Elyria Sports Hall of Fame: Resilience and versatility took Elyria baseball team to state in 1992

It was the eighth inning and Amherst had just scored three runs to take a 7-4 lead over Elyria in a 1992 Division I district final. What happened next propelled the Pioneers all the way to the state semifinals, a lasting place in Elyria sports history and to being inducted into the Elyria Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday at Lorain County Community College's Spitzer Center. Most teams would have folded up the tent and gone home but not the Pioneers, who had already fought back from an early deficit. The Pioneers trailed 4-0 going to the bottom of the fourth inning and Phil Kuchta, their ace left-hander, was struggling. Elyria fought rallied with two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth but wasn't able to tie the game until it was down to its last strike in the bottom of the seventh. With nobody on and down 0-2 in the count, Antoine Perkins worked the count back for a walk. The next hitter, Brian Goodman, was quickly down 0-2 but drove the next pitch into right field for a single. Dave Modock tied the game with another single, forcing extra innings. When Amherst scored three in the eighth, even Elyria's coach, the always optimistic Curt Karpinski, felt the game had slipped away. "We were losing the whole game," Karpinski said. "Top of the eighth, they score three runs. Wow. But when I went over to the bench, five guys had their helmets on expecting to bat." They all did. Matt Neuschaefer led off by beating out an infield hit. Troy Kurtz walked and Joe Norton singled in Neuschaefert. That brought Elyria's most productive hitter to the plate — first-baseman Mark Stomieroski, who had flied out three times. Stomieroski found the gap in right-center, scoring Kurtz and Norton and the game was tied at 7 with still nobody out. Abdul Mallory was sent in to run for Stomieroski. "We hung in there," Kurtz said. "That's the one thing with us. We never laid over and died to anybody. We thought we could come back every time." Amherst coach Norris Smith took out his starting pitcher, Todd Mezlak, and brought in Ian Smith. With no outs, surely Karpinski would bunt the runner to third base, right? Nope. Shawn Travers instead delivered a game-winning double to left-center on an 0-2 count. The Pioneers had survived five-errors and 10 Amherst hits to win 8-7 and head to the Sweet 16. "We had so many guys step up," Kuchta said. "I wasn't pitching well and that was one of the few games that year where I had that kind of trouble. So many guys bailed us out with a timely hit, a piece of baserunning or a play in the outfield." "That game was a testament to our resiliency," Stomieroski said. "Everybody did what was asked. We just knew what we needed to do." "That's the kind of kids they were," Karpinski said. Kuchta's line certainly wasn't his best. He allowed 10 hits, seven runs — three earned — walked four and struck out five, but he ended up getting the win. "I often wondered why Karp didn't take me out," Kuchta said. "He pulled me aside at one point, maybe the eighth inning, and said 'We're sticking with you. We're going to get through this.'" The Pioneers rolled through the regional, winning 13-5 over Painesville Riverside and 9-5 over Normandy to earn the school's only trip to the final four, joining crosstown Elyria West at the state tournament. The Wolverines, who went on to win the Division II championship, were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010. Fate wasn't as kind to the Pioneers, who lost 5-1 to North Canton Hoover in the semifinals. The Hoover game was postponed twice by rain and wet grounds. The final score is misleading, however, as the Pioneers had several chances to wipe away the deficit only to have the Vikings make great defensive plays. Stomieroski was robbed of two hits, including a long fly to right with the bases loaded and two out in the seventh. "We got into a hole that day and we really battled," Stomieroski said. "We just didn't have good fortune on our side. We did everything we could but we just couldn't come back." The Pioneers finished 23-2, setting a school record for wins in a season. They had won 14 straight going into the Hoover game. They were a versatile team that had good pitching and defense, ran the bases well and could hit and hit for power. Kuchta (9-1, 1.31 ERA), Scott Young (6-0, 1.37), Chad Montgomery (4-1, 2.31) and Travers (3-0, 1.33) headed the pitching staff. Stomieroski (.467, 39 RBIs), Kurtz (.415, 22 stolen bases), Perkins (.393), Norton (.373, 26 RBIs) and Neuschaefer (.339, 14 stolen bases) led the offense. The team scored exactly 200 runs for the season (eight runs a game) and gave up only 60 (2.4 per game). "Our top four, five guys could really hit," Stomieroski said. "You had Kurtz and Neuschaefer, who could get on base and run. They started a lot of it." "The one thing we started doing in '92 was the Lord's Prayer out in the outfield before each game," Kuchta said. "I got that from Art Daniels and basketball. We circled up, we held hands and we did that. It just sort of stuck with our team. It sort of galvanized us and brought us closer together. It really helped us buy into one another and what each person was capable of." Jen Forbus was the scorekeeper and became an important ingredient to the success of the team. Elyria was versatile with its lefty-righty lineup, depending on the opposing starting pitcher. "She would ask for the lineup," Karpinski said. "Want to go left hand or right hand? I would say left hand or right hand and after that, she did it. We either went left, right, left, right (batter) all the way down or right, left, right, left. She just did one heck of a job. I was allowed to coach because I didn't have to worry about any of the paperwork." Karpinski had two of his former players on hand to help coach in Dave Thompson and Mike Ellis. "Dave was a pitcher-catcher my first year coaching," he said. "Needless to say, he worked with the pitchers and catchers. Mike, who is still coaching at Elyria Catholic, both of those guys were steadying influences. They related well with the players. It was a lot of fun to coach." Karpinski had a lot of good, solid teams at Elyria but has fond memories of the 1992 bunch. "This team took me to state, I didn't take them," he said. "Not looking at stats or abilities or anything other than the fact these guys were a true team. They believed in the team concept. They were not selfish." Contact Tim Gebhardt at 329-7135 or at timothygeb@msn.com.