Gilbertsville gains Tri-Co playoff victory

By Don Bostrom
Of The Morning Call


Greg Gilbert, who readily admits he's not exactly "Mr. Clutch", lined a bases-loaded single to cap a two-run seventh-inning rally last night as Gilbertsville trimmed Coplay 6-5 in the opener of their best-of-three Tri- County League regular season playoff championship.

"I don't live for these situations," said Gilbert, a marvelous talent who anchors the Rangers' magnificent   29-4 club. "I'm not very good in those type situations. I don't know why, it's just been my history.

"I was a little over-anxious trying to get the ball over the infield," he explained.

Actually, Gilbert was given a second life when his twisting foul pop near the Gilbertsville bench fell inches out of play.

"That relaxed me a bit," said Gilbert, who bats out of the No. 3-hole. "But the pressure was still on. It's important to win the first game in a series like this. I'll tell you what, there was a little bit of doubt in our minds because we normally don't find ourselves in desperate spots like that too often."

Timely hitting and the sturdy right arm of Coplay starter Randy Baer (8-4) were key ingredients that saw the Serpents take a 5-4 edge into the bottom of the seventh.

Baer had been torched by the Rangers earlier this season.

"He did a much better job of mixing his pitches up this time," noted Gilbert. "He was getting his curve over and that gave some of us some trouble. And, he had some pop on his fastball in the middle innings."

Mike Moyer started the winning rally for the Southern Division champions with a single. Jeff Chillot pinch ran.

Brian Musselman drew a walk and Tom Troutman tied things with his third single of the game. Chillot just beat a strong throw to the plate by Jim Emerick (who will start Game 2 tonight at Coplay, 8:15 p.m.) as both runners moved up.

That forced Coplay skipper Lou Falco to intentionally walk Scott Gilbert (2-for-2, 2 walks) to get to Greg Gilbert.

"It was a great game," said the still upbeat Falco when it was all over. "I wish it had went the other way, but what are you going to do? Losing that way is no big deal because we've turned our entire year around lately since a 5-8 start. I'm not upset at all because we played a good game and we'll just have to get them in the next one. I'm proud of this team, they really work hard and boy can they hit. I'll put our hitting up against anyone.

"Randy deserved a better fate," Falco said. "In my opinion, he's the best pitcher in the league."

The Serpents jumped to a quick 2-0 first inning lead when Falco slammed his first homer of the season to dead center with Jeff Erie (2-for-2, walk) aboard.

"I saw it go past the tree line and thought, 'Oh, oh, I've got to run now'," said Falco, who brought a team-leading .467 average into the contest. Falco was gasping after circling the bases, but he made it standing up.

"I'm not a home run hitter," he said. "It might have been bad for me because it got me into some bad habits thinking home run later."

The Rangers got one back in their first. Troutman beat out a slow roller to short, Scott Gilbert flared a single to left and Troutman hustled into third when leftfielder Gary Henry bobbled the ball.

Henry atoned for that miscue moments later when he bailed out centerfielder Scott Morgan on a towering drive by Greg Gilbert. Morgan lost the ball in the sun, but Henry made a spectacular diving catch as Troutman trotted home.

Gilbertsville scratched out a pair of runs to take a 3-2 edge in the third. Musselman, who had robbed Bill Pugh of extra bases with a glowing, over- the-shoulder grab in deep center in the top of the inning, reached on an infield error, stole second and moved to third when catcher Chuck Mondschein's throw sailed into the outfield.

Troutman plated him by driving a 2-2 pitch through a drawn in infield. He stole second and and waltzed home when Scott Gilbert scalded a triple high off a spruce tree in right-center. The wicked shot would have been a homer if not for the tree.

That barrier cost the Rangers a run because stellar shortstop Greg Gilbert lined into an inning-ending double play.

Coplay (20-13) erupted for three runs in the fifth.

Eric Csencsits led things off against winner Chris Ludy (8-0) with a hot smash past third that was ruled an error. He stole second and scored when Bill Pugh (2-for-4) sliced a ground-rule double to left.

Scott Morgan followed with a triple to right to give Coplay a 4-3 lead.

The inning's final run scored when the usually flawless Greg Gilbert uncorked a wild throw to first on a slow roller by Mark Csencsits.

The Rangers used a pair of walks and a two-out bloop single by Ryan Fox to cut the gap to 5-4 in the sixth. Baer dodged a bullet in that frame when cleanup hitter Jeff Evans' drive to deep left with two on hooked foul.

UPPER PERK 6, LIMEPORT 1 - Upper Perk opened postseason play in the Tri- County League on a positive note by downing Limeport 6-1 in the first game of a best-of-three series.

Instrumental in lifting Upper Perk to its first playoff game win were winning pitcher Bob Graber and power hitter Ray Steinman.

Graber allowed seven hits, fanned six and walked two.

Offensively, Steinman went 3-for-4 with two RBI and Kelly Adamitis had two hits and knocked in two runs.

Jim Simonds for Limeport was the losing pitcher of record.

ALLENTOWN 10, QUAKERTOWN 2 - Joe Aleszczyk and Dave Lutte each belted a pair of homeruns for Allentown as the Angles trounced Quakertown in this Tri- County first round playoff game.

Aleszczyk and Lutte combined for six hits, eight RBI and six runs between them. The former belted two-run shots in each the first and third innings, while Lutte socked dingers in the first (a solo shot) and sixth (with two on). Mike Witkowski allowed one run on five hits in six innings for the win, while Tom Hartman went the distance for Quakertown.



  

From The Morning Call -- August 10, 1989

Copyright © 1989, The Morning Call