Sankovich leads County League is six categories, also named MVP for 2005
If Brian Sankovich plays many more seasons in the County Baseball League, he is either going to have to add a couple more rooms to where he lives now, or build another new house entirely. He will need that much more space just to hold the trophies he collects for the batting honors he continues to earn throughout the season.
Along with that, Carmichaels manager Dickie Krause might have to find some place to store all the hardware that his team collected from the past season when it earned dual team championships and led the league in eight categories on the way to those honors.
For the third time in his County League career, Sankovich led the league in six offensive divisions and wound up the year being named Most Valuable Player.
Final figures compiled for the 2005 season by Commissioner Dan Kupets showed that the veteran first baseman for Bud Murphy’s Cokers won the league batting championship with a .523 average, while scoring a league-high 27 runs, 46 hits and driving in 39 runs. He had 18 extra-base hits, including a league leading eight home runs.
Just for good measure, he was second in the league in singles (28) and fourth in doubles (9).
This was the third time in his career that Sankovich has led the league in six categories, doing so in 1998 and 2003, and he is the only player ever to lead in eight divisions of play, which he accomplished in 1999.
Only one other player has ever led the league in six offensive categories, Mill Run infielder Rob Orndorff in 1991.
Actually, it should come as no surprise that Sankovich has achieved such success on the baseball field for he has a strong background in the game. His dad is Tom Sankovich, long-time local player who also coached Connellsville High School to a record four WPIAL championships, and one PIAA (state) title, plus leading Bud Murphy’s to three county championships.
And his Grandfather is the late Anthony (Lefty) Sankovich, long-time local standout and a member of the league’s Hall of Fame.
For his achievements this season, Sankovich will be the recipient of three trophies at the league’s annual banquet, including the John A. Kupets Trophy as batting champion, the John (Preach) Collingwood Trophy as RBI leader, and the Alex (Pickhandle) Merkosky Trophy for leading the league in home runs, plus the league most valuable player award.
For the season, Sankovich had 46 hits in 88 times at bat, and he won the championship by 59 points ahead of his closest contender, Chris Buncic of league-champion Carmichaels, who was 32-for-69 with a .464 average, including four doubles, three triples and 11 runs batted across.
Charlie Humes of Carmichaels was the only other batter above .400, going 32-for-79 with a .404 mark, 11 doubles, three triples, two homers, and tied for second (26) for runs batted in.
Rounding out the plus .350 hitters were Jeff Kooser, Mill Run, 28-for-72, .389; Van Sickle, Mario’s, 26-67, .388; Jason Greene, Mario’s, 33-86, .384; Jeremy Miller, Mill Run, 26-72, .361; Brandon Bryner, Mill Run, 27-75, .360; Brad Baker, Carmichaels, 23-64, .359; and Welc, Waynesburg, 24-67, and a .358 average.
Kupets compiled the final season figures from game reports sent to him by the teams.
The top five in each individual category included:
At-bats – Shane Tonkavich, Wanna B Heroes, 92; Justin Corse, WBH, 91; Drew Denham, WBH, 90; Sankovich, 88, and Andy Mazur, WBH, 87.
Hits – Sankovich 46, Jason Greene, Mario’s, 33; Buncic and Humes 32, Corso 31.
Runs Scored – Sankovich 27, Bryner 24, Buncic 23, Ryan Miscik (Bud’s), and Greene, 23.
Runs Batted In – Sankovich 39, Humes and Chris McManus, (Mario’s), 26; Miscik 19, Miller, Jeff Lapkowicz (Mario’s), and Baker 17.
Home runs – Sankovich 8, Baker, Miller, Alex Lefcakis (Bud’s) and Chris McManus, 3.
Triples – Buncic and Humes 3, Baker, McManus, Bryner, and Brian Horner (Redd Dawgs), 2.
Doubles – Miller and Humes 11, Corso 10, Sankovich 9, and McManus 8.
Singles – Greene 31, Sankovich 28, Phil Gratchic (Hopwood) 27, Kooser 26, Denham 24.
Extra base hits (2B, 3B, HR, total) – Sankovich, 9-1-8-18; Humes, 11-3-2-16; Miller, 11-0-3-14; McManus, 8-2-3-13; Baker, 6-2-3-11; and Corso, 10-0-0-10.
As a team, Carmichaels led the league in eight categories – times at bat (798), hits (260), runs batted in (175), singles (185), doubles (55), triples (13), extra base hits (75) and team batting average (.326).
The only two divisions the Copperheads didn’t lead were runs scored (184) and home runs (17), and Bud Murphy’s claimed both of those honors.
Carmichaels won the regular season championships with a 24-4 record, one game ahead of Bud Murphy’s (25-5), then the Copperheads made it a sweep by edging Bud’s in the playoff finals for which they will receive the league’s Mike Susa Trophy.
Bud’s will receive the Bob Nichols Trophy as runner-up.
Carmichaels catcher Jeff Thompson earned the Tom Croftcheck Trophy for being named most valuable player in the playoffs.
Rounding out the award winners for the season were Tom Dunham, Mario’s, Joe Kurnot Award as top pitcher (7-1); Justin Corso, WBH, Rookie of the Year; Matt Chalfant, Mario’s, Comeback Player of the Year; Nick Damico, Bud’s, Mr. Baseball Award; and Honorable Mention Pitching Awards to Dale Eutsey, Bud’s and Chris Peters, Carmichaels.
(Pitching figures will be announced later).