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Quick start
carries Tri-County
An 11-1 lead is enough to hold off
Blue Mountain in annual all-star game.
By Ted Meixell
Special to The Morning Call
This much is certain: Ryan Amey will be the brunt of a large measure of
good-natured ribbing the next time the Lehigh Township Brewers take the field
for a Tri-County League game.
Brewers
shortstop Jeremy Bartha clouted a towering two-run home run to left field on
Friday night to jump start the Tri-County League to an 11-9 victory over the
Blue Mountain League in their annual all-star classic at
Limeport Stadium.
Bartha's
victim?
Tri-County teammate Amey, a hard-throwing right-hander who "double rosters"
with the BML's Hellertown Royals.
"Yeah,"
Bartha said later. "It's already started. I met Ryan under the stands
after we both came out. He'll hear more the next time we play. "
Bartha's
blast got the Tri-County squad off and winging in the top of the first
inning and it never trailed.
The lead
went to 3-0 in the second and to 4-0 in the third on RBI singles by Pat
Higgins and Joe Pochron.
The Blue
Mountain League broke through for a single tally in the bottom of
the third on Dan Borden's triple, but Trico opened things up with a big
five-run outburst in the fourth.
Bartha
singled in one run, Eric Ruff's single accounted for a pair, Darrin Lenhart
plated a fourth with a sacrifice fly and Jeremy Arner singled in the fifth.
An
unearned run in the fifth made it 10-1 and another tainted tally made it
11-1 in the sixth.
Bartha, Ruff and Matt Marcks each finished their night's work at 3-for-4.
Frank
Mastroianni whacked a three-run, opposite field homer to give Blue
Mountain 's dormant offense a lift in the sixth and Nick D'Amico's moon shot
with two on in the eighth brought the BML back to within 11-7.
A
two-out error in the bottom of the ninth enabled Blue Mountain
to make the winners squirm, but Brian Boylan -- also from Lehigh Township
-- induced a fielder's choice from Rob Corsi to end the game.
This was
Bartha's third all-star game, and he admitted it was his best performance.
But he insisted the biggest thing for him was, "I had the most fun this
time. That's the idea in a game like this one.
"There
are great guys on both teams, so, while you obviously want to win and to do
well yourself, I come to these things just to have fun. "
One
thing Lehigh Township manager Shawn Andrews, who managed the Trico squad,
did ask of his troops was to get off to a good start.
His
shortstop complied.
"Yeah,"
Bartha said, "that's one thing Shawn did say. And they did beat us two of
the last three years.
"What
makes it so much fun is that a lot of guys do double roster in both leagues,
and Ryan [Amey] is one of them. That he pitches for us in Tri County made
it even more fun. "
Tri-County 211 511 000 -- 11 18
2
Blue Mountain 001 003 032 -- 9 12 3
Derek
Major, Todd Stapleton (3), Nolan Fry (4), Chris Clancy (5), Joe Gangemi (6),
Jeff Krauss (7), Luke Pyle (8), Christian Fretz (8), Brian Boyla (9), Ryan
Windt (9) and Jeremy Arner, Julio Acosta (5), Chris Peters (8); Ryan Amey,
Matt Maradeo (3), Joe Chapman (4), Matt Wiltrout (4), Ryan Dalton (5), Ryan
Fritz (6), Sam Landis (7), Bret Remel (8), Mark McGeehan (9) and Anthony
Recker, Eric Schmitt (6). HR - TC: Jeremy Bartha (1st, 1 on); BM: Frank
Mastroianni (6th, 2 on); Nick D'Amico (8th, 2 on). W - Major. L - Amey.
Ted Meixell is a freelance writer.
From The Morning Call --
July 10, 2004
Copyright
© 2004,
The Morning Call
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