Aug 12, 2010 By Kevin Harrison for The 3 min read

BULLSKIN TWP. – Bud Murphy’s lost twice to Blue Mountain and tied them twice during the regular season. Wednesday night, Bud’s put up three runs in the fifth and held on to beat the Copperheads 3-2 to win the first game of the Fayette County Baseball League Championship series. Jason Greene provided the big hit with a two-run single in the fifth, while Todd Dunham pitched a complete game to get the win in a great duel with Blue Mountain’s Zack Jeney.

“Todd has been great for us all year. It was big for me not to use anybody else today,” Bud’s manager Lou Pasquale said. “Zack is really tough and pitched a great game against us tonight. He lost only one battle. That’s when Jason got the 3-2 pitch through the infield which to drive in two runs.”

Neither team threatened to score until the bottom of the third.

Kaitan Smiley singled to start the inning for Bud’s. Casey Teagarden’s ground ball forced Smiley at second, but Teagarden was safe on the fielder’s choice. Teagarden stole second, and Greene grounded out to second with Teagarden moving to third on the play and trying to swipe home, but an alert throw by Gene Franks cut him down at the plate.

“It was a good game but we made one defensive mistake in the fifth,” Copperheads manager Dickie Krause said. “We were a little late covering the bag. That run scored and we lost by one run. Plus, we didn’t swing the bats well tonight. It’s tough facing a guy like Dunham after having five days off.”

In that fifth inning, Jared Early led off with a single. Smiley laid down a sacrifice bunt, and beat it out for a base hit when the Copperheads’ defense could not cover the bag in time. Teagarden followed with a ground out to first to advance the runners a base.

Blue Mountain drew the infield in, and Greene worked Jeney to the 3-2 count before delivering his big hit to drive in Early and Smiley. Andy Schleihauf managed to draw a walk to put two aboard, and Brian Sankovich singled to right, driving in Greene with the third run.

Blue Mountain got a run back in the top of the sixth when Gene Franks drilled a Dunham pitch over the center field fence for a solo homer.

The Copperheads tried to rally in the top of the seventh. Rick Smykla drew a one-out walk. He moved to second on a wild pitch, and Dunham came back to strike out George Taylor. Ron Nopwasky singled to drive in Smykla before Dunham then got Johnny Leonard to fly out to second get the win.

“To finally get a win against these guys has got to give us a boost mentally,” Pasquale said. “It’s good to win a close game like this. I think the games are going to close the entire series.”

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be played at 5:45 p.m. today at Carmichaels High School.