May 2, 2007 By Rob Burchianti 5 min read

HOPWOOD – Laurel Highlands trailed 5-2 with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the third inning on Tuesday after a hot shot by the Mustangs’ Nick Erminio resulted in a double play. Most baseball teams may have felt at that point that this just wasn’t going to be their day.

The 2007 Mustangs, however, have proven they aren’t like most teams.

Laurel Highlands quickly mounted a two-out rally with a walk and four consecutive hits to take a 6-5 lead and went on to defeat Derry 11-6 in their Section 2-AAA clash at Hutchinson Field.

Left-hander J.C. Myers tossed a complete game and drove in three runs with three hits, including a homer and a double, as the first-place Mustangs improved to 11-1 overall and 7-1 in the section.

“That was a big win for us, because Derry was right behind us in the standings,” Laurel Highlands coach Tom Landman said. “The kids responded real well to that challenge. J.C. pitched a great game for us, especially the last four innings. And right now we’re swinging the bats real well.”

Laurel Highlands leads Yough (11-2, 8-2) by percentage points for first place and plays the Cougars today in a 4:15 game at Hutchinson Field.

Kevin Gmiter and Mike Pegg had strong offensive days for LH, which hammered out 16 hits.

Gmiter smacked three hits, including his third homer of the season, and stole a base. Pegg was 3 for 3 with an RBI triple, two runs scored and a sacrifice bunt.

The Trojans (5-7, 5-3) used four different pitchers, the second of which was Nick Shaffer, who took the loss after taking over for Bob Mroskey to start the third inning.

Pegg singled to start the third, but was wiped out on Erminio’s double play.

The inning was just beginning for the Mustangs, though.

Zach Dascenzo drew a walk, Gmiter singled to right and Randy Rankin ripped an RBI single to center. Myers followed with a run-scoring single to right. A wild pitched scored Rankin and sent Myers to second. Myers raced all the way home on Carmen Congelio’s infield single, barely beating the throw with his slide, to give Laurel Highlands a 6-5 lead.

“We weren’t discouraged at all after the double play,” Myers said.

“You can’t quit on an inning just because there are two outs,” Gmiter said. “Anything can happen. You just keep trying to have good at bats.”

“I told the kids that one of the hardest balls hit that inning was the rocket Erminio hit,” Landman said. “Down by three with two outs and nobody on, then getting four runs, I think that was the turning point of the game.”

Myers clamped down after the Mustangs regained the lead, allowing only one unearned run over the final four frames. He gave up only five hits and four walks while striking out 11, and looked surprisingly fresh after the game for someone who just threw 125 pitches of which only 40 were balls.

“I feel great,” Myers said. “My coaches kept checking on me, but I felt fine. I’ve been pitching for a while and experience helps out a lot.”

“J.C.’s a senior, he’s been around a long time and he was definitely on his game today,” LH assistant coach Ron Popovich said. “A lot of the runs they scored early on weren’t really his fault. He didn’t let it bother him and then he got in a little bit of a groove. We were checking on him. I thought after he hit the home run, he came out and had a little more fire.”

Laurel Highlands turned on the power to extend its lead in the fifth against Derry’s third pitcher, Scott Dixon.

Gmiter led off the inning by drilling a home run over the right field fence.

“He hung a curve ball and I jumped on it,” Gmiter said.

After Rankin reached on an error, Myers also homered over the right field fence off a Dixon fastball.

“It felt good coming off the bat, so I kind of knew it was gone,” Myers said.

Congelio walked, Jake Barnhart singled and Pegg drilled an RBI triple into the right field corner, although Barnhart was thrown out at home on the play. Erminio followed with a run-scoring single to center to make it 11-5 and cap the five-run explosion.

“Once you get the lead, you don’t want to let up,” Gmiter said.

Derry scored once in the seventh before Pegg ended the game with a diving catch of Mroskey’s line drive in left field.

Laurel Highlands took a 2-0 lead in the first. Pegg singled, took second on Dascenzo’s single, and scored on a throwing error after Gmiter’s infield single. Courtesy runner Mason Tupka then scored on a double steal with Gmiter.

Derry pulled even in the top of the second. Mroskey hit an RBI single to right that dropped in when right fielder Billy Work slipped and fell, and Jordan Hope tied it with a well-placed suicide squeeze bunt to bring in Dixon.

The Trojans loaded the bases in the third on a walk, an error and a 12-pitch walk by Jason Thomas. Dixon then hit a high fastball to center for a three-run double to make it 5-2.

“We had the lead, and then they lit up our best pitchers like they were Little League pitchers,” said Derry coach Bob Slezak, whose team is in the midst of playing five games in six days. “It was just fireworks after that. They’re a good-hitting team.”

Work and pinch-hitter Nick Johnston also had hits for the Mustangs.