Owls take home the series trophy, dominating Yankees

By John Hellig
Special to The Morning Call

 

Except for a minor hitch with leadoff hitter Timmy Kay, who scored the Northern Yankees' only run, the Gabelsville Owls were dominant in their Tri-County League Championship Series, winning the game, 6-1, and the series in four games to take their second consecutive league title. The Owls (32-8-2) also won their 13th title since 1981, making them look more like the Yankees than their opponents, whom they outdueled for the second consecutive year.

Justin Konnick was the winning pitcher, throwing his assortment of off-speed, curves and ''fastballs'' to confuse the Yankees. Konnick finished with a five-hitter and struck out two.

''I just stuck to my game and I knew we'd come around and swing the bats,'' Konnick said. ''I have confidence in my team and they have confidence in me. It's a great feeling. I know it's frustrating to bat against that, but I have to do what works for me.''

''It was the second time he pitched against us [in the series] and he just let us get ourselves out,'' Yankees manager Brian Polaha said. ''Too many pop-ups. Today we hit a lot more balls harder than we did the other night when we played against him. All in all, he keeps us off-balance. He just throws as slow as he can and gets it across the plate.''

Other than the first inning, when the Yankees sent seven players to the plate, Konnick was never seriously threatened. The Yankees (31-10-1) had runners on first and third with one out in the fifth, but Rick Seltzer flied out to center and Darrin Lenhart grounded out to third to end the threat.

Centerfielder Tom DeAngelis made two beautiful diving catches to help Konnick, one in the first to end the Yankees' threat and one in the fourth.

''This championship means a lot,'' DeAngelis, a junior at Widener, said. ''I played with them last year and two championships in two years is pretty good.''

Gabelsville scored all the runs they needed in the fourth inning when they batted around, scoring four times. Shane Houck walked, Matt Cotellese singled, and Jared Trout got on base on a fielder's choice. Houck scored on Shawn Betz's single to left. Trout scored when Steve Bealer grounded to second and the force wasn't successful at second. Betz scored on Jon Kalejta's single to center and DeAngelis scored on A.J. Bohn's single to right.

The inning ended when Cody Kulp struck out. The third strike was a wild pitch, but Culp was out since the bases were loaded. Catcher Jeremy Faust caught Bealer attempting to score from third with a toss to pitcher Casey Cooperman.

The Owls added two more in the fifth. Houck opened the inning with a long home run over the left center field fence. Trout singled to center and eventually scored on DeAngelis's single to center.


Northern Yankees 100 000 0 -- 1 5 0

Gabelsville Owls    000 420 x -- 6 8 2

Cooperman, Sandt (6) and Faust; Konnick and Bealer. HRs: GO: Houck (5th, none on). Notes: Konnick's second win in the series. Gabelsville wins Tri-County championship series 3-1.






John Hellig is a freelance writer.

From The Morning Call -- August 16, 2009

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