Knights walk off in wild game

LEHMAN TWP. — After crossing home plate for the winning run, 5-foot-9 Cole Barbacci kept on running. The senior catcher made a left turn, headed toward first base and leaped toward 6-foot-6 Pete Borum in celebration.

Both played equally big roles for Lake-Lehman with the game on the line.

Barbacci had tied the game in the bottom of the seventh and Borum brought him home four batters later for an 11-10 walk-off victory over Meyers on Tuesday.

It had the usual back-and-forth drama of a game between the last two District 2 Class 2A champions. But on a windy, rainy and gray afternoon at Lake-Lehman High School, it didn't play out as smoothly as some of the recent entries in the series.

"This was not a clean game," Lehman coach Mark LeValley said. "We battled our way through it. We told the team we needed to win this game, and we'll take it any way we can. And it was an ugly win. But we needed it."

Meyers shook off a 9-3 deficit after four innings, firing back for five runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth to take an improbable 10-9 lead into the final frame.

But Borum, on the mound in relief, mixed in three strikeouts with three walks to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the seventh to keep the Black Knights (2-1) within a run.

Barbacci laced a one-out double to make it 10-10 in the home half. A single, a strikeout and a walk brought up Borum with the bases loaded and two outs.

One strike away from extra innings – and, with daylight fading, perhaps a suspended game – Borum reached out and knocked an 0-2 pitch right up the middle for his third hit of the game and a Lehman win.

"He got himself in and out of trouble (on the mound and at the plate)," LeValley said of Borum. "He battled his way back and came through for us."

Lake-Lehman had lost in extras to Hanover Area on Thursday and a setback against the Mohawks (1-1) would have dropped the Knights into a hole early in Division II race.

That didn't seem likely in the first half of Tuesday's contest. A two-run single by Curt Barbacci in the second keyed a 5-1 lead for the Knights, who then opened the bottom of the fourth with six straight hits, highlighted by an RBI triple from Troy Shurites. It was 9-3 headed into the fifth.

Meyers answered right away with extra-base hits from Dan Conrad (two-run double), John Zionce (two-run triple) and Matt DeMarco (RBI triple), cutting the lead to 9-8 with no outs.

Cody Cutter came on to strand that last runner at third and Lehman temporarily stayed in front. The Mohawks changed that in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by DeMarco, with the go-ahead run scoring on a throwing error.

Borum, Shurites and Cole Barbacci all finished with three hits for the Knights. DeMarco (3 RBI) and Zionce did the same for Meyers.

The teams combined for five errors on a frigid day, but the most glaring number may have been the 14 runners stranded by the Mohawks.

"We didn't give up when we went down 9-3, but we left a lot of runners on base," Meyers coach Matt Skrepenak said. "We made a lot of mistakes. We had a lot of opportunities to capitalize and we just failed at those opportunities.

"I'm happy with the way we fought back in the ballgame, but we have a lot of work to do."

 

2B – MDeMarco, Zionce, Conrad, Borum, CoBarbacci; 3B – Zionce, MDeMarco, Shurites

IP

H

R

ER

BB

SO

Meyers

Dubil

2.0

4

5

2

2

1

Reilly

2.0

8

4

4

0

0

Szafran (L, 0-1)

2.2

3

2

2

3

2

Mackey Power went 3-for-4 with a triple and a pair of RBI to help pace Wyoming Seminary.

Craig Skudalski also finished 3-for-4 with a double and a home run for the first-place Blue Knights (3-0) while Bobby Polachek pitched a complete-game shutout on the mound, giving up five hits and striking out seven.

Skyler DiPasquale was 3-for-4 with a double for Northwest (1-2).

 

2B – Skudalski; 3B – Power, DiPasquale; HR – Skudalski

Pat Cook struck out six and gave up just two hits as he tossed four scoreless innings to lead Hanover Area.

Mickey Ferrence finished with a double and a triple while Mike Bugonowicz and Mike Blazaskie each hit a double for the Hawkeyes (2-0).

Steve Tyson had both hits for GAR (0-3).

 

2B – Ferrence, Bugonowicz, Blazaskie; 3B – Ferrence

The Patriots scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth to end the contest early.

Chuck Bressler struck out seven in a complete-game victory. The Patriots (3-1) got a three-hit day from Josh Razvillas and two hits each from Anthony Schwab, John Kielbasa (3 RBI) and Patrick McGinty (3 RBI).

Christian Choman (3-3, double, 2 RBI) and Dominick Policare (2-3, double, triple, 2 RBI) led the Royals (0-4).

2B – Policare, Choman, ASchwab, Kielbasa; 3B – Policare, Ringsdorf