BUTLER TWP — Josh Grigoletti pitched to contact — and Meridian's bats made contact.

But not enough.

Grigoletti had thrown only 67 pitches before leaving the game in the seventh inning as Meridian held on for a 7-5 win over West Sunbury in a Butler County Area Baseball League tournament opener Thursday night at Highfield Park.

The game was played in 97 minutes.

“Josh throws strikes and the game moves along,” said Meridian coach Moe Achezinski, filling in for manager Tyler Friel. “He did the same thing against Karns City last week, throwing 60-some pitches.

“I almost took him out in the sixth inning and told him I'd come get him in the seventh if he ran into trouble.”

Grigoletti threw 45 of his 67 pitches for strikes and did not walk a batter. He took the mound with a 7-2 lead in the seventh, but quickly surrendered singles to Josh Adamson and Lake Pry.

At that point, Achezinski put Grant Metzger on the mound.

“I felt like I could have kept on going, but the coach makes those decisions and I was fine with it,” Grigoletti said.

“We have a good team. Our fielders make the plays.”

Metzger had made a stellar defensive play at shortstop in the sixth inning. With a runner at first and no outs, he dove to his left to rob Nick Sosigian of a single up the middle, short-circuiting a possible big inning.

“Huge defensive play. That was a big one,” Achezinski said.

Nathan Sosigian greeted Metzger with a sacrifice fly to left for the first out of the seventh. Brice Williams reached on an infield error and Tanner Williams walked. Hunter Fitzingo singled to right to plate a run and Nick Sosigian bounced into a force play to plate another.

With the tying runs on base, Metzger struck out Gage Neal to end the game.

“Pretty good rally, but it wasn't enough,” West Sunbury manager Brian Williams said. “We hit some balls hard today, but right at people.”

West Sunbury starting pitcher Lake Pry struggled in the first inning, throwing 36 pitches. He walked in two runs and Grigoletti delivered an RBI single for an early 3-0 Meridian lead.

Pry wound up throwing 103 pitches in five innings.

“Lake struggled early, but he settled down,” Williams said.

Kevin King walked and scored on a wild pitch in the fourth. Austin Reay singled and scored on Metzger's groundout. Josh Albert and Cole Thompson had run-scoring singles in the sixth for Meridian, which won despite leaving the bases loaded three times.

“We made plays when we had to make them,” Achezinski said. “That was a good team we beat. Those guys can hit the ball.”

Wyatt Geibel had a double and single, Pry a pair of singles for West Sunbury, which falls into the losers' bracket of the double-elimination tourney.

West Sunbury had only nine players Thursday.

“We were tmissing four or five guys because of travel ball,” Williams said. “That makes it touigh. But the guys we had out here tonight really played hard.”

In other tournament games played Thursday, Cranberry Township defeated Karns City 10-4, Saxonburg defeated East Butler 10-4 and Center Townshiop topped Kiski, 6-1.

West Sunbury 010 100 3 — 5 7 1

Meridian 300 202 x — 7 7 2

W: Josh Grigoletti 6IP (1K, 0BB). L: Lake Pry 5IP (7K, 6BB).

West Sunbury: Hunter Fitzingo 1B RBI, Nick Sosigian RBI, Wyatt Geibel 2B 1B RBI, Josh Adamson 1B, Lake Pry 2-1B, Nathan Sosigian RBI, Brice Williams 1B

Meridian: Jake Slomers 1B 2-R, Grant Metzger 1B RBI 2-R, Josh Albert 2-1B RBI, Cole Thompson 1B 2-RBI, Josh Grigoletti 1B 2-RBI, Remy Pardo RBI, Austin Reay 1B

Saturday: Meridian at Cranberry Township, 6:15 p.m.; Karns City at West Sunbury