May 23, 2006 By Alan Smodic For The 4 min read

WASHINGTON – Down three in the sixth inning, Carmichaels coach Dave Bates made sure his players knew they had to execute the little things if they wanted to lengthen their season one more game. With one out and two runners on, Bates ordered a suicide squeeze bunt from Cody Andrews. Andrews fanned at the pitch, but the runner still scored when the ball found its way past the catcher.

On the next pitch, Bates again called for a squeeze, which worked to perfection this time.

After that, he stuck with it. The next three Mikes batters all laid down squeezes as they put five runs on the board for a two-run lead and eventual 8-6 win over Sewickley Academy in their WPIAL Class A first-round playoff game at Washington & Jefferson College on Monday.

“We didn’t actually draw that up in the dirt,” Bates said with a smile. “You know, we have to do the things we have to do to win and today that was the suicide squeeze.”

Logan Phillips picked up the win in relief of starter Joby Lapkowicz for Carmichaels, which will play Bishop Canevin today in a quarterfinal match-up, also at Washington & Jefferson College, at 5 p.m.

Phillips entered the game in the sixth inning after the Panthers took the lead 5-3 and limited them to only two hits over the final two innings

“I told them before we headed out for that inning that we’ve got to play defense,” Bates said. “Defense wins championships; it’s as simple as that.”

Carmichaels cruised to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning, after Marcus Robinson took advantage of two errors by driving a two-run double over the right fielder’s head.

Lapkowicz held the Panthers hitless through the first three innings as the Mikes kept the three-run lead, but began to lose his control after Zach Ciccone singled to lead off the fourth.

A stolen base and wild pitch moved Ciccone to third before Lapkowicz walked Luke Brocks to put runners on the corners. The Panthers scored their only run of the inning when Ciccone and Brocks successfully completed a double steal.

Brocks accounted for two more of Sewickley’s runs in the fifth inning with a two-run single to right field that scored Matt Palmer and Anderson Funk. Then, consecutive RBI singles by Mike Kalis and Palmer helped put the Panthers on top 6-3 in the first half of the sixth inning.

The bottom of the sixth, however, is when Carmichaels’ bats kicked into gear.

Ethan Virgili led off with a single and Robinson added another single with one out that put runners on the corner. Andrews then laid down the first of the four suicide squeeze bunts for the second run of the inning.

Phillips singled on his squeeze bunt and stole his way to second base before Erett Mahle’s squeeze was bobbled by the first baseman to score another run. Chuck Gasti put down the final squeeze, which scored another run when the third baseman’s throw sailed away for an error.

“It’s like anything, you’ve got to get a feel for the game,” Bates said of the four suicide squeezes. “This just happened to be a better situation to suicide, that’s all.”

Kalis suffered the loss for Sewickley Academy, pitching 5 1-3 innings and allowing eight runs on eight hits. He struck out six and walked one in the losing effort. Brocks finished off the game for Kalis with two strikeouts to end the sixth.

“They deserved to win that game as much, if not more, than we did,” Bates said of Sewickley Academy. “We had all the momentum and gave it away. You know, up 3-0 and gave it up.

“But we made the little things happen for us today and we got lucky.”