|
Blue Mountain stars get unexpected help to rip Tri-County stars
The winners make good
use of Tri-County errors to coast to a 13-7 victory in the annual game.
By Geoff Dodd
Of The Morning Call
The Blue Mountain
and Tri-County All-Stars on Friday played their annual base ball game --
the two-word version -- not baseball, as those 20th-century purists
would have one believe.
And the Blue
Mountain All-Stars took it from the error-plagued Tri- County group,
13-7, in the antiquated, homely Limeport Stadium, which still resonates
today in all its Depression-era glory, 68 years after farmer Howard
"Lefty" Fegely decided to build a field for his Limeport Milkmen squad.
In this jewel of a
ballpark, complete with its original forest green wooden seats, an
eight-foot wooden fence that encircles the outfield and a seemingly
anachronistic electric scoreboard, there are a few bad seats; Fegely placed
foundation beams throughout the stands, which reach only behind home plate
and down to first and third bases.
The center-field
wall, beyond a shield of the American flag and shrubbery, extends 485 feet,
surpassing the once-mighty Polo Grounds in distance. A large, rising hill
extends that length; Fegely couldn't afford the landscaping to level it out.
Needless to say, no
one approached that fence, or the shrubs for that matter, although Blue
Mountain right fielder Scot Engler took one deep over the considerably
shorter left-field wall in the top of the eighth.
"I knew it was going
when I hit it," Engler said. "The pitcher, he just left a curve ball high.
"This was the last
field I needed to park one in," the Lower Nazareth right fielder added,
noting that he accomplished the feat in a league game against Limeport
Monday evening, rocking a 400-foot shot over the 374 mark in right-center
field.
Tri-County catcher
Todd Litts nearly duplicated Engler's feat in the bottom of the inning, but
his shot sailed just right of the right- field foul pole. He instead settled
for a long single, a liner down the left-field line.
Alas, Litts' hit
proved meaningless, as his team already trailed by eight, a hole it had dug
itself much earlier in the game.
While the 400-plus
fans, many of whom have outlasted this stadium, expected to see
old-fashioned, All-Star baseball, Tri-County succeeded only in making the
practice of fielding seem archaic and outdated.
"Too many errors,
too many unearned runs," Tri-County manager Shawn Andrews said. "You just
can't do that, not when you're going against the league's best.
"I don't know how
many runs were unearned," he added, "but if you take away those, you're
looking at a pretty good game."
Seven Tri-County
errors -- five throwing, two fielding -- through the first four innings
sealed the game.
In the top of the
fourth, with Blue Mountain up 4-2, catcher Frank Riefsnyder led off with a
walk from Tri-County pitcher Myron Trunnick. Right fielder Omar Torres then
misplayed a short fly ball by third baseman Scott Thomas, and shortstop Greg
Gilbert followed with a throw that sailed over first baseman Eric Schmitt's
head.
Blue Mountain
shortstop Andy Pitsilos followed with a triple to deep center (the farthest
hit of the day), and second baseman Tom Stoudt added a bloop single to
center.
After Gilbert
regained his composure to gun out designated hitter Jeff Cavanaugh, first
baseman John Csencsits followed with a liner to left that drove in the fifth
run of the inning.
By the time
Tri-County ended its own nightmarish inning, the score was 9-2.
"They were throwing
it around a little bit early," said Blue Mountain manager Punkin' Miller.
"But this was a a good team effort, too."
Tim Buck of Bethleon
picked up the victory, while Scott Stewart of the ICC Pirates suffered the
loss.
geoff.dodd@mcall.com
From The Morning Call --
July 7, 2001
Copyright
© 2001,
The Morning Call
|
