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Suter has defending champs in a good place

City League

By John Hartsock 5 min read

Lilly Conrad Chiropractic has had a stronghold on Altoona Greater City Baseball League championships over the past quarter-century, and steady veteran right-handed pitcher Shane Suter has contributed more than his fair share to the franchise's immense success.

Lilly has won 20 league championships in the past 23 seasons, and is bidding for its eighth title in a row.

Thanks in large part to another efficient pitching effort from Suter, Lilly got off on the right foot in the first game of its best-of-three semifinal playoff series with Blair County Oil Friday night at Vets Field.

Suter turned in a workmanlike shutout effort, spacing seven hits in a complete-game performance, as Lilly took the first game of the series, 5-0.

Lilly can clinch the semifinal series with a win over Blair County Oil in Game 2 of the series, which is set for 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Vets. If a Game 3 is necessary, it will be played Sunday afternoon.

Suter struck out four batters and walked just one while finishing seven innings with less than 70 pitches thrown.

It's typical of what the Lilly team has expected from him over the years.

"He was pretty efficient,'' Lilly player-manager Luke McCoy said of Suter. "He kept his pitch count under control, and that allowed him to get deep in the game and finish it.

"He's been our number one starting pitcher in the playoffs over the years, and he was in command again tonight,'' McCoy added. "He got ahead in the counts and controlled the game.''

Lilly got the only run it needed in the third inning, when Alex Yost singled up the middle, stole second, and scored when Cody Gallagher punched a two-out single to right field.

Two BCO errors greased the wheels for a three-run Lilly fifth inning in which Tim Fabbri collected an RBI single and Ryan Ickes drove in another run on a sacrifice fly. The third run of the inning scored on a throwing error.

BCO right-hander Graham Spitz also threw a complete game, striking out five batters, walking none, and allowing just two earned runs.

"Graham Spitz pitched a good game,'' BCO manager Dale Snyder said. "It was a close game, but one bad inning for us gave them a couple of cheap runs.''

BCO had scoring opportunities, but Suter was able to keep them at bay when it counted, stranding six baserunners in the game.

"We had a tough time scoring runs when we had opportunities today,'' Snyder said.

Luke Hillard had two hits for Lilly Conrad, and drove in Lilly's final run with a groundout in the sixth inning that scored C.J. McCoy, who had led off the inning with a double and advanced to third on Luke McCoy's groundout.

"We didn't tear the cover off the ball tonight, which was a credit to their pitcher, but we were able to put the ball in play,'' Luke McCoy said. "We're here to win it again -- it's no different than any other year. We've just got to continue to come out with the same mindset (Saturday) and try to put some runs on the board.''

BLAIR COUNTY OIL (0): Harbaugh cf 300, Duppstadt rf 302, Spitz p 302, Scarton ss 300, Masone 2b 300, Gochnour 3b 301, Davis 1b 201, Casalvieri c 301, Smith lf 200. Totals - 25-0-7.

LILLY CONRAD CHIROPRACTIC (5): R. Ickes lf 201, Gallaher 1b 201, B. Ickes 3b 300, C.J. McCoy c 311, L. McCoy ss 300, Hillard 2b 312, Dunlap dh 200, Bracken cr-dh 110, Fabbri rf 201, Yost cf 221. Totals - 23-5-7.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Blair County Oil 000 000 0-- 0 7 2

Lilly Conrad 001 031 X -- 5 7 0

E--Masone, Casalvieri. 2B--C.J. McCoy. SF--R. Ickes. SB--Yost 2, Duppstadt, Gallaher. CS--R. Ickes (Casalvieri to Gochnour); Gallaher (Spitz to Scarton). LOB--Blair County Oil 6, Lilly Conrad Chiropractic 2. DP--Lilly turned one.

PITCHING

Blair County Oil: Spitz (L) 6IP, 7H, 5R, 2ER, 5SO, OBB.

Lilly Conrad: Suter (W) 7IP, 7H, 0R, 0ER, 4SO, 1BB.

Umpires: Dave Meckley (plate); Jay Frank (first base).

Time of game: 1:34.

Pro Fab goes up 1-0

Pro Fab Solutions blew a 4-0 lead but came back and beat Sheetz, 8-5, in the first game of a best-of-three City League semifinal series on Friday night at Vets Field.

Joey DeRubeis sparked the comeback for Pro Fab with an inside-the-park grand slam to account for four of his five runs batted in.

Ian Slate had two hits for Pro Fab Solutions, which got a complete game on the mound from Lance Westover, who struck out eight batters in earning the win.

Aidan Steinbugl, Owen Kravetz and Parker Gregg each had two hits for Sheetz. Steinbugl added two RBIs.

SHEETZ (5): Gregg lf 412, Steinbugl ss 402, Muffie 3b 301, Kravetz rf 412, Ca. Sanders p 300, Johnston p 100, Treese cf 300, Hillard 1b 310, Co. Sanders c 201, Young dh 311, Schmoke 000. Totals -- 30-5-9.

PRO FAB SOLUTIONS (8): Repko 2b 420, DeRubeis ss 422, Yahner dh 301, L. Mento c 201, Ball 3b 200, Cook cf 211, Slate rf 312, Wesover p 301, M. Mento lf 221. Totals -- 25-8-8.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Sheetz 000 013 1--5 9 2

Pro Fab 003 104 X--8 9 1

E--Schmoke, Steinbugl, Slate. 2B--Co. Sanders, Kravetz, M. Mento, Yahner. RBI--Steinbugl 2, Gregg, Muffie, Treese, DeRubeis 5, Yahner, Westover. WP--Westover. LP--Johnston. SO--Westover 8, Ca. Sanders 7, Johnston 1. BB--Westover 4, Johnston 2.

Series: Pro Fab Solutions leads series, 1-0.

Starting at /week.