Copperheads fall: Carmichaels loses to M&R Transit in FCBL finals
The umpire focuses on Carmichaels’ Noah Mildren as the third baseman prepares to apply the tag on M&R Transit’s Wyatt Lepley in the top of the fifth inning in Monday’s Game 4 of Fayette County Baseball League championship series at Carmichaels High School.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
Carmichaels starting pitcher Joe Chambers strides to the plate in the top of the second inning in Monday’s Game 4 of the Fayette County Baseball League championship series against M&R Transit at Carmichaels High School.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
Santino Marra (left) and Sevi Vecchiolla celebrate after M&R Transit’s 7-6 victory in Monday’s Game 4 of the Fayette County Baseball League championship series against Carmichaels at Carmichaels High School. M&R Transit won the best-of-5 series, 3-1, for its second-straight league title.
CARMICHAELS — M&R Transit grabbed the early lead and Carmichaels was unable to scratch back in Game 4 Monday evening as M&R Transit held on for a 7-6 victory to win its second-straight Fayette County Baseball League title.
M&R Transit lost the first game in the best-of-5 series at home, 10-0. The defending champions tied the series with a 7-0 win at Carmichaels. M&R Transit then took the series lead Sunday with a 7-5 home win.
“This year going in (to the finals) with three pitchers down and how we strategized and pieced pitching together, this one might feel better, to be honest,” said M&R Transit manager Buddy Marra.
M&R Transit built an early lead in its two previous victories, and did so once again in Monday’s game.
Ty Sankovich opened the top of the first inning with a single up the middle. Santino Marra followed with an infield single, and Andino Vecchiolla walked to load the bases.
Nate Zimcosky hit a towering fly ball that catcher Nick Ricco caught in foul ground behind the plate and Joe Chambers struck out Chad Petrush swinging.
Jace Cappellini came through with the clutch hit, a two-run single with two outs. Cappellini stole second, but Chambers ended the threat by striking out Wyatt Lepley.
“That’s how we like to play (having the other team chase us). We could’ve done better in that first inning with the bases loaded and no outs. We got two runs, but should’ve had three or four runs,” said Buddy Marra.
The early runs were an all too familiar situation for Carmichaels manager Dickie Krause and his squad.
“We struggled this series with starting pitching. The intent was to jump on them, like we did in the first game, and then get a lead. We’re pretty athletic defensively, and felt pretty good with what we had,” said Krause. “After Game 1, that never materialized.
“In Game 2, we were down 5-0. Game 3 was 3-0 in the first and 4-0 in the second inning, and tonight it was 2-0 and 6-2 pretty quick.”
The Copperheads tied the game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second inning after M&R Transit was retired in order in the top of the inning.
Anthony Romano hustled for a one-out infield single. Nick Ricco followed with a sharp single to left field.
Liam Lohr’s single to right field brought Romano home. Reed Long’s sacrifice bunt was mishandled for an error to load the bases.
Jim Sadler’s single scored courtesy runner JW Kayla, but Justin Brestensky left the bases loaded with fly outs to shortstop and right field.
M&R Transit bounced back in a big way in the top of the third inning with the visitors scoring four runs after batting around and knocking Chambers out of the game.
Santino Marra was hit by a pitch to start the inning and stole second. Chambers struck out Andino Vecchiolla, but Zimcosky came through with a run-scoring single to break the tie.
M&R Transit’s fourth and fifth runs scored on passed balls, and the fourth run of the inning came home on Justin Brestensky’s single.
Brestensky’s single knocked Chambers out of the game, bringing in Garrett Woodburn. Woodburn induced Sankovich, the ninth batter in the inning, to fly out to center field.
“After first inning, I felt really, really good. And, then when I saw Dickie come out and grab the ball from Joe, I said we have this now. We should’ve run away and we didn’t,” said Buddy Marra. “They kept coming back at us.”
Carmichaels responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning.
Drake Long and Romano walked with one out, and advanced a base on a wild pitch. Ricco’s single to center field scored Long and when the ball was misplayed, Romano hustled around the bases.
Brestensky closed the threat with back-to-back strikeouts.
Woodburn retired M&R Transit in order in the top of the fourth inning, and the Copperheads responded in the bottom of the inning.
Sadler was safe on an error to start the inning and stole second without a throw. Nick Pegg singled Sadler to third and then stole second base.
Noah Mildren walked to load the bases. Sankovich came on in relief and Chambers greeted him with the first of his two sacrifice flies to plate Sadler.
Drake Long walked to load the bases. Zimcosky cleanly fielded Romano’s ground ball for the out at the plate.
Then, Carmichaels ran into misfortune when Ricco’s sharp ground ball to shortstop took a funny bounce and hit Long as he was running towards third base for the final out of the inning.
“We never maximized our opportunities. I said that in the dugout,” said Krause. “The inning we tied it 2-2, we should’ve grabbed the lead and the inning when it was 6-4, we could’ve tied it at 6-6.
“We never did tie it up. It just like last night. Battled back from 6-1 to 6-5, and just couldn’t get that one run we needed.”
Buddy Marra knew Brestensky was pitching on a day’s less rest, so anticipated making the move when he did.
“Justin said he was great, but I knew after 99 pitches on Friday his mind was stronger than his arm. I was hoping to get three, maybe four innings and that’s exactly when he tired,” said Buddy Marra. “Well, I knew from umpiring Sankovich, I’ve seen him pitch. I knew he threw hard enough and accurate enough to throw strikes.
“I talked with the coaches and we said let Sankovich go two batters. If he gives up two hits or two walks, he’s coming out. He got better as he pitched. That was a big plus to get us through.”
Buddy Marra said he needed to keep his options open in case Carmichaels would rally and force a fifth game.
“And, in the back of my mind, I had to think about Cappellini. He came to me in the fifth and said he was good. I had a fresh guy with five days rest and you have to think about that if we lose,” said Marra.
M&R Transit scored an important insurance run in the top of the fifth inning to extend its lead to 7-5.
Petrush opened the inning with an infield single and stole second. Lepley curled a shot down the left field line for a book rule double that brought Petrush home.
Garrett Myers looped a fly ball into short left-center field between three players for a single. Petrush held up for a moment, then tried to take third on the play. The throw was on target for the second out of the inning.
Woodburn stranded the runner with an infield ground out.
Carmichaels rallied one more time for a run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Pegg singled to left field, took second on a fielding error and moved to third on a throwing error. He scored on Chamber’s sacrifice fly with one out.
Lohr retired the side in order in the top of the seventh inning to give the home team one last shot to tie the game.
Santino Marra came on for the second time in as many nights to clinch the victory.
Kayla hit a sharp line drive to right field, but Lepley got a solid jump on the ball for the first out. An infield grounder was the second out, and Marra closed out the game, and the series, in style with a strikeout.
“I wanted to save Santino for the sixth and seventh, and Tyler was throwing so well, I kept him in the sixth. So, it worked,” said Buddy Marra. “When they got the other run and made it 7-6, I was a little nervous. I like to have that two-run cushion going into the seventh.”
Krause was pleased with the way his team battled back in the last three games.
“I was disappointed earlier in the year we didn’t fight back and scratch back like I wanted us to, but I think we did this series. Last night, they got a lead on us and we could’ve withered. So, there was a lot of positives. It was a thrill to get back into the finals,” said Krause, adding, “We just ran out of arms. That was our problem.
“We lost a lot of guys. We were missing pieces. Every game we were missing more guys.
“We had a lot of young kids playing. Both teams had a lot of young guys playing. But, the kids fought hard.”
Krause was already looking forward to the 2024 season, the 40th for Carmichaels.
“I think in the league, among the top tier, the three teams at the top, it’s pretty tight. I thought this was a pretty good year for the league,” said Krause. “Both playoff rounds were good. The first couple games were lopsided, but the last two games were decided by one run. What else could you want.
“We have work to do. There are pieces we want to keep and there are some things we need to reinforce to get better.
“I appreciate the support we have here. We’ve had a lot of community support.”