Reds win title in dramatic fashion

Mike Bortz's 8th-inning, 2-out, 270-foot sprint gives Coplay a scintillating 5-4 win.

By Steve Smull

    LIMEPORT -- One of my college baseball coaches (who was also a scout for the Oakland A's) used to always preach, "You gotta give me 90 feet" with his deep, southern drawl. What he meant, of course, is that he expects all of his players to run everything out.

    Friday night, Coplay's Mike Bortz gave his manager and his team 270 feet in what will go down for decades to come as the most exciting, most incredible and perhaps even the most bizarre ending to a Tri-County League season. Ever.

    Bortz scored all the way from first base on a single by J.R. Graver with two outs in the bottom of the eighth to lift the Coplay Reds (33-14-1) to a thrilling 5-4 victory in Game 5 of the Tri-County League Finals to clinch the league championship.

    The decisive bottom of the eighth inning started out innocently enough when with two outs, Bortz worked a 7-pitch walk after falling behind 1-2 in the count and Graver lofted what appeared to be an innocent pop-up about 20 feet into the outfield grass between first and second. But after a miscommunication on who should catch the pop-up, the ball fell for a single and by the time it was picked up, a hustling Bortz was being waved home by manager/third-base coach Shawn Andrews. Bortz beat the throw home by an eyelash to give Andrews his third championship in four years (and his first one at Coplay in his inaugural season as manager there).

    “It makes you feel good when you see a player at first base run that hard on a routine pop fly” said Andrews as he was being doused with champagne.

    “That’s what we have been preaching all year long and to see it actually come into play and to know that the players were listening and to have us win the championship on that play. Nothing can mean any more than that. It was an incredible ending to the game”.

    The 250-plus fans who showed up at Limeport witnessed a riveting game from start to finish that took fans on both sides on a rollercoaster ride that had more twists and turns than Steel Force and more drama than any season-ending soap opera cliffhanger.

    Early in the game, Woodlawn was doing their best work on offense after there were two outs and nobody on base.

    After Coplay starter Paul Giovannoli retired the first two batters of the game, Justin Godusky singled and Ben Swatsky ripped a double just fair down the third-base line to put two on with two outs. Matt Godusky then hit an 0-2 mistake for a line-drive up the middle for a two-run single and just like that, the Fleetwings had a 2-0 lead.

    The Reds would get one back in their half of the first.

    Joe Bubba walked on four pitches to start the inning. After Kirk Mueller sacrificed him to second, Brandon Leslie, who ended the postseason with a .500 batting average, blooped a single to left, scoring Bubba to cut the Woodlawn lead to 2-1.

    Both Giovanolli and Fleetwings' starter Ryan Palos would both settle down and have relatively easy second and third innings.

    That would change in the fourth.

    With two outs and nobody on, Player/Manager Jeremy Arner and Dan Hemberger both singled up the middle and Matt Nuhfer singled to left to load the bases. But Giovannoli would end the threat seven pitches later with a ground-out back to the mound.

    The Reds would then work some two-out magic of their own in their half of the fourth.

    With two down, Jesse Borden was hit by a pitch and Bortz singled to left to put runners on first and second. Graver followed with a single to left, and Andrews sent Borden plateward. Somewhere between third base and home plate, Borden transformed himself into a Mack Truck and ran through Arner, who was blocking the plate and trying to gather in the throw at the same time, setting up a memorable collision reminiscent of the ones seen on Sundays on the NFL gridiron.

    Borden was safe to tie the game at 2-2, and although Arner did not have the ball, he at least still had all of his teeth in tact, which was encouraging after watching that collision. In fact, Arner, the tough, gritty leader of this Fleetwings' team, bounced right up from that train wreck to keep the runners at first and second, which proved to be important. It was important because John Curreri then lined a 1-1 pitch for a single to right-center, which would have scored two, but instead, only Bortz scored from second to make it 3-2 Coplay. Bubba then singled to center, but Andrews smartly held Graver at third as center-fielder Matt Marcks threw a strike to the plate. Palos then induced a 4-6 ground-out to prevent any further damage.

    Woodlawn would get a rally going with no outs this time in the fifth, and would do so in a most unusual manner for them.

    The Reds have played "small ball" throughout the course of the 2006 season, while the Fleetwings generally shun this concept in lieu of playing for the big inning. However, in the fifth inning of Game 5, the Fleetwings would try their hand at "small ball".

    And it paid instant dividends.

    Marcks started the bunting barrage with a drag-bunt single to start the inning. Number-three hitter Justin Godusky was asked to sacrifice through the first four pitches of the at-bat, but after the count went to 2-2, Godusky was swinging and earned a 7-pitch walk. Swatsky then stepped up and laid a sacrifice bunt down the first-base line and got a bonus when he beat it out for a single to load the bases with nobody out.

    Up stepped 2006 Trico playoffs RBI leader Matt Godusky.

    Godusky got a good cut at the first pitch he saw and gave it a good ride, but he hit the ball to the cavernous center-field of Limeport Stadium for a F-8. But the sac-fly gave Godusky his playoff-leading 15th RBI and more importantly, tied the game at 3-3. His brother Justin smartly tagged and moved to third base on the deep fly-out.

    Exit Giovannoli. Enter Jose Medina.

    With runners on the corners and one out with Dave Toth at the plate, Swatsky stole second, and once the count reached 2-1, orders came from the Coplay dugout to intentionally walk Toth to re-load the bases.

    Medina, who seems to play his best baseball on the Limeport stage, seemed to have his fastball kicked up a notch on Friday. He did induce a ground-ball to short that seemed destined for disaster for Coplay, as Curreri got a tough, in-between hop. But Curreri corralled it nicely and started a nifty 6-4-3 double-play to somehow keep this game tied at 3-3.

    Exit Palos. Enter Matt Wiltrout.

    Wiltrout got a 7-pitch, 1-2-3 fifth inning and the Fleetwings would get right back to work in the sixth.

    Hemberger got an infield single and was promptly sacrificed to second base by Nuhfer. Garger worked a full-count before getting hit by a pitch, although the Reds' bench insisted the pitch got Garger's bat and not his forearm. With runners on first and second, Marcks stepped up and laced a single to left. Hemberger got a late jump to make sure the ball was not caught and a good throw to the cut-off man probably would have nailed Hemberger, but it was low and skipped away from the cut-off man just far enough to allow Garger to out-race Bubba (with the ball) to third and Marcks took second and the Fleetwings now led 4-3 and were looking for more.

    But Medina, with the game on the verge of slipping away from the Reds, rared back and got two huge strikeouts on six pitches against the number three and four hitters in the Woodlawn lineup to strand two runners in scoring position.

    However, Coplay was suddenly down to their final six outs.

    Borden singled to right to start the sixth. Bortz sacrificed him to second. Graver came up big, ripping a double down the left-field line to score Borden and tie the game at 4-4. Curreri then hit a tantalizing line-drive that looked as if it would land in shallow right-field for a base hit, but second-baseman Garger got back to make the grab for the second out and Wiltrout got a strikeout to end the sixth and we officially had a barnburner.

    In the Fleetwings' seventh, a strikeout, an E-3 and a pop-up to short brought Hemberger to the plate with Toth at first, and he hit a routine ground-ball to second which was no longer routine after the second hop bounced over the second-baseman's head into right-field for a base hit, sending Toth to third base. A slow grounder to third had the Coplay faithful holding their collective breath, but they were able to exhale again after Bubba made a nice play to end the inning.

    Wiltrout set the Reds down in order in the home half of the seventh and we were going extra innings in the Trico finale.

    Garger led off the eighth with a line-drive single to right.

    Exit Medina. Enter Leslie.

    This was a surprise because Leslie just threw a complete-game, five-hitter on Tuesday in an 8-2 win for Coplay in Game 3.

    “It usually takes two weeks for my arm to recover after I throw a complete game," Leslie said. "But I was surprised that my arm felt fine during warm-ups and I told [Andrews] I could go and he said that he would use me if needed”.

    Apparently, Andrews was feeling needy in the eighth.

    Leslie came out firing. He had plenty of pop on his fastball and he got up 0-2 on all three batters he faced, getting a fly-out to left before striking out the number three and four hitters to end the inning.

    This set the stage for the incredible ending to the Trico season.

    With two outs, Bortz worked a walk and scored one pitch later on a routine pop-up to very-shallow right-field, where an apparent miscommunication led to disaster for the Fleetwings thanks to the hustle of Bortz, the Lackawanna College and Pen Argyl product. Bortz just put his head down and never broke stride during his 270-foot trek to the promised land. And Bortz beat the throw home by a whisker to give the Reds the championship.

    When asked how it felt to score the winning run and then get trampled by his teammates at the plate, Bortz said:

    “It was an amazing feeling. Coach [Andrews] preaches running everything out and tonight proves that anything is possible when you run everything out”.

    And on Friday, a championship became possible for the Reds.

    A disappointed Jeremy Arner, the Player/Manager for the Woodlawn Fleetwings (31-17), was gracious after suffering the devastating defeat, and he tipped his cap to Coplay for a great series.

    “They deserved to win. They played well the entire series and got good pitching and timely hitting,” said Arner.

    The Fleetwings lost in the Finals for the second straight season and for the third time in their eight-year history. They have made the playoffs all eight seasons, but are still in search of their first title.

    “We left too many guys on base tonight”, said Arner, whose team did strand 12 and eight of those were in scoring position. “It is disappointing for us because we set our standards high here, so when we don’t make it to the top, we are not happy,” added Arner.

    This was the first title for the Coplay franchise since 1998, although none of the current players were members of that team. However, manager Shawn Andrews, perennial MVP candidate Brandon Leslie, Joe Bubba and Eric Schmitt did come over in the merger with Lehigh Township this past off-season, and those four players won championships in 2003 and 2004 with Lehigh Township.

    And Kudos to John Arrington, the owner of the Coplay franchise, who had to suffer through a very trying 2005 season after his manager stepped down for personal reasons three weeks into the season. Arrington had to finish the year as manager and the fifty-something owner had to actually play in six games himself to avoid forfeits, so you know it had to be super-sweet for Arrington to win a title after suffering through a miserable 10-22 season last year.

    “This is awesome”, Arrington said happily. “This is what it's all about”.

    Also being rewarded for gutting out the tough 2005 season for the Reds were Graver, Caleb Calarco and Dan Fassl, all of whom were big contributors for Coplay in 2006.

    Graver was 4-for-4 with 3 RBI for Coplay in the season finale. Dan Hemberger was 3-for-3, Ben Swatsky and Matt Marcks both went 2-for-5 and Matt Godusky knocked in 3 runs for the Fleetwings.