Carmichaels evens series with Connellsville
CARMICHAELS – What loomed at first as a big worry for Jerry Kowalczyk became one of his biggest assets. That and the pitching of Andy Mazur.
When Carmichaels played its Fayette American Legion semifinal playoff series opener at Connellsville, Kowalczyk said after the loss, “I hate to think about those stickers in the Connellsville lineup coming to our field with its short fences.”
The teams got together Saturday in Game Two of the best-of-three set, and would you like to guess who made the best use of those short fences?
Shayne Busti hit a pair of homers, Colby Giles also hit one, and Matt Fanase went 4-for-4 to back up the five-hit pitching of Mazur, as Carmichaels ambushed Connellsville, 7-1, and tied their series at a game apiece.
The third and deciding game is scheduled for today at Connellsville at 2 p.m., with the winner advancing to the finals.
Kowalczyk said, “We needed a big pitching effort and some hitting, and we got both today. Shane led us at bat, Colby is starting to get some hits, Jono (Menhart) had a big hit, and Matt had four, plus Mazur stepped up like we needed him to do and got us a really big win. I had planned on using him for about five innings, then maybe come in with Fanase, but I didn’t have to do that today.”
Mazur (7-1) was in trouble only in the first inning when he gave up a leadoff single to Andy Beucher, who stole second and scored on Tony Marciante’s single. Marciante stole second and went to third on an overthrow, and Brandon Bryner walked, before Mazur got two outs to end the threat.
From that point on over the next eight innings, Mazur gave up only three hits, a leadoff single to Chris Marsinko in the third, a one-out double to Marsinko in the fifth, and a leadoff single to Jon Stutzman in the ninth. Only two runners got past second. Beucher was aboard on a force play in the fifth and Marsinko doubled him to third, and in the ninth, Stutzman singled, went to second on an error, and to third on an out. Three other runners stayed at first.
Mazur said, “My fastball was toeing in pretty good, but I really didn’t have a curve until the third. I felt good the whole game and wanted to throw hard and keep the momentum going. I knew Connellsville was a good hitting team, but it didn’t really bother me when they got runners on. I didn’t change a thing, just tried to pitch my normal game, throw hard, and let the good defense back of me catch the ball.”
Connellsville manager Kevin Henry called Mazur “A good pitcher, and he was great today. They came to play ball and we didn’t. We got behind early and didn’t catch up. We got runners on and then Mazur shut us down. Today we looked at too many first pitches. We were just not aggressive at the plate.”
After Connellsville (21-5) scored in the top of the first, Carmichaels (18-8) tied in the home first on Giles’ liner over the fence in left. It was 3-1 in the second, on Fanase, Denham and Menhart singles, around an error.
Jamie Kowalczyk walked in the third and moved around on Fanase’s single and an error to make it 4-1. In the fourth, Giles singled with one out and scored on Busti’s first shot over the fence in left-center, for a 6-1 lead. Busti homered to left in the sixth to complete scoring.