Published: July 26, 2009 12:27 am      

Gazza, Martella’s Pharmacy slam Principle Development

JOHNSTOWN — Evan Gazza would have been satisfied with a fair ball and perhaps a good bounce in the right-field corner at Point Stadium.

Instead, the Martella’s Pharmacy slugger was as surprised as anyone when his hooking fly ball clanged off the wide yellow foul pole in right for a 290-foot grand slam.

Gazza’s first-inning homer and a strong outing by right-hander Landon Wahl put Martella’s on track to a 15-5 victory in eight innings and 2-0 series lead over Principle Development in a best-of-5 AAABA League semifinal playoff.

“At first I was just hoping it was going to stay fair,” Gazza said. “The bases were loaded. A base hit there was going to score at least two and put us on the board early and start the game right. I couldn’t believe it actually hit the foul pole.”

The series continues today with another doubleheader at the Point. Regular-season champion Delweld and the Berkley Hills Renegades will play at 4 p.m., with Martella’s and Principle to meet 30 minutes after that game concludes.

“Evan’s grand slam at the beginning really helped,” said Wahl, who struck out six and walked three while allowing one hit in six innings. “It helps when you get ahead really fast like that. I was able to throw all of my pitches for strikes.

“I was hoping they’d hit it to my guys. We made the outs all the time. We had a couple six-pitch innings and a couple four-pitch innings. That helps to get back in there right away. It picks the morale up.”

Wahl induced nine ground-ball outs and a foul pop-up to the catcher. He allowed only three balls to reach the outfield, with two of those as fly outs.

“Wahl has been doing a great job for us all year,” Gazza said. “For him to come out in that situation and shut them down was a great performance by him.”

Martella’s shortstop Sam Watkins was hit by a pitch in the fifth and scored on an errant throw as he stole third.

In the eighth, Martella’s sent 14 batters to the plate, collecting three hits, seven walks and one hit batsman to break open the game. At one point, Martella’s drew five straight walks before Mike LeViseur ripped a two-run double. Principle manager Tony Joseph used three pitchers in the inning.

“We got our butts kicked,” Joseph said. “But (today) is another day.”

With a 13-0 advantage, Martella’s seemed headed to a 10-run mercy rule win in the seventh. But Principle tagged three relievers for five runs to extend the game. Joseph inserted five consecutive pinch hitters to start the inning, and two of those, Dino Tessari and Gregg Bandzuh, had hits. Seth Matthews and T.J. Keklak each had run-producing singles.

Martella’s added a pair in the eighth, an inning highlighted by LeViseur’s run-scoring double down the right-field line.

“It’s never over,” Gazza said. “Our goal is to get to the tournament. This is the first roadblock, the first step. It’s never over until it’s over.”