Coplay rallies for 5-4 Tri-Co victory

By Bob Kourtakis
Of The Morning Call


First place teams don't panic when they're trailing - and Coplay proved why it's in first place last night.

Trailing 3-0 and without a hit in the fourth, Coplay (13-3) scored five times in the next two innings and held on for the 5-4 win over North Parkland in a crisply-played game at East Texas Field.

The victory stretches Coplay's first place lead to 4 1/2 games over North Parkland, now 8-7, in the          Tri-County League's North Division.

"We have a lot more room now," said Coplay starter and winner Bob Gantz, who held North Parkland to two hits after spotting them three- first-inning runs. "I wasn't worried. We have been hitting the ball pretty good lately." With the season just crossing the half-way mark, the 4 1/2 -game gap may be a little too large to close. And North Parkland Manager George Horn knows it. "This was real big," he said. "If we would have won, we would have only been two back. It's a big loss.

"For a while I thought we were going to do it."

Indeed it did, as North Parkland plated three runs in the first thanks to a couple two-out RBI-singles by Jim Kucharczuk and Rick Correll.

"I was getting the ball up a little bit," said Gantz, now 2-1. "Then I got in a little groove, and I did all right."

North Parkland left-hander Bob Jones also had found a little groove, though, and did not allow a hit through three innings. But Jones started getting behind in the count, which soon led to North Parkland being behind in the score.

With a man on and two out in the fourth, John Maruschak worked Jones for a walk. Then came the big blow - a double over the left fielder's head by Scott Morgan that made it 3-2.

"I just wanted to make contact with the ball," Morgan said of the first of his two doubles on the evening. "His ball kind of tailed a bit. All you had to do was sit back in the box and wait for it. He'd been throwing fastballs to me all night, so I just waited for it."

Russ Reinhard followed with a liner to right and Dave Chandler's throw was in time to get Morgan at the plate, but Morgan collided with catcher Chris Peischl and jarred the ball loose to score the tying run.

A sparked Coplay club came right back in the fifth with John Evans' leadoff walk and Randy Remaly's bunt single. With runners at first and third, Remaly then stole second.

That left no one out and the infield in, but Jones almost got out of the jam by inducing two groundouts. Then lefty Steve Weidner hit a dribbler to the left side for an apparent out, but with the shortstop next to second playing Weidner to pull, the ball rolled into left field scoring the winning runs and sticking North Parkland's young southpaw with the loss.

"He gets worked up quickly," Horn said of his pitcher Jones. "He gets himself rattled, and you have to try and talk to him."

Bret Simock blasted a one-out solo homer to left in the sixth to make it 5-4, and Correll tripled into the right field corner one out later to make things interesting. But Morgan made a nice catch in foul territory to end the inning.

Gantz allowed a two-out walk in the seventh, but closed matters when Ted Young chased a 3-2 fastball to end the game.

Gantz allowed four hits and fanned five. Jones also pitched well, allowing just six hits and striking out four.



  

From The Morning Call -- June 25, 1987

Copyright © 1987, The Morning Call