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Musko’s 3-run HR leads Little Joeys Pizza over Carmichaels, 5-3

By Adam Brewer For The 4 min read

CARMICHAELS — Little Joeys Pizza’s Ken Musko hammered a three-run homer in a four-run third inning, as LJP tied the Fayette County Baseball League best-of-three semifinals at 1-1 after a 5-3 win over Carmichaels on Wednesday night.

LJP was the home team in the contest, as the game was moved to Carmichaels High School. Game 3 was set for Thursday night, also at Carmichaels.

“We always joke that sometimes the baseball gods are against us this season,” LJP player/coach Tyler Spohn said. “We just couldn’t get that one big hit. Tonight we got those big hits. That game Tuesday night was a lot closer than the final score and I knew we were one hit away. I knew we could hang with these guys.”

With the loss, the Copperheads (18-3) had their 16-game winning streak (including four forfeits) snapped. Carmichaels’ last loss was to Mitch’s Bail Bonds, 7-0, on June 7.

“It’s frustrating and I have had two big concerns about our team,” Carmichaels skipper Richard Krause said. “I don’t think we play with enough intensity and we don’t hit. You can’t depend all the time on your pitcher. We have struggled at the plate the last couple of weeks. We deserved this and we need to bring the right focus on offense.”

Brandon Lawless threw a solid game for LJP (7-14-1) for the win. Lawless, a Carmichaels graduate, registered four strikeouts over seven innings and worked around three walks and three hit batters.

“You got to give it up for Lawless for shutting that team down,” Spohn said. “He threw strikes and was ahead of the count. If he did miss, he was missing low. He worked for a lot of groundballs and kept their hitters guessing.”

Despite recording 11 strikeouts, Joby Lapkowicz was tagged with the loss for Carmichaels. The lefty went six innings and allowed five runs on four hits.

The Copperheads, who won, 8-1, in Game 1, struck first in the top of the third when Hunter Robinson started the frame with a walk, and scored off a single by Caleb Dempsey and an outfield error.

In the bottom half of the inning, Willie Palmer scored on a strike-three, passed ball with two outs to knot things up at 1-1.

The next batter was Musko, who is Uniontown’s high school baseball coach, and the FCBL veteran crushed a pitch over the left-field fence for the big, three-run homer.

“Being a young team, it helps to have Musko, (Jim) Cales and those older guys on our team as leaders,” Spohn said. “They keep our team’s composure and are very valuable to our team. That home run by Ken was so clutch and gave us confidence.”

The visitors tacked on one more run in the bottom of the fourth, courtesy of a solo home run by Chad Workman.

Carmichaels trimmed the deficit to 5-3 in the top of the fifth, via a pair of sacrifice flies by Robinson and Dempsey.

The Copperheads had the tying runs on base in the top of the seventh with one out, but Lawless was able to get out of the jam with a groundout to second and a pop out to third.

“Credit to Lawless and that team over there tonight,” Krause said. “They played with a lot of energy and Tyler has done a nice job with that team. Game 3 is win or go home, and it’s going to be a fight. Those guys aren’t going down easy. We had a chance to sweep, and we were flat. They were a better baseball team tonight.”

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