Copperheads find bite, post 2nd straight win
CARMICHAELS – The Copperheads’ week keeps getting better. After an embarrassing loss on Monday, Carmichaels won its second straight game after doubling up Bud Murphy’s, 8-4, in Fayette County Baseball League action Wednesday.
Ryan Group had three hits, including two doubles, and Gene Franks and Jeff Thompson each drove in a pair of runs as the Copperheads won for the seventh time in nine games.
Pitching for the first time in the County League, right-hander Shane Eckels worked into the sixth inning to pick up the victory.
“I really think the difference in the last two games was we were embarrassed Monday,” said Carmichaels manager Dickie Krause. “We got totally hammered against the team we faced in last year’s finals. We didn’t pitch, we didn’t hit, we didn’t run the bases.
“The last two nights, we were a lot more determined than we have been the entire year.”
Blaney Farms routed Carmichaels Monday, 11-1, but the Copperheads wasted little time in responding, and pasted Phil’s Tire, 18-4, Tuesday.
Against Bud Murphy’s, Eckels spotted the visitors a run in the top of the first inning, but then breezed through the next four innings.
The Copperheads’ offense, meanwhile, scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning, added four more in the third and led comfortably, 8-1, after four complete.
Eckels (1-0) threw just 50 pitches through the first five innings, and needed just three pitches to set down Bud Murphy’s in the top of the fifth.
“We were thin with our pitching, and we were hoping to just get four innings out of him,” Krause said. “But he got us into the sixth inning. It was a really good effort.”
Brian Sankovich and Dave Gomas paced Bud Murphy’s with two hits apiece. With Bud Murphy’s trailing 8-1, Gomas blasted the first pitch he saw from Eckels over the right-field fence in the top of the sixth inning to cut the home team’s lead to 8-4.
After Eckels walked Mark Riggin, Krause brought in Nick Hegedus, who worked the next 1 2/3 innings.
Chuck Gasti came on with two outs and a runner on first base in the top of the seventh inning and got cleanup hitter Jeff Lander to fly out to center field to end the game.
“We were too anxious at the plate,” said Bud Murphy’s manager Tom Sankovich. “And he (Eckels) kept us off balance.”
Richie Means led off the game with a bloop single that dropped untouched between four Carmichaels players. After losing pitcher Ryan Miscik laid down a sacrifice bunt, Brian Sankovich gave the visitors a 1-0 lead with a single to center field.
In the bottom half of the inning, Gasti singled with one out and scored on Group’s bad-hop double to left field. With two outs, Darrell Kuntz doubled in Carmichaels’ second run, before Thompson’s single made it 3-1.
In the bottom of the third inning, the Copperheads (13-8) blew the game open with four runs after sending nine men to the plate. Group led off the frame with a single and scored when Franks hit a shot that landed just short of the left-field fence for a triple.
After Kuntz walked, Thompson laced his second RBI-single and Carmichaels led 5-1. Ron Nopwasky followed with a run-scoring single, and the Copperheads later scored their fourth run of the inning on Tyler Anderson’s sacrifice fly.
Group doubled to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning, and Franks followed with his second RBI, a single to left field.
Miscik (1-3) worked three innings, and allowed seven earned runs on eight hits. He struck out four and walked three.
“Ryan has been with me for many years, and his performance was very uncharacteristic,” Sankovich said. “I figured he’d come in here and shut them down. He never walks anybody and he’s always ahead in the count.
“But you have to give Carmichaels credit, they took advantage of his wildness. They sat back and waited for their pitch and they hit the ball. And they buried us early.”
The loss drops Bud Murphy’s to 15-7.