Quakertown trips East Texas 6-1 in Tri-Co baseball

By Lori Shontz
Of The Morning Call


It took Quakertown just over an hour and fifteen minutes to upset second-place East Texas 6-1 in         Tri-County League action last night.

The game went so quickly that the umpire had to check that the seventh inning had already arrived.

"The umpire must have a date tonight," yelled one of the fans.

"Nah - the pitchers are just throwing strikes," the umpire returned.

Quakertown rocked East Texas starter Scott Buck for five runs on five hits in the first inning, but once Buck started getting his slider and curve over the plate, the game settled into a pitcher's duel. The duel, however, was strange - although there were few hits, there were also few strikeouts and neither of the starters were dominant forces.

"I got behind the hitters in the first inning," Buck said. "In the first, I was the story of the game."

East Texas coach/designated hitter George Horn didn't place as much of the blame on his starter.

"They were hitting the ball, even though they were dinks," he said.

Tucker Shive led off with a single and scored one out later on a single by first baseman/coach Scott Davis. Right fielder Brian Hoehn then doubled in designated hitter Bob Drumbore, who had reached on a fielder's choice, putting runners on second and third.

Catcher/coach Steve Bauder then doubled in Davis and Hoehn. He in turn was singled in by third baseman Mike Schaffer.

Bauder said that recently his team has been hitting pitchers hard in the early innings and taking pressure off of the pitchers.

"But you can't rest on a five-run lead," he added.

East Texas scored its only run in the third inning. Number-nine hitter Tom Tankonich led off with a infield single that second baseman Mark Butcher stretched for, but couldn't get. Ted Young followed with a single, putting runners on first and second with no outs. After a strikeout, Horn picked up his first of two hits with an RBI single.

Quakertown responded in the top of the fourth when Bauder picked up his third RBI with a single that scored Drumbore.

East Texas did receive some good news, however, when George Harris pitched three scoreless innings, surrendering only two hits and recording two strikeouts. Harris, who played for Allentown in the Blue Mountain League last year (and won the Outstanding Pitcher Trophy) had bone chips removed from his elbow in March and pitched his first innings of the season.

Harris said that he pitched two of the five games in last year's championship series with Banko's and that after each game, his elbow would swell. After the final game, it just "blew out."

"I consistently got outs," he said in evaluating his performance. "It was my first time with these guys and I didn't want to let them down and set a precedent. I believe that I built confidence with the players so they'll feel good behind me and get some runs."

Winning pitcher Tom Hartman, who entered the game with a five-run lead, knows his team will always get him some runs.

"I kept (the ball) low," he said. "They hit it, but it was right at guys; I was never worried about the defense failing me. I don't feel that I have to keep teams from getting one or two runs, because my team gets four or five no matter who's pitching."

Top hitters for Quakertown were Shive (3-for-4), Davis (2-for-4), Hoehm (2-for-4) and Bauder (2-for-3). For East Texas, Horn went 2-for-4.



  

From The Morning Call -- June 27, 1989

Copyright © 1989, The Morning Call