More cowbell please.
The Limeport Bulls, a team known over the years for having at least one fan with a cowbell in the stands, punched its ticket back into the Blue Mountain League finals with a 6-1 win over the Elite Sports Academy Avengers Sunday night in Limeport.
The semifinal sweep sets up a BML championship series rematch with the Egypt Orioles. Game 1 in the best-of-five series is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at Egypt Memorial Park.
Veteran pitcher Adam Maini limited the Avengers to one run on eight hits. He walked one and struck out two.
Liberty High graduate and Fairfield University product Eric Ludwig sparked a 10-hit attack with three hits, Jorge Montes and Zack Smith had two apiece and Brayden Rader knocked in a pair of runs.
The Bulls, who also swept a first-round series over the Easton Falcons, are 23-8-1. They broke a 1-1 tie with two runs in the top of the third – Limeport was the visiting team even though the game was played on their home field – and then put it away with three in the fifth.
“We’ve been in this league for 10 years and we’ve been in the semifinals every year,” said manager C.J. Saliby. “We’ve been in the finals six or seven years and we’ve won four championships. We kind of thought this was how it was going to be, us against the Orioles. We know how good they are and we know what we have, so it should be exciting. We just have to play our game and not worry about anything else.”
On Sunday night, the Bulls’ game was to give the ball to a guy who has been around local baseball since he graduated from Emmaus High School in 1988. Maini, who had been been with the Bulls since their days in the Tri-County League and then spent the last few years with Northampton, is happy to be back.
“This is what I’ve been doing most my life and I love pitching and just the aspect of it,” said Maini, who is an assistant coach at Whitehall High School. “I love coaching, too, but I still want the ball whenever I can get it. I had a good year this year by keeping teams off balance.”
Maini threw 93 pitches, 65 for strikes.
“The pitch selection was heavy with the cutter and a lot of changeups,” he said. “I tried to go in and out and keep them off balance. A couple of guys hit the ball hard, but I got a lot of weak contact. My fastball is nowhere near what it used to be, so I just try to relocate and get groundballs. I try to get just enough movement to keep it off the barrel of the bat.”
Maini said the Bulls “are a great young team with some veterans that we rely on as well. We’ve been hitting the ball and our pitching has been great all year. I really like the environment we have here.”
Getting the three-game sweep allowed Limeport the opportunity to have rested arms for the finals.
The Bulls dropped two of three against the Orioles in the regular season, but Limeport also lost the season series against the Avengers and it didn’t matter.
“We’ve had a good rivalry with them,” Saliby said. “It’s been us and them the last couple of years and they get a good crowd and we get a good crowd. We’re looking forward to it. You play all year for this time of year.”
The Avengers, who made the playoffs in just their third year, are already looking forward to next year. They went 18-8-1 in the regular season and tied the Bulls and Orioles for the best record, but couldn’t sustain their early-season momentum. They were held to 13 runs and 19 hits in the three games and eight of the runs came in Game 2 after Limeport jumped out to an 11-0 lead.
“We just didn’t hit,” said Avengers manager Darren LePage. “We just didn’t hit like we did all year. We were hot this season and then we got cold and went on a losing streak. We were happy to get the playoff spot and the No. 2 and the first-round bye and you think the bye’s going to help you but it doesn’t always work that way. We just didn’t click the way I thought we were going to.”
But LePage said his young team, the average age is 20, gained valuable experience and should be stronger next summer.
“I said to the guys after the game that the experience alone of getting three more games and getting this far is something they can’t take away from us,” he said. “We’re already working on adding for next year. We made great strides from year No. 1 to No. 3, and we’re going to keep adding. We’re going to be all right.”
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