Even the weather helps Stahley's Bar's fortunes

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call


To have the kind of dream season Stahley's Bar is currently having in the Tri-County Baseball League, a club needs an abundance of talent, the injury-bug to stay away and plenty of good fortune to come their way.

Last night in Scherersville, Stahley's (19-2) received the good luck part of the package as rain came just in time to wipe out a likely loss to South Whitehall.

The visiting Serpents led 1-0 with two out in the bottom of the fifth when the skies opened and washed away what may have been their biggest win of the season.

Base umpire Barry Derohn stopped play with a 1-0 count on Stahley's Jay Raines, much to disappointment of South Whitehall and the delight of Stahley's. After a 15-minute wait, the umps ruled the field unplayable.

"I hope this is an omen of more good things to come," said Stahley's veteran player-manager Ray Ganser. "So far, it's been a good year. We've played good ball, we haven't made many errors and we've been blessed in that all of our rainouts have been against first-division teams. We've fattened up against second-division teams. From here on in, we've got a tough schedule."

Serpent righthander Jim Emerick was tough on Stahley's last night, yielding just three singles over 4-2/3 innings. As the skies darkened and visibility decreased, his popping fastball was even harder to track as evidenced by four strikeouts in the last five outs.

The Serpents, limited to just two hits by Stahley's hurler Jim Brezack, picked up a run in the third when Chuck Mondschein smacked a two-out double, moved to third on a balk and scored on a throwing error.

But that run will never appear in the Tri-Co record books.

"It's been going our way," admitted Ganser, whose team won the league crown in 1991. "I just hope it continues. This is a gift tonight. But we've got to make our breaks from this point on."

South Whitehall skipper Kevin Hutter wished Derohn would have waited for a few more pitches -- maybe just one more -- before halting play.

"This would have been a huge win for us against Stahley's, the cream of the crop, and we needed it to help us for the playoffs," Hutter said. "It was frustrating to come in the dugout and then see it rain harder and harder. Just one out away is tough to stomach. It's not a loss, but it feels like one.

"He (Derohn) said he didn't want to be responsible for anyone getting hit by lightning, but that wasn't the first time it flashed. Maybe it was just the first time he saw it."

Like Stahley's, South Whitehall has staged a turnaround season, taking a 12-9 mark into last night's game after posting a 9-20 campaign in 1994. The Serpents, who won the league's regular season title in '88 when they were based in Coplay, are in a fight for the seventh and final playoff spot in the new, expanded Tri-Co postseason format.



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- July 7, 1995

Copyright © 1995, The Morning Call