WEST PITTSTON — When neither team’s bats are heating up, like on a 53-degree Wednesday afternoon, manufacturing runs becomes essential.
Lake-Lehman was able to construct a few more runs than Wyoming Area, but whether that will be enough for a win won’t be known for about three weeks.
The showdown between Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 baseball frontrunners was suspended in the top of the eighth with Lehman ahead 8-6. The game will resume at Lehman on April 23, where the Black Knights will have the bases loaded with no outs. The regularly scheduled game will follow.
Although ominous clouds were present throughout, the suspension wasn’t for darkness but rather brightness.
The red lights on the scoreboard in center field shined so brightly because of the black/gray sky that Lehman hitters said they couldn’t see pitches.
“The scoreboard lights were glaring, and they couldn’t see the ball when they were pitching,” Lehman coach Mike Sholtis said. “You couldn’t see the ball because of the red scoreboard lights. So (the umpire) said for safety it wasn’t worth it.”
“It’s kind of unfortunate but what you going to do,” Wyoming Area coach Rob Lemoncelli said. “Things you can’t control, right.”
The unusual suspension was one of many quirks in the game.
• Wyoming Area led 6-2 after four innings despite just three hits and getting the ball out of the infield three times. One of those occasions was a foul flyout to right field.
• During those four innings, the Warriors walked six times, had three batters hit by pitches, scored a run on a balk and another on a throwing error to third base, where the ball sailed completely out of the Atlas complex, across Erie Street and ended up in a business parking lot in neighboring Exeter.
• Lehman appeared it was going to tie the score 6-6 in the top of the sixth when Justin Morris broke for home on a wild pitch. The ball ricocheted off the backstop, and Wyoming Area reliever David Favata, who was charging in to cover the plate, caught it in midair and applied the tag for the third out.
• Morris was able to get some revenge on the home-plate area in the top of the eighth when Lehman scored twice. He hit a bases-loaded dribbler up the third base line that was fielded by Wyoming Area catcher Max Langdon.
Langdon’s only play was to tag Lehman’s Tyler Sassi sprinting home from third. Sassi, though, was able to twist away from Langdon’s diving attempt. Will Jenkins followed with a walk to force in a run. The game was then suspended.
• Lehman’s defense turned inning-ending double plays with the bases loaded in the first and third innings. The first was a traditional 6-4-3 twin killing. The other was an unconventional 5-2-3.
• Even Mother Nature played a role. The temperature in West Pittston was in the low 70s around noon and then plunged dramatically over the next few hours. The real-feel temperature dipped to the mid-40s during the game.
