Bulls stampede Owls 10-4 to stay alive

Scott Bolasky's gutsy, 120-pitch performance on short rest gets Limeport to Game 4.

By Steve Smull

    GABELSVILLE -- Limeport manager Pat Lane had a plan for staff ace Scott Bolasky coming into the Finals.

    Lane wanted to throw Bolasky in Game 4 of the Finals. This would give "Bo" 5 days rest for his start.

    After all, Bolasky had just thrown Game 5 of the semifinals last Sunday night, a game in which he dominated the Yankees to earn a 1-0 victory. Bolasky had five days rest for that one.

    However, after Limeport found themselves in a 2-0 hole after dropping Game 2 of this series Wednesday night, Lane had no choice but to go with Bolasky on four days rest Friday night in hopes of just trying to reach Game 4.

    And Bolasky delivered again.

    Ignoring a sore pitching elbow, Bolasky gutted out 6 1/3 innings, throwing 120 pitches while Limeport's offense exploded for 10 runs on 13 hits to stave off elimination and cut Gabelsville's series lead to 2-1 in the best-of-5 championship finals.

    "I can't say enough good things about Bolasky," said Lane. "He just threw a complete-game shutout on Sunday and comes back on four days rest and goes 6-plus innings. That is just sheer guts."

    "My elbow was sore before the game," said Bolasky. "During the regular season, our pitchers would get seven days and in some instances a week and a half between starts. And now come the playoffs and obviously everyone has got to throw a little more and on shorter rest. I didn't feel great [Friday], but I hit spots and had outstanding infield defense which really helped me out a lot."

    The outstanding infield defense was provided by shortstop Brian Ernst.

    Ernst had 10 assists without an error and put on a show as he rifled several long throws from short.

    "They played well on defense and [Ernst] played a heck of a game," said Gabelsville manager Matt Danner.

    The Bulls' offense was not too shabby, either.

    Ernst led off the top of the second with a line-drive single to left. Tyler Lehman followed with another single to left on the next pitch. After a base-running mistake and a pop-up seemingly squandered a scoring opportunity for Limeport, Cary Zimmerman got plunked on a 1-2 pitch and Adam Ganser singled to left to load the bases with two outs. Lane worked a six-pitch walk to score Lehman and the Bulls led 1-0. Scott Garger then smacked a hard-hit ball off Owls' starter Justin Konnick for an infield single and a 2-0 lead. Dan Hemberger then slapped a grounder to the hole between first and second, where second-baseman Shawn Betz dove to try and keep the ball in the infield, but the ball ricocheted off his glove and changed course enough to get by right-fielder Mike Schwager just enough to go for a two-run double and a 4-0 Limeport lead.

    Gabelsville would get one back in the home half of the fourth. With two outs, Schwager walked, which brought Dan Pierce to the plate. With chants of "Hit a home run Uncle Dan" from his nephew in the stands, Pierce did deliver a long double to deep right-center that scored Schwager from first and Owls now trailed 4-1.

    The Bulls answered immediately in the top half of the fifth. Garger led off with a single to left and Hemberger dropped down a sacrifice bunt down the third-base side that ended up being a base-knock. After a strikeout and a walk, Lehman singled off the glove of third-baseman Jon Kalejta, who was diving to his left to stop the hard-hit ball, and the carom off Kalejta's glove took the ball to shallow left-center field, allowing two runs to score and it was 6-1 Bulls.

    Gabelsville could only manage one un in the sixth inning of this game. With two outs, Gary Hessler walked and Schwager was hit by a pitch before pierce singled to left-center, plating Hessler and it was 6-2 Limeport.

    The Bulls would score four more two-out runs in the seventh. But this time around, the Owls pretty much gave the Bulls these runs as they committed four errors in the inning. Ben Swatsky reached on a bad-hop error to start the frame. After a strikeout and a fielder's choice with an overthrow at first got the Owls one out away from ending the inning, Devon Ziegenfuss singled to left to put runners on the corners. After Ziegenfuss stole second, Zimmerman singled to center to make it 8-2 Bulls and Zimmerman took second after the ball was misplayed in center-field. Mike Cudwadie then singled to left to score Zimmerman on a close play at the plate, and when that throw skipped away, Cudwadie scampered all the way to third base. Lane then laced a single through the box to score Cudwadie and the Bulls had a 10-2 lead.

    The Owls made some noise in the seventh. One-out singles by pinch-hitters Tom DeAngelis and Jordan Force brought Kalejta to the plate, who was hit by a 2-2 pitch to load the bases. Betz then ripped a single to right-center to plate DeAngelis and Force to cut the deficit to 10-4.

    Exit Bolasky. Enter Hemberger.

    Hemberger put out the fire as he retired both batters he faced and Limeport lives to see another day.

    "I wasn't expecting [winning Game 3] to be easy," said Danner. "They weren't going to roll over and let us win this one."

    "We just wanted to get this series back to Limeport [Saturday] and see where we go from there," said Lane.

    "We just need to put this game behind us and come out ready to play [Saturday]," said Danner.

    Game 4 starts at 7:30 at Limeport Stadium on Saturday. Gabelsville's Brock Laubenstine and Limeport's Matt Wiltrout are the probable starting pitchers.

    Scott Garger was 2-for-5, Dan Hemberger was 2-for-4 with a double and 2 RBI, Tyler Lehman was 2-for-4 with 2 RBI and Pat Lane was 2-for-3 with 2 RBI for Limeport (24-14). Shawn Betz was 2-for-4 with 2 RBI and Dan Pierce was 2-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI for Gabelsville (29-8).