Stahley's Lutte sends series to third game

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call


Dave Lutte said he stayed within himself while sending the ball out of the park last night.

Lutte, a veteran slugger for Stahley's Bar, drilled the first pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning over the fence in left-center for a home run that gave his club a 6-5 win over Gilbertsville and force a third game in the best-of-three Tri-County League semifinal series.

Stahley's, the defending league champ, will travel to Gilbertsville's Boyertown Junior High East field at 5 p.m. tomorrow in the series terminator.

"(Teammate) Rick Wittman tells me over and over again to stay within myself and just make contact up there ... that's all I was trying to do," Lutte said. "The ball was really carrying tonight. I moved up on the plate and choked up. He (Gilbertsville pitcher Kevin Mackey) put a sinking curveball in there -- a good pitch really -- and I just went after it."

Gilbertsville, coming off what is believed to be a league-record 27-3 regular season, spent most of the night chasing Stahley's. The "Bar Bombers" got back-to-back RBI doubles from Joe Aleszczyk and Lutte in the first inning to lead 2-1.

Then in the second, Tony Galucy singled in a run and a throwing error brought home another to make it 4-1. Gilbertsville got a run back in the top of the third on Mike Moyer's run-scoring single, but Stahley's regained the three-run edge in the bottom half of the frame on Greg Wotring's RBI single.

Considering the way pitcher-manager Ray Ganser was hurling, it looked like Stahley's might have an easy time in snaring the series equalizer.

Instead, Gilbertsville struck for three runs in the top of the sixth to knock out Ganser and tie it up on Jeff Evans' second RBI hit of the night.

The Rangers had the bases loaded with two outs in the sixth when Matt Hlay relieved Ganser. The righty struck out Gilbertsville player- manager Ryan Fox to end the threat and also tossed a 1-2-3 seventh to set the stage for Lutte's blast into the darkening Scherersville sky.

"We didn't deserve to win tonight with the errors we made in the field and all the people we left on base (11)," said Fox. "You can't do that against a good team like them. Ray (Ganser) made the good pitches when he had to and Matty Hlay did a great job in relief."

Lutte wasn't surprised with Hlay's effort and hopes he can deliver more.

"Matty's a horse," Lutte said. "We wouldn't have won the championship last year without him. If we're going to win it this year, we're going to need him to come through again."

Both teams will be looking for clutch performances tomorrow when Bob Drumbore will get the ball for Gilbertsville and Mike Witkowski will pitch for Stahley's.

The two clubs have been the Tri-Co's most dominant teams over the past five seasons. And besides owning some of the area's top on-the- field talent, the two clubs also have a few all-star noise makers on their respective benches.

"Oh yeah, you can hear the mutual admiration society we have going here for one another," Lutte said. "It's top-notch bench jockeying. It's just fun, part of the game. But underneath the noise, we have a lot of respect for one another.

"And not to take a thing away from Emmaus and Limeport (the Tri- Co's other remaining playoff teams) because they're outstanding teams, but I think you're seeing the best in the league right here in this series. We'll be pumped tomorrow. They'll be pumped. It should be a great end to the series."

And to somebody's season.



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 8, 1992

Copyright © 1992, The Morning Call