Gabelsville's Betz tosses 1-hitter at Limeport

He also scores game's only run in opener of semifinal series.

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call

 

Shawn Betz called it ''a little makeup.''

Back on June 28, Gabelsville's star pitcher got roughed up by Limeport in a 7-1 loss.

''I didn't make it out of the fourth inning that night,'' he remembered.

It would be his only loss of the season.

On Saturday night, in Limeport, Betz got his revenge by tossing a masterful one-hit shutout in a 1-0 victory over in Game 1 of their best-of-five Tri-County League semifinal series.

And it very nearly was a no-hitter.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, league-leading hitter Ricky Rivera singled to left to spoil Betz's bid.

But Betz, who was 5-1 with a 2.17 ERA in the regular season, wouldn't allow Limeport to ruin anything else as he struck out Andy Yencho looking to end the rapidly played pitcher's duel under the lights.

''My ball was moving a little bit; it had a run on it and I was getting in on them,'' said Betz, who struck out just three. ''I was just using a fastball and a change-up.''

And he used stellar defense to give his Owls (31-8) the upper hand.

Left fielder A.J. Bohn went to the wall to haul in a deep drive by Tim Schemel in the fourth and third baseman Jared Trout made a diving stab to rob Luke Pile in the fifth.

''Pile broke up a no-hitter on me last year and I thought he did it to me again,'' Betz said.

Until the seventh, the only Limeport runner was Pile, who reached on a walk in the second. He was erased on a double play and Betz had faced the minimum number of batters (20) when Rivera came up.

''He's a good hitter and I tried to sneak a curveball by him on 3-2,'' Betz said of facing the league batting champ, who hit .438 during the season. ''I didn't think he'd be looking for it.''

The Bulls' Paul Smith (4-1, 2.10 ERA coming in) matched Betz with scoreless innings through the sixth.

Fittingly, Betz led the way to the game's only run with a single to right to start the seventh. He stole second and scored from there when Brett Umstead singled into the hole between short and third and Bulls shortstop Chris Tonte threw the ball away.

''It's not like we hit it out of the park or hit the ball hard today,'' Betz said. ''Their guy was throwing good. It came down to a stolen base and a mistake.''

It was Gabelsville's fourth one-run win over Limeport in five meetings this year and Bulls manager Dylan Dando expects more of the same as the series shifts to Gabelsville at 4:30 p.m. today.

''These are the kind of games we're going to get with them,'' said Dando, whose team came into the postseason as the top seed off a 26-6 regular season.

''The pitching in this series is going to be good and these two teams aren't going to make a lot of mistakes. We just had a few tonight that cost us, but it's tough to win when you only get one hit. We won't get down. We expect to win every night we play.''


Gabelsville  000 000 1 -- 1 5 0

Limeport     000 000 0 -- 0 1 2


Betz and Fusco; Smith and Warga.

keith.groller@mcall.com

610-820-6740

From The Morning Call -- August 3, 2008

Copyright © 2008, The Morning Call