Jays hold down Bandits

The beat continues for the Jays in the West Chester Adult League.

Tuesday night at Hoopes Park, the undefeated Jays (8-0) got two sterling pitching efforts from John Catchmark and Wes Erdman, who held down a good Bandits lineup, helping the Jays roll to their eighth consecutive win by downing the second place Bandits, 4-1.

The Jays offense received multiple-hit performances from Jared Urban and David Iacobucci as the offense totaled seven hits.

“We have a real good lineup and it is fun coming out here every day with these guys,” Iacobucci said. “We have a lot of young guys and they bring energy to the team every day. We have been getting such good pitching it is easy to play with a lead. I think Sunday was the only game we gave up some runs.”

The Jays broke through against Bandits (4-2) starter Joe Zetllemoyer in the bottom of the second inning. After Justin Lamborn flied out for the first out, Iacobucci roped a double to centerfield. Mitch Ballint then ripped an RBI single to center to make it a 1-0 game. Ballint went to second on a throw home, and scored when Nick Campana hit a fast ball to right field.

Catchmark struck out seven Bandits in his four innings of work. The Jays took a 3-0 lead when Urban laced an RBI double to score Steve Posner, who reached after the Bandits couldn’t come up with the ball after a strikeout.

The Bandits threatened to break through in the top of the sixth inning. Ken Jarema lined a leadoff single off Erdman to start the inning. A error in left field put runners at first and second with no one out. Spencer Piercy singled to load the bases.

Erdman struck out Kevin Small, and after a hit batter forced in a run, Erdman got the next two Bandits to ground out and it was a 3-1 Jays lead heading to the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Jays padded their lead with a run in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 4-1 game through six innings.

Erdman gave up two singles in the seventh inning, one to Bill Fisher and the other to Tom Caulfield, but the Jays hurler got Piercy with a called third strike and the Jays had their eighth win in eight tries.

“We really have a lot of young guys, more than I have seen in the last four or five years,” Urban said. “They bring a lot of young energy to the field and I was seeing the ball real well at the plate tonight. This team does a lot of things well.”