From The Morning Call -- July 19, 2002

North Parkland rallies to edge South Parkland 6-5 in semifinal
Ninth-inning overthrow allows Justin Gallagher to race home for win.

By Ted Meixell
Of The Morning Call
In just about every sport, speed kills. In baseball, walks often kill you deader.

Thursday night at Balliet Stadium, a mixture of the two proved lethal to South Parkland (19-4), as cross-township rival North Parkland (19-4) rallied for a 6-5 victory.

It also pushed the Buffaloes into a fourth clash with Lower Macungie (18-5) at 7 tonight in the winners' bracket final of the Lehigh Valley Legion League's postseason tournament at Fullerton.

The Mighty Macs blanked Emmaus 10-0 in Thursday night's other winners' bracket semifinal.

Justin Gallagher provided the speed. He scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning, racing around from second to score on an overthrow on Mark Mihalik's grounder to third.

Eric Rosner, pinch hitter Danny Cocca and Chris Morrell drew the killer walks, which, wrapped around Casey Baltsar's booming double and a wild pitch, enabled the Buffs to score twice in the eighth to tie the game at 5.

Gallagher singled sharply to center leading off the ninth and went to second on winning pitcher Garrison Rausch's bunt. Mihalik then slapped one to third, and, when the throw went awry, he easily dashed home with the gamer.

''I knew Mark would put the bat on the ball,'' Gallagher said. ''I was going to try for third on the throw to first, just like Freddie did in the seventh. When I saw the ball was on the ground and rolling away, I just turned it on.''

Rausch, a 16-year-old southpaw with poise that belies his youth, tossed 32/3 innings in relief of veteran Jeff Mazalewski to pick up the win. He struck out two and made just one mistake.

Brandon Rosenblatt launched that mistake, a hanging curve, for a 400-foot home run to right that gave South Parkland its ill-fated 5-3 lead in the top of the eighth. But Rausch's heroics, and those walks and the speed, denied Rosenblatt becoming a much-deserved hero.

Just before pounding his dinger, Rosenblatt snagged Rausch's liner to fairly deep center and fired a one-hop strike to Jeremy Faust to nail Frederick at the plate to end the seventh and preserve a 4-3 lead.

''Coach Stoudt has been putting me into situations like this all year, but this was a good South Parkland team,'' Rausch said. ''Rosenblatt really teed off on that high curve, but once we tied it in the eighth I felt very confident that I could hold them and we'd pull it out.''

According to Gallagher, the Buffaloes will also be a very motivated team against Lower Mac tonight.

''We beat Lower Mac the last game of the regular season in a game that meant a lot to us and not much to them,'' Gallagher said. ''Then, in the championship series, they got the better of us. They played better than us.

''I don't think the best North Parkland team showed up those two days, but I think you'll see that best North Parkland team .''

Rosner was the only Buffalo with more than one hit. Rosenblatt had three, and Chris Thompson and Justin Turnbull two each for the South.

South Parkland 010 012 010 — 5 12 4

North Parkland 120 000 021 — 6 9 1

Greg Williams, Rick Seltzer (8) and Jeremy Faust; Jeff Mazalewski, Garrison Rausch (6) and Kelly Frantz, Chris Richard (7). WP: Rausch. LP: Seltzer. HR: SP - Brandon Rosenblatt (8th, 0 on).

ted.meixell@mcall.com

610-820-6505