Local American legion baseball squads gear up for state tournament.
As familiar entrants, host Boyertown, Region 3 champ Spring City geared up for states
Boyertown’s American Legion baseball team is well-versed in competing at state-level tournaments.
“Thirteen times since I’ve been here,” manager Rick Moatz noted. “Twenty-five all time.”
Suffice it to say, the Boyertown organization is quite experienced at putting on a show for Pennsylvania’s top clubs. It will enhance that legacy with the Pa. State Tournament taking center stage at Bear Stadium July 28 to Aug. 1.
“It’s routine, the fact we’ve done it before,” Moatz noted. “The organization knows what to do. Everyone is in, geared up to get things set up and ready to host.”
It won’t be the same on the field for Boyertown, however. It has only three players from the 2016 club that was the Bears’ last state qualifier.
“It’s new,” Moatz said. “It will be different for some guys ... difficult to work through.”
Boyertown is also in the unfamiliar — and undesired — position of going almost two weeks since its last game. The Bears (2413) went 1-2 in the Berks County League playoffs, eliminated by successive losses to eventual champion West Lawn (9-3) and Daniel Boone (8-2) July 14.
“Getting knocked off ... we’d like to be playing rather than practicing,” Moatz said. “There were games we played well, and other games we made fundamental mistakes. We’ve been ironing out the fundamentals.
“We’re chomping. But it’s a matter of being in game speed and shape come Saturday.”
Quality and quantity on the pitching staff usually has a lot to say about a team’s success in a five-games-in-five-days scenario. Boyertown appears to be well-stocked in that regard.
Nolan Kline and Stephen Cisik each boast 3-1 records while Drew Hartman has a 3-0 mark. Kline has a 1.91 earned-run average with 14 strikeouts, and Cisik is 3.03 in ERA with 20 whiffs.
“We’ve had other pitchers who’ve done well,” Moatz said, citing the likes of Gavin Richards and Chase Mercon alongside Cisik and Hartman. “They’ve done the bulk of the work the last part of the season.
“We have depth, but inexperienced pitchers. Even Nolan has been more at third base than pitching. But he’s done an excellent job, pitching against the best teams.”
At the plate, the Bears have been bolstered by the bats of first baseman/designated hitter Tate Yergey (.400 batting average, six doubles, nine RBI), outfielder Nick DiCiacco (.333 BA, 12 RBI), pitcher/outfielder Sean Sutterby (.327 BA, 13 RBI), shortstop Chris Davis (.298 BA, 11 RBI) and catcher Billy Coleman (.296 BA).
“Our hitting hasn’t been the best,” Moatz noted, “but we manage to scrape out runs.”
Coleman has also been lauded for his play behind the plate. He saw considerable playing time last summer when J.T. Cooley was injured.
“He’s ready every day,” Moatz said. “He got the nickname ‘The Weapon’ because of his quick release and good arm.”
All this gives the Bears reason to believe they can be a host with the most.
“It’s a maturing process,” Moatz said. “With the games we’ve played, we’ve had teams in here like Hatfield, Souderton, West Lawn and Muhlenberg. We’ve played well against some, so there’s no reason for us to be intimidated.”
Boyertown will meet Region 5 champion Swoyersville at 7:05 p.m. in the final game of a quadrupleheader to open the tournament on July 28.
*** Spring City goes into this year’s state tournament with a decided head of steam.
The Red Sox went 17-1 during the Chester County League’s regular season, then dominated the circuit’s playoffs with a 5-1 record. Their only loss in the postseason has been to Lionville in the second round of the CCL competition, and they made up for that by rolling the Hillcats
twice in the championship round.
“We knew we would have to win our league,” SC manager Mike Gancasz said. “From a pitching standpoint, defense and offense, we knew that we had a team that could make a good run.”
SC’s dominant stance continued in the weatheraffected Pa. Region 3 tourney, going 5-0. While it had some close encounters — 2-1 over Fort Washington in the opening round, 6-5 over Broomall-Newtown in the winners’ bracket final Tuesday — it handled finalist Wayne 10-0 on the second day.
“There’s never a point where they’re down without an opportunity to come back. They’ve proven that ... in regionals, we were down three of the five games we played and managed to fight back in each of them,” Gancasz said. “That’s a tribute to the guys we have on the team. Up and down the lineup, guys are coming up with big hits and finding ways to get to the next guy.
“And we obviously have a pitching staff that can go deep.”
The reward for that high level of play was a repeat championship in the Pa. Region 3 tournament. Spring City (29-2) completed its sweep with Wednesday’s 6-3 victory over Wayne.
That all bodes well for the Sox as they shoot for a state title and berth in the Mid-Atlantic Regional tournament. They will kick off states by facing the Region 4 champion at 10:05 a.m.
“It’s another championship, but this is not our end goal,” catcher Ryan Harvey said after the regional win. “We’re looking towards Mid-Atlantics – we’re trying to win this whole thing (the Pa. tournament).
“We got cut short last year, with just having a bad run at the end. But this year, I think we’re going to have a really good stretch. We’re playing good baseball right now, so I think we can go deep.”
“We have a lot of chemistry this year,” Harvey added. “It’s a great group of guys, and we just keep rolling. We’re hitting, we’re playing defense, we’re rolling on all cylinders right now.”
Spring City’s state run at Ephrata last year ended with a 3-2 loss to Beech Creek on July 26, an 0-2 run that featured two one-run losses. The memory of that early closeout is strong on the Sox’ minds this summer.
“From last year, it was really disappointing,” Brad Clemens recalled. “We have the fire behind us right now. We want to get it done this year. We have to keep a positive mentality while knowing that better competition is ahead ... better pitchers.”
“This is my last year of baseball and I’ve got to go out with a bang.” Harvey added. “There’s a couple kids here in their last year of Legion, and we’re going for it all. We’re not coming up short this year.
“Baseball has been my life forever so with this being my last year I’m going to play as hard as I possibly can. There’s a group of us – (Thomas) Hughes, (Chris) Sparacino, Clemens, Kasey Caras and myself – that have played together almost our entire careers. We’ve been together, and this is our last chance to do something together.”
*** Souderton knows how to win.
After cruising through their Region 2 tournament opener with a 10-run win in five innings, Post 234 won three straight games by scoring the go-ahead run in their last at-bat. It happened for a fourth time in the championship.
Souderton scored two runs in the top of the eighth inning to win what is believed to be the first Region 2 title in program history, 3-1, over Muhlenberg Wednesday afternoon at Ephrata’s War Memorial Field.
Souderton has been on a roll for much of the season after a 17-3 record in the Bux-Mont League, level with Hatfield-Towamencin. Souderton claimed the BuxMont League playoff championship with a 4-0 tournament record before parlaying the success into the Region 2 tournament, where it dealt Berks County League champion West Lawn only its second loss of the year, 6-5 in 12 innings, and an ouster of H-T, 1-0 in the championship qualification round.
The win over SchuylkillBerks League champion Muhlenberg was Souderton’s second over the A’s in the tournament.
“I always talk about the camaraderie with this specific team,” Souderton coach Paul Meara said. “They hang out together outside of here and they play together. They never get down. They fight til the end and they scrap. I’ll take this team over any I’ve coached. When kids like each other and pull for each other, you’re never out of anything. It’s awesome.”
“We’re pretty comfort
able,” catcher Moses Clemens said of the late-game situations. “I think we do better under pressure like that. The one game was 12 innings and we just kept going. We’re pretty good like that.”
David Gulibon led off the eighth inning with a base hit and Kyle Lennon followed with a bunt single. Luke Barnum sacrifice bunted the runners to second and third before Nolan Bolton was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out.
Clemens delivered the game-winning hit with a single up the middle to score Gulibon and give Souderton a 2-1 lead. Lennon was thrown out at home on the play.
Luke Taylor followed with a single to score Bolton and add an insurance run, 3-1.
Bolton came on for the save in the bottom of the eighth. With two outs and the bases empty, Bolton hit back-to-back batters to put the tying run on base and the winning run at the plate. He closed the game out with a strikeout and Souderton was celebrating its Region 2 championship and state playoff berth.
Prior to the eighth inning, Souderton’s offense only had one hit. Muhlenberg starter Dylan Sharp threw 6 2/3 innings of no-hit ball before reaching the 105-pitch limit. He struck out five batters to three walks and allowed one unearned run.
“Props to (Sharp),” Clemens said. “He was chucking. He had nice stuff. He was hitting his spots. There was nothing we could do. Some of us were hitting it hard, but it just wasn’t dropping. We couldn’t really do anything.”
Souderton starter Dan Knechel was almost as dominant. He went seven innings, striking out five batters to two walks while allowing one run on four hits. He ended his day with a 15-pitch at-bat that ended with a strikeout to force extra innings.
***
In Region 4, Ephrata kept its Pa. championship defense alive by winning the rain-affected tournament in Shippensburg.
The tournament was forced into single elimination due to persistent rain.
Nate Young hits a walkoff double in the bottom of the eighth inning to defeat Waynesboro, 2-1, for the title. Hunter Johns threw eight strong innings for the victory.
Ephrata won the Pa. title in 2017 as tournament host.
Region 5 champion Swoyersville is another returning qualifier to states. Swoyersville reached the second-to-last day last year before being eliminated by Ephrata.
Other entrants are Uniontown (Region 6), Hempfield East (Region 7) and Meadville (Region 8).
NOTES » As in past years, the Pennsylvania champion and runner-up will qualify for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament. Leesburg, Va. will host the tourney, being played at Fireman’s Field in Purcellville, Va. Aug. 8-12 . ... The 2018 World Series will again take place at Keeter Stadium in Shelby, N.C., Aug. 16-21.