Gabelsville's 3rd straight Tri-Co title comes from experience

Lew Chillot finishes his TCL career in style with a 5-hit victory over Tri-City.


By Ted Meixell
Of The Morning Call

 

Crafty 39-year-old left-hander Lew Chillot handcuffed free- swinging Tri-City (34-9) on five hits on Saturday at Lee Mecherly Field to lift host Gabelsville (34-6) to a 5-1 victory and its third consecutive Tri-County League championship.

The title was the Gabelsville/Gilbertsville franchise's 12th overall and 11th in 18 seasons.

Chillot, who commutes from Lancaster and rarely pitches anywhere but at home, has been on seven of those title winners. He used the occasion to announce this one would be his last.

Slugging Jeff Evans, 36, who put a great swing on a great Dan Dillon slider to knock in two runs, has played for every one of those title winners except the first -- and only because that one was in 1968, when he was just three years old.

Two weeks ago, following the Owls' semifinal elimination of ICC, Evans, head baseball coach at Wilson-West Lawn High, revealed that he and his wife are anticipating the birth of their first child and suggested he'd probably retire.

On Saturday, he said he may reconsider.

Mike "Doc" Moyer has taken part in eight of those title runs -- the last six as a player/manager. Doc made it plain he'll be back to shoot for nine, and four in a row.

Gabelsville let a 4-2 sixth-inning lead slip away in Thursday's Game 4 at Scherersville, eventually falling 8-4. It arrived Saturday resolved that no such thing would happen in the decisive fifth game. And Chillot made sure it didn't.

Earlier this year, Chillot recorded his landmark 50th career TCL win. Saturday, pitching for the first time in a month, he kept his fastball up and away from Fleetwing hitters. He moved his breaking balls around in the zone and changed speeds artfully. And those tactics resulted in three strikeouts and 14 easy fly ball outs.

"That's the way I pitch," he said, "the way I have to pitch. At 39, I'm not going to blow anyone away. Against a young, aggressive team like [Tri-City], I try to keep the ball away and off-speed. A free-swinging team like them is good for me; a team that's willing to take a lot of pitches and make me come to them hurts me."

Why retire?

"Well," he said, "you like to go out on top. I wanted to win today and not have to come back another year to do it."

With A.J. Bohn (walk) at third and Greg Gilbert (single, steal) at second in the bottom of the first, Dillon threw Evans a nasty slider, down and away, on 3-2. But Evans muscled it down the left-field line to put the Owls on top.

A double by another ageless wonder, Bob Graber (39), and Bohn's single made it 3-0 in the second.

"He had me in the count," Evans said, "but I got back to 3-2. I stayed back on the pitch, and I was able to go down and just get the bat head on it.

"Winning three in a row, I think, says something for us older guys -- that we can still play a little. Retire? I'm not sure. You want it to end on top -- but then you still have that burn inside to see if you can do it again. Maybe if my high school team has a good year next spring it'll put out the burn.

"But Greg [Gilbert] and I came in together, and we've talked about going out together. Maybe we'll talk about it. We'll see."

The Fleetwings got their only run in the third. Owls' right fielder Ed Reilley tried a shoestring catch of Brendan Witkowski's sinking liner, but it got past him and Witkowski wound up with a triple. Justin Godusky, who went 3-for-3 and was the only real thorn in Chillot's side, singled him in.

To Moyer, Title No. 8 was no different than the first seven.

"They're all sweet," he said. "No matter when or how you get 'em, they're sweet. We play because we love the game. But we also want to win championships. I'll be back. I like being in charge. I like helping the young guys out. And I have confidence in my decision making abilities."

"We needed to be more patient offensively; that's why we had all those easy fly ball outs," said Fleetwings' manager Bob Fatzinger, who was, justifiably, proud of his young, third-year team's effort.

"We played well; they didn't blow us out. We knew they'd probably [score] four or five, but we felt we could score enough to win."


Tri-City         001 000 0 -- 1  5  3

Gabelsville    210 101 x -- 5 11 0


Dan Dillon, Josh Gunkle (4) and Jeremy Arner; Lew Chillot and Matt Danner. W -- Chillot. L -- Dillon.



ted.meixell@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 19, 2001

Copyright © 2001, The Morning Call