Calarco, Sandt lead Yankees to 6-5 win

Caleb Calarco goes 8 on short rest & knocks in GW RBI after Adam Sandt ties it in the 7th.

By Steve Smull

    BOYERTOWN -- Life is full of decisions.

    Whether it is deciding what tie to choose before going to work, what dress to pick for the prom, what hotel to reserve for the weekend at the beach or what pitcher to start for Game 2 of the Trico finals, some decisions simply take longer to make than others.

    And the delay to get the ground rules underway for the first Trico playoff game ever played at Bear Stadium was caused by Northern Yankees manager Brian Polaha laboring over who to start on the bump for Wednesday night's game.

    "I was torn," said Polaha after the game. "It was a tough decision for me and I felt bad making everybody wait for my lineup card before the game."

    The decision was whether or not to throw staff ace Caleb Calarco on three days rest or not.

    Calarco, who has not lost a regular season game as a pitcher since the league went to wood bats in 2006 (16-0, and he is 3-1 in the postseason over that span), wanted the ball.

    And Polaha finally gave it to him.

    The decision turned out to be the right one as Calarco gutted out eight innings and 122 pitches for a thrilling 6-5 extra-inning victory to even the best-of-5 series at 1-1.

    Calarco's only loss in 20 decisions since the league went to wood bats came almost two years ago to the day, a tough 5-2 loss on August 14, 2007 against these same Owls at Limeport Stadium in Game 3 of the Finals as his former team (Coplay) was going for a sweep. Calarco pitched 5 scoreless innings before allowing a pair of runs in the sixth before being pulled after 6 innings down 2-0.

   Ironically, Calarco wanted the ball that night, too, as Coplay's manager also had a tough time choosing who to start that night as Calarco was fighting an arm injury sustained in the semifinals against Limeport. And the winning pitcher of that game? Yes, Shawn Betz, the Owls' Game 2 starting pitcher Wednesday as the ironies continue to pile up.

    So two years later, Calarco was able to avenge his only career wood-bat loss in what could be called a rematch of sorts.

    He would have plenty of help from his friends, like teammate Mike Venarchick, who opened the scoring with a second-inning salvo as he rocked a 1-1 offering from Owls' starter Shawn Betz over the left-field fence to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

    Calarco would also get help from Adam Sandt, who has been scorching hot in the postseason. After a one-out double by Erik Ruff got things going in the top of the third, Sandt launched a hanging slider well over the left-field fence four pitches later to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead.

    Just when things were looking easy for the Yanks, they would make things tough on themselves in the home half of the third.

    Steve Bealer laid down a perfect drag bunt for a single to start the frame. Jon Kalejta liked that idea so much, he followed suit to sacrifice Bealer to second and Kalejta got a bonus when the throw skipped away at first, allowing Bealer to go to third. But the play was not over yet because when Kalejta saw nobody covering second base, he sprinted just steps ahead of the speedy Tim Kay (who had scooped up the errant throw and started chasing him) and Kalejta did out-race Kay to second base to put runners on second and third with nobody out.

    A.J. Bohn then ripped a low-liner off Lenhart's glove at first-base, but Kay was there again to scoop it up and throw it back to Lenhart for a rare 3-4-3 put-out. Bealer scored on the play to give Bohn a RBI and Kalejta went to third and it was now 3-1 Yankees. Cody Kulp then smashed a long RBI double to center and the deficit was trimmed to 3-2. After a 5-3 ground-out had Calarco on the verge of ending the inning, the next ground-out was thrown away at first, allowing Kulp to score from second base and the score was tied at 3-3. A strikeout would finally end the inning.

    The field was soaking wet due to the steady rain early in the game and the wet turf did create some issues for some infielders gripping the ball for their throws to first as all four errors in the first three innings were throwing errors.

    Calarco would then have some "throwing errors" of his own in the bottom of the fourth.

    After a ground-out, Calarco would hit Ryan Mark and Bealer, back-to-back, to put two on with one out. Kalejta laced a double just fair down the third-base line and the Owls had their first lead of the game, 4-3. After a four-pitch walk to Bohn loaded the bases, a wild pitch would score pinch-runner Mike Schwager from third and move everyone else up 90 feet and it was now 5-3 Owls. Schwager was running for Bealer, who had to leave due to severe pain in his left elbow, which is where he was plunked. His status for Game 3 is uncertain.

    But just as it appeared Gabelsville would break the game open with two more runners in scoring position and one out, Calarco would buckle down and retire the number 3 and 4 hitters to end the inning without further damage.

    This was big because Betz would settle down and retire 10 of 11 batters heading into the seventh and he would retire the leadoff hitter in the seventh as the Owls were two outs away from a 2-0 series lead.

    Calarco battled through a tough at-bat and fought off a 2-2 pitch on the inside corner for a check swing single just fair down the third-base line. But after a fielder's choice, Betz and the Owls were just one out away from a stranglehold on the series.

    And as the count went to 1-2 on Kay, the Owls were one strike away from victory. But Kay would fight off a 2-2 pitch for a little 115-foot duck-snort just over the head of first baseman Jared Trout (and just fair) to keep the game alive.

    After the count went to 2-2 on Erik Ruff, the Owls were one strike away from victory again. But Ruff would work a seven-pitch walk to load the bases.

    Betz's pitch count was now at 121, but with his history of being a clutch pitcher, he would go one more batter to try and wrap up Game 2. But he would have to get Sandt out, which is no easy task right now as he was 10-for-21 in the postseason coming into Wednesday's game.

    However, Betz did get ahead of him 1-2 and for the third straight batter, the Owls were one strike away from victory. But Sandt would foil Gabelsville again as he smashed a single to center-field, scoring Mike Fignar and Kay to tie the game at 5-5.

    Exit Betz. Enter Todd Stapleton.

    "Staple-gun" would end the inning on one pitch, but the damage had been done.

    Shane Houck would single to start the home-half of the seventh and steal second one out later, but Calarco snagged a ground-ball up the middle to get Houck out in a run-down, although he smartly stayed in the run-down long enough to get Trout to second base. But Calarco induced a 3-1 ground-out to end the inning.

    Darrin Lenhart had been quiet during regulation time, but he started the extra frame with a bang, literally, as he launched the first pitch to deep left that went off Bohn's glove and the fence right as Bohn hit the fence for a double. And then came what will undoubtedly be the overlooked play of the game.

    The Yankees' catcher, Mike Venarchick had to leave the game in the fifth inning to get to his third-shift job, so the injured Jeremy Faust (badly-pulled right hamstring) took his place and he was obviously going to attempt to sacrifice Lenhart to third. With the rotation play on, Lenhart bolted for third on the first offering to Faust, but he laid a perfect sacrifice bunt down anyway and started limping down the first-base line. Stapleton came running in to field the bunt, but fell down on the wet grass. Although he seemingly had all day to throw Faust out at first, he was unable to corral the ball and get up to make the throw. So after Faust finished gimping his way from home to first in about eight seconds, that "hustle" earned him a base-knock and put runners on the corners with nobody out.

    This would be important because after a strikeout, Calarco stepped to the plate and got enough of a 1-2 pitch for a sacrifice fly to center to give the Yankees a 6-5 lead.

    Had Faust not reached base, Calarco's fly ball would have been the third out of the inning and no run would have scored. Which proves again why it is important to run everything out, as coaches tell players all the time from little league through college. With a pulled hamstring, Faust could have turned and walked back to the dugout after laying down the sacrifice bunt, but he "hustled" down to first on one leg and it got the Yankees the go-ahead run.

    Knocking in the go-ahead run seemed to energize Calarco, as his velocity seemed to pick up in the bottom of the eighth as he struck out two of the three batters he faced to double his total for the game as the Owls went quietly in the eighth and the series was now tied at 1-1.

    "We battled," said Polaha. "Those were tough at-bats in the seventh. And Caleb is a gamer. He seemed to be throwing harder at the end of the game then he did at the outset. This was a huge win to get."

    What was Calarco's explanation for the sudden burst of energy in the eighth?

    "All adrenaline," said Calarco. "I was on three days rest, so I was just trying to get through the first couple of innings to see where I was at. My arm felt good tonight."

    As far as his game-winning RBI in the eighth, what was he expecting from Stapleton?

    "Slider-slider-slider," said Calarco. "Stapleton has been tough on me my entire Trico career. I don't even know if I have a hit off him, but I knew sliders were coming and fortunately he left one just enough over the plate for me to hit hard somewhere."

    Which he did to center-field for the game-winning sac-fly.

    So Calarco avenged his only Trico wood-bat loss from two years ago to the Owls to move his career record (including postseason) to 20-1 since 2006 (although he did not play in 2008 because he spent the summer in Belgium). And since he missed the 2008 season, technically, Calarco is looking for his third consecutive championship, as he won titles with Coplay in 2006 and 2007. He certainly came up big Wednesday to give the Yankees a shot to win a title in 2009 as this is now a best-of-3 series that resumes Friday at 5:45 at Scherersville #5 for Game 3 before moving back to Bear Stadium for Game 4 at 5:00 on Saturday.

    Adam Sandt was 2-for-4 with a homer and 4 RBI, Tim Kay was 2-for-5 and Erik Ruff was 2-for-3 for the Yankees (31-8-1), while Jon Kalejta was 3-for-4 for Gabelsville (30-8-2).