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Sliding into the finals: Imler’s Poultry finds spark to oust MH Electric in AAABA semis

Coming into a tournament as the top-seeded, favored team always carries with it an extra element of tension and pressure.

A team in that scenario is merely meeting expectations by winning, and if it loses, its sense of disappointment is magnified.

Imler's Poultry found itself in that situation in a winner-take-all AAABA Regional Tournament semifinal matchup with underdog MH Electric Thursday night at Vets Field, and Imler's responded by carving out a hard-fought 2-1 victory to take Game 3 of the best-of-three series and earn the right to move on to the championship round against second-seeded Cumming Motors.

The victory also clinched a spot in the AAABA National Tournament for Imler's Poultry.

The first game of the best-of-three championship series will be tonight at Vets Field, with Game 2 set for Saturday and Game 3, if necessary, to be played Sunday. Start time for the championship games is 6 p.m.

Brady Steiner, a former three-sport standout at Hollidaysburg Area High School who will attend Robert Morris University and play club baseball this fall, outdueled MH Electric's Carsen Henry in a splendid pitcher's matchup in which both worked a complete game and allowed just five singles.

"My plan out there was just to throw strikes and stay ahead in the count,'' Steiner said. "I knew that I had my fielders backing me up. Many of the players on this team haven't played much together before this year, but it feels good to be able to keep playing on now.''

Top-seeded Imler's played flawless, error-free defense and pushed across the two runs that it needed in the bottom of the second inning to erase an early 1-0 deficit and take a 2-1 lead.

Preston Farabaugh drew a leadoff walk and Jake Hileman followed with a bunt single down the third base line. Both runners advanced on a double steal, and Steiner's sacrifice fly to right field scored Farabaugh from third base moments before another Holliaysburg grad, Ty Szynal, hit a sacrifice fly to center field that plated Hileman from third base.

"The kids have worked hard all year, and Brady pitched his heart out tonight,'' Imler's Poultry manager Adam Plummer -- who is also the head varsity baseball coach at Bellwood-Antis -- said of Steiner. "Brady hasn't pitched a lot for this team this year, but he was really sharp tonight.

"He kept the ball down in the zone, and he was a real bulldog out there,'' Plummer said.

MH Electric -- which won the opening game of the series before Imler's bounced back to win the next two -- opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when Connor Perry reached on a leadoff bunt single, advanced to second base on a single to right field by Spencer Davis, and scored MH Electric's only run of the game on a single to center field by Brienn Jones.

Steiner retired MH Electric in order in the third, sixth and seven innings, walking three batters and striking out two.

Henry was just as good on the other side, working around four MH Electric errors and inducing an inning-ending double play grounder to escape a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the bottom of the sixth inning.

"It would have been nice to get a couple more runs across when we had runners in scoring position, but their pitcher pitched well, too,'' Plummer said.

Counting the postseason, MH Electric won only three of 17 games this year, but team manager Mike Hott said that the squad showed great heart in battling a favored opponent tooth-and-nail.

"Carsen hasn't thrown for a couple of weeks, and he threw a heck of a game tonight,'' Hott said of Henry. "We had to call on him at the last moment today because our No. 1 starting pitcher couldn't make it to the game, but Carsen did a great job in his place.

"For our first season playing together as a team, I'm very proud of this team,'' Hott said. "As the season went on, this team got better and better, and we won the first game of this series, 9-2. But hats off to Imler's -- they came back and won the next two.''

Plummer expects a stiff challenge from defending league champion Cumming Motors in the regional championship series. Win or lose, both teams will advance to the AAABA National Tournament in Johnstown, which begins Monday, Aug. 3.

"Cumming Motors is a good baseball team that is going to come ready to play,'' Plummer said. "We'll just go out, give it our best, and see what happens.''

MH ELECTRIC (1): Perry ss 301, Neiswender rf 300, Savage 1b 310, Davis eh 301, Jones cf 302, Weirich c 200, Kormanski 3b 200, Gillin lf 201, Henry p-dh 100, Shade 2b 200. Totals -- 22-1-5.

IMLER'S POULTRY (2): Fochler 2b 301, Parsons rf 300, Kraft c 301, Plummer 3b 301, Farabaugh 1b 211, Hileman lf 111, McClure ss 000, Steiner p-dh 100, Szynal cf 100, Oakes eh 200. Totals -- 18-2-5.

SCORE BY INNINGS

MH Electric 100 000 0 -- 1 5 4

Imler's Poultry 020 000 X -- 2 5 0

E--Perry, Neiswender, Savage, Kormanski. RBI--Jones, Steiner, Szynal. SAC--Hileman. SF--Steiner, Szynal. SB--Farabaugh, Hileman, McClure, Fochler. CS--Jones (Kraft to McClure); Fochler (Weirich to Kormanski). HBP--Hileman (by Henry); McClure (by Henry). LOB--Imler's Poultry 8, MH Electric 5. DP--MH Electric turned one.

PITCHING

MH Electric: Henry (L) 6IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 1SO, 73 pitches.

Imler's Poultry: Steiner (W) 7IP, 5H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 3SO, 73 pitches.

Umpires: Tony Kline (plate); Andy Lubert (bases).