Gilbertsville goes 1-up on Emmaus as Tri-Co finals start

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call


Gilbertsville's Dave Pence and Emmaus' Pat Toner became friends when the two played baseball together for a semester at North Carolina Wesleyan College.

But friendship didn't prevent Pence from smacking a long RBI double off Toner to break a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the sixth inning and send Gilbertsville on to a 2-1 victory over Emmaus (24-12) last night at Boyertown Junior High East in the first game of the Tri- County League Championship Series.

The Rangers (30-4) can gain a stranglehold on the best-of-five series with a win in Game 2 at 7:30 tomorrow night at Emmaus Community Park.

"Pat and I met in college and became good friends, but this was the first time I ever played against him," said Pence, whose hit decided a marvelous pitching duel between the Rangers' Tom Hartman and Toner.

"On my at-bat before that, he threw me three straight sliders and I had it in the back of my mind that he'd start me with another slider. He did and got it up."

Pence sent the ball high and deep, bouncing into the woods in deep left-field for a ground-rule double. The shot scored pinch-runner Dave Dykie, who had replaced Neil Fox at second base.

Fox reached when he hit a chopper to Emmaus first baseman Rob Hanawalt. Toner, racing over to cover first from the pitcher's mound, dropped Hanawalt's toss.

"I just lost it in the background somewhere ... I guess I was just a little nervous running over there," said Toner, a 1990 Salisbury High grad. "The throw was fine, I should have had it. I guess I heard the footsteps of the runner coming down the line and thinking in the back of my mind he could take me out."

Gilbertsville would have loved to take out Toner any way it could. The hard-hitting Rangers were frustrated much of the night by the crafty right-hander. He had a four-hit shutout going for four innings until Mother Nature intervened on behalf of Gilbertsville in the fifth.

With two out and Chris Mackey on second the Rangers' Marty Bauer drilled a slicing fly to right. Emmaus right fielder Jeff Sabo was in position to make the catch, but lost the ball in the sun at the last instant. The ball hit and rolled past Sabo as Bauer scooted into third with a game-tying triple.

"We've been getting our share of breaks in the last two weeks, winning games in the last inning," said Pence, who had seen many similar happenings with the Boyertown High School and American Legion clubs in his career. "Hopefully, we'll start making things easier for ourselves."

Winning pitcher Hartman made things as easy for his club as possible with a four-hitter. He gave up only a third-inning, bases- empty home run to the Braves' Kyle Weida, who used a combination of power and speed to give Emmaus the lead.

Weida drove the ball deep to center and then raced around the bases, scoring just ahead of relay man Bob Drumbore's throw.

Other than that Hartman had little trouble, getting solid defensive support when needed. Most notable among the defensive gems was a strong throw from first baseman to catcher Fox to get Weida trying to score from third on an infield grounder in the sixth.

"This wasn't my best performance of the year -- I had a no-hitter two weeks ago against East Texas -- but I really felt good," said Hartman, who didn't walk a batter and struck out four. "I was just trying to throw strikes and get ahead of people. Walking guys can kill you. The game was a little too close for my taste, but you've got to give Toner credit for keeping it tight.

Hartman was just happy he could pitch somewhere last night.

"I haven't pitched in a game this late in the season since we won the playoff title with Quakertown in 1987," he said. "The main reason Bob (Drumbore) and I came over here from Quakertown is that the guys here know how to play the game. We're both real happy we made the move."

At least last night, Emmaus probably wished Hartman had stayed in Quakertown.



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 13, 1992

Copyright © 1992, The Morning Call