Bats heat up for Ephrata
- 12 May 2008
After trying every which way to manufacture runs playing small-ball, Ephrata finally just unleashed a bombardment of base hits.Playing Vesuvius to Lancaster Catholic's Pompeii, Ephrata erupted for 12 sixth-inning runs, sending 17 batters to the plate, pummeling Catholic 17-5 in the middle game of a Lancaster-Lebanon League playoff quarterfinal triple header Saturday afternoon at Ephrata's War Memorial Field.
With the victory, Ephrata advances to Tuesday night's league semifinals, both semifinal games will be played at Ephrata's War Memorial Field.
E-town (16-4) will play Hempfield (16-4), a 3-1 winner over Northern Lebanon, in a 5 p.m. start at Ephrata.
In the nightcap, Ephrata (12-7) takes on Manheim Township (19-1), an 8-0 winner over Donegal.
Catholic (14-6) seemed to have things under control, with a 5-3 lead, two outs into the fifth inning.
Then the Mounts' Anthony Rinaldi ripped a 2-run triple over the head of Freddie Jankowski in centerfield.
The usually sure-footed centerfielder initially broke in on the ball, then spun his wheels trying to get back. When he got to the ball, the landscape had changed.
"Down 5-3, we're struggling," said Mounts' coach Adrian Shelley. "We got a big break.
"We went through a stretch of six games where that ball's caught," he said. "Anthony put a good swing on it, but it was right at (Jankowski)."
Emboldened by the turnabout, and winning pitcher Matt Woolley's shutdown inning in the bottom of the fifth, Ephrata eviscerated Catholic.
After forcing Lancaster Catholic's Freddy Jankowski out at home,
Ephrata's Brandon Strenko fires to first in an attempt for a double play.
© Vinny Tennis—Sunday News
Working on four days rest for the second time in ten days, Crusader starter Jeff Helm entered the sixth inning having thrown 95 pitches.
He walked the No. 9 hitter, freshman Brok Martin, leading off the inning and never got an out.
Adam Stahl, whom Helm hit with a pitches in three previous at bats, blooped an RBI single to center.
Woolley, Helm's last batter of the day, ripped a 2-run single through the box and Brandon Strenko greeted reliever Kevin Regan with a 2-run single to right and the rout was on.
"We haven't had an inning like that in a long time," said Shelley, emphasizing the word long.
"We had a good ballgame going there for five," said Catholic coach Mike Davis. "When it rains it pours."
It looked like Catholic's day early on. The Crusaders pushed across an unearned run in the first inning, then added three in the third on Kevin Cotchen's RBI ground-out and singles by Helm and Tim Jones.
Meanwhile, Ephrata was running itself out of innings with a runner thrown out at third in the first.
After successfully squeezing a run home in the third, the Mounts had a runner erased at home and one picked off at first.
With the same batter, Rinaldi, at the plate!
"Frankly we were squeezing in another run," said Shelley, "(when) our runner on first broke early. It turned into more of an adlib than anything."
Cotchen's two-out single in the fourth padded Catholic's lead, but Woolley was getting stronger with every pitch.
"I thought he kept his composure," said Shelley. He did a good job of keeping us in it, then the bats erupted."
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