‘Ugly baseball’ costs Mikes
INDIANA – Show a film of Carmichaels’ nine-inning 6-5 loss to Bishop McCort to someone who had never seen baseball before and the viewer would get a good look at just about anything that can happen in a game. Show the same film to a baseball purist and he’d order it burned, never to be seen again by human eyes. “Ugly baseball,” was how Carmichaels coach Dave Bates described the PIAA first-round playoff game that ended his team’s season at 18-4.
Ironically, it was Bishop McCort that committed seven errors, while the Mikes were guilty of only one official miscue. What it boiled down to was a game the Mikes could have and maybe should have won, but they didn’t because of basics.
“It was a simple lack of execution of the basic fundamentals of baseball,” Bates said. “By my count, we had 22 fundamental errors and we still stayed in the game until the ninth inning.”
Indeed, the Mikes battled to the end, but those “fundamental errors” caught up to them all the way through. Bishop McCort won the game when Mike Kastelic hit a one-out triple and came home when younger brother Matt Kastelic singled to left to end the game in the ninth inning.
“I was a little bit surprised they pitched to him,” Bishop McCort coach Denny Altimore said of Matt Kastelic, whose game-winning hit was his fourth of the game. “I thought they’d walk a couple and go for a force play.”
“I thought we were doing the right thing there,” Bates said. “Every scouting report we had on the kid said he was a ground-ball hitter. He just got one up and over the infield.”
But this was a game the Mikes seemed to have wrapped up at least twice earlier, but couldn’t tuck away. Carmichaels led 4-2 when the Crimson Crushers scored twice in the bottom of the sixth on only two hits. The inning included a walk and a hit batter, plus a double play that wasn’t turned.
Carmichaels took a 5-4 lead in the top of the eighth when Chuck Gasti led off with a double, moved to third on a bunt single by Anthonie Farrar and scored on a botched suicide squeeze play.
“We were ready for it, but we still didn’t stop it,” Altimore said. “We thought their batter might have interfered with the throw to third, but the umpires said he didn’t.”
The batter, Joby Lapkowicz, had to stretch across the plate to try to bunt. When he couldn’t make contact, Gasti was coming home anyway. Catcher Zach Vignero’s throw to third was short and offline, allowing Gasti to score easily.
But in the bottom of the eighth, the Crushers got the equalizer in the strangest of ways. Matt Kastelic led off with a single before Colin Harrington was hit by a pitch in his second straight at bat. Another double play that wasn’t turned followed before an intentional walk loaded the bases.
Jesse Cooper lofted a short fly ball to left. Farrar caught it and unleashed a perfect throw to the plate for what would have been a game-ending double play, but the ball was dropped at home and McCort stayed alive.
“We haven’t been playing very well lately,” Bates said. “We were playing poor baseball, especially the last few games. These kids played hard, but we didn’t play very smart. When it was over, I told them to leave it on the field. It’s over with, we lost.”
While Bishop McCort took its 18-4 record into the state quarterfinals, Bates and the Mikes are left to reflect upon what went wrong after last season’s PIAA title game appearance and WPIAL championship. The Mikes returned most of the same players from that team, but was missing one key ingredient.
“We don’t have the offensive weaponry we are used to having here,” Bates said. “We just didn’t have enough to compete at the state level.”
For that and other reasons, it’s understandable to hear Bates refer to this season as disappointing, even though the Mikes reached the WPIAL title game and qualified for the PIAA playoffs.
“I would say it’s was a disappointing season because it came after last year,” he said. “To get back to the finals, then to lose the way we lost (7-1). Then, to get here with the opportunity to get to the state quarterfinals and not get there is disappointing.
“Today, we had everything in our control and we threw it away. My team has played great ball at times this year, but we can’t afford to get away with mediocre baseball. This is a great group of guys on this team, but we didn’t play consistent baseball.”