Stahley's Schleicher silences Silver Creek streak

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call


Silver Creek player-manager Steve Smull said there was no mystery why his team had its seven-game winning streak snapped with a 3-0 Tri- County League loss to Stahley's Bar last night.

"The other guy just pitched one helluva game," Smull said.

Stahley's left-hander Bob Schleicher cooled the red-hot Raiders with a five-hitter. The Dieruff High graduate didn't give up a hit after the third inning as Silver Creek fell for just the second time in its last 18 games and for only the fourth time in 21 contests all season.

"Bob's a good pitcher and he pitched a good game," Smull said. "That's the first time we've been shut out in two years. We've been getting eight, nine runs a game. That's why we've been winning. I guess this was due to happen because we've been hot."

While Schleicher turned the Silver Creek lumber into one of the area's few cool spots last night, Stahley's got solo home runs from Mookie Smith and Greg Wotring to spoil an otherwise solid outing by the Raiders' Jason Young.

Both longballs went over the right-field fence. Smith went deep in the first inning and Wotring's blast exited in the fifth.

"Luckily, we got those two home runs because we really didn't sting the ball," said Stahley's manager Ray Ganser. "We went with as right-handed a lineup as we can go with against (the left-handed) Young. Wotring's home run surprised me at the bottom of the order. We'll take them from wherever we can get them."

Ganser will also take more pitching efforts like the one he got from Schleicher, who will be a sophomore at Mansfield University in the fall.

"We finished fifth in the country at Mansfield; I was 6-3 and had a pretty good year," Schleicher said. "But this is probably the best I've thrown in this league. We needed a win to get us going. We've been losing a lot of close games and the offense has sputtered. Maybe this will give us a little spark.'

Schleicher was only in trouble a few times. He gave up a pair of singles to start the game, but got the next three hitters. Then, in the second, Schleicher got a little help from an alert teammate.

With two on and one out, Terry Sutton flied to center. The catch was made, but the Creek's Chris Gordon advanced from second to third. Stahley's shortstop Dale Weiss noticed Gordon had left second early and asked Schleicher to appeal the play. The umpire ruled Gordon out.

He got help from Weiss again in the sixth when Dieruff's head baseball coach reached on a bad-hop single, moved to second on an out and scored on Jeff Snyder's single to left to make it 3-0.

The three-run margin seemed like a 30-run bulge the way Schleicher cruised through the Creek.

"I just tried to throw my game, get ahead of the count," said Schleicher, who walked three and fanned five. "I was mixing it up, trying to keep them guessing. I had a fastball, curve, and slider working and gave them a changeup from time to time. That's a good hitting team. The ball was carrying here tonight, but they didn't hit too many balls into the air."

The win pumped some air into Stahley's playoff chances. The Angels are 11-10 and need to play well in their final eight games of the regular season to return to the Tri-Co's six-team postseason tournament. The Angels entered the night with just a game separating them from both South Whitehall and ICC in the tussle for the final berth in the North Division.

"We need to start hitting and keep a good attitude," said Ganser, whose team has been one of the Tri-Co's powers in recent years. "Even though we have a number of young kids, you worry when it's 95 degrees that they're going to come down here and just go through the motions. We're in a dogfight for a playoff spot and we need to get back to playing good baseball. If we do, we'll be in the hunt until the end."



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- July 8, 1993

Copyright © 1993, The Morning Call