Lehigh Township grabs 1-0 lead in championship series

By Tim Shoemaker
Special to The Morning Call

 

Although Lehigh Township began this Tri-County League baseball season by winning 14 of its first 19 games, the Brewers still had some subtle problems to work out. As it turned out, the problems were nothing an eight-game losing — yes, losing — streak couldn't cure.

''We started out 14-5, then we lost eight in a row,'' Brewers manager Shawn Andrews said. ''When you go through a streak like that, you wonder if the team is going to mentally fold. It was a gut check. I honestly think that was the key to our success. We came out stronger as a team. Toward the end of that stretch, we became a team.''

The Brewers slipped to the No. 5 seed for the playoffs, but have gotten hot again. Nick Bowen scattered eight hits and Lehigh Township took advantage of several Gabelsville errors — both mental and physical — to beat the Owls 5-2 on Thursday and take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five championship series.

Game 2 is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Bryfogle Park.

The game was literally not as close as the final score indicates. The Brewers (24-16) extended the lead to 10-2 with a five-run seventh inning — three on a Steve Unger home run — but the game was called because of darkness and the final five runs were wiped away.

Still, Lehigh Township, which lost in the finals last year to the ICC Pirates, is in excellent position, with Brandon Leslie scheduled to pitch Saturday and Ryan Amey scheduled for Sunday's third game.

Bowen surrendered a run in the first when Al Fitch singled in A.J. Bohn, but in a sign of things to come for the No. 2 seed Owls (30-11), Pete Colon was thrown out trying to score when a pitch got away with Matt Danner at the plate. Gabelsville made three errors and lost three runners on the basepaths because of baserunning mistakes.

Bowen got the big outs when he had to. With two on and two out in the fifth, he got Greg Gilbert to pop up, preserving the Brewers' 5-1 lead. He got a strikeout with two runners on to end the sixth.

''We lost stupid games, game we shouldn't have ,'' Bowen said. ''We lost three games to teams that didn't even make it to the playoffs. We have everything going now on the same page. We had our chance last year and didn't do what we should have with it. We can't waste that opportunity again.''

Dave Stalsitz scored on an Owls throwing error in the second to tie the game at 1, then Bohn, the Gabelsville center fielder, dropped a fly ball on the next play to allow Omar Torres to score. Jeremy Bartha and Mark Nicholas drove in runs on back-to-back hits in the third to make it 4-1.

Torres could have had three doubles, but on the record he had two, because the last came in the top of the seventh.

''They just do things the right way, so we have to make sure we do things the right way,'' Bowen said. ''Today, they made some mistakes. Normally, you can't play sloppy and beat this team.''

Gabelsville manager Doc Moyer said he did not have his pitching rotation set for the weekend.

''I think we were very lackadaisical,'' Moyer said. ''I don't know if we thought they were going to roll over and this was going to be an easy thing or what. That was very disappointing and just pathetic in general.''


Lehigh Township 022 100 — 5 10 0

Gabelsville           100 001 — 2  9  3


Bowen and Schmitt. Konnick and Danner.

Tim Shoemaker is a freelance writer.

From The Morning Call -- August 15, 2003

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