Bamford, Obiecunas propel Copperheads past Hopwood
Local roundup
Matt Bamford fired a four-hitter and Dom Obiecunas hit a tie-breaking two-run homer in the seventh inning to propel visiting Carmichaels past Hopwood Village Plaza, 4-1, in a battle of the top two teams in the Fayette County Baseball League on Tuesday.
Bamford struck out 10 and walked three in going the distance as manager Dickie Krause’s first-place Copperheads improved to 12-2-1.
Second-place Hopwood fell to 9-6.
The score was tied 1-1 when Carmichaels struck for three runs in the top of the seventh. After AJ Vanata reached on an error, Obiecunas sent a blast over the fence in right field to make it 3-1 against Hopwood starting and losing pitcher Erik Streussnig.
Devin Fluhmann kept the inning going with a walk, prompting Hopwood manager Buddy Marra to call on Matthew Firestone to relieve Streussning. Fluhmann then stole second, advanced to third on Dom Colarusso’s single and scored on Alex Vansickle’s sacrifice fly.
Streussning surrendered four runs on six hits and five walks with eight strikeouts in six innings.
Hopwood took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Ryan Covelens and Tate Musko drew one-out walks and Santino Marra followed with an RBI single to left.
Carmichaels tied it in the fourth when Ben Shields doubled and scored on Luke Camden’s single.
CHARLEROI 5, MILL RUN 4 — Tyler Sankovich had a pair of doubles and an RBI and Spencer Behrendt had a single and two RBIs as the Magicians jumped out to a 5-1 lead and held off host Mill Run.
Winning pitcher Lorenzo Glasser pitched a complete game, allowing nine hits and three walks with seven strikeouts.
Losing pitcher Bill Bendis also went the distance, surrendering seven hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
Charleroi (7-7-1) scored three runs in the top of the first. Sankovich led off with a double, Colton Brightwell walked and Chad Behrendt followed with an RBI double. Spencer Behrendt hit a two-run single later in the frame.
The Millers (2-13) got one run back in the bottom of the inning when Hunter Smiley singled and scored on Cade Warrick’s double.
Charleroi added two more runs in the second inning on an RBI single by Brad Banaszak and a run-scoring double by Sankovich.
Mill Run sliced the lead to two with a pair of runs in the fourth inning on consecutive doubles by Warrick, Colby Simmons and Marc Prinkey.
The Millers whittled the gap to one in the fifth when Josh Burns doubled and came home on Warrick’s third double of the game.
Burns had two hits for Mill Run.