Lehigh Twp. Tri-Co champ again

The Brewers battle back after losing the first two games to ICC.


By Steve Moore
Of The Morning Call

 

To say the Lehigh Township Brewers limped out of the gate would be understating it just a little bit.

But to say it sprinted to the finish line would be more than appropriate.

After getting embarrassed in a Game 1 shutout and shooting themselves in the foot in Game 2, the Brewers scored 30 runs in the final three games to come back from the brink of elimination and win their second straight Tri-County League championship series with a 12-5, six-inning rout of ICC Thursday night at Bethlehem Township Park.

For Lehigh Township, it took five games to go from humiliated to homer happy.

''It would have been so much easier for these guys to quit or not show up or concede,'' said champagne-and-beer-soaked Lehigh Township manager Shawn Andrews, whose team hit three homers on the night. ''But we said we were either going to be men or boys. And I'll tell you what, I'm standing among a bunch of men. They battled back with such heart and such pride.''

On the losing end of that battle was ICC starting pitcher Brett Vroman. After pitching six impressive innings for the Pirates in the Game 2 that didn't count, Vroman retired the first two batters of the game on grounders to short and looked like he might have the same stuff he had last Saturday.

But that would all change very quickly.

Vroman gave up a two-out single to Jeremy Bartha before serving up a home run to Steve Unger. Add in another RBI single in the inning by Pat Higgins and the Brewers had a scored three two-out runs before ICC even had a chance to pick up a bat.

After two more runs scored in the top of the second on a wild pitch, ICC manager Mike Brosious was looking for a hole to crawl into near the third-base dugout. Two innings later, he was looking for a shovel to dig his own.

''It hurts, but we were there in Game 5 of the Tri-County championship,'' Brosious said. ''We were there two years ago and they got it last year. It was a great series, and it hurts, but what are you going to do?''

The Brewers were happy to help Brosious and the Pirates fill in that hole, burying ICC under a barrage of home runs. Unger's first-inning bomb, his second in as many games, was just the beginning.

The biggest blasts of the night came from second baseman Pat Higgins, who went the opposite way in the third inning, dropping a two-run homer just inside the right-field foul pole to extend the Brewers' lead to 8-0. Just to prove he could hit to all fields, Higgins went the other way in the fourth, blasting another two-run homer over the left-field fence.

''All series they've been coming at me with fastballs,'' Higgins said. ''The first one was away, and I was seeing the ball well and just took it that way. And the second time it was a fastball inside and I just turned on it.

''We were 12 outs away from the end of the year. And any team could have died. But we just kept battling, and we knew that if we hit the ball we were going to win.''


Lehigh Twp.  323 202 — 12 15 0

ICC Pirates    002 030 —  5   6  1


LT: Derek Major, Sean Heimple (6) and Shawn Andrews. ICC: Brett Vroman, Bret Remel (3) and Kyle Ruff. WP: Major. LP: Vroman. HR: LT: Pat Higgins 2 (3rd, 1 on), (4th, 1 on); Steve Unger (1st, 1 on). ICC: Bryan Martin (5th, 1 on).



steve.moore@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- August 20, 2004

Copyright © 2004, The Morning Call