Brewers repeat, down ICC 12-5

Pat Higgins goes 3-for-3 with 2 HRs and 5 RBI as LT wins 3 straight to capture crown.

By Steve Smull

    BETHLEHEM TOWNSHIP -- 364 days after Lehigh Township captured their first league title in Game 5 at Gabelsville, the Brewers successfully defended their crown with another Game 5 victory, defeating the ICC Pirates 12-5.

   The Brewers erased a 2-games-to-1 deficit in the finals last year to win the crown, so they were apparently happy to put themselves behind the eight-ball again this year in the Finals. This fifth game was not as dramatic as last year's finale with the Owls, but after being down 2-0 in this series, I am sure the win had to be just as satisfying.

   LT's Pat Higgins was the star of this game, going 3-for-3 with a pair of big-flies and five RBI.

   The hits came early and often for the Brewers, and, for the second straight game, a bunch of them came with two outs.

   ICC's Brett Vroman took his 10-0 record to the hill and started out just fine, inducing the red-hot John Stezenko and Brandon Leslie to both ground out, 6-to-3, and it appeared that the Brewers were going to have a scoreless first inning for the sixth straight time in this series.

   Uh, not this time.

   Jeremy Bartha worked a full-count and lifted a flare into short left for a base-knock. Then, with the count 2-2, Steve Unger blasted his second home run in as many at-bats to left, and just that quickly, it was 2-0 Brewers. Eric Schmitt followed with a flare to right for another hit. Then Nick D'Amico laced a 2-0 offering through the box for another single. Higgins followed that up with a line-drive just out of the reach of second-baseman Brandon Evers to plate Schmitt, and now it was 3-0 Brewers, just that quickly.

    Derek Major then took the hill for the Brewers for the first time since June 27, where he got a no-decision vs. Tri-City in extra innings. However, Major does pitch in the Perkiomen Twilight League, where he picked up a win last Friday going three innings of relief on one day's rest to beat the Norristown A's. Major's Collegeville team eventually lost to Norristown in the Perky Finals, 3-games-to-1.

   Which brings us back to Game 5 of this series.

   Major sat the Pirates down in order in the first, setting up quite a bizarre play in the top half of the second.

   Stezenko ripped a one-out double deep to right-center and then made a pit-stop at third after Leslie smashed a line-drive single to right and took second base when the throw from the outfield bounced to the backstop. After a strikeout kept runners on second and third, Unger stepped to the plate with a first-base still open.

   Here is where it got interesting.

   It was obvious that Vroman was pitching around Unger, who had homered in his last two at-bats of the series. The count went 3-0, and none of the pitches were close. After grooving a pitch for a strike, Vroman then uncorked a curveball into the dirt for Ball 4, walking Unger. However, Stezenko was not walking back to third, he sprinted for home as the ball reached the backstop, no more than 15 feet from the plate. Catcher Kyle Ruff's toss to Vroman covering was at eye-level and Vroman tried to catch and tag Stezenko in one foul swoop, but the ball tipped off Vroman's glove and Stezenko, who would have barely been safe anyway, scored.

   But now for the "fun" part.

   Leslie was also moving on the wild pitch, and as soon as he got to third base, he saw the ball tip off Vroman's glove and roll about 25 feet or so behind him, toward the mound. Leslie never broke stride, kicked it into another gear and raced toward the plate himself. Vroman got to the ball, flipped it back to Ruff, but Leslie was under the tag. So after the dust had cleared on this zany, unfathomable play, the tremendous hustle of Stezenko and Leslie lifted Lehigh Township to a 5-0 lead.

   If the shock of that stunning play was not enough for ICC, just imagine the pain they must have felt when Schmitt flied to center on the next pitch to end the inning. The Pirates looked to be snake-bitten for a second straight game, and the mood of the ICC faithful was getting darker then the overcast sky.

   After Major hit a batter and walked another to start the second, any hopes of the Pirates getting a few runs back were quickly dashed by a pair of strikeouts and a ground-out to third to end the threat. Still no hits for ICC.

   But there were plenty more to come for the Brewers.

   D'Amico started the third by lofting a duck-snort flare to left, and manager Mike Brosious had to be wondering if ICC would catch any more breaks in this series, as the Brewers now had their third bloop hit of the game.

   But Higgins' swing at Vroman's next -- and last -- offering of the game was no flare. Higgins launched an outside fastball to deep right and the only question was going to be fair or foul. Of course, with the way this series had done a complete 180-degree turn 13 innings ago, this ball was just fair for a two-run homer, and the Brewers were now in total command, leading 7-0.

   Brett Remel replaced Vroman, got two quick outs, but then he had to deal with the scorching hot Stezenko and Leslie, and he was not able to deal with them very well. Stezenko smashed his fifth double in six at-bats to right-center and Leslie ripped a single to right-center to give the Brewers an 8-0 lead.

   The Pirates had to be mentally destroyed at this juncture, but to their credit, they did not quit.

   Evers blooped a single to right to start the third and Chad Stecker walked. Both runners advanced a base on Luke Pile's deep flyout to center. After an infield pop-up, Evers scored on a wild pitch and Stecker then scored on Bryan Martin's screaming single through the box off Major's hip. It was now 8-2 Brewers.

   But Lehigh Township answered those two runs immediately in the fourth.

   A walk to Schmitt was sandwiched between two outs, when the man of the hour, Higgins, came to the plate. Once again, he hacked at the first offering, this time an inside fastball from Remel, and he launched home run #2 to left, just clearing the fence. It was now 10-2, Lehigh Township.

   ICC would get a few back in the fifth.

   After a walk and a double-play (some more bad luck for ICC), Pile walked on four pitches and scored on Dave Stauffer's double. Martin then blasted a rocket over the fence in right to cut the Brewers' lead to 10-5.

   But more misfortune struck the Pirates in the sixth.

   After a flyout, single by D'Amico, walk and sacrifice, Nick Bowen's grounder to third was misplayed into an error that scored two runs and put the final nail in ICC's coffin for the game and the season.

   A.J. Peracchia and Todd Brosious did start the home-half of the sixth with singles, which prompted Major's exit from the game. Reliever Sean Heimple then induced three straight flyouts, the umpires called the game, and it was time for Lehigh Township to celebrate. Which they did, as the champagne corks were popping.

   And why not? The Brew-Crew were down 2-games-to-0 and trailed 3-0 going into the fourth inning of Game 3 and were written off for dead. But a gritty, outstanding effort by Chris Clancy kept LT in that game long enough for the bats to finally come around, and that, coupled with some ICC errors in the final three innings of that game saw a monumental momentum shift that the Pirates never recovered from.

   The Pirates' ship was seemingly coasting into the championship dock at that point in Game 3, but the sea suddenly became choppy and the wind had been taken from the ICC sails as the ship, in essence, shockingly sunk, after being so close to shore, under a fierce Brewers' offensive attack in the final 16 innings of this series.

   ICC finished the season at 33-9, while Lehigh Township's final tally was 35-9.