PINE TWP — Grant Voytovich has no shortage of confidence in his ability to hit a baseball.

“He came up to me at the start of the season and asked if he could just hit for us,” said Pine Richland manager Brad Ansell, who took the recent high school graduate up on his offer. With a few exceptions, Voytovich has been PR's designated hitter this summer, batting in the cleanup spot in the order.

It certainly paid off Sunday evening.

With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Voytovich hit a two-run home run over the fence in left-center, giving his team the Butler County Area Baseball League championship with a 4-2 win over Freeport at Pine Community Park.

The double-elimination tournament would have returned to Freeport for a final game Tuesday had Pine Richland lost.

“I threw everything I had at them today,” said Ansell. “I didn't want to go back to Freeport. You don't know what can happen at that point and Freeport (14-3-1) is a really good team. We wanted to close it out here.”

Freeport pitcher Joseph Hotalski allowed an infield single to Justin Lowe with one out in the eighth inning. After a fly out, Voytovich came to the plate. His home run came on an 0-1 pitch.

“I was just looking for something up in the zone,” said Voytovich. “He hung me a breaking ball and the rest is history.

“I had never come close to hitting a home run this big before today. It's definitely special.”

Joseph Hotalski pitched yet another solid game. After PR scored two unearned runs in the top of the first — thanks to Connor Kirby's two-run single — Hotalski threw six scoreless frames before bowing in the eighth.

“He came up to me six months ago and told me he wanted to go to Penn State and major in actuarial science,” said Joe Hotalski, Freeport's manager and Joseph's father. “He could play (in college) somewhere and he knows it, but he told me he wants to spend time working toward what he'll be doing for a paycheck. He won't be getting a paycheck from baseball.

“So this was it for him and he left it all on the field.”

Freeport tied the score at two in the top of the fourth inning.

With two runners on base, Zach Allen singled and Hotalski scored when the ball was bobbled in the outfield. Matt Grove later scored on Matt Mitchell's sacrifice fly.

They would be the only two runs allowed by Pine Richland's Nick Guidas, who earned the complete-game win with five strikeouts, two walks and five hits allowed.

Guidas was the winning pitcher in PR's 6-3 win over Freeport earlier in the tournament.

“He throws a lot of straight fastballs, nothing fancy,” said Joe Hotalski. “But he hits his spots. He's a good pitcher.”

Pine Richland (14-3), which became a member of the BCABL in 2019, ends the season on a 9-game winning streak. In fact, the team's last loss came against Freeport in early July.

“I had trouble getting our best players together earlier in the season, a lot of vacations,” said Ansell. “Everyone was here today.”

Joe Hotalski gathered his team in shallow left field following the game for one final talk with his players.

“We have seven guys who won't be returning next year,” he said. “I've coached three-fourths of these kids since they were five or six years old.

“Our goal was getting to this (championship) game and we accomplished that. We knew if we got here, we'd be facing a team (that pulls players from a Class 6A school). We're Class 3A. I'm proud of our guys.”

Freeport 000 200 00 — 2 5 2

Pine Richland 200 000 02 — 4 9 3

W: Nick Guidas 8 IP (5K, 2BB). L: Joseph Hotalski 7.2 IP (4K, 1BB).

Freeport (14-3-1): Joseph Hotalski 1B R, Zach Allen 1B, Bradyn Clark 1B, Mario Leonard 1B, Coulten Stewart 1B

Pine Richland (14-3): Justin Lowe 1B 2B 2R, Grant Voytovich 1B HR 2RBI, Connor Kirby 1B 2RBI, Dylan DiNapoli 2-1B 2B