EDITOR’S NOTE: This the final part of the 1976 baseball season in the Federation, J-C and J-I Leagues. This is the final part of the Jefferson-Indiana League which had a four-team playoff setup very similar to the Federation League. Game highlights come from the Punxsutawney Spirit which covered the league very well.
Final standings
North: Brookville Grays 23-6, Valier Bombers 20-8, Ringgold Royals 13-16, Summerville Braves 7-22, Timblin Lions 6-24, New Bethlehem Merchants 6-24.
South: Hotel Pirates 20-7, Gipsy Giants 20-7, Rossiter Miners 18-9, Anita Winecrushers 16-11, Big Run Cardinals 10-16
In the J-I League semifinals, it was the Brookville Grays sweeping the Valier Bombers in two games of a best-of-three series, 4-3 and 6-1, while the Punxsutawney Hotel Pirates roughed up the Gipsy Giants in two straight, 15-4 and 11-2.
That set up quite the finals series:
Game 1: Grays 4, Hotel 1
The Hotel’s Mike Lepionka cruised into the eighth inning — games were nine-inning contests — with a five-hit shutout against the Grays before the Grays erupted for four runs to take the crucial first game of the finals.
With one run in, Gary Gilhousen ripped a double to plate Tim Yoho for the go-ahead run. Myron Carrodus, who walked, went to third on Gilhousen’s double and scored on Randy Heasley’s sacrifice fly and then winning pitcher Rick Simpson singled in Gilhousen for the fourth run.
The Hotel scored in the bottom of the seventh when Rudy Haponski came home on Dan Kaizer’s single. Kaizer had four hits while Mark Glenn finished with three for the Grays. Gilhousen had three hits, with two singles to go with his RBI double.
On the mound Simpson struck out six and walked none while giving up 10 hits. Simpson worked out of trouble, stranding eight Pirates on base. Lepionka hung the loss, striking out 10 and walking four in 7-1/3 innings.
Game 2: Hotel 7, Grays 3
One day later, the Hotel Pirates evened the series with a 7-3 win over the visiting Grays on Thursday, Aug. 12.
Heasley gave the Grays a 3-0 lead with a two-out three-run homer in the first inning, but the Hotel scored seven unanswered runs. The Pirates tied it up with three runs in the second with Ken Neal singling in two runs.
The Pirates took the lead for good in the fifth when Don Tylinski hit a two-run homer off Grays starter Heasley. They tacked on two more runs in the sixth inning.
Haponski was the winning pitcher, striking out six and walking two, surviving a rocky start but retiring 11 straight Grays at one points before a two-out single in the eighth.
Game three was scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 15, but was rained out, forcing the third game of the series at Brookville’s Memorial Field to be moved to Tuesday, Aug. 17.
Game 3: Grays 6, Hotel 3
As the Punxsutawney Spirit reported, “Tempers flared in Brookville last night as the Brookville Grays took a hotly contested game from the Punxsutawney Hotel Pirates by the score of 6-3. … The strain of the playoffs was starting to show in the players of both teams as they argued with each other, the umpires and the fans.”
The Grays scored what turned out to be the winning run in the bottom of the sixth when Gilhousen singled. After two walks issued by Lepionka, he retired the Grays on two flyouts before walking three more to force in three runs.
The Grays scored two more runs in the eighth.
Jim Rhodes was the winning pitcher, striking out 11 and walking one while Lepionka took the loss, striking out five and walking 13.
Naturally, that alone stirred up the Pirates, whom the Spirit reported, had a “running feud with umpire John Moir. He ruled Rick Simpson safe on a play at the plate in the fifth. Catcher Don Rizzardo dropped the ball, but the Pirates argued he had the ball long enough for the out.”
Eventually, Moir ejected the Hotel’s Cy Sitosky for arguing balls and strikes.
The game was Lepionka’s last on the mound for either the J-I League with the Pirates or the DuBois Rockets in the J-C League. He did pitch in the season-ending Gamey Showers Tournament in DuBois. Between the leagues, available stats had him going at least 77 total innings with 122 strikeouts — 38 in 27-2/3 innings with the Rockets and 84 in 49-1/3 innings. He struck out 23 (9-inning game) in a 5-0 win for the Pirates over Valier in a July 28 game.
The arguments continued after the game as the teams couldn’t agree on a playing date for the fourth game of the series. The Grays wanted Thursday and the Hotel wanted Saturday, but the Grays prevailed for Game 4 to be played Thursday at Punxsutawney’s Kuntz Field with a fifth game, if necessary, to be played also at Kuntz because the Hotel had a better regular-season record.
As it turned out, the first shot at finishing game four ended with a 4-4 tie after eight innings with the contest stopped by darkness. With the score tied at 4-4 in the top of the eighth, the Grays appeared to be ready to score the tie-breaking run when Tom Simpson ripped long fly ball to right field with two outs and two on after Haponski intentionally walked Rhodes with a base open.
However, Tom Uberti tracked it down and made a tumbling catch to save, for the Pirates at the time, the series. The Hotel didn’t score in the bottom and the game was called.
Simpson threw all eight for the Grays while Haponski threw for the Hotel.
Now, it was going to be a series-deciding doubleheader at Kuntz Field on Sunday, Aug. 22. If the Hotel won the opener, a deciding fifth game would follow.
Game 4-5: Pirates
win the league title
The Hotel swept the twinbill, but only had to play 12 innings, and they were all contested in the first game.
In a classic finish to the season, the first game went to the bottom of the 12th inning. The Grays led 9-8 with two outs and the bases loaded.
Al Kaizer, pinch-hitting for John Knopick, lined a one-strike pitch to left field to score Tony Poy and then Don Rizzardo who was ruled safe at the plate by umpire Carl Truance as the throw from Rhodes in left got to the catcher Carrodus who applied the tag.
When the dust settled, Truance made the call and the series was even.
However, as per the Spirit, “a near brawl and hot tempers took over. Truance was punched from behind by one of the Grays and both benches and several fans streamed on to the field to do battle. Everybody finally calmed down and it was announced that after a half-hour break, the fifth game of the series would be played.’
The Grays thought otherwise as co-managers Dick Heasley and Walter “Bud” Simpson talked to their team, which was convinced that the play they thought was a no-brainer at the plate signaled possible things to come.
“Bud and Dick said, ‘Do you guys want to play this game?’ and the consensus was that there was no sense playing,” said Grays Ron Racchini earlier this summer.
Rhodes concurred. “We didn’t have a chance. We just kind of got together and said that we can’t put up with this any more.”
“Instead of taking the field, though, Brookville took to their cars and went home,” The Spirit reported. “The Hotel took the field at the scheduled time, and the umpires ruled the game forfeited by a score of 9-0, thus crowning a new league champion.”
And that was that.
The Grays did return to the J-I League in 1977 and won the title, sweeping the Pirates in three games.