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Bulls clinch playoff spot, 5-1
Limeport veteran Pat Toner overwhelmed
the Yankees for his 42nd career victory.
SCHERERSVILLE
-- Pat Toner put forth a dominating performance
for 6-plus innings as the Limeport Bulls clinched a playoff spot with a 5-1 win
over the Northern Yankees.
Toner is in his 11th Trico season
(spanning 16 years) and has yet to have a losing season. In fact, he has not
even had a .500 season. His 42nd career win on Friday brings him to 2-0 on the
2007 season and all but assures him of his 11th straight winning season as a
pitcher. He mowed down the Yankees, allowing just two hits through six innings,
which was big because Limeport only led 1-0 going into the final frame.
Northern Yankees' southpaw Joe Werner
also threw quite well himself for six innings.
Werner got touched for a run in the
second inning when Pat Lane led off with a double to deep center and was
promptly sacrificed to third by Dave Shoemaker. The Yankees' infield conceded
the run by playing back, so Brendan O'Connor's innocent grounder to second base
was enough to score Lane to give the Bulls a 1-0 lead.
Werner would continue to wriggle out of
jams as the Bulls got a runner to third with one out two more times. But
back-to-back strikeouts in the third got him out of one jam and Marshall Garger
got him out of another tight spot in the fifth.
The Yankees drew their infield in this
time with a runner on third and one out, and Liam O'Connor lifted what would
have been a routine pop-up to where the second-baseman would have been with the
infield at normal depth, but with everyone in tight, Garger had run to the
outfield grass to try and retrieve the pop-up and the Bulls did not think he was
getting to it as the runner on third broke for home. But Garger, with his back
to home plate, made a nice, over-the-shoulder basket catch and then whirled and
threw to third for an inning-ending 4-4-5 double-play.
Meanwhile, Toner had only allowed one
runner to reach second base through the first six innings, and that came in the
first inning. The right-hander retired 14 straight at one point, until Landon
Parker singled to left with one out in the sixth.
The Bulls would all but put the game
away in the top of the seventh.
Jeff Kroboth singled to right-center
with one out. After a pop-up to the catcher, Werner started to struggle
mightily. He seemed to be on fumes, but needed just one more out to give his
club a chance in the home half of the seventh down just 1-0. But Liam O'Connor
worked a five-pitch walk, Matt Geiger was plunked on the next pitch to load the
bases, and after falling behind 3-0 to Pat Hollander, Werner fought back to get
the count full, but then walked Hollander two pitches later to force in a run
and make it 2-0 Limeport.
Exit Werner. Enter Max Fada.
Fada was greeted rather rudely by Kenny
Serfass, who blasted the second pitch he saw to deep left-center for a
bases-clearing double to make it 5-0 Bulls. Fada induced a ground-out five
pitches later to end the inning.
The rather lengthy top of the seventh
may have had an effect on Toner, because he was no longer dominating in the home
half of the seventh.
George Kressley singled to center to
start the inning, Pete McCauley was hit by a pitch and Garger followed with a
RBI single to left to make it 5-1 with two on and nobody out.
Exit Toner. Enter Jeff Krauss.
Krauss immediately squashed the rally
with a 6-4-3 double-play and then finished the game with a strikeout, which
clinched a playoff spot for Limeport for the 13th straight season.
Kenny Serfass was 2-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI and Jeff Kroboth was
2-for-3 for Limeport.
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