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CORONAVIRUS LEAGUE SWALLOWS FEAST ON WIENERS CHAMPIONS DOWN #1 LICKMYVILLE

SWALLOWS VS CHAMPIONS CHAMPIONVILLE RETURNS TO CHAMPIONSHIP!

Wow, what can we say? Championville continues their SOM dominance in the CVL winter league by returning to the Championship Series, AGAIN! This time, rising from 7th place on 5/27, only to earn the last playoff spot on 6/5, and then to down the #1 Lickmyville Big Nuts in the playoffs, who had sole possession of first place the entire 2nd half of the season. Two things were going against Lickmyville. First, they may have lost their edge by dropping 4 of the last 5 regular season games as their 1st place ranking was locked up. Second, they were playing the Champions….. And it appears that ‘THE DEAL’ was too much to overcome by Lickmyville as they couldn’t get past Jerry Reuss and the surging Champions. Reuss, who was 3-0, with a .096 ERA, was named MVP of the playoffs and almost singlehandedly won the series for Championville. By all accounts, the Champions have benefitted tremendously from ‘THE DEAL”, just as GM Johnny speculated when he made the trade with Tamaqua. No longer are there any Championville fans who ask about Willy Randolph (2nd baseman Dave Stapleton batted .346 with a HR in the playoffs and led the team with 7 RBI’s), but everyone is talking about the players who were acquired from Tamaqua and the outstanding performance they have had with Championville. Not to mention the astute abilities of GM Johnny for making ‘THE DEAL”. If someone were to look at the statistics after the series, they would wonder why the series went 7 games, as the Champion bats came alive, with the Champions out hitting the Big Nuts .257 to .175. They outscored the Big Nuts 34 to 21. They outslugged the Big Nuts with 21 extra base hits to 14 (with no less than 9 doubles, 6 triples and 6 homeruns!). They out ran the Big Nuts with 11 stolen bases to only 4 for the Big Nuts. They out pitched the Big Nuts with a 2.31 ERA to 4.11 ERA, with 0% of inherited runners scoring and 2 complete games pitched, they out-

fielded the Big Nuts .857 X percentage to .818, and they Jerry Reuss, 3-0, 0.96 ERA, MVP outsmarted the Big Nuts. But, that’s why we play the game, as it’s not won with merely statistics.

1 Sunday CORONAVIRUS NEWSPAPER W.P. CRONKITE March 28, 2021 SPIDDLE EDITOR

-THE DIGITAL NEWSPAPER-

Championville Series Summary: The Champions won game 1 with Reuss pitching a masterful 4 hitter for 11 innings, while outdueling the ace of the Big Nut staff, . finished the game in the 12th inning as the Champions exploded for 5 runs in the top of the 12th to virtually put the game away. Game 2 then went to the Big Nuts, by a 7-6 score, even though the Champions outhit Lickmyville 10-8. Game 3 again went to the Champions, with yet another pitching gem, this time from Roger Erickson, who pitched a complete game, 4 hitter, and limited the Big Nuts to a single harmless run as the Champions won 6-1. Championville also out hit the Big Nuts 13-4! Game 4 also went to Championville as Reuss and Sutton locked horns for a 2nd time. This time the Champions prevailed 5-2, as Reuss pitched 7 innings and gave up a couple of long balls and was lifted for a pinch hitter in the 8th inning, as the Champions went ahead for good with a walk and back-to-back singles to score a run. blasted a 2-run homerun in the bottom of the 8th to add insurance runs, while Ken Brett came on in relief to throw two innings of 2 hit ball to complete the win. With the win, the Champions were up 3 games to 1, and the Big Nuts were getting squeezed tighter than a ‘5 on 2’ wrestling hold. They had to win out, or go home. Game 5 went to Lickmyville on an a somewhat surreal game that lasted 15 innings and featured Championville using 20 players, and all 15 of their bench players, to try to close out the series. The game was tied 2-2 after regulation, the Big Nuts scored a go- ahead run in the 11th on a Mike Schmidt homerun, only to be matched by Championville in the bottom of the inning with a single and some very sloppy defense by Lickmyville. 3rd baseman Schmidt and shortstop Bucky Dent committed back-to-back errors allowing the game to be tied and sending it to the 12th inning. The Champions had players playing out of position, which the Big Nuts took advantage of in the 15th inning, when they plated 4 runners as they sent 10 batters up to the plate, and it proved too much for Championville to overcome. Game 5 went to Lickmyville, by a score of 7-4. Game 6 was uneventful as the series moved back to Lickmyville and the Big Nuts prevailed by a 3-1 score. Game 7, winner take all game, was the first time Lickmyville had made it to the 7th game in CVL playoff history. And with a trip to the Championship on the line, there was no doubt that Manager ‘Champ’ Harris was again handing the ball to Jerry Reuss. The Big Nuts again countered with Don Sutton making it the 3rd time in the series that these to would face each other. Reuss had won the first 2 meetings….and this would be no different. Reuss cemented his place as a Championville legend as he delivered a stunning, 9 inning, 2 hit, complete game performance, and only surrendered a single run, as the Champions pounded the Big Nuts by a final score of 7-1. The Big Nuts only score, was an 8th inning solo homerun by relief Romo. However, the game was closer than the score, as Reuss was throwing a no hitter through 4 innings when he allowed his first hit to Art Howe. Sutton was nearly as effective as well, only allowing a single run, on two hits in the 2nd inning. The game was decided in the 8th inning when Ricky Henderson blasted a leadoff, standup, triple off of the top of the outfield wall in right centerfield. ‘Champ’ Harris then called for a squeeze play by Mickey Rivers, which was executed perfectly, that scored Henderson from 3rd base. That was all the runs Championville needed to punch their ticket to the Championship finals. What followed was a complete ‘melt down’ by Sutton, as he proceeded to give up a standup double to Robin Yount, who was moved up into the 3rd hole for this game, then Reggie Jackson slammed a first pitch, 2 run homerun,,,, and that was all for Sutton. Enrique Romo came on in relief to close out the 8th, but the damage was done. When Romo came back to pitch the top of the 9th, he was greeted with a 2-base error by his teammate, 3rd baseman Schmidt (his 3rd and final of the series), a clean single by pitcher Reuss, then a towering homerun by Ricky Henderson, which immediately sent the Lickmyville fans to their cars. Reuss fired a 5 pitch, 1-2-3 inning to close out the game, the playoffs, his MVP award, and his place in Championville history.

Swallows Series Summary: In the other playoff series, pitting the Tamaqua Swallows against the Intercourse Wieners, there was far less excitement and drama as the Swallows gained a 3-1 game advantage, and coasted to a 4-2 series win to punch their ticket to the Championship finals. The highlight of the series was that the Wieners actually managed to win a post season game, after 6 straight losses over 2 years. The first two games were won by Tamaqua, by the score of 3-1 and 5-3 respectively, as Intercourse couldn’t seem to find the handle on the ball defensively as they committed 3 costly errors which effectively cost them both games. Game 3 was won by the Wieners, 4-3, when the Swallows decided to throw and kick the ball around in the bottom of the 8th inning. After 3 games, we were left wondering if this was profession baseball, or a sideshow at the Sykesville County Fair. Game 4 let no doubt as to who was going to win the series as the Swallow pounded 12 hits and turned them into 8 runs, the hapless Jon Matlack was shelled for 11 of those hits and all 8 runs in merely 5 innings of pitching….if you could call it that! Game 5, FINALLY looked like a hotly contested baseball game with Intercourse winning in 11 innings. The walk-off, bottom of the 11th inning featured a lead off single by Ron Leflore, who then easily stole 2nd base on the very next pitch, setting up the game winning single by Freddie Lynn. But, as the series headed back to Tamaqua, this would be the last celebration the Intercourse fans would have, as they would ‘return to form’ with 2 errors to doom themselves in game 6. Game 6 again saw a pathetic fielding performance by the Wieners, with the highlight being 2nd baseman Manny Trillo allowing a tying run to get on base in the 5th inning with his 1 base error, who was then promptly plated by the Swallow’s pitcher, Scott McGregor. The Swallows then proceeded to win the game with a go-ahead, 7th inning, pinch hit, homerun by slugger Bake McBride. After the blast, the Wieners went down with barely a whimper as they could only muster a weak single over the last 2 innings. Final score, final game, set, and match…..Swallow 2, Wieners 1.

The entire league now awaits the Championship match-up between the highly favored 2nd seeded Swallows, and the 4th seeded Champions. Both teams seem to be peaking at just the right time, which should make for a fine Championship series. However, the Champions will not be able to get 3 starts out of their Ace Jerry Reuss as he had to pitch in the final game 7 of the playoffs. So, it remains to be seen if Championville manager ‘Champ’ Harris can ‘pull another rabbit out of his hat’, and win the Championship, without being able to start MVP Jerry Reuss for 3 of the games. This will be the first time these teams have met since ‘THE DEAL” was completed between the two franchises, which has benefited both teams…this series may show who’s benefited the most.

2 Sunday CORONAVIRUS NEWSPAPER W.P. CRONKITE March 28, 2021 SPIDDLE EDITOR

-THE DIGITAL NEWSPAPER-

Below are the stats of the CVL Winter League playoff round

Records Leaders

3 Sunday CORONAVIRUS NEWSPAPER W.P. CRONKITE March 28, 2021 SPIDDLE EDITOR

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4 Sunday CORONAVIRUS NEWSPAPER W.P. CRONKITE March 28, 2021 SPIDDLE EDITOR

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5 Sunday CORONAVIRUS NEWSPAPER W.P. CRONKITE March 28, 2021 SPIDDLE EDITOR

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6 Sunday CORONAVIRUS NEWSPAPER W.P. CRONKITE March 28, 2021 SPIDDLE EDITOR

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