Belmont Inn caps season turnaround with 9-3 victory
CONNELLSVILLE TWP. 鈥� Belmont Inn capped off a remarkable turnaround when it defeated Dunbar, 9-3, to clinch a berth in the Fayette County Baseball League playoffs on Thursday night.
With the win, Belmont Inn (14-10), who won eight out of their last nine after starting the season 6-9, will face top-seeded Blue Mountain next week.
The Copperheads eliminated Belmont Inn from the semifinals last year, and swept them in the regular season, 4-0.
鈥淲e are excited to face them,鈥� said Steve Kezmarsky, Belmont Inn蘑菇视频 manager. 鈥淭hey have a deep team and are loaded with pitchers this year, which will make for some exciting games. I disagree with the decision of only allowing four teams into the playoffs, but the teams in this year will provide for some exciting baseball.鈥�
Jeremy Molinaro improved to 4-1 as he threw a one-hitter and allowed no runs through four innings, while Belmont Inn took an 8-0 lead.
Had it not been for the layoff until the playoffs, Molinaro, who walked three batters and struck out seven, might have pitched a complete game.
鈥淚 would have kept him in there, but the playoffs are a week away and I needed to get (Sam) Beucher in the game,鈥� said Kezmarsky. 鈥淢olinaro, I feel, is perhaps our best pitcher and Beucher is right there with him.鈥�
Beucher surrendered six hits for two earned runs in the sixth, as Dunbar (2-20) trimmed Belmont Inn蘑菇视频 lead to 8-3.
However, that would be as close as Dunbar would get, as Belmont expanded its lead to 9-3 in the seventh when Nick Erminio scored on an error.
Evan Arison matched Erminio with three hits, and scored the eventual game-winning run in the third when he drilled a Robert Halfhill pitch into fenceless left field for a two-run home run to put Belmont Inn ahead, 4-0.
Arison and Blake Robinson finished with two RBI each, while Erminio led with three runs scored.
The win gave Belmont their fourth victory against Dunbar in less than a week for the season sweep.
While happy with the win, Kezmarsky felt the result didn鈥檛 match Dunbar蘑菇视频 efforts.
鈥淭hey are really a nice team led by a very nice manager,鈥� said Kezmarsky. 鈥淭hey gave a lot of effort, but they are a young team and will learn from this. We were there before.鈥�
Meanwhile, Dunbar manager Jeff McWilliams felt his team蘑菇视频 hitting performance was the difference.
鈥淲e just didn鈥檛 hit the ball well,鈥� said McWilliams. 鈥淭heir pitcher (Molinaro) didn鈥檛 really give us a hard time, because he is from Connellsville and all these kids on our team played against him or with him. We just didn鈥檛 capitalize on hits.鈥�
Belmont Inn enjoyed a 12-7 advantage in hits.
Halfhill falls to 0-2, allowing four earned runs on five hits with a walk and strikeout in three innings of work.
Brandon Noonan entered the game in relief of Halfhill in the fourth, and contributed offensively in sixth when he drove in Alex Fogle and Jake Swink, while later reaching on a fielder蘑菇视频 choice.
Fogle led Dunbar with two hits.
Dunbar will travel to Blue Mountain on Saturday.