Aug 16, 2009 4 min read

REPUBLIC – Blue Mountain lives to play another day in the Fayette County Baseball League finals after defeating Mario’s 9-4 Friday in Game 5. Mario’s still leads the best-of-seven series 3-2 with Game 6 being held at 3 p.m. today at Carmichaels High School. “Last night was probably one of the worst games we have played in the playoffs,” Blue Mountain manager Richard Krause said. “You just don’t know how you are going to respond after playing a game like that.”

Up 4-0 in the fourth inning, Blue Mountain scored what proved to be the winning run when Ryan Group led off with a single, went to third on an error of a pick-off attempt and scored on JW Kayla’s RBI single.

George Taylor’s sacrifice bunt moved Kayla to second before Gene Franks reached base on an error. Kayla moved to third and the Copperheads had runners on first and third with one out.

Charlie Humes reached base on a controversial fielder’s choice call as Kayla scored for a 6-0 Blue Mountain lead. Mario’s first baseman Jared Lapkowicz appeared to make the tag, but the umpire said Humes was safe.

“They had the lead; we needed to come back and we didn’t,” Mario’s manager Lou Pasquale said. “That’s baseball.”

Mario’s came right back with two runs on three hits in the bottom of the fourth when Jeff Lapkowicz doubled in Jason Greene and Joby Lapkowicz. Greene led of the inning with a single and Lapkowicz was running for catcher Mike Hermann after Hermann singled with one out.

“We will have to forget about this one,” Pasquale said. “In athletics, you really can’t think about what happened the day before and dwell on it.”

Mario’s cut the lead to 6-3 with one run on no hits in the fifth. Corey Sawka walked to lead off the inning, stole second, went to third on Bill Rouse’s sacrifice fly and scored on Chad Rice’s ground out.

Blue Mountain tacked on a run in the sixth when Franks singled in Taylor for a 7-3 Copperheads lead. Taylor led off the inning with a double that chased Mario’s starter Marty Fagler.

Fagler allowed seven runs on eight hits in five innings. He struck out and walked three. Todd Dunham came on in relief and allowed two runs on four hits in two innings. He struck out and walked one.

Jeff Lapkowicz scored on Zach Patterson’s RBI single in the sixth to cut Mario’s deficit to 7-4, but Blue Mountain put two more insurance runs on the board in its half of the seventh when Franks and Humes hit back-to-back RBI doubles to score Kayla and Taylor.

Blue Mountain starting pitcher Perry Cunningham got into some trouble in the seventh as Mario’s loaded the bases with nobody out. Krause brought in Taylor who struck out the first two batters and got a grounder to preserve the win.

Cunningham allowed four runs on six hits in six innings. He struck out three and walked five.

“Perry Cunningham was gutsy tonight,” Krause said. “George Taylor came in and I didn’t bring him in with a great situation, but he got the job done. I also want to point out Jeff Thompson. He is a gamer. I would love to have 10 Jeff Thompson’s and Charlie Humes’ on my team.”

The Copperheads struck first in the second when Rick Smykla hit into a fielder’s choice to score Humes from third as Mario’s was attempting to turn a double play with Chuck Gasti coming in hard from first base.

Blue Mountain scored three runs in the third to lead 4-0. With one out, Taylor walked and moved to second on Franks’ single. With two outs, Dan Novak singled in Franks for a 3-0 advantage.

Gasti would get into the mix again in with a two-run single that scored both Franks and Novak.

“Even though we are down 3-2, we feel like this series is even with the way we have played,” Krause said.

“Hopefully, the day off will be good for us,” Pasquale said. “We have to get back at it Sunday.”