Saxonburg puts it all together to beat Valley, win Legion title again
Strong offense or dominant pitching — sometimes a team must settle for just one.
Saxonburg enjoyed the best of both worlds on Tuesday.
The team's offense totaled 14 hits and pitcher Jeremy Frazier overwhelmed Valley's bats in a 13-1 rout in the Butler County American Legion baseball title game at Kelly Automotive Park.
It is the second straight league title for Saxonburg (20-4).
“A lot of these guys played on the high school team and over the last few years, it's been bred into them that they can beat anybody at anytime,” said Saxonburg manager Mike Hickey. “Defending the title, I'm very proud of what they did.”
Valley starting pitcher Noah Aftanas ran into a buzzsaw in the opening frame as Saxonburg scored four runs on four hits.
Dom Bucko and Logan Hickey greeted him with consecutive singles. With one out, Aftanas walked P.J. Gourley to load the bases.
Dylan Swarmer hit a two-run double, Garrett Traggiai drove in another run with a single and Brandon Stull came home on a double steal.
“We faced him (Aftanas) during the high school season,” said Saxonburg outfielder Addis Crouch. “So we had an idea of what he had and what we could do. With this offense, a big inning can happen at any time.”
Valley left-fielder Nick Heuser made a pair of fine running catches in the inning or his team's deficit would have been greater.
“I told Noah before the game that if he worked behind in the count, this team was going to hurt us and that's what happened,” said Valley manager Doug Aftanas. “He just didn't have the control today.”
The last thing Valley needed was a 4-run hole against Frazier. The right-hander had pitched a 5-hit complete game in a 6-3 victory over Valley on Saturday. He retired the first eight batters he faced on Tuesday. Anthony Guzzo singled with two outs in the third and Frazier then began a string of 10 straight retired.Frazier was unaware that he was eligible to finish the game.“Since I pitched Saturday, I thought I could go only five innings today,” he said. “When I came off the field after the (top of the) fifth, Coach Hickey said I could finish the game if I wanted to. I said, 'Yeah, I wanna go!' This was the last game for me with this team.”Meanwhile, Saxonburg's offense was silenced in the third and fourth innings by reliever Jordan Frame.“Jordan came in and stabilized the game for us,” said Doug Aftanas, “but we couldn't get anything going offensively.”Any hope Valley took from Frame's relief effort was blown away by Saxonburg's 7-run fifth frame.With Jeremy Iellimo on the mound, Saxonburg sent 11 batters to the plate.Bucko and Gourley drove in a combined three runs with a pair of triples. Matt Cornetti and Crouch both had an RBI-single.Due to three Valley errors in the frame, all seven runs were unearned.“We are predicated on good pitching and defense, but we had some critical errors there,” said Doug Aftanas.By the bottom of the seventh inning, Valley trailed 13-0 and was left only with trying to break Frazier's shutout.Valley (11-6) loaded the bases with two outs and Caleb Davis walked to bring in Sevrin Layden to cap the scoring.“His pitch count was fabulous. After six innings, it was 60,” Mike Hickey said of Frazier. “He threw a few more pitches in the seventh and ended with 86 .”Bucko had three hits while Logan Hickey, Crouch and Traggiai all had two.
Valley 000 000 1 — 1 3 3Saxonburg 410 071 x — 13 14 0W: Jeremy Frazier 7 IP (5K, 2BB). L: Noah Aftanas 1.1 IP (2K, 2BB).Valley (11-6): Jake McNabb 1B, Caleb Davis RBI, Anthony Guzzo 1B, Sevrin Layden 1B RSaxonburg (20-4): Dom Bucko 1B 2B 3B 3R RBI, Logan Hickey 2-1B 2R, Addis Crouch 2-1B R 2RBI, P.J. Gourley 3B R 2RBI, Dylan Swarmer 2B 2RBI, Garrett Traggiai 2-1B R RBI, Mike McCarty 1B 2R, Derek McGill 1B R RBI, Matt Cornetti 1B R RBI, Brandon Stull R
