Eidle comes off bench to pitch Gabelsville past Limeport

By Tim Shoemaker
Special to The Morning Call

 

Gabelsville manager Doc Moyer had to make a pitching change Thursday night before his team's Tri-County League playoff game at Limeport even started.

His intended starter, Justin Konnick, was late in arriving to Limeport Stadium because of a previous commitment. Moyer handed the ball to Jon Eidle, who proceeded to make Moyer forget about using Konnick.

Eidle pitched six strong innings and benefited from Gabelsville's best offensive output of the season and the Owls went on to a 19-4 win to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five semifinal series.

The offensive explosion had multiple benefits for Gabelsville (29-8). Moyer can now turn to Konnick to pitch a potential series-clinching game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday against Bulls ace Chad Arnold.

"Johnny came in and did a great job," Moyer said. "He kept them off-balance with his curveball and his changeup. It's always a plus when you can put some runs on the board for him. We got some timely hitting. Obviously, we didn't leave a lot of guys on base."

Al Fitch had a two-run single and Bob Graber drove in two runs with a double to give the Owls a 4-0 lead after one inning. Limeport manager Chris Parsell removed starter Jeff Krauss, who was still sore from his previous start. That forced Parsell to get six innings out of his bullpen.

"In my opinion, he's the best young starting pitcher around," Parsell said. "I'm not going to hurt his arm."

Steve Raysley and Joe Pochron had RBI singles to make it 4-2 after three innings, but Gabelsville poured it on with four in the fourth and five in the fifth -- and to continue the perfect numerology -- six in the sixth.

The fifth inning was especially disappointing for Limeport (23-14). With one out and a runner on first, three consecutive runners reached base on errors. Twice in the bad stretch, relief pitcher Pat Lane threw a wild pitch with a runner on third. Fitch capped the rally with an RBI single to give the Owls a 13-2 lead in the top of the fifth -- nearly two hours after the game started.

Colon doubled in two runs and Greg Gilbert and Todd Stapleton each walked with the bases loaded to drive in runs in Gabelsville's six-run sixth.

Fitch went 3-for-3 with four RBI and Colon and Danner each had two hits and three RBI. Pochron, Mike Krauss and Steve Raysley had two hits each for Limeport.

"They're the best team in the league," Parsell said. "They're fundamentally sound. They can hit. And they have a balanced pitching staff. But we can beat them."

The Bulls will have to do that three straight times in order to continue their season.

Gabelsville     400 456 0  --  19  13  0
 

Limeport        020 020 0  --   4    9   3


Eidle, Konnick (7) and Danner. J.Krauss, Schultz (2), Lane (5), Bensing (6) and M.Krauss.

Tim Shoemaker is a freelance writer.

From The Morning Call -- August 8, 2003

Copyright © 2003, The Morning Call