It might not have been the most conventional win. But it was a win nonetheless.
Despite recording just four RBIs, Schuylkill Valley defeated Pottsville 10-3 in Tuesday night’s Schuylkill-Berks Legion League North Division game at Steidle Field.
The Falcons scored four runs — including their first three — on four Pottsville errors.
“We’ll take it any way we can get it,” Schuylkill Valley coach Ed Vaz said. “It’s a good win. They (Pottsville) are playing good. It’s a good win.”
The Falcons (6-5, 4-3 North Division) are playing very well of late, too. They’ve won four in a row and have soared to the top tier of the North Division standings with 12 points, tied with Southern Area and two behind division-leading Pine Grove.
“It’s overdue,” Vaz said. “We’re starting to hit the ball timely and they’re playing very good defense these last games. Defense in the wood bat league is going to win games.”
Pitching certainly helps, as well. And the Falcons’ 1-2 punch of lefty Bobby Grigas (who wears No. 1) and Jeff Yordy (No. 2) got the job done on the bump Tuesday.
Grigas recently came off an elbow injury and pitched the first 3.1 innings, striking out six and allowing two runs. He also finished 2-for-4 at the plate as the lead-off hitter, scoring a run and accounting for one of Schuylkill Valley’s RBIs.
“It was up and down,” Grigas said of the strange offensive performance. “I don’t know how to take it. We just needed to hit the ball and put it in play because the field would help us out with a lot of errors.”
Pottsville (3-5, 2-3) wasn’t helping itself much offensively, either. The Lions stranded 11 runners, six in scoring position.
“It was overall tough,” Pottsville coach Dave Baker said. “We left a lot of guys on base. We couldn’t find the big hit, kicked the ball around a good bit. Give credit to their pitchers, though. ... They threw really well. They kept us off-balance and we couldn’t find a big hit.”
The game didn’t start that way. After Pottsville pitcher John Toomey sat the Falcons down in order in the first, Eric Wapinsky delivered an RBI double in the bottom half to score Brandon Daubert and give the Lions an early 1-0 lead.
Schuylkill Valley got on the board in the third inning when Cody Moore, Grigas and Jake Damiter led off the inning with consecutive singles. A throwing error on Damiter’s hit allowed Moore and Grigas to score. Damiter later scored on an outfield error after a Tom Gallagher hit to give the Falcons a 3-1 lead.
Grigas’ RBI single in the fourth scored Derrick Reese and gave Schuylkill Valley some breathing room.
Dylan Palamar’s singled home Toomey in the bottom of the fourth to cut the deficit back to two runs. But the Lions left the bases loaded in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, during which they only mustered two runs off Grigas and Yordy.
“We’ve got some good pitching,” Vaz said. “Solid ... solid. They’re not giving a lot of walks up and that helps.”
Meanwhile, Schuylkill Valley drew seven free passes, a hit batsman, and capitalized on two errors.
In all, Pottsville put four pitchers — Toomey, Palamar, Mike O’Pake and Dan Doyle — on the mound, adding to the strain on a short bench that already forfeited a game to Southern Area in 11 innings Sunday.
The opportunistic Falcons compiled 10 hits on the four Lions pitchers to add to their recent string of wins over Valley View, Tamaqua and Kutztown.
“We’re finally finding ourselves,” Grigas said. “We know who can play what spots now and we’re putting people in the perfect spots to get hits.”