Legion stars shine
The East team's stable of pitchers gave up its share of hits in Friday's Butler County American Legion All-Star game.
But they were stingy when it came to surrendering runs.
The West squad totaled 12 hits, but never scored more than one run in any inning and was shut out over the final four frames as the East claimed an 8-3 victory at Kelly Automotive Park.
“I knew coming in that our top guy, Jeremy Frazier, was going to start the game,” said Saxonburg manager Mike Hickey, who served as the East manager. “After that, we just asked for volunteers. We didn't want any kid throwing more than one inning, especially with the playoffs coming up. We made sure there was always someone warming up.”
The East team was made up of players from Saxonburg, Mars, Meridian, Slippery Rock, West Sunbury and Valley.
The West included Center Township, East Butler, Cranberry Township, Butler City and Kiski.
Offensively, the East took the lead with a 3-run fourth inning, then pulled away with a 4-run eighth.
Against pitcher Caleb Baxter, the East went ahead 2-1 in the fourth when Greg Sutton drew a bases-loaded walk that scored Noah Aftanas. Baxter was relieved by Tyler Kline, who gave up a two-run single to Jeremy Illimo and the edge was 4-1.
The West answered with single runs in the fourth and fifth, but was never able to post a big inning. East pitchers Doug Cannon, Aftanas, Luke Rouda and Matt Cornetti each pitched one inning and forced the West to strand a combined nine baserunners.
Lake Pry and Illimo worked scoreless frames in the sixth and seventh, respectively.
“Their guys made big pitches at key times,” said West manager Ed DeBoe. “We just couldn't get the big hit when we needed it.”
Still, the West's deficit was just 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning. But against pitcher Brandon Lynd, the East had five straight batters reach base.
Will Allison, Frazier and Aftanas all singled in a run. Lynd was relieved by Ian Steighner, but the former was charged with one more run when Nick Malis singled home the final run of the game.
Patrick Busa worked a scoreless ninth frame to end the game. In all, the East's pitchers struck out 11 and walked just three.
Aftanas paced the East team's offense with two singles, two runs scored and one driven in.
Nate Kouns was the only West player to have multiple hits, singling twice. Brandon Hildebrand had the game's lone extra-base hit, a double in the second inning.
Hunter Scott, Matt McKenna, Nick Ray, Ben Richards and Hildebrand all pitched scoreless frames for the West.
Neither team committed an error in the game.
“It was a great game with good sportsmanship all the way around,” said DeBoe.
Note: The league's playoff bracket was released Friday. The double-elimination tournament begins Tuesday. Opening matchups include Meridian (8-7) at Saxonburg (14-3), Mars (7-6) at East Butler (13-6), Cranberry Township (10-9) at Kiski (13-4) and Center Township (9-11) at Valley (11-5). All games will start at 6 p.m., except for Mars/East Butler, which may begin at 8 p.m. at Speed-O Field.
