Tri-Co playoff game ends in darkness and tied 17-17

Cetronia, which rallied on a Tommy Williams HR, & Jordan Creek will start over again today.


By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call

 

Tommy Williams leaves today for Happy Valley, but before he left he made a few folks in the Lehigh Valley unhappy Sunday night.

Williams' three-run home run with two out in the bottom of the seventh inning capped Cetronia's comeback in Game 2 of its Tri-County League first round playoff series with Jordan Creek at the Cedarbrook complex.

The only home run in the 33-hit slugfest tied the game at 17 and led to a controversial ending.

That's because Cetronia wasn't done after Williams' three-run blast. Hassan DeJesus walked, and Jon DiBonaventura singled to coax Jordan Creek Manager Dave Snyder out of the dugout to make a pitching change.

As he did, the three-man umpiring crew headed by the Tri-Co's umpire assigner, Joe LaBella, ended play because of darkness. At that point, it was 8:20 p.m. and the sun had long since vanished from the South Whitehall Township sky.

Initially, neither team knew what was going on. Some Cetronia players feared that since the inning wasn't completed, the score would revert back to the end of the sixth inning when Jordan Creek was comfortably in front 16-12.

But LaBella made it clear as he walked briskly away from the heated scene -- and tried to get his crew away from yelling players, coaches and fans as well -- that the game would officially be considered a tie and replayed in its entirety tonight back at Cedarbrook.

Cetronia still needs one more win to end the best-of-3 series.

While pleased with their comeback from a deficit that was 17-12 entering the bottom of the seventh and as large as 14-7 through 4-1/2 innings, some Cetronia players were not content with a tie.

"We could have gone at least one more batter," Williams said. "There were two outs. Either a single would have scored a run and we would have won the game or they would have gotten the out to end the inning. One more batter wouldn't have hurt."

While many of his players argued, Cetronia player-manager George Horn stayed calm.

"It would have been nice to finish it, but they made the right call," he said. "I have no problems with what they did. We're still in pretty good shape. We only need one more win; they need two."

But Horn will miss Williams, who heads to Penn State to begin a football career as a Nittany Lion.

Even though Williams, who transferred from Lafayette, will be a red-shirt this fall, he has to participate in preseason drills that start a little earlier this year because PSU has an Aug. 28 date with Arizona at Beaver Stadium.

"When he went up to bat in the seventh inning, I told him that this was it," Horn said. "I told him to go up there swinging hard and finish strong. I guess he did."

Williams said he hates to leave the guys he has been with all season, but obviously his athletic future is in football and Joe Paterno could care less about who wins the Tri-County League championship.

"I don't think he'd like it too much if I said I couldn't be there because of a baseball game," Williams said. "I will miss the guys.

"It's unfortunate I have to leave. If they didn't have that early game with Arizona, I would be around a little longer. I'll try to stay in touch. At least I helped them out before I left."

Williams' 420-foot drive over the fence in right-center off a 2-0 pitch was the biggest hit of a game filled with them.

Cetronia batted around in the second inning for six runs in the bottom of the sixth, only to watch Jordan Creek bat around in both the third and fourth innings to score 11 times.

Hitting stars filled both lineups.

Williams was 3-for-5 with four RBIs at the top of the order for the Longhorns (21-12), while Andy Hammer had three hits and drove in five runs at the bottom.

Meanwhile, six different Gators had two or more RBIs. Julio Lebron and Shawn Cadden had three hits, and Juan Lopez was 4-for-4 with a sacrifice fly. Jordan Creek (19-14) scored in every inning but the second, but still was left with a zero in the win column.

"It's disappointing, but this was our fifth game of the week and we just ran out of arms," said Snyder, the Creek's skipper, whose franchise is in the playoffs for the first time since 1993 and is the surprise of the Tri-Co after a 9-23 season in 1998.

"I made some decisions that turned out to be wrong. It's tough to be an out away and not win, but we've bounced back all season. Hopefully, we'll do it again."



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 2, 1999

Copyright © 1999, The Morning Call