Gilbertsville goes 1-up in Tri-County finals

By Don Bostrom
Of The Morning Call


As far as Coplay was concerned, the script for yesterday's Tri-County League Championship Final round playoff opener against Gilbertsville at the Boyertown East Junior High School was written by Stephen King.

The resounding 8-0 loss in the best-of-three showdown was a nightmare from start to finish.

For openers, Gilbertsville starter Lew Chillot continued his personal hex on Coplay with a slick two-hitter.

"He's always throws tough against us," admired Coplay manager Bob Bartholomew. "Last year I think he one-hit us. His ERA, if he even has one against us, must be below 1.00."

"They are a good team. You have to be ready to play against them because they have a lot of good hitters," Chillot said.

"Today, I seemed to be getting the fastball and slider over. And, I was getting ahead in the count so I could throw my breaking ball against them," offered Chillot, who is a sparkling 7-0 this season for Gilbertsville. "I live on mixing them up."

Jeff Sodl reached on an error to end Chillot's perfect game with one out in the third. The smooth southpaw still had a no-hitter going until Randy Remaly slashed a clean single to left with one out in the fourth.

Steve Weidner, who doubled with two out in the sixth, was the only other Coplay baserunner against Chillot, who economically dispatched his foes with just 53 pitches.

Gilbertsville, which is a blistering 5-0 in post-season play and a sizzling 31-4 overall this season, used its aggressive brand of baserunning to muster a 2-0 first inning lead.

Bill Sassaman singled, stole second and scored on a Jim Berseman single off of loser Russ Reinhard. And error and a sacrifice pushed Berseman to third and he scored on a two-out Neil Fox single.

That's the kind of start Coplay (22-11) did not want to allow.

"They are an excellent team. They are outstanding. They have great pitching andfundamentally they are the best team in the league," Bartholomew noted. "If they get a quick lead they are very tough to beat because then they can run and do all of those other things. If we can stay even with them for a while, we can beat them. That's how we did it last year when we beat them in the league championships 9- 6 and 6-2. We were always tied or ahead." Gilbertsville exploded for six runs in the third to end any mystery about this one's outcome. Triples by John Yersey and Sassaman along with a Scott Gilbert two-run double highlighted the six hit outburst.

Ironically, Coplay, which began the game with just nine players available, used Remaly and Sodl, neither of whom had pitched at all this season, to mop up. Those two combined to blank Gilbertsville the rest of the way on just two hits.

"Yeah, they did a fine job," grinned Bartholomew. "Maybe I'll start them tomorrow."

"The league just likes to set up a couple of championships," noted Chillot. "This is the second time we've met them in a playoff this year."

Gilbertsville swept the meeting of North-South regular season champions, 2-0.

"We've been lucky because we've gotten a couple on them early and then we can run," explained acting manager Brian Gilbert. "That makes it a different game."

"We have probably more fun than anybody else because we've been together (through the Boyertown high school and legion programs) for so long now," Gilbert said. "We know how to play as a team and everyone chips in."

There was no denying that yesterday. Eight of the nine Gilbertsville starters collected at least one hit and the top five men in the order swiped a base. In addition, the defense was almost perfect behind Chillot as he unleashed his worm ball that resulted in 14 of the 21 outs.

"We've either won the regular season title or the playoff crown in each of the six years we've been in the league," Gilbert said. "The last two years we've met Coplay in the finals and we've split. So, this is the rubber match."

Game Two will be held at Coplay tonight at 8:15.

Kevin Mackey will hurl for Gilbertsville while the Coplay starter remains undecided.



  

From The Morning Call -- August 10, 1986

Copyright © 1986, The Morning Call