EAST BUTLER — The game is more than a week old, but Greg Hays still remembers it vividly.

It was a 14-4 loss to Millcreek in Erie July 22 that finally eliminated East Butler from the Region 8 American Legion Baseball Tournament. A loss that ended the deepest postseason run in the program's history.

It was a loss that ended Hays' East Butler playing career as well.

"It wasn't fun," Hays said of sitting in the dugout after the game. "Peeling off my uniform — I didn't want to do it. I've played ball for East Butler since I was 5.

"My dad coached me most of the years I played. It was a special time. I hated the way it ended."

But he loved the way it went.

Hays was a prime pitcher for an East Butler Legion team that posted a combined 43-10 record the past two years. His combined mark during that time was 18-3.

"Greg was never a main pitcher before last year," said his father and East Butler manager Carl Hays. "He was a smaller kid, a middle infielder, through most of his career who appeared on the mound in relief every now and then.

"Some kids blossom physically later than others. Greg was one of those kids."

When he matured physically, Hays moved to third base — and became a starting pitcher.

As East Butler's No. 3 hitter, his numbers were impressive enough: .475 batting average, a team-leading 16 doubles and about 40 RBI.

His mound exploits in 2009 were everything: 11-1 record, one save, a 1.69 earned run average, 61 strikeouts and 21 walks in 70 innings.

In Region 8 play, he pitched a complete nine-inning game against French Creek, allowing four hits and one earned run while his team faced elimination.

Hays threw three scoreless innings two days later, then took the mound against Millcreek to start the next day's game. He was roughed up for five runs in three innings, striking out two and walking two, in the eventual 14-4 loss — his only loss of the season.

"I had nothing left," Hays mumbled. "My arm felt dead. I was done."

The years of playing ball for his father are done as well.

"All the way from T-ball until now, Dad was always my head coach or assistant coach," Hays said. "He was our assistant coach the year we won District 25 in Little League."

Greg Hays always could hit. When it came to pitching, his father described him as "a secondary pitcher, a middle-inning guy who could come in and throw strikes" through most of his career.

"When his fastball arrived, he became a starter," Carl Hays said.

Now standing 6-feet-1 and weighing 195 pounds, Greg Hays developed more speed on his fastball and became the premier pitcher in Butler County American Legion Baseball within the past year.

"His fastball went from 83 mph to 87 in the course of a year," Carl Hays said. "Couple that kind of movement with his curveball, which he always had, and he became a dominating pitcher."

East Butler didn't win the Region 8 championship. It did win a lot of memories — especially for this father-son combo.

"I couldn't have asked for anything better to happen," Carl Hays said. "As Greg's manager, I got more out of him on the field than I had any right to wish for.

"As his father, I couldn't be prouder."