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  • Martella’s catcher Steve Bills tags out Livonia’s Aaron Cieslak during the sixth inning of Tuesday’s game at Point Stadium. Todd Berkey

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August 12, 2009

Martella’s topples Livonia

By ERIC KNOPSNYDER

Landon Wahl played a key role in Martella’s Pharmacy’s AAABA Tournament victory on Monday.

It was a different kind of wall that helped the Johnstown entry improve to 2-0 on Tuesday at Point Stadium.

A day after Wahl pitched a complete-game victory, Ryan Zamiskie was even better in throwing a three-hitter as Martella’s beat Livonia 2-1 thanks to some timely substitutions and a fortuitous bounce.

“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” said Martella’s catcher Steve Bills, who made one of the biggest plays of the game by tagging Livonia’s Aaron Cieslak out at the plate in the sixth inning to preserve a 1-1 tie.

With Cieslak on third, Zamiskie threw a pitch in the dirt that got past Bills. Cieslak broke from third, but the ball bounced off the block wall behind home plate and directly back to Bills, who sprinted to home, blocked the plate and tagged Cieslak for the third out of the inning.

“I knew it was their leadoff guy, so he was pretty fast, but I saw that I had time to beat him to the plate and save a throw,” Bills said. “I pretty much just sat on the plate.”

Zamiskie didn’t allow a runner past second base the rest of the way.

“The ball didn’t bounce our way,” Livonia manager Rick Berryman said. “(If it did on) the one play at the plate, it’s a tie ballgame. I thought the umpire might have anticipated the call, but that happens.”

Martella’s took the lead the next half inning. Just a batter after Steve Anderson made a spectacular diving catch into the wall in left field to rob Mike LeViseur of extra bases, Mike Pelekanos ripped a double to center field.

Martella’s manager Chris Pfeil made a pair of substitutions, inserting Jon Kirby to pinch run for Pelekanos and having Pat Kohl pinch hit for Evan Gazza.

The moves paid off, as Kohl singled off Livonia starter Brady Cooper to score Kirby with the go-ahead run.

“I noticed that the second baseman was playing pretty much on the bag,” Kohl said. “I was trying to wait as long as possible to drive the ball to right side. He ended up giving me that pitch out over the middle. I didn’t mean to hit it that hard, but I got it through the hole.”

That was enough for Zamiskie, who needed just 97 pitches to throw the complete game. He struck out five while walking two and hitting a batter.

“Ryan Zamiskie was unbelievable,” Pfeil said. “He really was. He’s not a strikeout guy, but he sure uses his infield. We even had a couple of hiccups, but he overcame them and got tough when he needed to.”

The only run Livonia scored was unearned. Nich Plinka reached on an error by third baseman Jordan Kaufman in third and Cieslak followed with an infield single. Brett Mazmanian’s single off the leg of Zamiskie rolled into no-man’s land in short right field, allowing Plinka to score from second.

Martella’s had gone ahead in the top half of the inning when Colin Harrington doubled and scored on Chris Rasky’s single.

Zamiskie made sure Martella’s didn’t need much more.

“I was confident,” Zamiskie said. “This team had never seen me before, so it was just like any other ballteam. I thought if I threw my game they would just hit easy grounders and my fielders would take care of them.”

Berryman was impressed by what he saw from Zamiskie.

“He mixed his pitches well,” Berryman said. “You’ve got to give him credit. He changed speeds, kept the ball away from our hitters.”

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