Owls stop Bulls in their tracks, win game 11-4 and series 3-2

By John Heilig
Special to The Morning Call

 

The Limeport Bulls simply ran out of miracles Tuesday night at Gabelsville.

The Bulls, who came back from a 0-2 deficit in games to tie the Owls in the Tri-County League semifinals 2-2, saw their dreams of a miracle season end with an 11-4 drubbing at the hands of the Owls.

But don't think it wasn't interesting.

Limeport drew blood in the first inning on a single by Kevin Kershner, a walk to Glenn Kushma and an RBI single by Joe Pochron.

That run held up for three innings as sidearm lefty Chad Arnold held the Owl hitters at bay. But Arnold, who pitched Sunday, was rocked in the fourth inning for five runs. The big hit was an inning-opening homer by shortstop Greg Gilbert that cleared the left-field fence with room to spare.

The Owls then combined a walk, a sacrifice and three singles to plate four more runs as they batted around.

''We hit the ball good tonight,'' Gabelsville coach Mike ''Doc'' Moyer said. ''We had done it at times throughout the series, but tonight, except for the first couple of innings when we had a slow start, we hit it tonight.''

Meanwhile, Gabelsville pitcher Nick Allen shook off his first-inning jitters and gave up only a single in the third as he cruised along.

''It was just a couple of hits and a walk,'' Allen said, ''nothing to worry about.''

Limeport put two runners on with one out in the top of the sixth on a pair of walks, and Pochron lined a home run over the left-field fence to bring the score to 5-4. Dreams of another Limeport comeback like Sunday night's were surfacing. But it wasn't to be.

''I didn't get nervous then,'' Allen said. ''I knew I just needed to throw strikes, and I knew I could get them out. Just one bad pitch.''

''Nick got in a little trouble in the sixth inning, and Pochron went deep,'' Moyer added. ''It could have been a different ballgame. If we get through it unscathed, I think the game's over. We had Justin Konnick in the bullpen just in case.''

Allen threw 108 pitches on a hot, muggy night.

''I hadn't thrown in a couple of days, so I was well rested,'' he said.

Jeff Krauss, pitching in relief of Arnold, hit Matt Danner, then gave up singles to Kyle Hoffman, Pete Colon and Danner and a double to Jason Irey, and Gabelsville had six more runs and an 11-4 lead.

R.J. Siges had a pinch-hit double in the top of the seventh and advanced to third on Ben Christian's single, but Limeport left both on base to end the game.

''We just ran out of comebacks today,'' said Limeport coach Chris Parsell. ''We had a little comeback that put us back in it for a little bit, but they started hitting. I was pretty confident we could come back. But they're a good hitting team. I've said before I think they're the best team around, and we battled them hard. I'm proud of the guys. We fought them with everything we had.''

Parsell noted that Arnold pitched two days ago, throwing 145 pitches.

''He didn't throw too much this year,'' he said. ''We tried to save him for the playoffs.''

Gilbert had two hits for Gabelsville, including the homer. Colon and Hoffman also had two hits for the Owls (30-10).

Pochron had a homer and a single for the Bulls (25-15), who had only six hits in the game. Kershner also had a pair of singles.


Limeport     100 003 0 — 4    6  0

Gabelsville  000 506 x — 11 10 1


Arnold, J. Krauss (4) and M. Krauss; Allen and Danner. WP: Allen. LP: Arnold. HR: G: Gilbert (4th, 0 on). L: Pochron (6th, 2 on).

John Heilig is a freelance writer.

From The Morning Call -- August 13, 2003

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