EAST BUTLER — Saxonburg began the game with a pair of jabs, then landed a devastating uppercut in the third inning.

After scoring a combined three runs in the first two frames, Saxonburg sent 13 batters to the plate and scored nine runs in the third en route to a 19-2 drubbing of East Butler in Thursday night’s initial Butler County legion baseball championship round game at Speed-O Field.

The result forces a second and decisive game, which will be played at Laura Doerr Park at a date to be determined.

East Butler earned the king’s seat in the double-elimination tournament with a 9-1 win over Meridian July 14 and entered Thursday’s game riding an eight-game unbeaten streak (7-0-1).

But a trio of the team’s pitchers, beginning with starter Alex Seybert, ran into a buzzsaw in Saxonburg’s lineup. Six Saxonburg players tallied multiple hits, with Gavin Miller, Hyte Eurich and Jeff Smolen each collecting three hits.

“Everybody was hitting,” said Saxonburg coach Steve Hall. “They all had good approaches at the plate. They waited for their pitch and the hits all seemed to be line drives.”

Seybert was relieved by Jeremy Moorhead two batters into the top of the third inning. An error and four run-scoring hits helped Saxonburg’s lead swell to 12-0 by the end of the inning.

Ian Steighner took the mound in the fifth and struggled as well.

Not much went right for East Butler, the defending league champion.

Aside from its pitching woes, the team committed four errors and totaled just five hits in the lopsided defeat.

But the team is still just one victory away from claiming the 13th championship in its history.

“It’s not easy for anybody to put a loss like this behind them,” said East Butler coach Steve Armahizer, “but it’s what we need to do.”

Saxonburg received a solid start from Jeremy Frazier, who allowed two runs on five hits in six innings. He struck out seven and walked two.

“He’s a really good pitcher,” said Hall. “He’s not the biggest kid, but he throws hard. He has a good curveball and is able to throw it in different counts.”

Frazier made three starts for Knoch High School’s state championship team in the spring.

“I wanted to play legion ball to stay in shape,” said Frazier, one of seven players from Knoch’s team currently on Saxonburg’s roster. “We won a section, WPIAL and state title for the high school team. If we could win this, that would be all four in the same year.”

Frazier did his best to remain focused despite pitching with a large lead.

“(Catcher) Gavin Miller kept me in the game,” he said. “Every once in a while, I would throw a pitch way out of the strike zone, I was so amped up. But he just reminded me to calm down.”

Saxonburg 129 025 0 — 19 17 3

East Butler 000 200 0 — 2 5 4

W: Jeremy Frazier 6 IP (7K, 2BB). L: Alex Seybert 2+ IP (0K, 2BB).

Saxonburg (11-3-1): Dominick Bucko 1B 3R 2RBI, Nick Guercio 1B 3R RBI, Gavin Miller 3-1B R 4RBI, Hyte Eurich 1B 2B 3B R 3RBI, Garrett Traggiai 2R RBI, Mike McCarty 2-1B 2R RBI, Matt Cornetti 2-1B 2R, Bryan Jack 2B 3B 2R 3RBI, Jeff Smolen 3-1B 2R RBI, Dustin Montgomery R

East Butler (14-4-1): Ian Steighner 1B, Alex Seybert 1B, Chad White R, Brandon Hilderbrand 2-1B R, Hunter Scott 2B RBI

Next: East Butler at Saxonburg, TBD