Aug 8, 2009 3 min read

REPUBLIC – Mario’s manager Lou Pasquale knew the importance of winning Game 1 of the Fayette County Baseball League Championship playoffs against Blue Mountain, so Friday’s 7-3 victory gave him all the reason he needed to smile. Still, Pasquale alluded that he and his team would not look too far past the game. “Every playoff win is important,” Pasquale said. “We just hope to keep it going, but don’t look too far ahead. As Yogi Berra said, ‘It’s ain’t over till it’s over.’ “

Mario’s picked up the win against familiar championship foe Blue Mountain in a game that remained close until the bottom of the sixth inning with Mario’s ahead 4-3.

Bill Rouse walked to start the inning for Mario’s and scored on a Chad Rice triple with Rice scoring on Stephan Herman’s single to make the score 6-3.

Mario’s tacked on its final score when Copperheads pitcher Derek Fritz threw a wild pitch that allowed a walked Shane Busti to score.

“We played well against them,” Copperheads manager Richard Krause said. “We played a gutted game against them. They were the heavy favorites coming in. They have a team really comprised of all-stars.”

It was fitting the final score came from Busti as his and Herman’s power hitting against Copperheads’ starting pitcher Cy Mozingo in the bottom of the first inning put Mario’s ahead initially.

With two outs in the inning, Busti sent a pitch over the fence in center field for a home run, before Herman smacked an 0-2 pitch toward left field for a home run that gave Mario’s a 2-0 lead.

Mario’s batters jumped on Mozingo again in the bottom of the second as Corey Sawka hit a single to start the inning and scored on an error by Copperheads’ catcher Aaron Thompson.

However, Thompson made up for the error at first in that same inning, tagging out Mario’s Jeremy Thomas at the plate after the runner ran from third to second, while teammate Jason Greene stole second from first base.

Thompson further helped the Copperheads’ cause by giving them their first hit against red-hot pitcher Chris Squeglia who had a perfect game up to that point.

J.W. Kayla knocked in Mitch Monas who had come in the game as a pinch runner for Thompson. Kayla then scored on a throwing error by Mario’s catcher to cut the lead to 3-2.

Mario’s distanced themselves briefly from the Copperheads in the bottom of the fourth as Josh Greene scored Herman’s sacrifice fly to center field in Mozingo’s final inning of work to increase Mario’s lead to 4-2.

The Copperheads rallied in the top of the fifth inning with J.W. Kayla hitting a single and then scoring on a Rick Smykla single to cut the lead to 4-3.

“Hitting was the difference tonight,” said Krause. “They hit well at the end and put the game out of reach. I felt we had chances at the end, but this is really good ball team. We made some errors that hurt us early, but I’m happy with how we played well against this very tough team.”

Squeglia picked up the win with a complete game performance, allowing seven hits, six strikeouts and a pair of walks.

The teams will do battle in Game 2 at 2 p.m. Sunday at Carmichaels.

BLUE MOUNTAIN 0 0 2 0 1 0 0-3 7 3

MARIO’S 2 1 0 1 0 3 0-7 8 1

WP-Squeglia (Mario’s), LP-Mozingo (Blue Mountain).

2bh-Gasti (B); 3bh – Rice (M); Hr – Busti (M), Herman (M)