Owls clinch South Division title

Gabelsville wins the South for the 15th time in 20 seasons with a 12-0 win over Cetronia.

By Steve Smull

    GABELSVILLE -- Owls' player/manager Matt Danner is not a big fan of the Tri-County League giving out byes to the top regular-season performers since the league switched to wood bats at the start of the 2006 season.

    "I think it is a bad thing," said Danner. "Last year the layoff hurt us because we had almost two weeks without playing a game."

    However, like it or not, Gabelsville has earned a first-round bye again in 2007 with their 12-0 whitewash over Cetronia on Saturday. In the 20 seasons that Gabelsville has been in the league with a divisional format, the Owls have won the South Division crown 15 of those 20 years. Gabelsville has 19 first-place finishes in their 27 seasons in the league.

    Danner and a few other Trico managers believe that the extended break from the end of the regular season until the beginning of the semifinals is a transition that becomes more difficult with wood bats than it would be with aluminum bats.

    "Because you have to hit the ball more solidly with wood bats, it becomes more of a liability when you don't see live pitching for a while," Danner said.

    Gabelsville had no problems hitting on Saturday.

    After a quiet first inning, Gary Hessler led off the second with a sharp single to right. Brett Umstead followed with a single to left and Todd Stapleton sacrificed them both up 90 feet. Danner walked to load the bases and Mitch Schueck then hit an 0-2 mistake for a    line-drive just over the outstretched glove of shortstop George U. Horn and the Owls took a 2-0 lead.

    But they were a long way from being finished.

    A.J. Bohn knocked in a run with a ground-out to short to make it 3-0. With two outs, it appeared as though the Longhorns could end the rally, but Mike Ziemak singled to make it 4-0. Shawn Betz laid down a drag-bunt for a single, Steve Burdan walked and then Hessler walked with the sacks loaded to make it 5-0 Owls. Umstead singled to left-field for the second time in the inning, plating two to make it 7-0 Gabelsville.

    A fly-out would finally end the inning, but the competitive phase of this game was over, as there were many Longhorns' heads hanging low coming into the dugout after the inning.

    And apparently the frustration carried over into the top of the third as Gabelsville southpaw Mike Furman struck out the side in order in the inning.

    Cetronia starter Bryan Litzenberger did come out to start the third after his 44-pitch second inning, but not for long. After a ground-out, Litzenberger plunked Schueck and then walked Bohn on four pitches and his day was over.

    Exit Litzenberger. Enter Nathan Alpaugh.

    A walk to Ziemak loaded the bases, a passed ball made it 8-0 and a sac-fly by Betz made it 9-0 after three innings.

    Gabelsville would tally an unearned run in the fourth. Stapleton walked with one out and Schueck singled to right-center with two outs. Pinch-hitter Steve Jaffe lined a single off a diving Jeff Mazalewski's glove at third to load the bases and then Ziemak reached on an infield error to make it 10-0 Owls after four innings.

    Exit Furman. Enter Barry Walsh.

    Walsh came on to pitch the fifth and was in line for a "cheap" win, as long as the Owls did not 12-run the Longhorns in the bottom of the fifth because league rules state that although you need five innings to get credit for a win, a pitcher does get a win if he pitches four innings of a five-inning game.

    So after Umstead threw out a runner at the plate in the top half of the fifth with one out to keep the shutout alive, Furman would need his teammates to score two in the home half of the fifth to activate the "12-run rule", which immediately ends any Trico game once the game is "official".

    With one out in the fifth, Hessler singled to left, and Umstead followed with a single to left-center, which was misplayed, allowing both runners to advance 90 feet to second and third. Stapleton grounded to second to plate Hessler to make it 11-0 and Danner decided enough was enough and ended the game with a sharp single down the left-field line for a 12-0 final, giving Furman the win.

    Danner noted after the game that every player who will be around for the playoffs is now eligible after Saturday's game. The Owls have three games remaining and can only get the #1 seed and have home field throughout the playoffs if they win out and Coplay loses three out of their final five games.

    "We are going to get all of our pitchers some work and get everyone some playing time to get them ready to go for the playoffs," said Danner. "We are going to try and get a scrimmage or two, also."

    While the Owls' playoff future is all but set, the Longhorns' future is far from settled.

    The Longhorns came into Saturday's action in a virtual three-way tie for the final playoff spot with the ICC Pirates and Jordan Creek. So while the idle Gators saw both ICC and Cetronia tie them on Friday, that three-way tie was short-lived as the Longhorns and Pirates both lost on Saturday. ICC lost a tough 5-4 decision in nine innings against the Northern Yankees' Matt Reppert, who had a microscopic 0.61 ERA coming into the contest.

    All three teams control their own destiny as they play the other two contestants for the final playoff spot one time each during the final nine days of the season.

    But after a 2-10 and then a 5-16 record to start the season, George Horn, who is now playing and managing in his 30th Trico season, is glad just to have a shot at the postseason.

    "After a slow start, I am happy to be in this position," said Horn. "We have a shot and have come a long way after all those close games we lost in the beginning of the year."

    Umstead finished 3-for-4, Hessler was 2-for-3 and Schueck was 2-for-2 for Gabelsville.