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BOYERTOWN » Luke Shank wasn’t worried.

The Souderton Post 234 second baseman and his teammates found themselves facing a bases-loaded, nobody out scenario in the bottom of the eighth inning in their Pennsylvania Legion state playoff opener. It certainly wasn’t the first jam Souderton has found itself in this postseason and having managed their way out of all the others, Shank stayed calm.

He also stayed aggressive and after Post 234 got out of that jam, his ninth inning single plated the eventual winning run as Souderton topped Uniontown 2-1 in nine innings at Bear Stadium on Saturday.

“We’ve been playing together so long whether it be travel or school ball and we’ve been in all these close games in leagues and regionals,” Shank said. “This team, we’re resilient, we scrap a lot and when that spot comes up, someone comes through.”

Shank, who went 2-for-4 on Saturday, scored Souderton’s first run in the fifth inning then drove in Moses Clemens with his ninth-inning laser down the first base line. As soon as he saw Uniontown starter Andio Vecchiolla warming up though, the infielder knew it was going to be a close game.

Vecchiolla was very good in his six innings of work, but it wasn’t enough to give the Region 6 champs any kind of ad-

vantage. That’s because Souderton, the Region 2 champions, sent their quietly clutch secret weapon to the mound.

Luke Taylor, who’s been a workhorse all postseason, got the start and came out dealing. The right-hander threw an even 100 pitches in seven innings of work, striking out nine and yielding just five hits.

“I’m just hitting my spots mainly, my last game I didn’t have my best outing, but I was hitting my spots today,” Taylor said. “I mixed in my curve and changeup, I think that’s the main thing that helped me because they started to get on my fastball so I mixed in the off-speed to keep them off-balance.”

After emerging from a rain-soaked Region 2 tournament with staff ace Dan Knechel unavailable to pitch, Souderton manager Paul Meara went back to Taylor, who had gutted through a key game in regionals to keep other guys’ innings alive. In what is believed to be the first state playoff game in Souderton Legion history, Taylor came through again.

He couldn’t have started much better, striking out four batters in the first inning. Even though the first player reached on an error, the righty just kept firing and said it gave him a lot of momentum that carried through the rest of his efficient outing.

“I felt good after that, I got a lot of fastballs in there and overpowered them in the beginning,” Taylor said. “They got on

it a bit later, but that let me mix in stuff and really gave me a lot of momentum.”

The hurler said his arm felt good on Saturday, better than it had his past few starts and said he threw with the expectation he was going six or seven innings. His efficiency helped, and Taylor added he didn’t think he lost any strength as the game wore on.

Souderton knew Taylor was going to come through for them again.

“Taylor’s got a little swagger, he’s cool, calm and collected,” Shank said. “I don’t think he ever feels the pressure, he doesn’t show emotion. He’ll be dealing and nothing but when he gets in trouble, there’s still no expression and it’s just easier to play behind a guy like that.”

In talking with some of the Uniontown players, Shank discovered Post 51 had been run-ruling its way to most of its postseason wins. He felt the longer it stayed a tight game, the more it would benefit Souderton due to the abundance of tight spots Post 234 had been in the past few weeks.

Uniontown took a 1-0 lead on a sac fly in the bottom of the fourth inning, but after Shank roped a one-out double in the top of the fifth, he scored on Knechel’s RBI single.

“He K’d me up on three pitches my first at-bat so in my second at-bat I had to make my adjustment and keep the front side in,” Shank said. “I knew it was coming, went down and got it.”

Souderton had its chances too. In the sixth, Tim Robinson was hit by a pitch, then moved all

the way to third with one out on an errant pick-off throw but never scored. Post 234 had men at second and first with one out in the eighth and got nothing when a short flyout to right turned into a double play.

Once Taylor hit his limit, Souderton turned to Nolan Bolton, the team’s closer. Bolton immediately found himself in the jam of all jams when Unionville loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the eighth.

The inning started with Bolton hitting the leadoff batter, then the next man up put down a sacrifice bunt that just died on the first base line and finally, a third bunt eluded a charging Bolton off the mound to load the bags.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Bolton said of his following Houdini-like escape. “I threw a lot of curve balls because I knew they were hitting the fast balls. It was a lot of off-speed and letting my fielders do the work.”

Bolton struck out Uniontown cleanup batter Ian Edenfield for the first out, then got third baseman Nate Zimocsky to break his bat on a liner right into shortstop Kyle Lennon’s glove. Lennon defty fired to third where Knechel was able to get the bag for the third out and end the frame.

Lennon, who moved into Bolton’s shortstop spot when the rising Dock senior went to pitch, also had the game-ending defensive play when he initiated a 6-4-3 double play to seal the victory.

“Last game he had a double play hit to him that ended an inning and basically the same thing tonight,” Bolton said. “We want to win. We came up here to win, we weren’t interested in coming here to lose, we’re not having fun when we lose.”

In the ninth, Moses Clemens got the rally started with a one-out single, then took second when Uniontown didn’t have a play on Joe Satone’s bunt. Shank stepped in, ready to go home.

“They called time and went out to the pitcher, so I ran down to Meara at third to see if he wanted me to take a pitch or go swing,” Shank said. “He said ‘go after it kid, you’re hot.’ I saw that first pitch and thought ‘time to go home.’

“I thought the first baseman (Edenfield) was going to catch it, that kid was big, but there was enough topspin that it got by him, stayed fair and we got the run in.”

Souderton will face Region 3 champion Spring City on Sunday in a winner’s bracket game scheduled for a 4:05 p.m. start. It’s familiar territory for Souderton, earned through just another interesting game in the life of Post 234.

“We stick together and find ways to win,” Taylor said. “A bunch of games have been close, a onerun score and that’s when we do our best, I feel like. We push runs across when we need them. It’d be a lot different if we’d lose that game. To get the first win, it gives us a lot of momentum for the rest of the tournament.” Souderton 2, Uniontown 1