Aug 20, 2003 By Jim Kriek For The 4 min read

LECKRONE – Two prime ingredients in winning a baseball game are to hit the ball on offense and catch it on defense. Mario’s hit the ball with runners on base and caught it on defense. Carmichaels didn’t do either, and that’s the tale of the tape.

Mario’s broke up a close game with six runs the last two times at bat and slammed Carmichaels, 10-2, evening their best-of-seven Fayette County Baseball League championship series at two games each.

Game 5 will be played today at Carmichaels as originally scheduled. At first, there was speculation that the game might have to be moved, but yesterday, Carmichaels manager Dickie Krause said the game would be at the Copperheads’ field as scheduled.

Krause said, “The Carmichaels School District has been very good to us regarding the field, and getting the field for Wednesday’s game is a good example of this. We would really like to give many thanks to South Union Twp. and Supervisor Bob Schiffbauer who said they would make the Hutchinson Field available to us if we couldn’t play anywhere else.”

Jim Cole went the distance for Mario’s, allowing five hits, including Eric Holt’s home run, Justin Gregula’s double and George Taylor’s two singles. Other than the fourth, when the Copperheads mounted their biggest threat, Cole was in command.

Manager Lou Pasquale said, “Jim was great on the mound today, and we played some good defense back of him. We needed a win to even the series; we got it, and now it becomes a best-of-three set.”

Mario’s had only five hits off four pitchers, but they combined them with seven errors to wrap up the win. Cole helped his win along with a bases-loaded triple and four RBIs, Brad Baker hit a double and single and John Harvey doubled.

Pasquale called the win “our best offense since game one of the opening playoff series.”

Krause said, “We came off a big win Monday to play as bad as we did today. We didn’t hit, we played terrible defense, our pitching was weak, and there wasn’t one facet of the game that we did right today. Yet, we were still in the game, trailing only 4-1 until the fifth. It’s disappointing to see us not be ready to play.”

Mario’s actually got enough to win in the first inning, taking a 3-0 lead.

Scott Van Sickle walked to lead off, and Jason Greene bunted him ahead, beating out the bunt to put runners on first and second. Josh McMillen was aboard on an error, Van Sickle scored, and with one out, Ron Dellarose walked to load the bases. Harvey’s grounder was thrown too late for the force at third, Greene scored, and Cole drove in McMillen with a fly ball.

Krause said, “The first inning is very important to us. When we have a good first, we have a good game, but when we have a bad first, we have a bad game.”

Carmichaels got one in the fourth on Jeff Thompson’s single, Gregula’s double and Holt’s groundout.

Mario’s offset it in the fourth with Harvey’s double and an error.

Pasquale said, “That inning was a big one for us for it seemed that at that point we picked up some momentum and went from there. We started to move in the seventh on Monday and continued today.”

Mario’s added three runs in the fifth on Baker’s double, coupled with five errors, a hit batter and Len Pasquale’s bases-loaded walk.

Carmichaels got one back in the sixth on Holt’s shot over the fence in left, but Mario’s came right back with three.

McMillen walked, Baker singled, Dellarose walked to load them up, and after Harvey flied to short right with the runners holding, Cole chased them all home with a triple to the fence in left-center.

The umpires called the game at that point, with darkness setting in.

As he left the field, Pasquale said, “I just hope we didn’t leave all our offense here today. But even with a lot of offense, you still can’t take anything for granted against a team like Carmichaels.”