Aug 19, 2005 By Alan Smodic For The 3 min read

CONNELLSVILLE – If it weren’t for Nick Damico, Carmichaels might have already clinched the championship of the Fayette County Baseball League. But, to the delight of Bud Murphy’s, Damico continued his success this season against Carmichaels with his second win of the series.

Damico, who pitched 13 innings for the win in the series opener on Sunday, pitched another complete-game victory, allowing just two runs in the sixth inning for a 7-2 victory, evening the series with the Copperheads at two games apiece.

The fifth game of the series is set for today at 5:45 p.m. at Carmichaels High School.

“You got to love him, you got to respect him,” Carmichaels coach Dickie Krause said of Damico. “Coming off a 200-plus pitch effort and not even having four full days of rest, he came out and hit spots, pitched smart and mixed his pitches well.”

“All the credit in the world goes to Nick Damico and what he was capable of doing,” he added.

Damico took a three-hit shutout into the sixth inning before serving up a two-run homer to Jeff Thompson, but managed to retire Carmichaels without further damage.

He struck out four and walked one in the winning effort.

From the beginning, Damico pitched in complete control and after the first inning, he had a sizeable lead behind him as well.

He sat down the first three Carmichaels batters in order, while his own offense scored five runs in the bottom of the first off Carmichaels starter Brian Binder.

After Binder recorded the first out, seven straight Bud Murphy’s batters reached base. Richie Means, Brian Sankovich and Brian Shipley each singled, while Mark Riggin and Brian Showman added RBI singles later in the inning.

“Well, we finally hit the ball,” Bud Murphy’s coach Tom Sankovich said. “I told the guys to not be down though, because it was going to take more than five to win the game.”

His team responded to his words during the fourth inning as Brian Sankovich drew a one-out walk and scored when Shipley hit his second home run in as many games over the fence in right-center field.

Sankovich and Shipley finished a combined 5-for-7 with four runs, three RBIs and a walk.

“Maybe my three and four hitters are going to start getting their eye on the ball,” Sankovich said of Shipley and his son. “That’ll be dangerous when they start hitting. They’ve been in a slump this series, completely.”

Carmichaels only two runs came in the sixth inning off of Thompson’s home run that soared well over the wall in left-center field, scoring Charlie Humes. Thompson doubled in the second inning, and was robbed of a hit by a sliding catch by Santino Sloboda in the fourth.

“Jeff Thompson has had a phenomenal year,” Krause said of Thompson’s game. “You can’t say enough about his leadership out there. He has more desire than anyone I’ve coached in a long time.”

The Copperheads threatened to score in the seventh inning as well, with the bases loaded and two outs, but Damico retired Gene Franks on a strikeout to end the game and even the series for Bud Murphy’s.

Carmichaels will look to respond today and regain the series lead, after what Krause described as a “lousy” effort by his team.

“From the first pitch to the last, it was an absolutely lousy effort,” Krause said. “We handed them seven runs, and we have to bring a lot more intensity to the plate, a lot more intensity. What happened today just was not acceptable.”