Copperheads advance to County finals
MILL RUN – The Blue Mountain Copperheads advanced to the finals of the Fayette County Baseball League playoffs, beating Mill Run, 12-1, Tuesday night to win the best-of-five series three games to one. MILL RUN – The Blue Mountain Copperheads advanced to the finals of the Fayette County Baseball League playoffs, beating Mill Run, 12-1, Tuesday night to win the best-of-five series three games to one.
The Copperheads received a strong pitching performance from Justin Schrader who held the Millers to two hits while striking out nine.
Bruce Muransky had three hits, scored twice and drove in a run for the Copperheads, and Gene Franks had two hits and drove in two runs. Matt Bianco came off the bench and collected two hits for two RBIs, one on a solo homer in the top of the seventh.
“It’s good to get a win here because Mill Run always has a good baseball team, and this is a tough place to play. They gave us a pretty good scare Monday night and almost had us. I’d much rather come in here up 2-1 than down a game,” Copperheads manager Dickie Krause said. “Justin Schrader was great on the mound for us tonight. He’s really found his groove over his last three starts. He retired the first eight batters. That gave us a chance to settle into the game.”
Blue Mountain jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first when J.W. Kayla scored on a base hit by Zack Sally. They added three more runs in the third. Jonathon Rodriguez was safe on an error to start the inning. He was replaced by a courtesy runner who scored on a double by Franks. Muransky and Jeff Thompson had back-to-back singles. Mitch Monas drew a walk to load the bases before an error at second allowed two runs to score, giving Blue Mountain a 4-0 lead.
Mill Run broke through with its only run in the bottom of the fourth. Bobby Fulton led off with a walk and was forced at second on a ground ball by Dennis Show. Show managed to steal second and scored on a double by David Sumner.
“I could tell from the first pitch tonight we were flat,” Mill Run manager Ray Orndorff said. “Physically we’re fine, but we were not prepared mentally. I’ve got to give credit to their pitcher Schrader. He had very good stuff and did a nice job against us today.”
Blue Mountain came back with five runs in the fifth to open up a 9-1 lead. With the bases loaded Monas was hit by a pitch to force in one run before Nick Hegedus drew a walk to force in another. Bianco singled to drive in a run, and Rodriguez hit a sacrifice fly to center to bring home another before Franks singled to drive in his second run of the day.
The Copperheads added three more runs in the top of the seventh. Bianco leadoff with a solo shot to right, Muransky drove in a run on a fielder’s choice and Andy Manion singled to bring in the final run.