Godusky leads Fleetwings over Gabelsville

Woodlawn ties Tri-Co semifinal series with 5-1 victory.


By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call

 

It might have been easy for the Woodlawn Fleetwings to begin to believe Gabelsville had their number.

After all, the Owls swept the Fleetwings in last year's Tri-County League finals, won three out of four during the 2006 regular season and then won Game 1 of their current semifinal series Saturday, 2-0, despite getting outhit 6-3.

But all it took to remove Gabelsville's ''number'' was a big performance by Woodlawn's No. 44.

Matt Godusky drove in four runs with a two-run single in the first inning and a long two-run home run in the third to spark the Fleetwings to a 5-1 win over Gabelsville Sunday night in Scherersville.

The best-of-five series, now knotted at a game apiece, resumes at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday in Gabelsville.

''[Saturday's game] was frustrating,'' Woodlawn player-manager Jeremy Arner said. ''We easily could have come out flat and frustrated. So, to come back and play the way we did today was good to see. Hopefully, this was a turnaround game.''

Godusky turned around two Justin Konnick pitches. The Emmaus High grad and soon-to-be Saint Joseph's University senior, has had an injury-plagued summer.

''I hurt my knee, went through rehab and I just came back three games ago ... things are feeling good,'' Godusky said. ''We use aluminum bats in college, but I don't change anything when using wooden bats. To me, it brings out the good hitters. It's more like real baseball.''

Two errors preceded Godusky's two-run hit in the first and Justin Godusky, Matt's older brother, was aboard when he drove a pitch over the left-field fence in the third. Justin Godusky was 2-for-3.

Tommy Williams added a solo blast in the sixth, but it wasn't needed as Woodlawn pitcher Scott Bolasky had everything under control.

The Northwestern Lehigh and Moravian College graduate tossed five scoreless inning after allowing a second-inning run.

Bolasky didn't walk a batter and struck out seven, including the last three batters.

''My curveball was working and I was spotting the fastball,'' Bolasky said. ''[Dan] Hemberger pitched a great game for us Saturday and I saw how he worked the hitters. He's crafty and you learn something from him every game because of how well he spots his ball.''

Bolasky also benefited from having a runner picked off by his catcher, Arner, at second, had a batter called out for making contact outside the batter's box and turned a line drive hit back at him into an inning-ending double play.

''Those kind of things haven't been going our way this year, so hopefully now they will,'' Bolasky said. ''It's an intense rivalry between the teams. We absolutely needed to make a statement today and I think we did. If we keep going like this, we have a shot at them.''

Matt Cotellese was 3-for-3 with a double and scored Gabelsville's lone run.

Other than that, Bolasky was in complete command.

''He gets stronger as the game goes on,'' Arner said. ''When he's pitching, we don't worry about who's ready in relief.''

Game 4, now a certainty, will be played on Wednesday night back at Scherersville.


Gabelsville Owls             010 000 0 — 1 6 2

Woodlawn Fleetwings    202 001 x — 5 9 1


Konnick, Stapleton (6) and Dierolf; Bolasky and Arner. L: Konnick. HRs: Woodlawn, M. Godusky (3rd, one on), Williams (6th, none on).



keith.groller@mcall.com

610-820-6740

From The Morning Call -- August 7, 2006

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