Gabelsville ties, escapes 2-1 deficit

By Tim Shoemaker
Special to The Morning Call

 

For Gabelsville Owls manager Matt Danner, there is one consolation prize to his team playing a 3-3 tie with the Northern Yankees in the Tri-County League playoffs Wednesday at Scherersville.

''We didn't lose,'' Danner said.

And the flip side of that is that the Yankees, who were one out away from taking a 2-1 series lead but gave Gabelsville the tying run on a throwing error, did not win.

The game was called after eight innings due to darkness, forcing Tri-Co officials to rework the finals schedule for the third time as the players took off their cleats and packed their bags as the sun disappeared.

Game 3 will be replayed at 5:45 tonight at Scherersville.

Gabelsville will host Game 4 at 1 p.m. Saturday. The site and time for the fifth game, if necessary, is yet to be determined.

''In a tie game, there's always going to be someone who sighs because they didn't lose, and there's always someone who feels they should have won the game,'' Yankees manager Brian Polaha said. ''Of course, we're the one who thought we should have won. We were one good throw across the diamond from winning.''

The Yankees (30-9-3) took a 3-0 lead in the fourth on a Mike Venarchick RBI single and a J.R. Graver RBI double. Ryan Birkenstock singled in Graver to make it 3-0 for pitcher Josh Ziegler.

Gabelsville center fielder Tom DeAngelis ended the inning when he threw out Birkenstock trying to score on Mike Fignar's single.

The Owls (30-9-2) got two runs back in the top of the fifth. Jared Trout singled and scored on a DeAngelis fielder's choice. Ryan Mark singled in pinch-hitter Brian Ernst, who reached on a walk.

Ziegler shut down Gabelsville in the sixth, but got in trouble in the seventh.

With one out and Ernst on second, Polaha brought in Adam Sandt to close the game. Sandt got pinch-hitter Steve Cimino on a groundout, then got DeAngelis to ground to third, but a throwing error forced in the tying run.

Danner said he plans to start pitcher Chuck Nicholas, who had a 1-1 record and 1.65 ERA this year. Polaha said he will start J.D. Wyborny, who had a 4-2 record with a 1.97 ERA in the regular season and is 2-0 in the playoffs.


Gabelsville              000 020 10 -- 3 8 1

Northern Yankees  000 300 00 -- 3 7 2



Trout, Walsh (5), Stapleton (7) and Fusco, Kalejta (5). Ziegler, A.Sandt (7) and Faust.

Tim Shoemaker is a freelance writer.

From The Morning Call -- August 14, 2008

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