Aug 11, 2002 By Jim Kriek For The 4 min read

BREAKNECK – This was one time Dickie Krause was wrong and he didn’t mind it a bit. In fact, he would enjoy being wrong like this every time his team plays.

A few days ago, when Carmichaels was heading for the final round of the Fayette County Baseball League playoffs, and after his team had scored just three runs, manager Krause observed, “We will have to strengthen our offense and score some runs. You don’t beat Bud Murphy’s by scoring just three runs. Not too often, anyway.”

Carmichaels (25-10, 6-3) got three runs, and as it turned out that was enough to collar Bud Murphy’s, 3-0, in Game One of the Championship series. Game Two will be played Sunday at Carmichaels, with Game Three moving back to Breakneck on Monday, and alternating sites until somebody wins four games.

Eric Holt pitched a masterful six-hit shutout to get the win, the first time he has ever beaten Bud Murphy’s (28-5, 5-1). He allowed, “I didn’t rely on just any one pitch today, I used all of the pitches I have and mixed them up very well. Jeff (catcher Thompson) called the pitches and I threw them, plus I had a great defense back of me.”

At the same time, loser Nick Damico was throwing a little mastery of his own, giving up just four hits, but three of them were for extra bases, and one left the park. Ron Nopwasky belted a three-run homer in the second inning and that turned out to be all the scoring anybody was going to do.

Damico fanned seven, and after the second, he worked a two-hit shutout, with only J.W. Kayla advancing beyond first base. Kayla doubled in the third and was caught on the end of a double play, and he walked in the sixth, then moved to second on the only error of the game. After Nopwasky’s homer, Damico had a run of 11 outs, with the help of a double play, and just two outs were to the outfielders.

In the Copperhead second, Thompson led off with a double, Holt flied to center, Scott Krajnak walked, and Nopwasky homered over the left field fence.

Nopwasky said later, “The pitch hung, and I got hold of it. This was my third homer, second in the playoffs.”

Krause added, “This game was like the one we had at Mill Run where we had to win. We knew Eric is a good ball player, but we didn’t know just how good. He has steadily improved all season. Then Ron stepped in and got the big hit for us. This was the first time we have ever beaten Damico. He’s a good pitcher.”

Bud’s manager Tom Sankovich called the action “a great game. We just had one bad inning, but this could have been Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling on the mound. Nick worked a fine game for us but that one hit hurt us. I’m just sorry we couldn’t get him any runs.

“Carmichaels played great defense behind Holt and that was a big factor for them. We got some hits, but they put theirs together in one inning. But we will bounce back. Matt Basinger will be going for us Sunday.”

Bud’s got only three runners as far as second. Mark Edenfield walked with two out in the second and advanced on Greg Beucher’s single. In the fifth, Mark Riggin singled and went to second on an out, and in the sixth Josh Delawder hit a lead-off double and was forced at third by Brian Sankovich, who advanced on Jeff Lander’s single.

Lander had two hits for Bud’s, while Nopwasky homered and singled for Carmichaels.

Looking ahead, Krause said, “Today was great baseball, but what happens today won’t count on Sunday. There is still a lot of baseball to be played.”

And so far it has been a lot of real good baseball.