Gilbertsville goes 1-pp in Tri-Co finals

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call


During the course of a 17-game winning streak, Gilbertsville seldom found itself behind. So, when Coplay took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning of last night's Tri-County League Playoff Championship Series opener, Gilbertsville manager Todd Slonaker didn't know how his club would react.

Slonaker found out in a hurry as Gilbertsville erupted for seven runs in the bottom half of the third and went on to defeat Coplay 9-5 to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series which resumes at 8:15 tonight at Coplay's Sammy Balliet Stadium.

A win tonight would give Gilbertsville - the regular season champ would mean a third game would be played in the series at 1 p.m. tomorrow back at Boyertown Junior High East Field where last night's contest was held.

"I didn't know what to expect when we fell behind 2-0, but BOOM, we came right back on 'em," said Slonaker, whose team has now won 18 straight and 22 of its last 23.

"This was just a gutsy win for us. We were without our starting centerfielder Bill Sassaman (out with the flu) and some of us were a little concerned about missing him. But then we decided amongst ourselves that we've been winning as a team all year and missing one guy wasn't going to matter. And it didn't.

"We've got two guys out with the flu and two on vacation. We'll show up in Coplay (tonight) with just 11 guys, but all we need is one more win and we can all go on vacation."

Gilbertsville (28-4 overall) only had eight hits. But as is usually the case with the team that features several former Boyertown legion players, Gilbertsville made the most of its hits. In fact, Gilbertsville had just three hits in the seven-run third in which 12 hitters were sent to the plate.

After Coplay took the 2-0 advantage in the top of the third on an RBI-triple by Steve Weidner and a run-scoring infield hit by Randy Remaly, Brian Gilbert got the Gilbertsville half of the inning started with a ground- rule double. Then after Derrick Acker walked, Scott Gilbert laced a run-scoring double to left-center.

Jeff Evans followed with a walk and the tying run scored on an error before Barry Moyer stroked a two-run single to put Gilbertsville on top to stay. Then Rich Fenstermaker relieved starter Lou Falco and served up three bases-loaded walks to Slonaker, Brian Gilbert and Acker before the inning ended.

Gilbertsville added a run in the fourth on Kevin Mackey's RBI- single to make it 8-2 before Coplay made things interesting with three runs in the top of the fifth. Weidner, Remaly and Bill Erie all picked up RBI-singles in the inning which pulled Coplay to within three.

But in the bottom of the fifth, Gilbertsville got a run back when Acker reached on an error, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Scott Gilbert's single.

"That was a big run for us because it stopped whatever momentum they had going from getting three runs," said Slonaker.

Coplay couldn't get anything going in the sixth and seventh innings against Gilbertsville righthander Tom Murphy, who had appeared to be on the ropes in the fifth inning.

Murphy scattered nine hits, walked two and struck out one in picking up his ninth victory of the season in as many decisions.

"After the fifth, I thought about taking Murphy out of there," admitted Slonaker. "But I decided to let him stay in there and when we went out there in the sixth I told him to 'go out and get 'em,' and that's what Tom did. They hit some hard balls on him, but he finished up pretty strong."

Coplay, now 23-10, is wondering what it takes to defeat Gilbertsville. Half of Coplay's 10 defeats this season have been to Gilbertsville and in the two years that manager Bob Bartholomew's team has been in the Tri-County League, Coplay has yet to defeat Gilbertsville.

"I just can't understand it," said Bartholomew, whose club got two hits apiece from Weidner, Remaly and Mark Bonshak. "It always seems to be one (bleeping) inning against this team that always costs us. We come out and get a 2-0 lead and then in the next half inning, we fall apart.

"I know we can beat this team. We got another shot at them tomorrow (tonight) and either we're going to get it in our heads that we can beat this team or we're going to be finished for the year."



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 10, 1985

Copyright © 1985, The Morning Call