Mackey hurls Gilbertsville into finals vs. Silver Creek

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call


Since he's the last of the original Rangers, no one knows more about Gilbertsville's Tri-County League tradition of excellence better than Kevin Mackey.

Last night, Mackey made sure the team's tradition -- as well as its 1993 season -- continued as he tossed the Rangers to a 3-2 playoff victory over upstart East Texas at Boyertown Junior High East.

The win gave Gilbertsville a 2-0 sweep of the best-of-three semifinal series. The Rangers will go for their second straight Tri- Co title and seventh crown in the last 10 years when they face Silver Creek in a best-of-five series beginning Tuesday night in Springtown.

"I'm the only guy left from our first team in the league back in 1976, so I've been around awhile," said Mackey, a big right-hander who shut down EasT Texas on seven hits. "We've still got a good group of veterans who enjoy playing the game and stay enthusiastic year after year. And it rubs off the veterans and affects the younger guys coming in. Of course, winning helps."

And no one has won like the Rangers over the years.

This summer, however, hasn't been a typical Gilbertsville year. The Rangers have actually struggled at times and they may have entered the series against North Division champion East Texas as -- hard as it is to believe -- an underdog.

"Sure, we struggled a little bit at different times of the year; in fact, we lost our last three games of the regular season," said manager Mike Moyer. "But we were in a stretch of playing seven games in six days; certain guys weren't around and I think we just got a little tired. Once the playoffs began, we hoped we could put things back together and it looks like we have."

The Rangers (26-9) had the complete package in eliminating a young, hungry Longhorn team that had been the Tri-Co's biggest surprise this summer. Last night, Gilbertsville got solid pitching from Mackey, clutch hitting from Jeff Evans and steady defense.

Evans, a 10-year Ranger veteran, started the scoring in the bottom of the second with a home run that bounced off a tree branch in the left-field forest.

Then in the fourth, he followed Ryan Fox's double with a bloop single to left to make it 2-0. Evans reached second on an error and scored what would prove to be the deciding run later in the inning on Jeff Pinder's sacrifice fly.

"We figured runs would be tough to come by tonight," Evans said. "We put it on them pretty good the other night (8-2 in Game 1) and we knew they would come back. They have a good ballclub and we knew we'd have our hands full. Fortunately, Kevin threw a heck of a game, we got some timely hits and our defense came through."

Indeed, the Longhorns had more hits -- 7-5. But Gilbertsville came up with the critical stops.

East Texas had a runner caught stealing in the first. Double plays killed Longhorn threats in the second and fourth innings. Mackey pitched around a lead-off double in the fifth.

East Texas's lone runs came in the sixth with the help of two throwing errors. Player-manager George Horn doubled in one run and Scott Godshalk doubled in the other. But with Godshalk on second and two out, Mackey got Dom Motolese on a hard-hit grounder to third to end the Longhorns' last threat.

"We were flat in this series; maybe the layoff from getting the first-round bye hurt us," said player-manager Horn. "We beat them twice during the season, but we did a lot of things in these playoffs that we don't normally do.

"'This is the first time a lot of these guys were in the playoffs. I think we're going to be back if we keep a lot of our young players together. We'll learn from this."

Despite the quick exit, East Texas experienced the exhilaration of turning an 11-18 team in '92 into a 20-10 club during the '93 regular season.

Mackey, a guy who should know a thing or two about success in the Tri-Co, thinks the Longhorns are headed for their share.

"They have a good, young team," said Mackey, who walked just two and struck out four. "George (Horn) did a great job of recruiting. They have a lot of ability and may just need a little more maturity. They just need to do the same thing we did -- stay together and play. If they do, they'll only get better and will be winners for some time to come."



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 8, 1993

Copyright © 1993, The Morning Call