Upper Providence 12U baseball wins state title.
Great pitching earns Red Sox 3rd title in 4 years
In its first three games, Spring City demonstrated the ability to win games even with minimal run production.
Wednesday, the Red Sox flexed a bit more offensive muscle against Plymouth-Whitemarsh. And with that, they won the Pennsylvania Junior American Legion State Tournament championship.
Spring City capped its trip to Homer City with a 7-2 victory over the Colonials. It banged out 10 hits and used a five-run second inning to set the tone in the second of two championship-round games played on the tourney’s final day.
“Bats, pitching and defense got us through the tournaments,” SC manager Mike Skrocki said after seeing his program finish as state champion for the third time in four years. The Sox won back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015, with the Boyertown Bear-Cubls claiming the 2016 championship.
The Sox, who came into states off a title showing in the Berwick Regional, scored a solo run in the sixth for a 7-0 lead that proved insurmountable. PW, champion of the Boyertown Regional, got its runs in the sixth and seventh.
It stood in contrast to their first three games, where the Red Sox bene- fited from strong pitching to win by a combined score of 6-0. For the tournament, SC had a 15-12 run differential over the opposition.
“We just got hot through the regional,” Skrocki said. “Pitching and defense.”
Colin Amerine had three of SC’s hits, with Matthew Collons and Vincent DiNenna adding two apiece. Avery Lee drove in two Sox runs while Amerine and Danny Zoller each added an RBI.
Lee pitched six innings before Collons finished off the win. Zach Chandler went the distance on the mound for the Colonials, who qualified for the championship-round by scoring a 10-2 victory on Spring City in Tuesday’s championship-qualifier round.
Colloms was accorded Most Valuable Player (MVP) honors at states, with ZacharyMale named the tournament’s top pitcher.
“We started playingwell,” Skrocki said. “It started coming together. We had some struggles early.”
PW had won four straight games after being dropped into the losers’ bracket byWarren Post 135 in Saturday’s opening round. The Colonials exacted their revenge on the West Regional champion with an 11-1 romp in Wednesday’s first game.
Skrocki noted Spring City will play host for the 2018 state tournament.