BUTLER TWP — There was no doubt — from the beginning of the season, let alone the tournament.

Butler Township cruised to the Butler County Area Baseball League championship Tuesday night, defeating Kiski 10-1, in the final game of the double-elimination tournament at Highfield Park.

BT (17-3) out-scored the opposition 45-8 in winning all four of its tournament games. It defeated Kiski 14-2 earlier in the tourney.

“From Day 1, they were the best team,” Knoch graduate and Kiski coach Aaron Albert said. “But in a tournament like this, you have to go out and prove you're the best team. They did that.”

BT put the game away early, scoring three runs in the second inning and four in the third. Josh Bonetti had a run-scoring double in the third which was followed by Bryan Presco's two-run double.

RBI singles by Jake Slomers and John Piroch highlighted the third inning.

“All season, we've hit the ball,” BT coach Tyler Friel said. “We nearly reached double digits in every game of this tournament (9-0 win in first game).

“I tell the guys, seven runs should be enough to win a game in this league. We got past that total quite a bit.”

Seven different players scored runs and seven different players had hits for BT. Ryan Lynn led the offense with two singles, a double, two runs scored and an RBI.

“When we get a big lead early ... We still play hard, but we do become more relaxed,” Lynn said. “We're confident we're going to score enough runs to win.

“From the first game this season, we talked about winning the championship. We knew the talent was here.”

Colby Anderson was the winning pitcher, allowing two hits while striking out five in four innings. Shawn Marcellus allowed a run on three hits in the final three innings to secure the save.

Pitching was never an issue for Butler Township this season.

“We had plenty of pitching this season and in the tournament,” Friel said. “That's the key to these double-elimination tournaments: Get the King Seat. That really helped us.

“I'm happy for these kids. They love baseball and they play smart.”

Kiski (12-7) reached the title game by defeating Freeport, 10-8, in nine innings. The final inning of that game was played late Tuesday afternoon at Highfield.

Kiski had played a game Tuesday morning at the Freeport International event before coming up to Butler.

“Making the drive up here, we wanted to make sure we got to play a full game,” Albert said.

The Kiski-Freeport game was tied at 8 after eight innings Saturday when it was called because of darkness. It could not be resumed Monday because of rain.

“Whoever won this (semifinal) game had to win it quickly. I'm just glad it was us,” Albert said.

Ryan Rametta doubled and scored on a wild pitch in the top of the ninth. Matt Skelly singled and scored on an outfield error later in the inning.

Rametta set down Freeport in order in the bottom of the frame to get the win.

“Yeah, it was instant pressure when they scored in the top of the inning,” Freeport coach Joe Hotalski said. “There was no time to settle into this game.

“We had a good year. We have a lot of younger kids who got some good experience this summer.”

In winning the game, Kiski knew the task of defeating Butler Township twice was a formidable one.

“They're a great team,” Albert said. “Their kids are older than ours. Most of our kids are sophomores and juniors coming back to the Kiski (high school) program next year. They learned from playing against those guys.”

Final

Kiski 000 010 0 — 1 5 3

Butler Twp. 034 210 x — 10 10 0

W: Colby Anderson 4IP (5K, 2BB). L: Ryan Rametta 2.1IP (1K, 2BB).

Kiski (12-7): Paul Rice 1B RBI, Ryne Wallace 2-1B, Zach Morrill 1B, Dalton Ross 1B

Butler Township (17-3): Ryan Lynn 2B 2-1B 2-R RBI, Colby Anderson 2-1B RBI, Nate Stutz 1B, Shawn Marcellus RBI 2-R, Jake Slomers 1B RBI 2-R, John Piroch 1B RBI, Josh Bonetti 2B RBI, Bryan Presco 2B 2-RBI

Semifinal

Kiski 021 002 302 — 10 15 1

Freeport 400 000 400 — 8 10 5

WP: Ryan Rametta 1IP (1K, BB). LP: Joe Hotalski1IP (0K, 0BB).

Kiski: Billy Perroz 3B RBI, Derek Hald 2-1B 2B, Matt Skelly 2-1B 2B 3R RBI, Logan McGarry 3-1B 2RBI, Garret Polka 1B R RBI, Ryan Rametta 2B

Freeport (13-7): Matt Mitchell 1B 2R, Mario Leonard 1B R RBI, Austin Kepes 1B R 2RBI, Brayden King 2B R 3RBI, Shane Volek 2-1B 2RBI, Brayden Clark 1B 2B