BML prevails in All-Star showcase

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call

 

Much has been made of the return of professional baseball to the Lehigh Valley this summer, but Friday night in Limeport, the area's two amateur leagues found out a lot of people still care about them.

A record crowd of well over 500 people attended the annual BlueMountain/Tri-County League All-Star Game and the huge audience was treated to a BML showcase.

The senior league, in its 52nd year, combined a 13-hit attack with superb pitching to roll to an 8-4 victory.

Fittingly, 52-year-old Martins Creek, the area's oldest amateur franchise, made the biggest impact on the mid-summer spectacle.

The Creekers, defending BML champions and the league's top team so far this season with a record of 21-6, had a hand in much of the BML scoring.

The Creek's Dan Roth walked and scored the game's first run in the second. He added RBI doubles in the third and fifth.

"It's an all-star game and I was just honored and happy to be here," said Roth, a 24-year-old Northampton grad who leads the BML with 12 home runs and is among the circuit's top hitters with a batting average of .440.

"I think it's great just to get picked. If you don't want to play in a game like this, they should check your pulse. There's something wrong with the guys who don't show. I wouldn't miss it. To do well in the game is just icing on the cake."

Another Creeker, Scott Thomas, doubled and scored in the third and singled in a run in the fourth.

Two more Creekers got also into the act. Rich Fenstermaker drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and the team's player-manager Chris Sule added an RBI single.

Meanwhile, a plethora of BML hurlers stymied the Tri-Co's top hitters o njust four hits through seven innings and nine overall.

The Tri-Co's offensive highlights were limited to Eric Schmitt's three-run double in the fourth and Shawn Cadden's run-scoring single in the eighth.

The BML never looked back after breaking open a 4-3 game with two runs each in the fifth and seventh.

"They have some good pitching in the Blue Mountain League, that's for sure," said Tri-Co and South Whitehall manager Kevin Hutter. "They shut us down pretty well. When we had some opportunities, they made the big pitches and got the key outs."

"But I still thought we gave a real good effort and were in it until the end."

Indeed, the Tri-Co got the tying run to the on-deck circle in the ninth when two singles with two out kept the big crowd around.

But Limeport Dodger Mike Anderson, the BML's 10th pitcher of the night, got Gabelsville's Dave Pence on a grounder to second to end it.

"People say there's a big difference in talent between the two leagues, but I don't see it," said Roth, who also plays for Stahley's in the Tri-Co when Martins Creek is idle. "There might be a little more depth in the Blue Mountain League, but the Tri-County also has a lot of good players. They gave us a good game. We just had a couple of big hits when we needed it."

The BML also got an RBI single from Banko's Andy Pitsilos and RBIs from Catty's John Csencsits and Lehigh Township's Mark Nicholas.

They would have had a 14th hit when Bethleon's Tim Schwarz led off th eeighth with what looked like a double, but he was called out by base umpire Mark Brown for missing first base.

Meanwhile, Cetronia's Matt Moore was the only one with two hits for the Tri-Co.

"It's been a few years since we've beaten the Blue Mountain League and we really wanted to do it tonight," Hutter said. "We hurt ourselves with some errors that gave them four and five outs an inning. You just can't do that with the kind of offense they had.

"But hey, it was still a great night. We had beautiful weather and a big crowd. Sure, I wish we would have won, but it was good to make some friends and get some camaraderie going with the rest of the guys from our league. And overall, I think amateur baseball was the big winner tonight. People still like these two leagues."



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- July 12, 1997

Copyright © 1997, The Morning Call