Torres helps put Lehigh Township ahead

He figures in most of the Brewers' scoring in the win over Tri-City.


By Tim Shoemaker
Special to The Morning Call

 

Charlie Torres usually hits in the ninth spot in the Lehigh Township batting order, but Thursday night it seemed like he was always up at the right time.

Torres went 3-for-3 and each hit played a part in a big inning as the Brewers rallied to beat the Tri-City Fleetwings 7-3 in a Tri- County League playoff game at Bryfogle Park.

Lehigh Township (28-11) leads the best-of-five semifinal series 1- 0. The next game is at 5 p.m. Saturday at Tri-City's field in Scherersville.

Torres, whose teammates call him "Chico," doubled to lead off the third, went to third on Bryn Lindenmuth's bunt and scored on Eric Schmitt's single. He singled in Jeremy Bartha to tie the score at 2 in the fourth and singled and scored in the Brewers' four-run sixth inning, which was capped by Schmitt's two-run home run.

"Those hits I got, those were cheap hits," Torres said. "I got them off the leather. [Matt Hlay] made good pitches. I just fought them off. They jumped on us 2-0 [in the first] and the guys got down. I felt I had to do something."

Lehigh Township starter Geoff Kelowitz was hit hard by the first three Tri-City (27-13) hitters. Paul Santay singled, Matt Marcks homered to right, then Justin Godusky doubled to right center.

Before Kelowitz got an out, two Brewers pitchers took off down the left field line to warm up. But Kelowitz got three fly outs to end the inning, and scattered only five hits the rest of the way. The only run Kelowitz allowed in the last six innings was Marcks' RBI double in the fifth which tied the score at 3. Marcks, Torres and Schmitt had three hits each.

"[Kelowitz] settled down," Lehigh manager Shawn Andrews said. "I don't know if he was nervous, or what it was. He gave [Marcks] too good of a pitch. Our pitching coach had a talk with him and told him to work around the corners. Once we got him to do that, they started waving a little more."

Pinch-hitter Nick Bowen singled to right to start the bottom of the sixth. He went to second on Brandon Leslie's sacrifice bunt and to third on Torres' single to left. Lindenmuth's third sacrifice of the game, a fly to left, scored Bowen to give the Brewers a 4-3 lead.

Torres stole second and scored on Steve Smull's single. Schmitt followed with a home run to left to make it 7-3.

Tri-City                  200 010 0 -- 3   8   0

Lehigh Township   001 204 x -- 7  13  0


HR -- Marcks (TC), Schmitt (LT). Hlay and Arner. Kelowitz and Lindenmuth.

Tim Shoemaker is a freelance writer.

From The Morning Call -- August 2, 2002

Copyright © 2002, The Morning Call