Bushy Run ends Claysburg’s Legion baseball season
Region 7 Legion baseball
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SIDMAN -- Claysburg Legion made quite a run through the Region 7 Tournament just to get to Wednesday.
The Post 522 team lost to Bushy Run, 9-3, in the first round on Saturday, but tallied wins in each of the next three days to make it to the tournament's final day.
Claysburg saw Bushy Run again Wednesday afternoon, and although it managed to take an early 1-0 lead, it could not muster any more offense in a 4-1 loss at Forest Hills High School.
Bushy Run went on to take the Region 7 championship with the same score of 4-1 over Latrobe later in the day after beating Claysburg.
"We know they're a great team," Claysburg manager Kyle Glass said. "We knew we could fight and battle, and we knew we had enough pitching to come back through the loser's bracket and make it to the last day. We were in a good spot, but Bushy is a great team. They come out to play every year, and we're always right there with them. They got the best of us this year."
Claysburg made two errors in the game, and both of them turned out to be backbreakers.
With two outs in the top of the fourth with the game tied at 1, Bushy Run's Jordan White legged out an infield single against Claysburg pitcher Colton Harbaugh, and got to second on an errant throw. Amari Thomas then singled home White to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.
In the fifth, Jake Sincak doubled to put runners at second and third. The relay throw from the shortstop was thrown away into right field, which allowed Brady Hoffman to score and Sincak to move to third base.
Sincak then came home on a sacrifice fly from Carmen Metcalfe to make it 4-1.
"We've been playing great baseball with little to no errors the last three games, and then we have two costly errors that give up two runs," Glass said. "They hurt us big."
Claysburg got its lone run in the bottom of the first. Mason Campagna, who committed to play baseball at Penn State last week, lifted a single into left field and stole second base. Dontae Emerick then peppered a base hit into center field to bring home Campagna.
After the first inning, Claysburg managed to get just one more hit the rest of the way -- a one-out infield single from Kyle Klotz in the bottom of the seventh.
"It's tough playing five straight days like this, but we played our hardest," Campagna said.
"We haven't swung it well for the last couple weeks," Glass said. "We got some timely hits, but not enough."
Bushy Run pitcher Jon Loure threw a complete game, allowing just three hits, and walked one, while striking out four. He needed just 89 pitches to get through all seven innings.
Bushy Run advanced to the state American Legion tournament, which begins on Saturday at McDowell High School in Erie. It will play Region 8 champion French Creek Valley at 1:15 p.m. on Saturday.
Claysburg will lose five players next season in Klotz, Emerick, Lucas Black, Benjamin Kormanski and Michael Cacciotti.
"We had a good group of older kids," Glass said. "We lose a good core of guys that have been playing for four years. It's going to be interesting to see what we can get next year and get back here."
BUSHY RUN (4): Hoffman ss 211, Sincak cf 312, Metcalfe lf 300, Loure p 300, Rattigan rf 210, White 2b 211, Thomas 3b 201, Ridley 1b 300, Kerstetter c 300. Totals -- 23-4-5-3.
CLAYSBURG (1): Black ss 200, Campagna c 311, Kormanski 3b 300, Emerick dh 301, Harbaugh p 000, Klotz 1b 301, Hoenstine lf 200, Slowik 2b 300, Byler rf-p 200, Neri cf 200. Totals -- 23-1-3.
SCORE BY INNINGS
Bushy Run 010 120 0--4 5 0
Claysburg 100 000 0--1 3 2
E--Kormanski, Black (C). LOB--Bushy Run 7, Claysburg 3. DP--Bushy Run 1, Claysburg 1. 2B--Sincak (BR). SAC--White (BR). SF--Metcalfe (BR). SB--Hoffman (BR); Campagna (C). RBI--Sincak, Metcalfe, Thomas (BR); Emerick (C). HBP--Hoffman (by Byler), Loure (by Harbaugh), Rattigan (by Harbaugh); Black (by Loure). WP--Loure. LP--Harbaugh. SO--Loure 4 (BR); Harbaugh 2, Byler 3 (C). BB--Loure 1 (BR); Harbaugh 3, Byler 1 (C).
Records: Bushy Run (4-1); Claysburg (3-2).