Meridian was good at getting guys on base.

East Butler was good at keeping them there.

Inning after inning, East Butler pitchers worked into a jam and inning after inning wiggled their way out of it deftly in a 5-0 victory at Pullman Park Saturday evening to win the Butler County American Legion tournament championship.

"Our kids have been pitching their butts off all season," said East Butler manager Carl Hays.

And they did so again.

Nick Rossmiller got the win, striking out four in 4X\c innings pitched. He got out of a no-out, bases-loaded pickle in the fourth inning with two big strikeouts and a groundout to short.

Meridian loaded the bases in each of the last four innings of the game, but did not score a run.

In all, Meridian left 16 runners stranded on base and at least one in all seven innings.

"You can't leave three guys on the bases four times in a row," said Meridian manager Butch Master, shrugging his shoulders. "You can't do that and expect to win."

Rossmiller got into another bases loaded conundrum in the fifth inning, but Evan Oswald relieved Rossmiller with two outs and got a strikeout looking to end the threat.

Oswald once again escaped a bases-loaded disaster in the sixth inning and Cody Herald came on with the bags full in the seventh inning with one out and got a strikeout and groundout to earn the save.

"Part of it was luck," Hays said. "Part of it was good pitching. They all pitched a great game. They all got themselves in trouble with walks, and we saw the other night how walks can kill you, but they were able to get out of it."

Meridian drew seven walks to go with six hits, but none of the hits went for extra bases.

With big bopper Christos Klutinoty missing from the lineup with a season-ending knee injury, Meridian could not come up with a big hit with runners in scoring position.

"It speaks to the hole we have in our batting order without Klutinoty," Master said. "You need that kid driving the runs in. He has been stellar for us all year long. He was leading the team in RBI. We definitely missed him."

While Meridian was unable to come up with the clutch hit, East Butler did.

Namely Adam Bresnahan.

The East Butler catcher broke a scoreless deadlock in the bottom of the fourth inning with a two-strike, two-out, two-run double in the right-centerfield gap to give East Butler the lead.

"Adam Bresnahan probably had the hit of the night," Hays said. "Two strikes, two outs and he hits a double in the gap. That was terrific."

Bresnahan's moment was just another in a long line of new heroes each game for East Butler.

"The other night it was Cody, the next night it was Greg (Hays)," Hays said. "You just never know from night to night who it is going to be. That's a story of a good team."

The story will continue at Pullman Park Monday night when the two teams begin a best-of-three series to decided the Butler County representative in the regional playoffs.

Meridian was the regular season champion.

Master is concerned about what kind of state the winner of the series will be in heading into the region tournament.

"I think Carl's team or my team could be very competitive at the next level," Master said. "It's the shame we are going to beat the crap out of each other the next three days, and maybe weaken our teams. We may need to re-think what we are doing here, maybe cut the playoffs back to six teams or maybe four instead of eight."

These two teams are very familiar with each other. Many players on Meridian's roster played at Butler High School with members of East Butler's team.

To Master and Hays, they wouldn't want the BCAL season to end any other way than with a winner-take-all series between the two best teams, record-wise, in the league.

"We are all good friends," Master said. "I know Carl has a terrific team over there, and I'm sure they would say the same about us."

Meridian 000 000 0 — 0 6 1East Butler 000 203 x — 5 10 2W: Nick Rossmiller (4X\c IP) 4 K, 5 BB.

L: Caleb Trombatt (5⅓ IP) 1 K, 0 BB.

Meridian: Kenny Dunmyer 2-1B

East Butler: Adam Bresnahan 2B, 1B, 2-RBI; Nick Rossmiller 1B, 2B, RBI; Cody Herald 2-1B, RBI

Monday: East Butler vs. Meridian at Pullman Park, Game 1 of best-of-3 series, 8 p.m.