Aug 6, 2005 By Alan Smodic For The 4 min read

LECKRONE – Mario’s third baseman Jason Greene flew out on a soft liner to left field with runners on second and third to end the second inning of Game Two Friday night of the best-of-5 series between Mario’s and Bud Murphy’s. Afterwards, Mario’s coach Lou Pasquale joked around with Greene, telling him to hit the ball harder and maybe even pull it to right field.

“I’ve seen you hit a home run before,” Pasquale said. “I know you can do that, too.”

Whether or not Pasquale tried to light a spark underneath Greene at the time, something caught fire in the third baseman as he showed off his bat in his next two plate appearances.

Greene drilled a two-run homer over the right field fence in the fourth inning for a 4-1 Mario’s lead and tacked on two extra runs in the fifth with a two-RBI double as Mario’s held off Bud Murphy’s, 6-1, evening the series at one game apiece.

“Fortunately, he pulled the ball,” Pasquale said of Greene’s home run. “Jason just goes with the pitch and I know guys pitch him outside a lot, but he got a pitch he could handle and with two strikes, that’s amazing. He did the job.”

On the defensive side of the game, ace pitcher Todd Dunham held the Bud Murphy’s offense to just one run on eight hits over seven innings.

Opposing pitcher Richie Means singled with one out in the first inning and scored on Brian Sankovich’s double for Bud Murphy’s only run. From then on, Dunham allowed just two runners to reach third base, while striking out three and walking none.

“Every time Todd takes the mound, we don’t question if we’re going to win,” Pasquale said. “We just feel we’re going to win with him out there, and all we have to do is get him a couple of runs.”

Mario’s scored its first runs in the third inning, when the home team put a two-spot on the board for a lead it never relinquished.

Catcher Jeff Lapkowicz reached on an error on the shortstop to lead off the inning and moved to third on a Chris McManus double. Still with no outs, John Harvey scored Lapkowicz on a sacrifice fly to left field.

Means recorded the second out on a fly ball to centerfielder Kevin Hiles, but Jim Kubina singled in the second run with two outs for the 2-1 Mario’s lead.

Kubina finished the game 3-for-4 with three singles. He scored a run in the sixth to go along with his RBI.

“The game probably changes a good bit if we don’t make that error in the third,” Bud Murphy’s coach Tom Sankovich said. “They may not score and we might head into the fourth still up 1-0. We just can’t give them runs.”

Bud Murphy’s only other serious threat to score came in the fifth inning when they put three men on base with two outs.

A single after a hit batsman put runners on first and second for Means, who singled to right-center field, but Kubina threw a strike from the outfield that nailed Corey Fox at the plate, ending the inning.

“I probably shouldn’t have sent him,” Sankovich said. “We would have had the bases loaded for Brian, but he made a perfect throw and got him.”

Dunham recorded a fly out of Hiles with two runners in the seventh inning to end the game and even the semi-final series.

With a day off, Game Three of the series is scheduled for Sunday at Breakneck with a 5 p.m. start. Matt Basinger will toe the mound for Bud Murphy’s, looking to take back the series the lead.