Bud Murphy’s rallies past Masontown
BREAKNECK – What looked like a bit of a problem for manager Tom Sankovich to start the game turned out to be a big plus. With the County Baseball League playoffs semifinal round starting Thursday, the Bud Murphy’s manager thought he had his pitching rotation set with Chris Fisher slated to start in game two. But late in the day his original starter called and said he was stuck in Maryland and couldn’t get back in time for the game. So, a quick change had to be made.
Fisher was moved up from Game 2 to Game 1 and turned in a seven-inning effort as Bud’s came from behind to win, 7-5, and take a one-up lead in the series.
Game 2 will be at 6 p.m. today at Masontown, and Game 3 comes back to Breakneck at 5 p.m. Sunday.
For a while, things looked bad for the regular season champions. They trailed Masontown until the fifth, then caught up, only to fall behind again and finally score three runs in the sixth to pull out the win.
Sankovich said, “I hadn’t planned to start Fisher today, and he did get off to a shaky start, but after the third inning he settled down and pitched well. We fell behind, and looked for a while to be in trouble, but we kept chipping away and finally caught up. We left too many runners on in the early innings, and really didn’t get a big hit until Jeff Lander’s homer in the fifth.”
Sankovich added, “There were a couple times when we looked to be in real trouble. In the third we were down 4-0, then got a run and had two runners on base, and then Dunham (Masontown pitcher Todd) struck out Greg Beucher and Jack Smarslak back-to-back. And in the fourth, they were up 4-1 and had two runners on, but we got a double play, which was a key factor for us. They are a good team, and they have some speed, but you have to keep their first two batters (Brad Baker and Scott Van Sickle) off the bases.”
Masontown manager Clint Zvolenski felt that “despite the loss, we know we can play with this team. We got a good effort today and I like to feel that we really won it.”
Masontown (17-14) outhit Bud’s, 10-9, with Van Sickle having a pair of doubles, Jim Kubina a double, Andy Patrick a double and single and Joel Yednock and Baker a brace of singles each.
Josh Delawder had a double and two singles, and Lander a homer and single for Bud’s.
Masontown led 2-0 in the first on doubles by Van Sickle and Kubina and Yednock’s single. The lead went to 4-0 in the third on Van Sickle’s second double, Yednock’s single and Patrick’s two-out double.
Bud’s got on the board in the third with Delawder’s single, a walk to Brian Sankovich and Brian Shipley’s single. Then, with two out, Lander singled to center scoring Delawder, but when Sankovich tried to score behind him, he was cut down at the plate on a bullet from Kubina to Patrick.
Bud’s added a run in the fourth. Mark Edenfield was alive on an error, and Mark Riggin and Joe Bonadio walked to load them up with Edenfield scoring on a double play. It was 4-4 in the fifth when Beucher singled with one out, and with two down, Lander shot one high over the fence in right.
Masontown got the lead back, 5-4, in the sixth. Patrick singled to lead off, Craig Zvolenski bunted him ahead, and with two out, he scored on Baker’s single. Baker moved ahead on a bad pickoff try, then stole third and Van Sickle walked to put runners on first and third. Van Sickle broke for second, and on the throw down, Baker tried to score but was caught on the return throw from Smarslak to Lander.
Bud’s won with three runs in the sixth. Riggin walked for the third time, leading off, Bonadio walked, Delawder and Sankovich singled and Delawder scored as Shipley grounded into a force play.