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Owls and Yankees fit to be tied
Eight innings not enough to determine
a winner as Game 3 will be replayed after 3-3 tie.
SCHERERSVILLE
-- An unearned tally in the top of the seventh
allowed Gabelsville to tie the game and after eight innings of play, Game 3,
Part 1, was called due to darkness. It will be replayed in its entirety on
Thursday at 5:45 at Scherersville #5 with the best-of-5 Finals still tied at a game
apiece.
"We haven't really been getting too many
breaks going our way this season," Gabelsville manager Matt Danner said. "So it
was good to see a ball finally bounce our way."
Or sail their way.
Danner was referring to an errant throw
to first with two outs in the top of the seventh that scored the tying run for
the Owls instead of ending the game.
"In a tie game, there's always going to
be one team that breathes a sigh of relief because they didn't lose and there's
always going to be a team that feels like they should have won the game," said
Northern Yankees manager Brian Polaha. "And of course, we're the team that feels
like we should have won in this instance."
And Danner will gladly take the tie over
a loss, even if it does mean his players have to make an extra, unplanned trek
back to Scherersville #5 on Thursday.
"We'll take the tie and come back here
rather than face an elimination game at home on Thursday," Danner said.
The Owls only had one opportunity to
score a run in the first four innings of the game off Yankees' starting pitcher
Josh Ziegler, and that came in the top of the first.
Tom DeAngelis singled to left to start
the game, stole second, but after a bunt attempt was missed, Yankees' catcher
Jeremy Faust rifled a throw to second that caught DeAngelis too far off the bag
as he anticipated the bunt getting down, and shortstop J.R. Graver eventually
ran him down for out number one. After a strikeout, Jon Kalejta singled to left
and stole second, but was stranded after a fly-out to right-center. The Owls did
not get a player in scoring position again until the fifth.
The Yankees in turn, did not get anyone
in scoring position until the fourth off Owls' starter Jared Trout, who was
coming off a no-hitter in his last outing, a 1-0 win over the Limeport Bulls in
the semifinals. And Trout was one pitch away from getting out of the fourth inning
(with a runner on third and two outs) without allowing a run, but twelve pitches later, the Yankees had done some
two-out damage.
Adam Sandt started the fourth with a
walk, stole second and after a strikeout, went to third on a ground-out. Mike
Venarchick then lined a hit to left-center that rolled far enough for a RBI
double and the Yankees led 1-0. Graver then slammed a double to right-center to
score Venarchick and it was 2-0. Ryan Birkenstock then lined an RBI single to
left to score Graver and make it 3-0 Yankees, while Birkenstock took second on
the throw home. Mike Fignar then smacked a single to center which DeAngelis
charged hard on and he proceeded to throw a strike to catcher Chris Fusco to
just get Birkenstock, who barreled over Fusco.
"That was a big play in the game,"
said Polaha, lamenting not getting that extra run. "That was the best throw I've
seen in this league in quite a while."
Although Coplay Reds' fans would remember a
throw made by Mike Bortz from medium-depth center-field on a fly-ball hit by
Pete Moore on August 2, 2007, in Game 2 of the semifinals at Limeport that literally saved
the game in the bottom of the seventh, nailing Blair Dameron at the plate on a bang-bang play
to end that inning and keep the score tied at 5-5. And ironically, that game also went eight innings.
It is often said in baseball that good
teams will answer their opponent immediately after they have a big inning, and
Gabelsville did just that in the top half of the fifth.
Trout blooped a single to right and
pinch-hitter Brian Ernst walked to start the frame. Pinch-hitter Mike Schwager
laid down a sacrifice bunt and got a bonus when it was bobbled for an error to
load the bases. After a strikeout, DeAngelis grounded to short, which would have
been a double-play for 99% of the runners in the league, but DeAngelis's speed
puts him in that 1% category as he busted it hard down the line and beat the
strong relay throw to first by Sandt by less than half a step and it was now 3-1
Yankees. His speed not only netted the Owls that run, it got them another as the
third pinch-hitter of the inning, Ryan Mark, then laced a RBI single to left to
cut the deficit to 3-2. Ziegler then induced a fly-out to end the inning.
And that is the way things stayed until
the fateful top of seventh for the Yankees.
Ernst singled to deep short to start the
inning for the Owls. Pinch-hitter Ryan Bosch then sacrificed him to second base.
Exit Ziegler. Enter Adam Sandt.
Sandt induced a ground-out that moved
Ernst to third with two outs. Then DeAngelis, down to his final strike, grounded
to third and perhaps his speed was a factor as the throw sailed over first
baseman Darrin Lenhart's head and out of play for an error and the game was tied
at 3-3. Sandt got a strikeout to end the inning, but the damage had been done.
After Owls' reliever Barry Walsh had
thrown two shutout innings, Todd Stapleton then entered the game in the bottom
of the seventh and threw two hitless innings, striking out four while walking
one to preserve the 3-3 tie.
Gabelsville will send Chuck Nicholas to
the hill on Thursday for the replay of Game 3, while the Yankees will send J.D.
Wyborny to the mound.
Kalejta was 2-for-4 and Trout was
2-for-3 for Gabelsville (30-9-2), while Birkenstock was 2-for-3 for the Yankees
(30-9-3).
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