Eckman fans 15, Skippack rallies past Valley Forge in opener
UPPER GWYNEDD » Skippack’s bats responded when needed while right-hander Tyler Eckman backed up the offense with a strong completegame effort as the Lumberjacks won the opener of the Perky League finals Monday night.
Charlie Hooker’s two-run home run in the bottom of the third inning pulled Skippack even 4-4 with Valley Forge before hits from Jason Kelmer and Rob Zinsmeister each drove in a run in the fourth. Eckman, meanwhile, struck out 15 in making the lead stand up as the Lumberjacks earned a 6-4 Game 1 victory at Hostelley Field.
“It hasn’t happened much this season and then when we get behind sometime in the game we just flip that switch and everyone kind of gets in attack mode,” Hooker said. “And do whatever it takes to get back in the game.”
Kelmer finished 2-for-3, providing Skippack with the go-ahead hit as his two-out RBI double in the fourth brought home Kyle Wenger. After a Chad Evans walk, Zinsmeister singled through the right side to score Kelmer for a 6-4 edge.
“Put the ball in play — to be honest Chad got me that hit by, it wasn’t like that was a planned hit-and-run,” said Zinsmeister, who went 3-for-4 with a trio of singles. “He took off, pulled the second baseman with him and a slider and I just kind of stayed on it and kind of got lucky in a way. It was almost like some of their hits earlier where it just found a spot.”
Valley Forge erased a 2-0 deficit by using five straight two-out singles to plate four runs in the top of the third. But despite putting two runners on in each of the next three innings, the defending champ Bucks could collected another run off Eckman, who gave up just one hit — an infield single to Eric Beideman — over the last four frames.
Game Two of the best-of-five series is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday back at Hostelley Field.
“I think that kept our psyche up for a few innings we just ran a little bit dry after that one,” Valley Forge manager Mike Fazio said.
Eckman struck out the first two batters he faced Monday then capped off his complete-game win with back-to-back strikeouts to reach 15 on the night. He allowed four runs — all earned — on eight hits, walked five and hit one batter.
“Honestly, I had all three pitches,” Eckman said. “Definitely this has got to be the first time all season I had all three. Usually I have two of them — either fastball fastball-slider or fastballchangeup but today I had all three. Not going to lie, my arm was hurting for the first few innings and then it kind of went numb and I was like all right it’s just time to go now so we just kind of stuck with the fastball mentality at the end.”
VF starting pitcher Mike Anthony took the loss, giving up six runs — all earned — on nine hits in four innings. He walked one, hit one batter and struck out one.
“It’s tough, Mikey’s usually a little bit better than that,” Fazio said. “And it is what it is, you’re going to have good nights, you’re going to have off nights. So far in playoffs he hasn’t given up an earned run. So a good hitting team, he’s got to be on his game.”
Beideman was 2-for-4 with an RBI, Jason Smiley went 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored while Dylan Tice walked three times and scored a run for the Bucks.
In the top of the third, Tice drew a one-out walk and stole second. After a strikeout, Christopher Conner hit a ball off first base for a two-out single while Allan Goodwin followed with a base hit through the right side to score Tice. Smiley dropped a single into center to bring home Connor and tie the game 2-2.
Beideman gave the Bucks a 3-2 lead the next at-bat as his infield side to the left side scored Goodwin. Matt Seiple floated an RBI single into center, plating Smiley for a 4-2 advantage.
“They were either soft ground balls to the infield or floaters over the infield, I mean they were just kind of perfectly placed,” Eckman said. “That’s kind of the hard part about baseball sometimes is even when you do your job it doesn’t always turn out how you want it.”
Hooker, however, answered for Skippack in the bottom of the inning, sending a ball over the fence in center with two outs and a runner on first to knot things at four.
“Obviously my first at-bat swung through two sliders, struck out and then coming into that second at-bat, I knew I was going to expect a slider away,” Hooker said. “Guessed right, up in the zone and had me get a good barrel on it and thing just flew out.”
Wenger led off the bottom of the fourth with a single up the middle then advanced to second on a wild pitch. With two outs, Kelmer broke the 4-4 tie with a double to right center while two batters later Zinsmeister’s RBI single made it a two-run game.
“The last couple series I’ve had a lot of walks and I’ve been seeing the ball pretty well,” Zinsmeister said. “I was out for almost a month with an oblique injury so I’m excited to be back and just to help any way I can.”
In the top of the fifth, Beideman’s infield single and two errors after Seiple hit a ball to the right side gave Valley Forge runners at second and third with one out. Eckman proceeded to get out of the jam with consecutive strikeouts.
Tice started the top of the sixth with a walk while a Connor walk two batters later gave the Bucks two on with one out. After a dropped third strike on the next at-bat, both runners tried advancing — Skippack could not throw out Tice going to third but got Connor at second for the third out.
The Lumberjacks took a 2-0 lead with two runs in the bottom of the second. Frank Pollock made it 1-0 as his one-out RBI double to left scored Lenny Del Grippo, who led off getting hit by a pitch then took second on a wild pitch. Kelmer drove in Pollock with a twoout RBI single — Kelmer getting thrown out a second looking to stretch the hit into a double.