The Tyrone Legion only managed four hits Wednesday, but thanks to Barry Gummo and six Park Furniture miscues they were enough for a 7-4 victory. Gummo went the distance on the mound for his third win of the season and had three RBIs at the plate.
Gummo got things started for Tyrone in the top of the first by working a walk. Park Furniture starter Kellen Nebelski got two strike outs before walking Derrick Soellner to put runners at first and second. Two wild pitches later, Gummo scored the game\’s first run before Nebelski got Tyler Rickards to ground out.
Ken Brazile helped Park Furniture fire back with a leadoff triple. After a walk, Lance Tippett grounded into a fielder\’s choice to score Brazile. The run was the first Barry Gummo had allowed in his three appearances this season. An error allowed Matt McNelis to reach, and an errant throw allowed Tippett to score, giving Park Furniture the 2-1 advantage after one full inning.
Tyrone\’s bats responded in the second inning with a leadoff single from Jason Wilson. With one out Shane Gherrity was hit by a pitch, and Ben Lynn smacked a single to right field that scored Wilson and moved Gherrity to third. Barry Gummo gave Tyrone a lead it would never relinquish with a sacrifice fly to score Gherrity.
The Legion was unable to take advantage of a Rickards double in the third, and Park Furniture returned the favor when they were unable to cash in Garrett Miller after his double in their half of the inning.
Both teams added a run in the fourth inning. Jeremy Myers led off the top of the inning with a walk and went to second on a pass ball. A wild pitch sent him to third, and Lynn drew a one out walk to put runners on the corners. Barry Gummo followed with a perfect suicide squeeze when he protected Myers, who was charging home, by reaching far out of the strike zone to get a nice bunt down the first base line.
“The lefty they brought in looked tough, so I called the squeeze to make sure we got an extra run,” said head coach John Gummo about the daring bunt.
Park Furniture\’s run came after Gummo struck out the first two batters of the inning and then yielded a walk to Travis Gibbons. Gibbons stole second and scored on a Brazile single to cut Tyrone\’s lead to 4-3 after four innings.
Both teams went quietly in the fifth and sixth, but the bats came back out for the seventh inning.
Tyrone got a big inning started with the help of a few Park Furniture mistakes.
Matt Morrissey led off the inning with a grounder to first that was bobbled then thrown away, allowing Morrissey to reach third. Barry Gummo reached on a fielder\’s choice when second baseman Aaron Tippett\’s throw was too late to get Morrissey at home, and scored when Ben Gummo broke his season long slump with an RBI double. Ben got caught in a run down trying to steal third, but when the ball was thrown away he scored from second.
With Tyrone leading 7-3 heading to the bottom of the seventh, Barry Gummo started to lose his control. He walked Brazile to start the frame, came back to strike out Miller, but walked Lance Tippett to put two runners on. A ground out moved the runners up a base, and a wild pitch scored Brazile, but Gummo recovered and struck out Craig Hamilton to end the game.
“Barry looked great pitching tonight, and he also did a great job with the suicide squeeze at the plate,” said coach Gummo.
Despite the victory, Tyrone continues to slump with the bat. After their four hits Wednesday, the Legion is batting .265 as a team.
“We need to work on the offense. We\’ll get in the cage some this week, and we\’ll be getting better,” said Gummo.
Tyrone\’s next action will come next Wednesday at Tyrone when they take on McMullen Furniture in a make up game at 6:00 PM.
Legion Notes: Derrick Soellner leads Tyrone with seven runs batted in this season, and Barry Gummo is close behind with six after his three RBI game… The rest of the team has combined for seven runs batted in… Barry Gummo has all three of Tyrone\’s pitching victories… Ben Lynn had Tyrone\’s only two stolen bases on the day.
Tyrone Legion 7 Park Furniture 4
TYRONE LEGION – Ba. Gummo, p, 1-2-0; Be. Gummo, ss, 4-1-1; C. Wilson, 1b, 4-0-0; Soellner, c, 3-0-0; Rickards, 3b, 4-0-1; Ja. Wilson, cf, 3-1-1; Myers, lf-rf, 2-1-0; Rodgers, rf, 0-0-0; Gherrity, rf, 1-1-0; Hoover, lf, 1-0-0; Lynn, 2b, 1-0-1; Morrissey, 2b, 1-1-0. TOTALS 25-7-4.
PARK FURNITURE – Brazile, cf, 3-2-2; Miller, rf, 3-0-1; L. Tippett, 1b, 3-1-1; McNelis, 3b, 3-0-0; Nebelski, p, 2-0-0; Hamilton, lf, 1-0-0; Sweeney, ss, 2-0-0; Apple, c, 3-0-0; A. Tippett, 2b, 3-0-0; Gibbons, lf-p, 1-1-0. TOTALS 24-4-4.
Tyrone Legion 120 100 3 7-4-2.
Park Furniture 200 100 1 4-4-6.
3B: Brazile.
2B: Be. Gummo, Rickards, Miller.
RBI: Ba. Gummo 3, Be. Gummo 1, Lynn 1, Brazile 1, L. Tippett 1.
SO: Ba. Gummo 10, Nebelski 3, Gibbons 7.
BB: Ba. Gummo 5, Nebelski 4.
WP: Ba. Gummo LP: Nebelski.
