The only bright spot Upper Perk wallops Coplay in Tri-County

By Bob Kourtakis
Of The Morning Call


Upper Perkiomen issued a warning to the Tri-County League playoff contenders last night - its bats are still hot.

The same late-season power that surged Upper Perk past Gilbertsville to capture the South Division crown was evident last night, as the Chiefs walloped Coplay 11-3 in the first game of the Tri-County Championship series. "We've been hitting the ball really good lately," said Upper Perk third baseman and manager Bob Graber, whose team banged out 11 hits. "The team was ready. They wanted it bad. The team we have this year is good from top to bottom."

Both teams entered the best-of-three series with 22-5 records and are locked into the Tri-County playoffs regardless of who wins the series. But Graber said that doesn't matter.

"Winning this series means more to us than the playoffs," Graber said. "For this, you have to win the division. The whole season culminates on that. You wanna go and get this one."

Game two will be 8:15 tonight at Coplay. If a third game is needed, it will be 5:30 p.m. tomorrow at Upper Perk.

The runaway North Division champs, Coplay never seemed quite in sync. Even after getting a 1-0 first-inning lead, Coplay committed three errors and played sloppy ball early, leading to nine Upper Perk runs in the opening two frames and putting the game way out of reach.

"They just hit the ball well tonight," Coplay manager Jack Evans said. "We got in the hole early and could never climb back."

Coplay did take advantage of some early Upper Perk shakiness, however. Leadoff hitter Randy Remaly reached on Graber's error, then went to second on pitcher Tom Cichocki errant pickoff attempt. He scored on Lou Falco's single to give Coplay a 1-0 lead.

But the lead was short-lived. Coplay ace Jim Emerick struck out the first batter, but then allowed five straight batters to reach base via hits and walks. Tony Swenk, who went 3-for-4 with 4 RBI, plated two on his long double up the right-center field gap. Mike Svanson added an RBI-single to make it 3-1 before Coplay became completely unglued.

With runners at first and third, Joe Ricapito's grounder to short appeared to be double play material, but Pete Hoff beat the throw to second and the relay throw to get the slow-footed first baseman Ricapito was also late. The lead was now 4-1. Keith Leamer hit another grounder to short, but second baseman John Evans' throw to complete the double play at first was wild. Another run trotted home and Upper Perk led 5-1 after an inning.

Russ Reinhard tried to bring Coplay back with a two-run homer in the second that cut the margin to 5-3, but Upper Perk went for the jugular with four runs in the second. After Matt Duka led off with a single, Cichocki and Graber reached on errors to load the bases.

The Coplay skipper decided to bring the infield in, and Swenk and Svanson proceeded to hit consecutive two-run singles that probably would have been outs had the infield played in normal position. Instead, it was 9-3 and Emerick was gone.

It's always easy to second-guess after the fact, and Evans defends his decision.

"We didn't want to give them any more runs," he said. "We felt if we kept them close, we score a run an inning and come back. We took a gamble, and it backfired.

"When we were down six runs, it took a lot of life out of the team."

Cichocki, who also pitches for Limeport in the Blue Mountain League, breezed the rest of the way for the four-hit, complete game victory.

"He's been pitching mostly in relief for us," Graber said. "For the playoffs, I asked him if he would start and he said yes. It was good to see him go the distance so we didn't have to use anyone extra."

Chris Tognoli pitched well for Coplay in relief, striking out seven in four innings of work, but it was not enough. The first two innings were all Upper Perk needed.

- Ted Young doubled in both runs for North Parkland as the visitors edged Gilbertsville 2-1 for a 1-0 advantage in their Tri-County quarterfinal series. Catcher Chris Peischel walked to start off the fourth, advancing to third on a George Horn double. Two outs later Young doubled in the base runners. Rich Correll hit 2-for-3 on the day.

- Dale Weiss' sacrifice fly helped Limeport tie Quakertown 2-2 in eight innings last night in a Tri-County quarterfinal series. The game will be replayed at 6 p.m. today at Quakertown.

Bob Drumbore's RBI single put Quakertown on top 2-1 in the fifth, but Limeport's Bob Zeky scored on Weiss' fly ball.



  

From The Morning Call -- July 31, 1987

Copyright © 1987, The Morning Call