Game 4
The following is a capsule look of the Fayette County Baseball League championship series leading up to ?? final game. (Greene County Messenger correspondents Josh Herman and Paul Brittain covered the series.) Monday, Aug. 16 Blue Mountain 8, Bud Murphy’s 6
Blue Mountain took a 3-1 lead in the Fayette County Baseball League championship series as the Copperheads defeated Bud Murphy’s in a sloppy affair at Carmichaels High School.
J.W. Kayla continued to enjoy a productive series for Blue Mountain, going 3-for-3, including the first RBI of the game on a single that scored Chuck Gasti.
Tyler Schrader started Game 4 for Blue Mountain, and despite his significant control issues, left the game without yielding a run.
Schrader walked five and hit two batters before leaving the game with two outs in the third inning. Addison Scherich relieved Schrader and got the final out of the third to escape a bases-loaded jam.
“We didn’t want our three starting pitchers to go on short rest,” said Blue mountain manager Dickie Krause. “Now we have them set up to go the next three nights.”
Bud’s trailed 2-0 when its offense finally surfaced in the fourth inning. Jared Early started the inning with a single and scored on a triple from Cole Lowman. Bud’s also got RBIs from Casey Teagarden, Mike Hermann, and Dave Gonos in its five-run outburst.
Early drew a bases-loaded walk off of Cy Mozingo, who had relieved Scherich in the inning, to account for the final run in Bud’s half of the fourth.
“We hit better today,” said Bud Murphy’s manager Lou Pasquale. “They just hit a little better than us.”
Blue Mountain bounced right back in its half of the fourth. Gasti hit a triple and scored on a wild pitch, and second baseman George Taylor brought the game back to even on a two-run single that scored Gene Franks and Ryan Lewicki.
Andy Schleihauf gave Bud’s another brief lead in the fifth when he hit a sacrifice fly that scored Teagarden, but Blue Mountain quickly took momentum back.
Bud’s starting pitcher Todd Dunham began to show signs of fatigue in the fifth and suffered control problems of his own. Ron Nopwosky scored on a bases-loaded walk before Teagarden relieved Dunham.
Blue Mountain scored on another bases-loaded walk before Kayla hit a single to score Gasti.
Mozingo shut out Bud’s in the sixth and seventh the seal the victory.
Game 3 Sunday, Aug. 15 Blue Mountain 3, Bud Murphy’s 1
Blue Mountain used the long ball and took advantage of a dominant pitching performance from starter Kevin Holdsworth for a victory over Bud Murphy’s in Game 3. Holdsworth allowed the lone run on three hits.
“Kevin was awesome today. He came out and gave us a fantastic effort,” said Blue Mountain manager Dickie Krause.
Blue Mountain wasted no time getting on the board as leadoff hitter Chuck Gasti blasted a homer over the left field fence at Breakneck Field in the top of the first inning.
“Chuck hits the lead-off home run. We’re playing with a lead immediately and it takes the edge off,” said Krause.
Andy Schleihauf hit a single for Bud’s in the bottom of the first, and it was the last hit Holdsworth would allow until the seventh.
JW Kayla started off the fifth as Gasti began the first, smacking a solo shot of his own to make it a 2-0 lead.
Bud’s pitcher Marty Fagler matched Holdsworth’s hit total with three, but did let two of those hits leave the park.
“We have ruined two good pitching performances in the finals,” said Bud Murphy’s manager Lou Pasquale. “We have one hit until the seventh inning, that’s terrible.”
Cy Mozingo added another run for Blue Mountain in the seventh when he scored on a wild pitch and a throwing error.
Bud Murphy’s finally began to show signs of life in its half of the seventh.
Schleihauf started off the inning with his second single of the game. Dave Gonas hit the RBI single to score Kaitan Smiley who was running in place of Schleihauf.
Krause called on Mozingo to record the final two outs and take the first road win of the series.
“This is a tough place to play,” said Krause. “The advantage we have over other teams in the league is that we have had some success here.”
Game 2 Friday, Aug. 13 Blue Mountain 3, Bud Murphy’s 1
Two veteran players led Blue Mountain to victory to even the best-of-seven series at one game apiece.
Pitcher Justin Schrader gave up five hits and struck out seven batters, while catcher Jeff Thompson’s two-out double in the fifth inning drove in pinch runner Andy Manion and Josh George to break a 1-1 tie.
Schrader and Bud Murphy’s pitcher Nick Damico were locked in a tight pitching duel until Thompson’s big hit.
Damico stranded three base runners with a strikeout in the Blue Mountain first inning.
Schrader gave up a first inning single to Andy Schleihauf and a leadoff double to Ben Herrington in the second, but was equal to the challenge until the visitors’ fourth inning.
Blue Mountain grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third when Chuck Gasti started the inning with his second single, moved to second on J.W. Kayla’s sacrifice bunt, and scored on George’s two-out single.
Bud Murphy’s tied the game with one out in the fourth on successive singles by Brian Sankovich, Herrington, and Mike Hermann as pinch runner Colin Roble scored. But the Copperheads turned a double play to end the threat.
Schrader allowed only two base runners in the final three innings on leadoff walks to Jared Early in the fifth and Herrington in the seventh. Schrader struck out the next three batters in the seventh to seal the win.
“This was huge,” Blue Mountain manager Dick Krause said afterwards. “If you fall behind 0-2, that’s a tough one.”
He said games between the teams have always close. “We outscored them by three runs in four (regular season) games, and they beat us by one run in the first playoff game. The run differential is just a couple. We weren’t perfect tonight but it was enough.”
Krause said Schrader and Thompson came through as veteran players do in clutch situations. “I’m not surprised the big pitching performance came from a veteran, and Jason Thompson came through in the clutch.”
Bud Murphy’s manager Lou Pasquale said he expects the series to remain close to the finish. “These are two teams with good pitching and good defenses. We had just one inning and one run is not going to work. I’ve got to believe that five runs in any game may be the most scored by any team.”