Fayette County League
Gallick, Show pitch Mill Run past Connellsville MILL RUN – All the heat at the Mill Run baseball field Tuesday wasn’t generated by atmospheric conditions.
Chris Gallick and Dennis Show created a little heat of their own on the mound.
Gallick pitched four innings, allowing five hits and four runs, and then Show came on for the last three and worked two-hit, one-run ball while fanning seven to wrap up an 11-5 win over Connellsville in Fayette County Baseball League play.
Of Show’s seven strikeouts, all were swinging, and he got the last four batters in succession to close the game. The other two outs were grounders to third and short.
With this win, Mill Run (17-7-1) wraps up second place in the league’s Eastern Division, behind champion Bud Murphy’s (20-3) with two games left to play.
Mill Run has games today at home with Fayette City-Belle Vernon, then ends regular season play Thursday at FC-BV. Bud’s plays today at Brownsville.
Mill Run manager Bugs Orndorff noted, “I was pleased with the pitching today. This was only the second game for Gallick this year. His arm has been bothering him, and I didn’t want to leave him in too long, plus we knew that Dennis could bring the heat.
“Connellsville made a nice comeback on us, sort of sneaking up on us. You never take your opponents too lightly. We have two games left with Fayette City-Belle Vernon, and I hope we hit a little better against them than we did today.”
Of the winners’ 13 hits, Dan Gratchic had a double and two singles, Show and Jeremy Miller a double and single, Jim Warrick a triple and Kris Firestone and Brandon Bryner (3 RBI) two singles.
Connellsville counted Kevin McIntosh’s triple, Bill Gabonay’s double and single and Anthony Griffith’s two singles.
Connellsville manager Len Kolencik said, “We gave up too many unearned runs, and while we got behind early we did make a comeback. We had to move some players around, including moving Mike Miskanin to catcher after J.W. Eddy hurt his arm. This was the first time Miskanin had ever caught a game, and now he wants to stay back there.”
On a grimmer note, Kolencik pointed out, “We now stand 5-16-1. We started the season 5-2-1, and with this game we have lost 14 in a row. But the big thing is we have some guys who want to play and they were here.”
Mill Run led 1-0 in the first after Show singled, stole second, and scored on Miller’s single.
Connellsville tied it in the second with Griffith’s single, McIntosh’s bunt, an error, and Eddy’s fly ball.
Then Mill Run went ahead for good, 5-1, in the second with a walk, singles by Gratchic, Bryner and Firestone and Miller’s double.
Connellsville got one in the third on singles by Perry Gaddis and Griffith, around a walk, but Mill Run came right back with three to lead 8-2 on a triple by Warrick and singles by Gratchic and Bryner singles, around an error.
Connellsville got two in the fourth on Gabonay’s double, Eddy’s single, two errors and a fielders’ choice, then added its final run in the fifth on a triple by McIntosh and a single by Gabonay’s.
Mill Run closed with three runs in the fifth on doubles by Gratchic and Orndorff, an error and singles by Show and Firestone.