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Coplay in Tri-Co final
By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call
The
Coplay entry in the Tri-County League has an identity crisis. Overshadowed
by the borough's successful Junior and Senior Legion teams and by
Gilbertsville in its own league this summer, manager Bob Bartholomew's crew
feels its accomplishments have gone unnoticed.
But
after an 8-3 victory over Upper Perk in the third and deciding game of a
Tri-Co semifinal series last night at Sammy Balliet Stadium, Coplay still
has a chance to make everyone take notice.
Coplay will begin a best-of-three series with regular season champ
Gilbertsville at 6 p.m. tomorrow at the Boyertown Junior High East field for
the postseason title. Gilbertsville has won 17 in a row, including two
lopsided victories over Coplay last week in the regular season championship
series.
But
if it can get the excellent defensive play which produced three double plays
last night and an 11-hit offensive attack which produced eight runs, perhaps
Coplay can prevent Gilbertsville from repeating as postseason champs.
"If
we play the way we're capable of playing - like we did tonight whose team
now owns a 23-9 record. "No question, we didn't play our best against them
last week.
"Sure, we respect them. They're an outstanding team. We haven't beaten them
in the two years we've been in the league. Still, we're glad to have another
shot at them."
For
awhile last night, it didn't look as though Coplay would get its chance for
revenge. Upper Perk jumped out on top in the first inning when Pete Hoff
singled, stole second and scored on Tom Cichocki's double. Then in the
second, Todd Swenk belted a long home run over the left-field fence for a
2-0 Chief lead.
But
Coplay roared back in the bottom half of the second, bunching five singles
and a walk to score four runs. Chuck Mondschein and Jeff Snyder each singled
in runs, while Randy Remaly delivered a two-run hit.
Then
with two out in the third, Coplay tacked on four more runs. Snyder belted a
two-run doubled over centerfielder Jim Stratton's head and Scott Weidner
followed with a run-scoring triple to right. Weidner then scored on a wild
pitch to make it 8-2.
Meanwhile, Coplay righthander Jim Emerick continually battled control
problems but was aided by double plays in the third, fourth and sixth
innings. All three were started by second baseman Eric Csencsits who teamed
with shortstop Remaly on two of the plays.
Upper Perk got a run back in the top of the seventh on Bob Graber's RBI-
single, but with two men onEmerick got cleanup hitter Joe Ricapito on a
strikeout and retired Swenk on a long fly to right which summed up the
entire night for the Chiefs.
"We
hit the ball hard a lot of times, but always right at somebody," said Upper
Perk player-manager Graber, whose team finished at 23-9.
Meanwhile, Coplay would like to stop being held hostage by Gilbertsville.
"We just haven't gotten a lot of recognition this year, thanks in part to
Gilbertsville," said Bartholomew. "We know the other teams in Coplay have
been successful this year. We'd like to go out and show the people around
here that we can play this game, too."
keith.groller@mcall.com
From The Morning Call --
August 7, 1985
Copyright
© 1985,
The Morning Call
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