ERIE — East Butler expended a lot of energy to stave off elimination since its opening-round loss in the Pennsylvania Regional American Legion baseball playoffs last weekend.

On Wednesday, however, it finally caught up to the team.

East Butler, which had won three consecutive games after that first loss, dropped a 14-4 decision to Erie Millcreek. It was Millcreek that handed East Butler its only other loss of the tournament.

Millcreek pulled away with a six-run outburst in the top of the seventh inning to secure the win and advance to the championship game.

"The wheels fell off," said East Butler manager Carl Hays. "We just ran out of gas."

Millcreek scored at least one run in each inning and rapped out 14 hits.

East Butler, which committed four errors while Millcreek had none, trailed 5-4 entering the bottom of the fourth inning before the home team continued to tack on runs.

"That's the second time we played them and they hit the ball hard," said Hays. "The first loss we gave up 15 runs and they came out and scored almost the same amount of runs. We couldn't match them. We had a bunch of worn-out players.

"But I told our kids after the game that you have to wipe this game out of your memory. Remember your season. We were 24-4, we won the (Butler County) playoffs and won three games here. There are some great teams out here. There's so much to be proud of.

"There was only one game left after we played. We almost made it," Hays added.

Josh Reddick had three singles and Evan Oswald had two hits for East Butler.

J.P. Frye homered and singled to power Millcreek.

Millcreek 122 111 6 — 14 14 0East Butler 002 200 0 — 4 7 4W: Eli Moran (7 IP) 6 K, 5 BB.

L: Greg Hays (3 IP) 2 K, 2 BB.

Millcreek: J.P. Frye HR, 1B; E. Hansen 2-1B, 2B

Butler (24-4): Josh Reddick 3-1B; Evan Oswald 2-1B; Zach Harbison 1B; Ryan Fennell 1B