Fayette County Baseball League semifinals
Harvey singles in winning run as Mario’s nips Bud’s to take 2-0 lead LECKRONE – Now, all Mario’s has to do is play Ancient Mariner baseball – “stoppeth one of three.”
Catcher John Harvey felt his batterymate, pitcher Chris Brunson, had worked and sweated in the sun long enough, so he teamed up with Ron Dellarose to do something about it.
Dellarose doubled with two out in the bottom of the seventh, and Harvey singled him in to give Mario’s a 5-4 win over Bud Murphy’s and a two-up lead in the semifinal Fayette County Baseball League playoff series.
Game 3 in the best-of-five series will be played at 5:45 today at Breakneck, and if Mario’s wins, it advances to the championship finals. If Bud’s wins, then game four will be played Thursday at Leckrone.
While Mario’s and Bud’s are two games into their series, Rostraver and Carmichaels haven’t even started their semifinals yet, and won’t until Thursday because of rain, wet grounds and personnel not being able to make today’s game.
Bud’s trailed 4-3 going into the top of the seventh, then tied as Ryan Miscik singled, stole second and moved around on a passed ball and Brian Sankovich’s third single.
Nick Damico got two quick groundouts in the bottom of the seventh, and then Dellarose grounded one inside the third base line into left and scored the winning run when Harvey hit the first pitch into left.
Manager Lou Pasquale was happy with the win, but at the same time, he had a reminder to his players, noting, “We are up two, and we still have a very big one left to win, so what we do not want to do right now is put any pressure on ourselves. But you can never be sure of anything when you are playing Bud’s for they are a good team and you can never be sure against them. They might be down two, but I can remember playing for Leckrone on this field, and a couple times we were down two games in series and came back to win.”
Pasquale cited as a key factor to the win, “our defensive play in the two games so far. I’m very pleased with the way the defense has played, and we have been able to combine that good defense with some good pitching and timely hitting to get the edge.”
Bud’s mounted two other big threats, getting runners on second and third in the first and not being able to score, and again in the seventh, having two on and one out and ending up with one run.
Pitcher Brunson said, “I was sweating a little bit there in the seventh for they had runners on and their big hitters coming up. But our defense came through and stopped that threat. It seemed like every off-speed pitch I threw they hit, but I’m elated now that we are up two games.”
Manager Tom Sankovich, with his Bud’s team down 0-2 for the first time, said, “Now we have to win three in a row. There were so many little things today, but the big point was that they capitalized on their chances and we didn’t. We didn’t hit in the first game, and then we hit today, but not at the right time. They deserved to win for they created chances and capitalized on them with runners in scoring position, and we didn’t.”
For the winners, Scott Van Sickle homered and singled, Brad Baker and Dellarose singled and doubled, Harvey hit three singles and Jim Cole two hits.
For Bud’s, Sankovich had three hits, Joe Bonadio and Brian Shipley doubled and Miscik got a pair of singles.
After stifling Bud’s threat in the top of the first, Mario’s went up 1-0 in its half of the inning when Josh McMillen was aboard on a force play, stole second and scored on Baker’s double to the fence in left-center.
Bud’s took the lead for the first time, 3-1, in the fourth. Greg Beucher singled to lead off, stole second, went to third as Mark Edenfield grounded out and scored on Matt Basinger’s single.
Basinger got to third and Mark Riggin to second on a missed fielder’s choice and an error, respectively, and Bonadio doubled them in.
With one out in the fifth, Van Sickle cut the deficit to 3-2 with a liner over the fence in right.
Mario’s got the lead back, 4-3, in the sixth. Dellarose, Harvey, and Cole opened the inning with singles to load the bases, and with one out, Len Pasquale sent Dellarose home with a fly ball, and Van Sickle singled Harvey in.
Then came the seventh when Bud’s tied before the Dellarose-Harvey combine settled the issue.