Coplay beats Gabelsville for second straight championship

	Photo by April Bartholomew, The Morning Call
	COPLAY'S MIKE BORTZ (left) and Caleb Calarco and the rest of the team celebrate after defeating Gabelsville to clinch the Tri-County League title.

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call

 

Coplay might have pleased some of its fans with an offensive explosion and a double-digit run total to clinch the Tri-County League title.

But that would have been out of character for the Reds.

Instead, one of the best seasons in Tri-Co history came to a fitting ending Wednesday night at Limeport as Coplay used pitching, defense and opportunistic offense to scratch out a 4-2 win over Gabelsville to give the franchise its second straight league title.

Brian Boylan's five-hitter was backed by solid defense as the Reds (32-5-1) took the best-of-five series in four games.

They had just four hits, but plated a pair in both the fifth and sixth innings on just one hit in each frame.

''This was our regular season format tonight,'' Coplay manager Steve Smull said. ''We scratched out runs and played good enough defense and had good enough pitching. I'm proud of these guys because I had no idea at the start of the season that we'd have the ability to go 32-5.''

Smull especially raved about the defense, which had just one bad inning -- a three-error seventh in Game 3 on Tuesday night -- in the entire postseason.

''It was an honor to watch them play defense every night,'' Smull said. ''We had only 24 errors through the season and our first five playoff games. That's amazing.''

Coplay's offense wasn't amazing, just efficient.

Two walks sandwiched Dan Borden's single to load the bases in the fifth. The first Reds run scored on what amounted to a fielder's choice by Mike Bortz on a ball hit to left. The second tally crossed on a throwing error.

In the sixth, Jon Venarchick, who came off the bench to replace the injured Jeremy Faust, doubled and moved to third on Brandon Leslie's sacrifice. Jesse Borden walked, stole second, and then both Venarchick and Borden alertly hustled home on a passed ball.

''These games come down to mistakes a lot of times and we made more of them tonight,'' said Owls' player-manager Matt Danner, who took the night off from his normal catching duties. ''Coplay just played very well. Their pitchers made the pitches they needed to make, they got good defense and timely hitting.''

Gabelsville (28-10-1) answered Coplay's two-run innings with one run each time.

It wasn't enough as the Owls stranded seven runners.

Boylan, a Pocono Mountain High and Shippensburg University graduate, didn't strike out a batter and walked three.

He benefited from having a runner tagged out at the plate and another thrown out trying to steal second, and finished strong. The last six Owls went down in order.

''I tried to keep them off balance with my curveball,'' Boylan said. ''That's a tough team with really good hitters. I faced a lot of them in the state legion tournament four years ago when I was with The Birches and they were playing for Boyertown.''

Smull said that many of the teams he's played on and coached in 22 Tri-Co seasons were intimidated by the Boyertown/Gabelsville mystique.

But not the 2007 Reds.

''No one here was intimidated by them,'' he said. ''That's no disrespect to them, because they have awesome players over there, but we don't back down to anybody.''

Smull still considers himself an interim manager. He'd like to see Shawn Andrews, who guided the Reds to the 2006 title, return to the bench.

''I've got some things I want to do with the league, but if Shawn can't come back and these guys want me back, I'll come back,'' Smull said. ''I left this team a few years ago for personal reasons, and felt like I owed them one. It was just fun to be involved because there were no head cases. These guys just played the game the right way.''


Coplay        000 022 0 -- 4 4 1

Gabelsville  000 011 0 -- 2 5 1


Boylan and Faust, Calarco (5). Kelly, Walsh (5), Stapleton (6) and Konnick. L: Kelly.




keith.groller@mcall.com

610-820-6740

From The Morning Call -- August 16, 2007

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