Brewers manufacture a victory

Bunts set up an RBI sacrifice fly, and Lehigh Twp. tops Cetronia.


By Steve Moore
Of The Morning Call

 

When two teams get involved in a pitchers' duel, the little things are put under a microscope.

That's what happened on Thursday night in Berlinsville, when second-seeded Lehigh Township scratched across the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly and added insurance by capitalizing on an error in a 3-1 win over No. 5 Cetronia in the first game of the Tri-County League semifinal series at Bryfogle Memorial Field.

The Brewers (30-7) can come back to Berlinsville next week with the chance to sweep if they can defeat the Longhorns (22-14) in Game 2 of the best-of-five series on Saturday at Cedar Brook Park.

''You can't expect to come out and have your sticks clicking at all times,'' said Brewers manager Shawn Andrews. ''You have to find new ways to score runs, and that's what we did tonight. You have to take advantage of everything they'll give you.''

The fundamental baseball clinic began in the bottom of the fifth with the score tied at 1. After Lehigh Township's Pat Higgins led off the inning with a single, Nick Bowen followed with a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt — one of three on the night for the Brewers — and John Stezenko drew a walk to put runners at first and second. Another bunt, this one by Brandon Leslie, moved the runners up and was good enough for Leslie to beat down the line for a base hit. The next batter was Jeremy Bartha, who got the job done by getting the ball in the air and driving in Higgins with a sac fly.

''We actually do it all year long early in games, manufacturing runs,'' said Andrews, whose team won 14 games this season by six runs or more. ''The guys get upset with us during the regular season, but this is why you do it, so you're ready to play any kind of game in the playoffs.''

The Longhorns, who saw their season end at the hands of Lehigh Township last season, came out of the box strong on Thursday, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when 2003 rookie of the year Darrin Lenhart hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Brian Polaha. But that would be all for Cetronia, as Lehigh Township starter Chris Clancy did the job the rest of the way.

The soon-to-be senior at Moravian College retired the Longhorns in order in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth. He eventually gave the ball to Leslie, who got the Brewers out of a big jam in the seventh after Cetronia put the tying run on second base.

''Usually I throw a lot of pitches in games like this,'' said Clancy, who out-dueled 17-year-old Cetronia starter Jacob Feist. ''But today I only threw 64 or 65 pitches, which is really good. I was throwing strikes and getting ahead of the batters, and they were swinging.''

Game 2 is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday at Cedar Brook, and Game 3 will be back at Bryfogle on Sunday. If necessary, Games 4 and 5 will be played next Tuesday and Thursday, at Cetronia then back in Berlinsville, respectively.


Cetronia               100 000 0 — 1 5 2

Lehigh Township  010 011 x — 3 7 0


Jacob Feist, Dave Arndt (6) and Jon Kensecki; Chris Clancy, Brandon Leslie (7) and Eric Schmitt. WP: Clancy. LP: Feist. SV: Leslie.



steve.moore@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 6, 2004

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