Bud’s ties FCBL series on Holp’s 4-hit shutout
Belmont Inn pitcher Jeremy Molinaro pitches against Bud Murphy's Thursday at Hutchinson Field at Hopwood.
Belmont Inn's Evan Arison (1) runs down Bud Murphy's Bill Rouse between third and second base for an out during Thursday's Fayette County Baseball League championship series game at Hutchinson Field at Hopwood.
Bud Murphy's Ron Holp throws a pitch during Thursday's Fayette County Baseball League championship game against Belmont Inn at Hutchinson Field. Holp allowed just four hits as Bud Murphy's tied the best-of-7 series at 2-2.
HOPWOOD 鈥� Ron Holp made sure that Bud Murphy鈥檚 didn鈥檛 need a lot of offense against Belmont Inn Thursday night. Holp pitched a four-hit shutout and struck out five batters as Bud鈥檚 evened the Fayette County Baseball League best-of-7 championship series at two games apiece with a 3-0 win at the Hutchinson 缅北禁地men鈥檚 complex.
Stephan Hermann provided the only run that Holp would need with a second inning home run off the left field scoreboard.
Hermann contributed to a pair of insurance runs with a fourth inning single and was then hit by a pitch in the sixth. In both instances, courtesy runner Mike Rhodes came around to score courtesy of Jared Early鈥檚 bat.
Early鈥檚 two-out single in the fourth drove in Rhodes for a 2-0 lead, and Rhodes scored Bud鈥檚 third run in the sixth on Early鈥檚 sacrifice fly.
Belmont Inn (19-14) had two chances to score against Holp.
In the Belmont Inn second, Sam Beucher singled and was forced at second on a ball hit by Mike Pegg. Blake Robinson followed with a single before Holp got a ground out and strikeout to end the inning.
In the home third, Eric Fudala singled with one out and Nick Erminio singled one out later before Holp got a force out to end the inning.
From that point on, Holp was unhittable, retiring 13 of the next 14 batters, and allowing only a sixth inning walk to Beucher.
Belmont Inn starting pitcher Jeremy Molinaro struck out six batters before giving way to Evan Arison in the sixth inning.
While Bud Murphy鈥檚 (20-10) has scored just six runs in the four games so far, Belmont Inn has managed two runs in the last three games.
鈥淩on has been doing this all year for us,鈥� said Bud Murphy鈥檚 manager Lou Pasquale. 鈥淚t鈥檚 his first year in the league, but it doesn鈥檛 matter how young or old you are. If you can play, you can play.鈥�
When asked about what amounted to an offensive explosion compared to his team鈥檚 scoring in the series鈥� first three games, Pasquale said, 鈥淚f we get three (runs) and they get less than three (runs) that鈥檚 all that matters. Now it鈥檚 a best-of-three series. I hope we鈥檒l take a little bit of momentum from tonight.鈥�
Pasquale praised Hermann鈥檚 contributions in the victory, saying, 鈥淪tephan has done a lot for me in the past, and hasn鈥檛 played a lot this year. But he can hit. That was one of the few balls I鈥檝e ever seen hit that far here with a wooden bat.鈥�
Pasquale said Todd Dunham will be the likely starting pitcher for Bud鈥檚 when the series moves back to the Breakneck Field for the fifth game tonight at 5:45 p.m.
Belmont Inn manager Steve Kezmarsky had a work commitment immediately after the game and was unavailable for comment.