Limeport takes 1-0 lead on Tri-City

The Tri-County playoff series has become a Fatzinger family reunion.


By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call

 

Late July and early August is the time of year many families stage their reunions and the Fatzinger clan is no exception.

However, instead of dishing out the potato salad, deviled eggs, baked beans, hot dogs and hamburgers, the Fatzingers are serving up line drives, fastballs and hard slides at their reunion.

The Fatzinger Reunion, otherwise known as the Limeport/Tri-City Tri-County League playoff series, began Saturday at Lehigh.

But after Limeport's hard-fought 4-2 win over Tri-City in Game 1 of the first round, best-of-three set, no one was in the mood for a piece of Aunt Mabel's pie and a game of pinochle.

Glenn Kushma scattered seven hits and kept Tri-City scoreless over the last five innings, while hitting a rally-starting home run to help Limeport get the upper hand in the "friendly" family feud. The series resumes 7:30 tonight in Limeport with Jeff LaPorta expected to pitch for Tri-City against the Bulls' Chad Arnold.

A third game would be played back at Lehigh Monday if needed.

Limeport skipper Billy Fatzinger, who was going against his uncle, Bob, the Tri-City manager, as well as cousins Teague and Joe, stressed that this series wasn't really about family pride.

He did add, however, that going against Tri-City, in the playoffs in its first year of existence, got the juices flowing a little more.

"We've got a friendly family thing going on here and it's all positive," Billy Fatzinger said. "There's a lot of familiar faces, a lot of my former teammates on the other side. All of the guys are aware of it. And it's probably good that we're going against them instead of just any other team. It helps us to get a little more pumped up. It may be what the doctor ordered."

Limeport needed a boost after dropping six of nine at the end of the regular season. The slide dropped the Bulls to 21-11 and the fifth playoff seed. Thus, few give them a chance of winning their third league title in four years.

"It's different," Billy Fatzinger said. "We weren't going to sneak up on anybody the last two years. This year, maybe we can. We got beat by South Whitehall last year when we all got cold at the same time. As long as that doesn't happen again, we can go far."

Certainly, more pitching performances like Kushma's could carry the Bulls deep into August.

The Emmaus High and Allentown College product wasn't overpowering. He had just four strikeouts and didn't have a 1-2-3 inning.

However, Tri-City couldn't get a clutch hit off Kushma after Casey Paras and Jeremy Rex singled in runs in the second inning.

"That's a strong team with good hitters one through nine in the lineup," Kushma said. "It's kind of like a crap shoot. You gotta throw everything you have at them and just see how you come out.

"Since those guys know I'm not going to blow it by them, I was trying to keep them off-balance. I tried to change speeds, keep it low. When they hit the ball hard, the defense picked me up."

Down 2-1 entering the top of the fourth against Tri-City veteran Matt Hlay, Kushma picked up his team with a lead-off home run over the wall in left-center to tie it 2-2.

"Matt Hlay is a heckuva pitcher and he has some pitches that you think you see, but you don't," Kushma said. "I crowded the plate, hoping he'd throw me something inside. I just got lucky."

Glenn Bubser (2-for-3) and Pete Remaly (3-for-3) followed with singles and Bubser eventually scored the go-ahead run on Scott Heppenheimer's fielder's choice.

Limeport got an insurance run in the fifth. Mark Wojciechowski led off with a double on a ball misjudged in center. Jim Schaffer moved him to third with a sacrifice bunt and a Kevin Kershner's sacrifice fly brought him home.

Tri-City (23-10) had one last crack with one out in the seventh when Brendan Witkowski singled. The rally and the game were snuffed out in a flash, however, as Matt Marcks' hard smash to shortstop Kershner was converted into a game-ending double play.



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 1, 1999

Copyright © 1999, The Morning Call