Angels knot Tri-Co series, face Limeport again tonight

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call


In this year's Tri-County League playoffs, good things have come in threes for Stahley's.

The Angels have gone three games in both of their previous series and after a hard-fought 5-1 win over host Limeport last night, they're hoping the third game will be good to them a third time.

Stahley's (26-12) evened the best-of-three league playoff championship series thanks to a strong seven-hitter by Ed Jones and a four-run uprising in the top of the sixth that broke a 1-1 deadlock. The two clubs will try to snap their series deadlock at 5:45 tonight in Scherersville.

Tonight's winner will not only be crowned as the Tri-Co's playoff champs, but will also represent the league in a best-of-three Lehigh Valley Championship Series against the Blue Mountain League champ that will begin sometime next week.

After a 4-2 loss to Limeport Saturday, Stahley's was only concerned about not having its season end last night. The Angels survived courtesy of Jones and some clutch hitting in the sixth.

"The curveball was working for me tonight," said Jones, a Dieruff High and Lebanon Valley College grad. "Last week (when he stopped Gilbertsville in the regular season title game), all I had was my fastball and slider, but tonight the curve kept me in there and allowed me to mix it up a little. I wish I would've had the curve working last week, but I'll gladly take it tonight."

Jones was touched for a run in the first when Joe Fatzinger singled, stole second and came around to score on Chris Kernick's sacrifice fly. After that, Limeport didn't have more than one baserunner in any inning except the seventh.

"Ed needs about a week off between starts and when he gets it, he throws great," said Angels' skipper Ray Ganser. "He throws for spots and hits them. A lot of times you'll look at him and say `Man, I could hit him,' but he puts the ball where he wants to and he rarely gets tattooed. He needed someone to work for him so he could be here tonight and I'm glad he made it."

The Angels finally went to work on Limeport lefty Chad Arnold in the third when Tony Galucy tripled and scored on Dale Weiss' double.

Then Arnold's first walk of the night -- to Keith Brader to start the sixth -- opened the door for Stahley's big inning. An error on Herb Hemerly's grounder put two runners aboard and Tim Schwindenhammer put the Angels up with a booming double.

After Jeff Snyder (2-for-2) was intentionally walked, Greg Wotring, the No. 9 hitter in Stahley's lineup, singled to right to make it 3-1 and Galucy capped the inning and the game's scoring with a two-run single up the middle.

"We faced Arnold two or three times before and we know he just throws the fastball, so we were sitting on it," Galucy said. "He's been winning with the fastball all year and is their ace. We feel good about coming down and getting this one. Nothing comes easy, but we've won in three before against Gilbertsville and Silver Creek and I think we can do it again."

The Angels will go with Tim Brader in their bid for their first league playoff title ever and Limeport manager Ishky Fatzinger hopes his team's bats come to life.

"You gotta hit if you want to win," Fatzinger said after his club suffered its first defeat after five straight playoff wins. "Tonight, we only had the one bad inning in the field and that was enough to defeat us. We just didn't have many baserunners after the first inning. We didn't do anything with Jones after the first. I thought we had him on the ropes, but he hung tough."

Limeport's only offensive forces last night were Bill Fatzinger and Mike Schmick, who had two hits each. In going for its first Tri-Co playoff title since 1988, Limeport (25-11) will likely send Mike Brosious -- a lefty like Brader -- to the mound.

"We wanted to get it over with tonight, but now we'll have to do it the hard way if we're going to do it," Fatzinger said. "We'll just give it our best shot."



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 12, 1991

Copyright © 1991, The Morning Call