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Gabelsville evens
Tri-County finals
Lew Chillot survives late Limeport
threat in 7-5 win over Bulls.
By Mickey Brown
Of The Morning Call
Lew
Chillot had to pass two tests if he wanted to stay in the game, and he
failed the first.
Limeport's Joe Pochron had singled to lead off the seventh inning.
The
second challenge came in the form of Kevin Kershner, who batted next and
whose presence worried Gabelsville manager Mike 'Doc' Moyer.
"Kevin's
been killing us all year," Moyer said. "If he would have gotten on, Lew was
done."
Chillot,
a left-hander who started playing Tri-County ball around the same time some
of his teammates were born, bore down on Kershner and got him to fly out
harmlessly to right.
"I'm
thinking, 'I'll leave Lew in, go lefty-lefty twice and see what happens,' "
said Moyer. "Fortunately, he got Kevin out."
He ended
the threat by striking out one of the Bulls' most dangerous hitters, Glenn
Kushma, and getting Glenn Bubser on another fly ball to right as Gabelsville
went on to win 7-5, drawing the Owls even at 1-1 in the Tri-County League
Championship Series.
"He'd
done a good job against Kushma all night, so I said, 'Let's see if he'll get
Glenn out again," Moyer said. "He was one batter away from coming out, but
he gutted it out, sucked it up and did a good job. You can't say enough
about Lew."
Game 3
in the best-of-5 series will be at 7 tonight at Limeport (31-5).
Chillot
wouldn't have been in such a pressure situation in the seventh if the sixth
had gone a little better for him.
Holding
a 6-0 lead, Gabelsville (32-5) seemed in control of the game going into the
inning. Chillot retired the first two Limeport batters he faced, but walked
Bubser with two outs.
Pete
Remaly pounded a breaking ball over the fence in left-center for a two-run
home run.
A free
pass to Steve Unger and a base hit by Jeff Erie brought Joe Ricapito, the
most imposing No. 8 hitter you'll ever see, to the plate.
Chillot
served up a fat one and Ricapito sent it out of the park to make it 6-5. It
was a no-doubter, Ricapito watching the flight of the ball the instant he
made contact with it, then flipping the bat to the side as if it were a
twig.
The Owls
added a run in the bottom of the sixth on Jarod Nace's bases-loaded walk.
"After
that sixth inning, it started getting a little tight," Gabelsville's Ed
Reilley said. "We wanted to come in and get some extra runs. We would have
liked to get more than just one, but we held on. We sat on that six-run lead
a long time."
Since
the second inning, in fact. That's when Reilley, the No. 3 hitter, put
Gabelsville up 5-0 when he rocked a Pat Toner offering for a grand slam.
Reilley
wasn't supposed to be batting in that spot in the order. Gabelsville's usual
No. 3 hitter, Greg Gilbert, arrived late, so Reilley took his place.
He made
the most of his opportunity, as he has been doing throughout the playoffs.
Of his four home runs this year, three have come in the postseason.
The last
pitch Toner threw before getting pulled resulted in the eventual
game-winning run.
With one
out in the third, the Bulls' Bob Graber hit a towering shot down the
right-field line that cleared the 325-foot fence by at least 100 feet.
But the
ball was ruled foul.
Graber
then laced Toner's next pitch just over the fence in right. It traveled
about 100 feet shorter than his previous blast, but counted just the same.
Moyer
was worried after the first inning, when Gabelsville stranded runners at
first and third, that Tuesday's contest would be a repeat of Game 1, in
which his team only mustered two hits.
"We've
got to take advantage of getting some runs when we've got opportunities
because you see the way those guys hit," he said. "You can't have enough
runs against those guys."
Limeport
000 005 0 -- 5 6 1
Gabelsville 051 001 x -- 7 10 0
Toner,
Parsell (3), Kushma (6) and Vito; Chillot and Nace. L: Toner. HR: L Remaly
(6h, 1 on), Ricapito (6th, 2 on); G Reilley (2nd, 3 on), Graber (3rd, none
on).
From The Morning Call --
August 16, 2000
Copyright
© 2000,
The Morning Call
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