Limeport holds off Upper Perk 5-3 in Tri-Co baseball

By Gary R. Blockus
Of The Morning Call


By his own admission, Jim Simonds got off to a slow start in last night's Tri-County League showdown between host Limeport and Upper Perkiomen, second place teams in the North and South Divisions, respectively.

By the time Limeport's second-year pitcher got his stuff working, his teammates had built a 3-0 lead and managed to play some solid defense to hold on for a tight 5-3 victory.

"I didn't have my stuff in the beginning," volunteered the 32-year-old pitcher, who returned to action last season after a six-year hiatus from organized baseball.

"Usually, I'm a slow starter and tonight I didn't have my stuff until about halfway through."

Actually, Simonds (4-2) looked like he settled in during the first ining. After surrendering a leadoff double followed by a walk, he got the next three batters in order to strand both runners.

In the second, he gave up a single to Rich Kressley, but ended the inning with a fly out and a grounder to third. Still, he was working hard, throwing almost four innings worth of pitches through the first two frames.

Then, in the sixth, he gave up back-to-back-to-back singles to load the bases with one out, but served up a grounder to first for a force out at home and ended the scoring threat on Tim Svanson's fly to left.

"We were lacking that clutch hit," noted Upper Perk manager Bob Graber, whose team dropped its second straight contest (with two incomplete games due to rain sandwiched in between).

"A clutch hit early and we might have had them. We haven't really been playing that good all year," he said, shruging off his team's 8- 4 record. "We've been struggling to score runs. Our pitching was carrying us early, but now even that's been struggling."

Graber knows whereof he speaks. He took the mound loss last night.

Limeport (11-6) jumped on top 3-0 in the third inning on three hits and an error.

Chris Rios led off with a single, was sacrificed to second, stole third and scored on John Evans' sacrifice. Bill Fatzinger was up next and took Graber for an opposite-field home run to left.

Jack Goddess reached second on an error in right, then scored on Bob Fatzinger's opposite-field single to right for the 3-0 cushion.

Upper Perk clawed its way back in the top of the fourth. Todd Swenk reached base on a fielder's choice. Ray Steinman walked to set up Kressley's fielder's choice, eliminating Steinman.

Shortstop Chris Kernick tried to pick off Swenk after he overran third, but threw the ball out of play for a two-base error, scoring Swenk and moving Kressley to third. Kressley scored on a wild pitch to narrow Limeport's lead to 3-2.

Limeport came back with two more runs in the sixth after the Chiefs wasted a bases-loaded situation in their half of the inning.

Goddess led off with a single, Fatzinger walked and Eric Dieter executed a gorgeous bunt toward third to load the bases. Jim Schaeffer drew a bases-loaded walk to score one run and Rios sacrificed to score Fatzinger.

Upper Perk picked up one run in the seventh on Graber's two-out double to deep center, but a fly out to center one batter later ended the game.



  

From The Morning Call -- June 25, 1989

Copyright © 1989, The Morning Call