Emmaus hits .500 in Tri-Co by topping Salisbury

By Ernie Long
Of The Morning Call


By beating its "parent" club Salisbury 7-4 yesterday, the fledgling Emmaus team proved again that it has sprouted its wings and is ready to take on the Tri-County League on its own terms.

Emmaus, which contains four former Salisbury players and is in its first year of existence, improved to 9-9 on the season after coming from behind to beat the visitors in an error-filled contest.

"I figured we'd be pretty good this year as long as our pitching holds up," said head coach/first baseman David Ernst -- a former Salisbury starter and a leader in the birth of the Emmaus squad.

"As far as coming back today, that's how it's been the whole year for us. We were down 10-0 to Upper Perk and beat them. It seems that we usually don't start scoring until the last three innings so we never figure to be out of a game. Everybody's been hitting the ball well lately."

Emmaus is just a game behind Upper Perk, which is in third place in the South Division.

The game was, perhaps, a statement of arrival for Emmaus. For 5-13 Salisbury, it was just another shaky outing in a forgettable season.

"Errors have been a big part of our problem," acknowledged head coach Dave Snyder, whose players tallied six of the miscues.

He continued, "We lost a lot of players to that team this year and lost others because of jobs, so this is pretty much a new team. But we started out 4-4, then lost a couple pitchers and have a couple double-roster legion players so we don't have the same lineup game to game."

Salisbury struck for three runs in the first inning off winning pitcher Todd Balliet. But none of them were earned as Emmaus committed two of its four errors in the frame. Leftfielder Ken Wied (2-for-3) scored the first run.

Emmaus threatened to get right back in it in the bottom of the inning, but left the bases loaded after plating just one. Jay Raines singled and scored on Scott Heppenheimer's misplayed popup to the infield.

Balliet held Salisbury to just two hits the rest of the way, which allowed his club to peck away at the lead.

"My control picked up after the third inning," said the lefthander, who struck out five and walked just two. "And one of our strong points is good hitting. Coming back like this has been typical of us."

Heppenheimer provided the hits that drove in three more Emmaus runs, including the tying one in the fifth. Heppenheimer slugged a two-run triple in the third, plating Ted Steiner and Ernst -- both of whom singled -- and he delivered an RBI bloop single to left that again plated Steiner -- who reached base on an error, stole second, and moved to third on a wild pitch.

Ernst came home with the go-ahead run after Tim Robb's single.

Steiner delivered a run-scoring sacrifice fly in the sixth, plating Kyle Weida, and Joe Ernst scored on an error.

Emmaus stole five bases and took advantage of four wild pitches and passed balls.

"We're thin in pitching and I don't have the luxury of a closer so I have to stay with who I've got out there," said Snyder, who saw lefty Pat Barron get victimized by timely hitting and untimely defense.

Heppenheimer said, "We have hitters up and down our lineup (Raines, Steiner and David Ernst are all batting over .440) and even more on our bench. We're balanced."

Salisbury took a 4-1 lead in the second when Tom Golden (2-for-3) doubled and later scored on Wied's single to right, which was bobbled.

UPPER PERKIOMEN 11, CETRONIA 4 -- Ray Steinman was 2-for-5 with four RBI to lead Upper Perkiomen over error-prone Cetronia in the Tri- County.

Todd Swenk was 3-for-4 with two RBI, Scott Engle went 2-for-5 with two RBI and Joe Ricapito belted a solo homer in the fourth for Upper Perk.

John Greenawalt was 2-for-2 and Tim Sheckler drove in two runs for Cetronia.

Mark Phillips went five innings for the win.

EAST TEXAS 4, ICC PIRATES 2 -- East Texas trailed 2-1 going into its top of the sixth inning rallied for three runs to hang on for a Tri-County League win.

Richie Guman and Bob Milositz for the Pirates (7-10) each had two hits.



ernie.long@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- July 8, 1990

Copyright © 1990, The Morning Call