BUTLER TWP - Saxonburg's offense was able to give its pitcher just the slimmest of leads.

But that was enough for Curt Schnur.

The veteran right-hander walked to the mound in the bottom of the fourth inning with a one-run advantage and made it stand up as Saxonburg defeated Freeport 4-3 in Game 1 of the Eagle County League championship series Thursday at Highfield Park.

"We gave Curt the start so he could set the tone for this series," said Saxonburg manager Dan Cunningham. "He's our No. 1 pitcher and the leader of the team."

"Being able to come out here and win Game 1 is nice," said Schnur. "But any game I pitch in, I'm coming after you. You won't see many walks from me."

In fact, Freeport received no free passes from Schnur, who struck out six and surrendered five hits.

Two of those hits were solo home runs in the bottom of the third inning.

With the score knotted at 1-1, Josh Harbison hit a round-tripper over the left-field fence with one out. Two batters later, Greg Samson homered to right to give Freeport a 3-1 lead.

"Early in the game I was throwing a lot of off-speed stuff," said Schnur. "And a few of the pitches I left high in the zone.

"After that, I just kept the ball down. But I'd bet I didn't throw 10 fastballs the whole game," he added.

Saxonburg retaliated in the top of the fourth with three runs on four hits off Samson.

With two outs, Brendan Malone singled to center to drive in Dan O'Brien. Chase Rowe followed with a double that plated Matt DeSantis and Malone.

"Aside from Curt's pitching, we also got timely hitting and solid defensive play," said Cunningham.

Samson started the game for Freeport and lasted five innings. He struck out five and walked four while giving up six hits.

"We threw our No. 4 pitcher against their No. 1, and we lost by one run," said Freeport player-manager Wayne Greiser. "So we're disappointed with the loss, but that's still encouraging,"

Bill Daugherty came on in relief in the sixth inning and blanked Saxonburg over the final two frames, but Schnur was not about to loosen his grip on the Freeport lineup.

He surrendered just one hit over the last four innings: Keith Kubit's single in the bottom of the sixth.

Freeport defeated Mars in the semifinals after being down 2-0 in the best-of-five series.

Unless the River Pirates can defeat Saxonburg tonight, they will be facing the same uphill climb.

"We wouldn't want to go down 2-0 again," said Greiser. "But at the same time, we aren't looking at the second game as a must-win situation."

"I look for Wayne and his guys to be back," said Cunningham. "They're a good team and every game in this series should be a good one."

Saxonburg 100 300 0 - 4 7 0

Freeport 102 000 0 - 3 5 2

WP:

Curt Schnur (7 IP) 6 strikeouts, 0 walks.

LP:

Greg Samson (5 IP) 5 strikeouts, 4 walks

Saxonburg:

Brendan Malone 1B RBI 2R, Curt Schnur 2-1B, Chase Rowe 2B, Dan O'Brien 1B R, Matt DeSantis 1B R, Mike Sikorski 1B

Freeport:

Josh Harbison HR RBI R, Greg Samson 2B HR 2RBI R, Bill Daugherty 1B R, Keith Kubit 1B

Today:

Freeport vs. Saxonburg @ Highfield Park, 6 p.m.