Limeport bats boom in Tri-County rout

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call

 

Anyone who took a look at their late-season slump and decided that the Limeport Bulls were not a serious threat to repeat as Tri-County League champions should have been on the mound facing them Thursday night.

The booming Bull bats probably would have changed any doubter's mind as they erupted for 29 hits and coasted to a 22-5 win over host South Whitehall in Game 1 of a Tri-Co semifinal series.

The Bulls will try to clinch a spot in the Tri-Co finals for the third consecutive year at 7:30 tonight in Game 2 of the best-of-3 series.

Limeport (26-12) got at least two hits and a run scored from every member of the starting lineup. The Bulls had 12 runs and 16 hits in just first three innings alone.

"We slid in the last two weeks of the regular season, going 4-4, and maybe some people forgot about us," said Limeport player-manager Billy Fatzinger. "Our slide had a lot to with Dennis Kinney and Josh Williams not being around for most of those games. When you're missing two guys of that caliber, it's hard to fill their holes. Two guys don't make a team, but it hurt us in those last eight games."

But that last-season dip was completely forgotten in the storm of line drives, gappers and dingers the Bulls unleased at the Lehigh County Cedarbrook Complex.

Just what kind of night was it for Limeport?

Well, consider that Jeff Sabo hit just one home run in his entire high school career at Salisbury, but he hit two in the first two innings Thursday. The first was a three-run shot that highlighted the Bulls' five-run first inning.

"I didn't swing the bat well in the last game of our series against Stahley's, so it was good to come out and get a good piece of the ball in my first at-bat," Sabo said. "Against Stahley's, our No. 1, 3 and 4 hitters pulled us through while from five to nine in the order we had trouble at the plate. Tonight, though, everyone exploded."

Kevin Kershner was 5-for-5, Fatzinger 4-for-5 and Josh Williams 3-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBIs. It was Williams' lead-off home run that set the tone.

"It would be nice to bottle some dust or whatever made us hit so well and take it to Limeport (tonight)," the 26-year-old Sabo said. "Hopefully, everybody's a lot more confident and it'll carry over. For me, that was the first two-homer game of my life. It's one to savor."

And it's one for South Whitehall (25-13) to forget.

The Serpents were 2-0 against the Bulls in the regular season and they know they can beat the defending champs. But obviously South Whitehall can't afford to give up more hits in one inning then some teams get in an entire game.

"We ran back to the left-field fence quite a bit tonight," said acting Serpents' manager Jeff Erie, filling in for vacationing skipper Kevin Hutter. "Give them a lot of credit. They hit the ball well. They got their act together and they're a great bunch of hitters. We've got our best pitcher going in Game 2 in Randy Baer and hopefully we can shut them down.

"Tonight, if you could hit a fastball, you could hit our pitching. But Randy Baer moves it in and out and can throw the curve. He has a second and third pitch. So, we'll see what happens."

Kinney, Limeport's ace, scattered five hits over three innings before turning the ball over to Pete Snyder, who worked the final four frames. Snyder wasn't perfect, and even walked in two runs in the fourth. But his task was merely to keep South Whitehall under control and he did.

Jud Frank had three hits and Chad Erie maintained a torrid streak with a two-run triple in the first inning, but the Serpents couldn't come close to keeping pace with the Bulls.

"After being on pins and needles against Stahley's after losing the series opener, this one was nice," Fatzinger said. "I just hope that we saved a few runs for the next game."



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 8, 1997

Copyright © 1997, The Morning Call