The Maryland Bays are expected to name Gary Hindley their head coach Tuesday at a news conference in Columbia.Hindley, who coached the Orlando Lions last year in the American Soccer League, will succeed Pete Caringi, who resigned last month to become head coach at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.Bays owner John Liparini said last night, "I like his [Hindley's] experience and knowledge of the league."Liparini said the Bays were close to coming to an agreement with former Baltimore Blast player Dave MacWilliams a few weeks ago, "but that fell through when Dave decided it was too far for him to commute from Philadelphia."

LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- Kevin Sloan scored a goal off a pass from Brian Haynes with 33 minutes remaining to lift the Maryland Bays to a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Foxes last night, the Bays' 18th consecutive American Professional Soccer League win.The Bays are 10-0 this season and lead the Western Conference with 81 points. They have not lost since July 21, 1990.Sloan, who has scored a point in seven straight games, scored 2 minutes, 10 seconds into the game on a goal from 18 feet away to give the Bays a 1-0 lead.

There will be only one American Soccer League team in the Baltimore-Washington area next season -- the Maryland Bays.Yesterday, the Bays, American Professional Soccer League champions, and the Washington Stars merged, and the Washington Diplomats folded. The new franchise, which will continue to play its home games at Cedar Lane Park in Columbia, still will be known as the Maryland Bays.The team will be governed by a three-man board of directors, John Koskinen and Gordon Bradley, owners of the Stars, and John Liparini, owner of the Bays.

JAMES ISLAND -- It's hard to worry on this remote, pristine island. A narrow strip of sand flanked by pines, it looks like the perfect place to forget the past and let the future take care of itself -- at least for one sunny afternoon.But appearances deceive -- and University of Maryland scientist Court Stevenson gets a little more anxious every time he visits James Island."This was a plantation that went at least half a mile out to sea," Stevenson said during a recent visit to the thin ribbon of land in the Chesapeake Bay -- all that remains of an island that was once 1,200 acres and now is fewer than 100."

MARYLAND'S shallow coastal bays are a fragile treasure, an important nursery of fish and crabs. There's little dispute of their ecological value, even while greater protection efforts have long focused on the main Chesapeake estuary.So it's disturbing that federal officials are taking the lead in trying to halt the degradation of Sinepuxent Bay by a shoreline developer, while the Maryland Department of the Environment repeats its compliant refrain: the developer was doing everything he was asked to do.According to the Army Corps of Engineers, however, the developer of the golf course and subdivision near Ocean City had failed to protect the underwater grasses -- required by his permit -- while bulldozing the shoreline and creating heavy erosion and runoff into the bay.It took the personal intervention of Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, at the request of alarmed environmentalists and the National Park Service, that brought regulatory authorities to the construction site last month and got an agreement from developer Tom Ruark to stem the flow of mud into the bay immediately.

The Spirit's John Abe could be forgiven for fraternizing with the enemy.After a 20-5 loss to the Harrisburg Heat on Saturday night in the teams' regular-season finale, Abe went out to eat with Franklin McIntosh, Danny Kelly and Bill Becher, three of the Heat's best players.Although Abe has been with the Spirit since late November, he played last season for the Heat and still lives in Harrisburg, Pa. He helped the Heat a year ago boot the Spirit from the playoffs -- an event that is still vivid for Spirit players.

The Baltimore Bays' Billy Ronson has been in pro soccer for 21 years, and he has seen worse times than this.When he was with the Blast, from 1986 to 1992, there was one year the team didn't make the Major Soccer League playoffs. That still burns in his memory.The Bays, in their maiden season in the U.S. Interregional Soccer League, are reeling. They are 0-4 going into tonight's game against the Columbia (S.C.) Spirit at UMBC Stadium.With a quarter of the season gone, the Bays will be hard-pressed to become one of the four teams in the nine-team Atlantic Division to qualify for the playoffs.

Professional outdoor soccer will return to Baltimore in May when the city begins play in the 37-team United States Inter-Regional Soccer League.The official announcement of Baltimore's entering the largest outdoor soccer league in the country will come Jan. 15 at a downtown news conference being held in conjunction with the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Convention.Ben Neil, general manager of the new Baltimore franchise that will be called the Bays, said yesterday the team's coach and several players would be introduced at the news conference.

World Cup tickets will go on sale in July. Given the frenzy over soccer worldwide, getting a ticket might not be easy. And getting a ticket for the games at RFK Stadium, which seats 55,300, might be harder than most.But the Washington region organizers have struck a deal with the World Cup ticket committee. They will give the committee a priority list of 20,000 names to receive ticket-order forms in advance.Who are the 20,000?"They're the first 20,000 who order tickets for the May 30 game here against Ireland," said Emilio Pozzi, game director for the U.S. national team game at RFK Stadium.

Eight teams are committed to play and an 18-game schedule has been drawn up for the 1991 American Professional Soccer League season.But, said Maryland Bays coach Pete Caringi, there still is a slim chance the APSL might fold this weekend when the league owners meet in Miami."

As a result of the cancellation of this Sunday's game against the Salt Lake Sting, the Maryland Bays are offering ticket holders three options, a Bays spokesman said yesterday.Vince Fiduccia said the July 14 tickets may be used for any of the nine remaining regular-season games at Cedar Lane Park in Columbia or when the Bays play the San Francisco Blackhawks at RFK Stadium on Aug. 10.Fiduccia also said a refund can be obtained by calling the Bays office, (301) 880-0047 from Baltimore or (301)

World Cup tickets will go on sale in July. Given the frenzy over soccer worldwide, getting a ticket might not be easy. And getting a ticket for the games at RFK Stadium, which seats 55,300, might be harder than most.But the Washington region organizers have struck a deal with the World Cup ticket committee. They will give the committee a priority list of 20,000 names to receive ticket-order forms in advance.Who are the 20,000?"They're the first 20,000 who order tickets for the May 30 game here against Ireland," said Emilio Pozzi, game director for the U.S. national team game at RFK Stadium.

The Maryland Bays, one of the most successful on-field franchises in the American Professional Soccer League, is no more.Owner John Liparini said yesterday that he and co-owner John Koskinen were unable to find investors to cover the final $200,000 needed to put the team on solid footing for the coming season and all operations have ceased.The word came the same afternoon the APSL announced it would move all of its business operations to Washington and install William C. Sage as its first commissioner.