Gabelsville rallies past Tri-City

Owls get 3 runs in the 6th and a RBI-single by Pete Colon in the 7th to win 5-4 in Game 1.

By Steve Smull

    GABELSVILLE -- 2005 Trico Homerun King Pete Colon lofted the game-winning single down the left-field line with one out in the bottom of the seventh to lift Gabelsville to a sparkling 5-4 come-from-behind victory in Game One of the best-of-five Finals.

    Game Two will go at 5:00 on Sunday at Scherersville.

    Even in defeat, the story of the game was Tri-City starter Chris Rothermel.

    Rothermel quietly made his way through the 2005 Tri-County League season. He was barely a blip on the radar screen, with a record of 2-2 and a 7.44 ERA in 27 1/3 innings pitched in the regular season. And he had yet to make a playoff appearance for the Fleetwings.

    That all changed on Saturday.

    The young right-hander went five strong innings, holding the powerful Gabelsville bats at bay until the sixth. Rothermel had allowed just three hits and one run through five innings and took a 4-1 lead into the sixth. But after back-to-back doubles started the inning, he was lifted for veteran Dave Toth. However, the kid proved that he can be a good pitcher in this league after Saturday's spectacular performance.

    But let's start at the beginning.

    Matt Marcks reached base with one out in the first on an uncharacteristic Gabelsville error. After stealing second, he scampered to third on Justin Godusky's flare to shallow right that fell for a single. With runners on the corners and one out, Big Ben Swatsky hit a slow roller to short that scored Marcks because it was not hit hard enough for the Owls to turn two and it was quickly 1-0 Fleetwings. Matt Godusky then laced a single to left, but Owls' starter Justin Konnick then induced a ground-ball out to prevent any further damage.

    Gabelsville answered in their half of the first.

    Jon Kalejta led off with a solidly-hit ground-ball through the hard, skin infield that kept rolling through the apparently hard outfield, deep to the gap in right-center for a double. Shawn Betz, the consummate team player, fulfilled his part of the Boyertown baseball script and sacrificed Kalejta to third. After a pop-up, Colon (who set a new league record with 16 homeruns this season), settled for smacking a line-drive down the right-field line that went for a RBI double and the game was tied at 1-1.

    Things were quiet until the third inning, when Scott Garger grounded a leadoff single through the box. After a stolen base and a strikeout, Justin Godusky went down and got a down-and-away 0-2 curve very nicely and sliced it fairly deep down the right-field line for a RBI double and a 2-1 lead. Swatsky then hit a hard grounder between short and third for a single, but right as third-base coach Mike Witkowski was holding Godusky at third, the ball skipped by the left-fielder on the hard outfield grass for a two-base error because Swatsky got all the way to third on the play. Godusky scored to make it 3-1, but there was no RBI on the hit and the run was an unearned run for the moment. However, after a pop-up to the  shortstop for out number two, that run became an earned run when Jeremy Arner blasted a double off the bottom of the left-center field fence to plate Swatsky and the Fleetwings now led 4-1.

    And that is the way things would stay until the home half of the sixth inning.

    Rothermel was exceeding all expectations, holding Gabelsville (who would have set a new league record this season for team batting average except that Silver Creek actually had a higher team average than the Owls) to just three hits through five strong innings.

    But the Owls awoke in the sixth.

    Colon led off and hit a very hard ground ball that not only was just out of the diving shortstop Garger's reach, it was out of everyone's reach as it rolled all the way to the fence in left-center for a double. Kyle Hoffman followed that up with a laser-beam to the gap in right-center that reached the fence and went for a RBI double to cut the lead to 4-2.

    Exit Rothermel. Enter the veteran Toth.

    Toth was rudely greeted by Ryan Bosch, who laced the second pitch he saw deep to right-center for yet another double, scoring Hoffman to cut the Tri-City lead to 4-3. Matt Danner sacrificed Bosch to third for the first out of the inning and pinch-hitter Bill Kropp then hit a chopper just over Toth's head for a 6-3 out, but the grounder plated Bosch to tie the game at 4-4.

    On to the seventh inning.

    Garger lofted a soft fly down the right-field line that fell for a single to start the inning for Tri-City. Marcks sacrifice attempt bounced straight up to the new catcher, Bill Kropp, who threw high to second, but Kalejta came down on the bag just before Garger slid in for the first out. Marcks then stole second. After Justin Godusky fouled a few pitches off, he hit a ground ball to short. Marcks aggressively went for third base and was dead, but the third baseman wasn't covering the bag, so even though Kalejta's throw arrived in plenty of time, Marcks was safe. Up came Big Ben with runners on the corners and one out after that huge break. But the Owls were granted an immediate reprieve, because three pitches later, Swatsky hit a hard, tailor-made grounder to short, and the Kalejta-to-Mike Ziemak-to-Hoffman combo turned the double-play on the speedy Swatsky to end the threat.

    Kalejta then started the bottom half of the seventh with a seeing-eye grounder to right for a base hit. Betz sacrificed him to second, and Fleetwings' Player-Manager Jeremy Arner now had a decision to make.

    Does he pitch to the 2005 batting champion, Rich Kropp (who set a record with the highest batting average in league history this season), or does he put Kropp on base and take his chances with the 2005 homerun king, Colon?

   After a conference at the mound, the answer came. Tri-City intentionally walked Rich Kropp to set up a double-play possibility for Colon. But it did not work as Colon got enough of an inside fastball to lift a single down the left-field line, easily scoring Kalejta from second base to give Gabelsville a 5-4 win.

    Garger was 2-for-4 and Justin Godusky was 2-for-3 for the Fleetwings (30-12). Kalejta was 3-for-4 and Colon was 3-for-4 with two doubles and the game-winning single for Gabelsville (30-8).