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Lilly cleans up defense, moves on to final

Keeping mistakes minimal and producing timely hits brought favorable results for Lilly Conrad Chiropractic/American Legion on Sunday.

With a 5-2 win in the semifinals over Blair County Oil at Vets Field, Lilly once again sealed itself a ticket into the championship round.

“It was a good win for us today,” Lilly shortstop/coach Lucas McCoy said. “We got hits all throughout our lineup … It was good to keep this series short by going 2-0, and now we’re heading back into the championship series.”

Prior to losing last year’s title series to Locker Room, Lilly had won 13 of the last 14 Altoona Greater City League championships.

Before entering the best-of-five championship series, however, Lilly was determined to minimize its defensive miscues.

Committing two errors himself the day before, McCoy said his team was looking to play a more disciplined defensive game on Sunday.

But in Blair County Oil’s first at-bat, Landon Sinclair committed the game’s first error by mishandling a grounder and allowing Josh Wyandt to reach base.

Fortunately for Lilly, that was its only defensive miscue of the day. Blair County Oil had three errors, with one resulting in an unearned run.

“It was a much cleaner game for us today,” McCoy said. “We kept our mistakes down and capitalized on a few of theirs. It was a much better performance defensively for us compared to yesterday.”

McCoy (2-for-3) was one of four batters on his team to drive in a run. His double in the top of the second inning brought Brandon Ickes home to open the scoring.

Gordan Barr, Brock Porter and Pat Gully also each drove in a run of their own in the win.

While his team won in a sweep, McCoy said there is still room for improvement for his team at the plate.

In total, Lilly stranded nine on base.

“We stretched it out just enough to get the win today,” McCoy said. “In the fourth and fifth, we had runners on base and an opportunity to really open up the game, but we couldn’t do it. If we want to win in the championship series, we can’t leave so many guys on base.”

Blair County Oil manager Dale Snyder commended Lilly for its strong outing, but added that it could have been a different result had his team been able to get hits at opportune times.

“We just couldn’t string the hits together,” Snyder said. “We were getting hits, just not at the same time. We needed that timely hit and couldn’t find it. We had a couple flubs in the outfield, but I think if we could’ve gotten those hits, the errors wouldn’t have been as significant.”

While Lilly will move on to play for the league’s top prize in a rematch of last year’s series with Locker Room, Blair County Oil saw its season end.

“This was probably the best group of guys I’ve ever had,” Snyder said. “They battled hard all season, and we should have everyone returning next year. We’ll be back here next year.”

P.J. Holberg started on the mound for Lilly and pitched for five innings while earning the win. He allowed two runs and five hits while striking out three.

Lilly Conrad Chiropractic/American Legion (5): Matish cf 401, Gallaher 3b 311, Sinclair 1b 300, B. Ickes 2b 222, Porter rf 100, McCoy ss 312, Barr dh 212, Gully c 200, R. Ickes lf 300, Holberg p 000, C. McCoy rf 000, Cursio p 000. Totals–23-5-8

Blair County Oil (2): Wyandt 2b 210, Massaro 3b 402, Steffy lf 313, Saxman 1b p 100, Zimmerman 301, Sweeney rf 200, Marchi dh 1b 200, Kawtoski lf 301, Heist ss 300, Snyder rf 100, Conrad p 000. Totals–24-2-7

SCORE BY INNINGS

Lilly Conrad/AL 020 111 0–5 8 1

Blair County Oil 000 110 0–2 7 3

E–Wyandt, Kowtoski, Saxman, Sinclair. 2B–Zimmerman, McCoy. RBI–McCoy, Barr, Gully, Porter, Zimmerman, Steffy. SAC–Porter 3, Gulley 2. WP– Holberg. LP–Conrad. SO–Holberg 3, Conrad 2, Cursio 1. BB–Conrad 3, Holberg 3, Cursio 2, Saxman 1.

Series: Lilly Conrad Chiropractic/AL wins series 2-0.

Locker Room advances

Locker Room held off a late BMG Construction rally to win, 6-4, at Vets Field Sunday and advanced to the Greater City League championship series against Lilly Conrad Chiropratic/American Legion.

Mason Hershey had a pair of hits, and Tyler Black drove in a pair of runs for Locker Room.

LOCKER ROOM (6): Weibley cf-ss 300, Stiffler ss-p 320, Martinez 1b 310, Mas. Hershey c 402, Mat. Hershey dh-rf 100, Glass p 000, Moist p 000, Hileman 2b 120, Creppage 3b 301, Black lf-cf 411, Shiffler rf-lf 301. Totals — 25-6-5.

BMG CONSTRUCTION (4): Watt ss 401, Patterson p-rf 300, Harrison cf 300, Neimand dh 202, Teno p 000, Fesko rf-3b 000, Maul 3b-p-3b 300, Durbin 2b 210, Mardula c 311, Smick 1b 322, Madigan l 201. Totals — 25-4-7.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Locker Room 001 020 3–6 6 1

BMG Construction 001 000 3–4 7 1

E–Stiffler, Mardula. 2B–Mas. Hershey, Black, Mardula. RBI–Black 2, Creppage, Mat. Hershey, Mas. Hershey, Patterson 2, Smick, Madigan. WP–Glass. LP–Patterson. SO–Glass 7, Patterson 2, Teno 1. BB–Glass 1, Moist 1, Patterson 5, Teno 4.

Records: Locker Room wins series 2-0.

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