Upper Perk wins Tri-Co seasonal title

By John Jay Fox
Of The Morning Call


Tim Fox hurled a brilliant seven-hitter, pitching out of trouble in the third and sixth innings last night, as Upper Perkiomen captured its first regular season Tri-County League championship since 1983 with a 7-2 victory over beleaguered Coplay under the lights at Sam Balliet Stadium.

It was the second time in as many nights that the Southern Division- winning Chiefs ambushed the Northern champs. Upper Perk walloped Coplay 11-3 Thursday in the opening game of the best-of- three series.

"I never expected this. What I figured on were close games," winning skipper Bob Graber said after the two-game sweep. "We hit the ball all over the place. This is obviously the best we have played all year.

"In the last two games we got excellent fielding, quality pitching and timely hitting," Graber said. "Things just came together at the right time."

Upper Perkiomen tallied all the runs it needed in the first two frames as Tom Cichocki homered over the 345-foot sign in left in the first and Pete Hoff delivered a two-run blast to right in the second (Mike Svanson was aboard) to give the Chiefs a 3-0 lead.

Fox hurled his way to the victory by escaping trouble in the Coplay third. He walked leadoff batter Randy Remaly. Chuck Mondschein then reached on an error, but Fox proceeded to fan the next three batters to dodge the bullet.

In the troublesome sixth, Coplay again threatened after John Marushok was hit by a pitch to open the stanza. Scott Morgan then singled to left and Steve Weidner poked a ground-rule double to left to plate the leadoff man for Coplay's first run of the night after Perk scored the game's first six runs.

The righthander then showed the best of his winning form by getting Russ Reinhard to ground to short, Jeff Sodl to strike out and and Jack Goddess to ground out.

"I was prepared, but I did not want to get myself too excited," Fox explained. "I have not had the best of luck in this stadium. I lost a playoff game here last year . . . and the year before.

"What I think was the key . . . beside the great plays and hits behind me . . . was the fact that I had an extra day rest. That fourth day, the extra day, you can attribute the win to that," Fox added. "The arm's been tired all season . . . so you can understand what a difference the rest can make." Coplay manager Jack Evans couldn't believe his eyes as the Chiefs ran roughshod over his club.

"What you saw tonight, and what you've seen in the series, is not the way we have played all season," said Evans. "This club was 22-5 coming into tonight. We did not play like a club that won 22 games and lost just five.

"I am still proud of the guys, but we played very poorly and Upper Perk really hit our pitchers. Perk deserves a lot of credit for how they played . . . they came at right us and never let up," Evans added.

Upper Perk added a solo run in the third when Todd Swenk chased home Cichocki via a ground out, and one inning later Hoff scampered home on a wild pitch for a 5-0 difference.

After Swenk doubled and scored on Joe Ricapito's single in the fifth for a 6-0 cushion. Coplay got a run back in bottom of the six, and closed the scoring in the seventh - after a Perk run in the top of the frame - when Scott Morgan singled home Chuck Mondschein.

- North Parkland swept Gilbertsville in their best-of-three first round playoff, by pounding the visitors 23-6 last night.

North Parkland sent 22 batters to the plate in the first inning, scoring 16 runs. Leadoff batter Rick Correll went 3-for-3 in the inning (4-for-5 on the day), with three RBI and two runs scored.

George Horn was 2-for-2 in the first, with an RBI double and a two- run homer. Horn came back with two hits in the winners' seven-run fourth when he belted another two-run shot. Horn, 5-for-5, also had a two-run single in the fourth.

* Quakertown and Limeport teed off in the first game of a best-of- three quarterfinal series yesterday at Quakertown and the home team came out on top 10-3 thanks to a seven-run first inning.

In the first inning, 12 Quakertown batters went to the plate with run- scoring doubles off thebats of Steve Bauder, Bob Drumbore, Scott Davis and Arky Colon. Bob Kile was good for a three-run homer in Quakertown's three-run fourth inning.

For Limeport, starter Eric Dieter got wrapped for four runs early and wound up being relieved by Dave Lutte in the first. Getting the mound win for Quakertown was Tom Hartman, who pitched a five-hitter, struck out six and walked four in getting his seventh win in nine games.

Bill Fatzinger doubled and homered for the losers.

Today's second game of the series is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Limeport and the third if-necessary game tomorrow is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Limeport.



  

From The Morning Call -- August 1, 1987

Copyright © 1987, The Morning Call