Gilbertsville wins Tri-Co title

By Matt Michael
Of The Morning Call


When the Tri-County League season got under way, Gilbertsville manager Todd Slonaker said he felt his team had a chance to win the championship if . . .

"My biggest concern was our pitching," Slonaker said after Gilbertsville right-hander Kevin Mackey shut out Limeport 4-0 last night at Limeport Stadium. "But so far it has been fantastic."

Mackey's four-hit performance enabled South Division Champion Gilbertsville to sweep North Division titlist Limeport 2-0 in their best-of-three League Championship Series. Both teams will now participate in the league playoffs starting tomorrow.

Gilbertsville and Limeport played to a 2-2 tie in the first game of the series and Gilbertsville won the makeup contest 3-0. Mackey, who led the league with a 12-2 regular-season mark, completed his team's pitching dominance last night.

"I felt good going into tonight's game because we used our number two and three pitchers earlier in the series," Slonaker said. "This was Mackey's best game. He pitched smart and changed speeds very well."

Mackey allowed only two hits until the seventh inning when Limeport's Herb Hemerly doubled with one out and Bill Fatzinger singled one out later to put runners at the corners. But Mackey was able to get out of his worst jam by striking out John Szalachowski to end the game.

"It was humid tonight and I didn't have good speed on the ball," said Mackey, whose two losses were both by one run. "Limeport is a fastball- hitting team so I changed speeds a lot to keep them off balance."

Limeport had at least one man on in every inning but the second. Baserunning mistakes and a lack of clutch hitting, however, cut Limeport's rallies short.

"We didn't hit the whole series and we wasted three tremendous pitching performances," Limeport manager Ish Fatzinger said. "Kevin is a good pitcher but we've been in one of those slumps the whole second half."

Gilbertsville wasn't exactly hitting the cover off of the ball either, but it combined timely hits with Limeport mistakes to give Mackey enough support. In the third inning, Limeport right fielder Dale Houser dropped Jim Healy's fly ball for a two-base error and Bill Sassaman singled up the middle to drive in the game's first run.

In the sixth, Gilbertsville's Mike Kline led off with a line drive to right that sailed over Houser's head for a triple. Kline then scored on a sacrifice fly by Neil Fox.

"That's a hard right field to play," Fatzinger said. "It's muddy out there and it's tough to get your footing."

Gilbertsville added some insurance against starter and loser Bill Sandt and reliever Mike Witkowski in the seventh. Brian Gilbert doubled with one out, moved to third on an error and scored on Kline's sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.

Scott Gilbert then followed a walk with a bloop single to left to score Sassaman with the final tally of the contest. The triumph gave Gilbertsville, which won the league playoffs last year, its first league championship in team history.

*North Parkland advanced to the league playoffs by eliminating Upper Perkiomen 8-6 last night.

North Parkland broke a 6-6 deadlock with two runs in the top of the seventh. George Horn doubled, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Dom Motolese single. Motolese moved to second on an error, then scored on a Mark Matejicka single.

Scott Clark and Motolese each went 2 for 3 for the winners while pitcher Jay Spiegel escaped with the win despite giving up 10 hits and nine walks.

For Upper Perk, Bob Graber went 2 for 4 with two triples and Joe Ricapito went 2 for 3. Bob Graber took the loss after relieving Pete Hoff in the fifth inning.

North Parkland meets Gilbertsville tomorrow.



  

From The Morning Call -- August 7, 1984

Copyright © 1984, The Morning Call