Herrington lifts Bud Murphy’s to key 2-1 victory
Bud Murphy's Ben Herrington is congratulated by teammates after hitting a solo home run to lead off the second inning Wednesday. He later drove in the winning run in the 8th inning.
Belmont Inn's shortstop Nick Erminio takes the throw from right field and makes the out when Bud Murphy's Dave Gonos tried to stretch his hit into a double during the fourth inning Wednesday.
BULLSKIN TWP. — With the championship series’ most explosive innings washed out by rain on Monday, the Fayette County Baseball League replayed the third game of the best-of-seven finals on Wednesday at the Breakneck Field.
Ben Herrington of Bud Murphy’s was the hero of Game 3, hitting a home run and driving in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning as Bud’s edged Belmont Inn, 2-1, to cut Belmont’s series lead to 2-1.
On Monday, Bud’s led Belmont Inn, 7-4, and was within half an inning of a legal game that would have cut its championship series deficit to one game when rain fell. Contrary to initial impressions, the game could not be suspended according to league rules.
On Wednesday, Belmont Inn (19-13) had its biggest threat in the second inning, but had two runners picked off first base; one by pitcher Chris Brunson and the other by catcher Mike Hermann. The visitors also had a runner picked off first by winning relief pitcher Marty Fagler to end the eighth inning.
Herrington led off the Bud Murphy’s second with a drive over the centerfield fence for a 1-0 lead.
It remained that way until the Belmont Inn sixth when Nate Fike doubled and scored on a single by Eric Fudala. Evan Arison followed with another single, but Brunson got a strikeout and two ground outs to escape further damage.
Jason Greene led off the bottom of the sixth with a double, but Belmont Inn pitcher Bob Madison got a pop out and two ground outs to preserve the deadlock,
Jared Early singled to lead off the Bud Murphy’s eighth and was sacrificed to second by Greene. After Belmont Inn intentionally walked Andy Schleihauf, Herrington lined a single to left centerfield to drive in Early with the winning run.
All three games in the series have gone eight innings, and it was Bud Murphy’s fourth consecutive eight-inning playoff game.
The teams combined for 11 runs in four innings in Monday’s rainout, but have scored just nine combined runs in the three completed games, including four combined runs before the eighth inning.
After the game, Herrington said he wants to hit in clutch situations, adding, “All series I’ve been seeing the ball well. We just need to jump on their other pitchers.”
Bud’s manager Lou Pasquale said, “Our pitching has been awesome. We’ve just got to start hitting. They won the first two games with four or five hits and maybe it’s our turn to win with a few hits.”
He added, “I’d rather have won the first two (games), but if we can win tomorrow (at the Hutchinson complex) it will be a three-game series.”
Belmont Inn manager Steve Kezmarsky was unhappy with two of the pickoff calls against his team. “One of them was out,” he said. “On the others (the umpire’s) hand was in the air before the ball got there.”
Kezmarsky was quick to add, “Lou made the right moves tonight and they got the breaks that we got in the first two games. (Bud’s) played a heckuva game and they deserved to win.”
Neither manager was sure who would be their starting pitchers for tonight’s 5:45 p.m. start in Hopwood.