Mike Kammerer is in his third season with the Limeport Bulls in the Tri-County League and said his previous playoff experience consisted of watching the Northern Yankees beat his team in the first round of the postseason each of the past two seasons.
Kammerer, a recent Central Catholic graduate headed to Kutztown University, was determined to change that scenario on Saturday night.
In his first playoff pitching performance, Kammerer, a lanky righthander, handcuffed the two-time defending champion Yankees on four hits and the Bulls chipped away for single runs in three different innings to post a 3-1 victory in Game 1 of the Tri-County League semifinals.
The best-of-five series resumes Sunday at 5 p.m. at Scherersville.
"I found out last Saturday I was going in Game 1, and I mentally prepared for it and was really looking forward to it," Kammerer said. "It feels great to finally beat these guys. Most of my pitches were working tonight. My slider was going good. I just had two strikeouts and they were in the first inning, but I was pitching to contact. They were putting the bat on the ball, but they weren't making solid contact and my defense did the job."
Kammerer allowed just four hits, walked one and hit two batters as Limeport, the No. 1 seed, beat the Yankees for the fifth time in six meetings this season.
"Mike Kammerer is a true competitor," Limeport player-manager Mike Cudwadie said. "There's no kid that wants the ball more in a big spot than him. He wanted the ball in Game 1 and told us that if we got him a couple of runs, we'd win. Sure enough, he got us a 3-1 win."
The Bulls (26-7) staked Kammerer to an early lead.
Leadoff man Cudwadie singled to start the bottom of the first and Greg Hemberger followed with a hit. Cudwadie wound up scoring on a two-out wild pitch.
Limeport added a second run in the second when Allen Umbenhauer reached on a two-base error, moved to third on Adam Ganser's groundout and scored on Brady Sandercock's groundout.
The Yankees cut the deficit to 2-1 in the fourth on a J.R. Kirchner sacrifice fly, but wouldn't score again.
Limeport extended the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth when Cudwadie and Hemberger singled and Cudwadie moved to third on Ben Swatsky's grounder to first before scoring on Matt Godusky's sacrifice fly.
Cudwadie and Hemberger combined for four of Limeport's five hits.
"These are the kind of games we're going to play against these guys," Cudwadie said. "They got good pitching. [Caleb] Calarco has beaten us a ton of times in the playoffs, so it was nice to get him finally. All in all, we did what we had to do to win. We scratched across enough runs and Kammerer did the rest. Little things got the job done."
Northern Yankees manager Brian Polaha, whose team fell to 21-12, agreed it was the little things that made the difference.
"When you have two good pitchers going at it, it comes down to the little things," Polaha said. "Kammerer did what he needed to do and we couldn't get the big hit. We left quite a few on in scoring position. We wanted productive at-bats and making productive outs and it didn't happen. Tonight, we were up in the count several times and all we could do with those situations was get lazy flyballs."
Kammerer was a part of three consecutive District 11 championship basketball teams at CCHS, but never got into the baseball playoffs.
He said it would be nice to take a baseball title with him to college.
"This is a great group of guys, we're all tight and good friends," Kammerer said. "It would be great to win a championship. It's good to be a game up, but it takes three games to win the series. We've still got a ways to go yet."
Cooper Michael will get the ball for the Bulls in Game 2 and the Yankees will counter with Elliott Mortimer.
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Northern Yankees 000 100 0 – 1 4 1
Limeport Bulls 110 001 x—3 5 0
Calarco and Faust; Kammerer and Umbenhauer.
Notes: LImeport takes 1-0 lead in best-of-five semifinal series. Game 2 at 5 p.m. Sunday at Scherersville. Cudwadie 2 hits, 2 runs. Greg Hemberger 2 hits. Brady Sandercock, Matt Godusky RBIs for Limeport; other run scored on a wild pitch. J.R. Kirchner sac fly for lone Yankees run. Mike Kammerer, WP, 4 H, 1 BB 2 Ks, 2 HBP.
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