Out of the past
You might say that this was “the week that was” in local baseball circles of that long ago time. It was also a time that refuted the old saying about lightning not striking twice in the same place. But more on that point later.
Go back to this week in 1966.
Scholastic football was edging into the picture, as baseball was making its last fling of the summer. It had been a good summer for local baseball, but as the saying goes, all good things come to an end, and so it was with baseball.
The County Baseball League was into its championship round with Mill Run and Buffington battling for top honors. Some softball tournaments were being played, and that was about it as far as the diamond was concerned.
Mill Run and Buffington had made it up through their respective preliminary series, and now came the best-of-five finals.
Mill Run won the opener, 6-0, on two-hit shutout by Denny Taylor, who struck out 10 and walked three. The only hits he gave up were singles to Bill Homanics and Jack Garbutt. Mill Run got more than it would need in the first, as Jan Withrow and Don Shearer singled. Jeff Porterfield walked, George Virgin tripled, and Bugs Orndorff singled.
They split a weekend doubleheader, Buffington winning the opener, 2-1, and Mill Run taking the nightcap, 4-2. Buffington came back in game four to gain a tie, winning 3-1. The Buffers went up 2-0 in the first. Mill Run loaded the bases with one out in the home first, but that threat ended when pitcher Don Young grabbed a comebacker to the mound and started a home-to-first double play. Ewing Bell had three Buffer hits, and Jerry Meadows and George Virgin having two each for Mill Run.
Buffington then won the fifth game and the championship, 7-0, as Bruce Dal Canton pitched a one-hit shutout, and struck out eight. The only hit he allowed was a bunt single by Virgin in the fourth.
The champions got four in the first. Joe Bacha singled and Paul Redzanic doubled him home for all the edge that would be needed. Then Garbutt doubled and Tom Croftcheck singled, coupled with an error, to complete the scoring. A walk, Dal Canton’s single, and Bell’s double made it 6-0 in the second, and the final run came in the fourth on a walk to Jerry Kopacko and singles by Denny Frews and Dal Canton.
For Mill Run, it was a case of lightning striking twice.
The previous year, Trotter beat Mill Run in the Fay-West finals, with Dal Canton on the mound for the decisive win. The Fay-West disbanded after that season, and Mill Run and Dal Canton joined the County League, where once again it was the hard throwing right-hander in the final win.
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Virginia’s Tavern of Houston blanked Dunbar, 3-0, to win the Coolspring Softball League Tournament. Dunbar had only two hits, by Ray Dunaway and Sully Gambone. Dunbar reached the finals with a 4-0 win over the Lebanese Club as Bill Lincoln worked a two-hitter. Michael and C. Howard had the only hits off the future senator. Dunaway and Bell had two hits and B. DeBerry a double for Dunbar.
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Elsewhere that week:
-Bill Mazeroski celebrated his 30th birthday with a grand slam in a 13-5 win over Atlanta, as the Pirates held onto the National League lead. (Honest, first place!!).
-Local gunners were making their presence known in the Grand American Trapshooting finals at Vandalia, Ohio. Tony Gallis, of Lemont Furnace, broke 96 of 100 birds from 24 yards out, and Connellsville’s Bob Orndorff, a past national champion at Vandalia, broke 96 of 100 from the 25-yard line. Uniontown’s Mary Lou Hvizdos and Bill Scullion, Fayette City, broke 94 from 20 yards.
-The youngest team in the heavyweight division proved to also be the strongest in horse-pulling competition at the Somerset County Fair. The two- and three-year-old team owned by Laird May of Mill Run pulled 4,750 pounds 271/2 feet to win the blue ribbon.
-The John Fao Loft of Connellsville got its first win of the Homing Pigeon Racing Club season, finishing one-two in the 126-mile race from Zanesville, Ohio. Eagle won in 2:52, averaging 1,285 yards per minute, and Blue Lite was second in 2:54 and 1,280.
-John Radosevich, German Twp. High grad, pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers farm team at Jamestown, N.Y., (New York-Pa. League), owning an 8-3 record and 3.16 earned run average through 111 innings.
-Scottdale’s Bob Claraval defeated Francis Dunn, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 to win the Scottdale Men’s singles championship at Loucks Park.
-The Fayette County Sportsmen’s Assn. was getting ready for a “Jim Banning Night” testimonial to be held at Shady Side, honoring the long-time local fish warden. Main speaker would be County Commissioner Jim Stuckslager.
-Ted Nypaver, former football assistant and head track coach at Dunbar Twp. High, was the new head football coach at Mount Pleasant.
-The new Connellsville Area District, formed by the merger of Connellsville and Dunbar Twp. Districts, was getting ready for its first football season under head coach Stan McLaughlin.
-Believe it or not, the Pirates were still holding first place, although their lead had been cut to a 1/2-game. But even more unbelievable, the New York Yankees lost a doubleheader to Baltimore, and were eliminated from the American League pennant race – the earliest time in 41 years they had been ousted from the race. The Yanks trailed the front-running Orioles by 15 games, with 13 left.
-Remember??