Limeport dumps Coplay from Tri-County series with a 4-1 final victory

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call


With its splendidly scenic ballpark, Limeport has always been a baseball town.

In a week or so, it could become a championship baseball town as the Limeport Tri-County League entry's 4-1 victory over Coplay last night at Sammy Balliet Stadium gives the small village in Lower Milford Township a chance at two league titles.

By stopping regular season champion Coplay in two straight semifinal playoff games, Limeport's Tri-Co club advances to that amateur league's playoff championship series against the Allentown Angels (an 8-7 winner over Upper Perk last night) beginning, in all likelihood, tomorrow night.

Limeport's other team - the Blue Mountain League Dodgers - begins its quest for a BML crown tonight at Fegely Stadium when it opens a best-of-three semifinal series against Banko's.

Jim Schaffer is a member of both teams. In these dog days of summer, you might think he'd be a little tired of putting on a uniform every night. Not Schaffer, the son of Kansas City Royal bullpen coach Jimmie Schaffer. He would play until Christmas if he could.

"It's fun to play right now," said Schaffer last night after he had two hits and drove in a run in the Limeport upset. "There's nothing better than being on two winning teams in the playoffs fighting for a championship. The Dodgers had it together from the start of the season, but this team really struggled early. But it has progressed through the year and is just playing dynamite baseball right now."

Indeed, Ishky Fatzinger's club was lucky to make the playoffs, posting a so-so regular season 15-12 mark. But Limeport came back from a game down to defeat Quakertown in the opening round of the playoffs and then took out Coplay 2-0 after the Serpents racked up a league-best 23-4 regular season mark and swept Upper Perk two games to none in last week's regular season title series.

"This is a huge upset," admitted Fatzinger, Limeport's long-time Tri-Co skipper. "We've gotten great pitching in our four wins in the playoffs. Guys who have taken their lumps all season have come through with great efforts. Our starter tonight (Jack Undercuffler) didn't know he was going to pitch until five minutes before the game because our scheduled starter lives in Reading and, I guess, he just couldn't make it."

Without much time to prepare, Undercuffler had Coplay's bats under cuffs much of the night. The 1985 Dieruff High grad allowed only a second inning run - a double by Mark Csencsits, a single by Eric Csencsits and a sacrifice fly by Jeff Sodl - as he surrendered just four hits through five innings.

Undercuffler, who spotted his pitches and changed speeds well,benefitted from outstanding defensive support. The infield turned two double plays and center fielder Billy Fatzinger made a great running grab in deep right-center on Mark Csencsits' long fly with one out in the fourth.

The strong defensive work continued after Undercuffler was replaced by Bill Coyle in the sixth. One major gem came after singles by Jeff Erie and Eric Csencsits and a throwing error put runners on second and third with one out.

Coyle then uncorked a pitch in the dirt that scooted by catcher Jack Goddess to the backstop. Goddess raced back for the ball and fired it to Coyle, who raced off the mound to cover the plate. Coyle, Erie and the ball all arrived at about the same time with Coyle tagging out the Coplay runner, and in effect, snuffing out the Serpents' last rally of the season.

"In the beginning of the season, we were just terrible," said Fatzinger. "We were not getting good pitching and we didn't know what we were doing defensively. About two-thirds through the season, the guys got tired of losing. They turned things around. I think we've gained back some respect from the rest of the league."

Truthfully, Limeport didn't exactly rip the ball to all corners of Balliet Stadium. In fact, Serpent starter Scott Morgan only gave up four hits in 6 1/3 innings of work, but some early control problems were costly.

Two walks led to a first-inning run on Bill Fatzinger's groundout. Then in the second, a single, a walk and an error led to another run, while Chris Rios' sacrifice fly scored another. Limeport was hitless for four straight innings until consecutive singles by Coyle, Bill Fatzinger and Schaffer provided an insurance run in the seventh. It wasn't overwhelming, just enough to make Coplay pack away the uniforms until next year.

"You've got to give them credit,"said Coplay player-manager Lou Falco. "They played great, and we didn't. Maybe we were emotionally tired after beating Upper Perk for the regular season title, I don't know. Regardless, I don't want our guys to hang their heads. They had one heckuva season and should be proud of it."

* In the other Tri-Co playoff last night, Dave Lutte's bad-hop single in the bottom of the sixth provided the winning run for Allentown in the Angels' come-from-behind win over Upper Perkiomen.

Mike Witkoski led off the sixth with a pinch-hit double, and scored, after Rick Wittman walked, on a Dave Chapman single. With the game tied, Lutte came through with his third hit of the night to score Wittman.

Upper Perk had taken a 4-0 lead in the first inning when Tom Cichocki tripled home Pete Hoff, Bob Graber singled in Cichocki, and Scott Baker added a two-run hit later in the inning.

Ray Ganser (an 8-0 winner in Monday's game) was called in from the bullpen, and scattered six hits in 6 2/3 innings of relief. Allentown tied the game at 4-4 in the second when Rick Wittman belted a three-run homer.

Upper Perk catcher Jon Yeakel broke the deadlock with an RBI single in the third, and the teams traded runs in the fourth and fifth innings.



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 11, 1988

Copyright © 1988, The Morning Call