Coplay rallies to top Upper Perk, unbelievable!

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call


It's the only word suitable to describe Coplay's amazing 12-11 victory over Upper Perk last night in the first game of the Tri- County League Championship Series at Sammy Balliet Stadium.

How else do you describe a comeback from a 9-0 deficit after 3 innings and another rally from being down 11-10 with two out in the bottom of the seventh? Certainly, Upper Perk may have other words - most of them unprintable in a family newspaper - to describe the incredible turn of events that culminated when Eric Csencsits lofted a flyball to shallow right that Upper Perk rightfielder Bruce Blank couldn't hold on, allowing speedy Scott Morgan to race all the way around from first with the game-winning run.

Some might have called it a triple. Some might have called it a three-base error. Regardless, it was unbelievable.

"That's the game of baseball . . . anything's possible," said Csencsits, who got credit for a game-winning hit. "I don't know if I've ever been in a game where we came back from a 9-0 deficit before. Maybe it's happened once or twice in all my years of playing ball. But certainly, this isthe most memorable. This is the best game I've been involved in."

Certainly, both teams will be hard-pressed to regroup emotionally in time for the second game in the best-of-three series - 6 p.m. today at Upper Perk High School. Should the Chiefs rebound with a victory tonight, the third and deciding game in the series would be played at Coplay tomorrow night.

Coplay manager Lou Falco doesn't think his team will be playing tomorrow night.

"It's over (tonight)!," said Falco, who made a complete emotional turnaround himself after being ejected from the game in the sixth inning for arguing a call at first base. "This team from Day One has never given up in any game. We've been down six or seven times this season and have come back. This is just an amazing team. We are the best. They have proved so much to me and everybody else."

Coplay was the best during the regular season, posting a league- best 23-4 record in winning the North Division title. Upper Perk (19- 8 in the regular season) won the South Division crown and came out determined to do its Los Angeles Lakers imitation - i.e., repeat as champs.

The Chiefs jumped in front in the second with four runs, all with two out. Todd Swenk led off the inning with a double, but stayed at second for awhile as Coplay starter Jim Emerick got the next two batters. But with two out and two on, UP's Scott Baker hit a slow chopper that Serpent second baseman Csencsits fielded, but threw his rushed throw over the head of first baseman Jeff Erie as Swenk raced home with the game's first run.

Emerick then lost his control, walking the next two batters for another run before Tom Cichocki capped the inning with a two-run double to left-center that knocked out Emerick.

Reliever Bruce Sokol survived two Chief hits in the third, but the UP bats went back to work in the fourth.

Pete Hoff started the inning with a long home run to left center on a 1-2 pitch. Tom Cichocki followed with a single and moved to third on Bob Graber's ground-rule double. Swenk was retired on a nifty fielding play by Coplay shortstop Randy Remaly, but two runs scored anyway when center fielder Jeff Sodl dropped Joe Ricapito's long fly to the fence.

Before the inning was through, Matt Duka made it 9-0 with a home run over the fence in left and Blank angered the Serpent bench when he stole second after reaching on a walk.

"That really ticked us off," said Falco. "After that happened, our bench really came to life. I think we got it going right after that."

Indeed, Coplay came right back in the bottom of the fourth with seven runs. UP starter Baker had stranded seven Coplay baserunners through the first three innings, but his Houdini routine ended as Coplay sent 11 men to the plate, banged out seven hits and got back into the game with seven runs in the fourth.

Joe Tiwold doubled in one run and Remaly, Scott Morgan and Mark Csencsits added run-scoring singles before Russ Reinhard, who began the big inning with a double, ended it with a two-run double to pull his team within two. Reinhard was tagged out trying to stretch his hit into a triple, but certainly Coplay was back from the dead.

After an inning of silent bats - both teams went 1-2-3 in the fifth - the booming resumed in the sixth. An RBI-single by UP's Jon Yeakel made it 10-7, but in the bottom of the inning, Mark Csencsits powered a two-run home run that pulled Coplay within one.

The home run came right after Falco was ejected for arguing the call at first on a double play that, in essence, kept Coplay from tying the game on Csencsits' blast.

More explosions came in the seventh, however, as Upper Perk padded its lead to 11-9 on Swenk's RBI-single in the top of the inning.

Tiwold got the bottom of the seventh started with a single and scored one out later on Jeff Erie's double. Erie stayed at second as John Marushok flied to center. But Scott Morgan came through with a game-tying single to right. Eric Csencsits then lofted his flyball that began a celebration that could be heard all the way over in Hokendauqua.

"We're all hoarse," said Falco. "What a game!"



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 4, 1988

Copyright © 1988, The Morning Call