Coplay crushes Limeport to move to finals

By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call

 

Get ready for ''The Scherersville Series.''

The little slice of South Whitehall Township near Mauch Chunk Road will become the battleground for the Tri-County League Championship Series starting Saturday.

One night after the Woodlawn Fleetwings, tenants of Scherersville Field No. 1, clinched a spot in the finals, the Coplay Reds, who play their home games across the creek at Scherersville Field No. 5, blasted their way to a title-series berth on Thursday.

The Reds routed Limeport 15-1 to cap their remarkable rally from a 2-0 hole in the best-of-five semifinal series.

Coplay (30-12-1) pounded out 18 hits and turned what was expected to be a dramatic, deciding game into a laugher.

Every player in the Reds' lineup had at least one hit, and the first four guys in the order combined to score 10 runs.

Kevin Thompson singled in a pair, and J.R. Graver added a two-run double in the top of the first as Coplay jumped ahead 4-0 and continued the momentum it built in Tuesday's 10-4 series-equalizer.

''It's not that I didn't think we could come back in this series, it was getting everyone else to believe,'' said Shawn Andrews, the Reds' first-year manager. ''I've been on teams that have done it before, but it was getting these kids to believe they could do it. And they went out and played loose and had fun.''

Andrews managed Lehigh Township to Tri-Co titles in 2003 and 2004 but said this one, if it happens, ''could be the sweetest of all because of how the breakdown came about in Lehigh Township and the fact that these guys were just 10-22 last year. They don't mouth off. They listen and go out and play hard.''

The hard part for Coplay may have been staying focused after building a 9-0 lead after an inning and a half and stretching the gap to 13-0 by the top of the fifth.

The league has a 12-run mercy rule but waived it for the playoffs.

The Reds didn't mind playing it out, continuing to add hits each inning.

Thompson was 3-for-3 with four runs scored, and Caleb Calarco was 4-for-4.

Graver, a 20-year-old Tamaqua High grad, collected four RBIs.

''We didn't expect this,'' he said. ''We knew they had good pitching coming in, but they were a little tired. We just all saw the ball pretty well.

''Sure, we were down after losing Game 2 Saturday night, but [Andrews] said we had nothing to lose and the pressure was all on them. We've been coming back from deficits all year. That's what we do. So why not in this series?''

The benefactor of the offensive explosion was Bangor High and Arcadia grad Dan Fassl, who had a three-hit shutout through five innings and finished with a five-hitter.

Joe Pochron's RBI single in the sixth prompted one of the few Bulls cheers of the night in Limeport.

''I'm one of the few original Reds, and to be going to the finals is pretty cool,'' Fassl said. ''It's a nice feeling.''

Coplay will host Game 1 at 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Game 2 will follow on Sunday.


Coplay Reds      450 222 0 — 15 18 0

Limeport Bulls   000 001 0 —  1   5  1


Fassl and Calarco; Stewart, Walter (2), Arnold (4), Parsell (6), J. Krauss (7) and Shoemaker, M. Krauss (5).



keith.groller@mcall.com

610-820-6740

From The Morning Call -- August 11, 2006

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