OLEY - Luke Erb limited Pine Grove's chances.
When the Grovers did get a runner on base against the Oley/Topton left-hander, they shot themselves in the foot.
A trio of baserunning blunders prevented Pine Grove from generating any offense Tuesday in a 5-0 loss to the Patriots in Game 2 of the Schuylkill-Berks Legion League Championship Series at Oley Valley High School.
The victory gives Oley/Topton (22-8-1) the overall league title and advances the Patriots to the Region 2 American Legion Tournament, which begins Saturday in Boyertown. They will play the Northampton County champion at 1 p.m. at Bear Stadium.
For Pine Grove, the loss caps the Grovers' best season since they made the Region 2 Tournament in 2003.
"We've been aggressive all year on the basepaths," Pine Grove manager Frank D'Agostino III said. "Sometimes that shoots us in the foot a little bit.
"Some of the stuff wasn't very smart baseball."
Erb, the former Brandywine Heights High School star, scattered six hits, walked three and struck out 10 in a complete-game effort.
The Grovers had a baserunner in every inning, but made three miscues on the bases that kept them from scoring.
In the first inning, Jed Blankenhorn opened the game with a single, but was picked off first base on a snap throw by catcher Kevin Sell one out later.
In the fourth, Steve Zimmerman opened the frame with a walk and moved to second on Brian Reichert's sacrifice bunt, but was picked off by Erb for the second out of the inning.
The biggest miscue came in the fifth inning, when Brandon Scheibley singled, moved to second on an overthrow and took third on Nevin White's infield single.
Josh Scheibley followed with a hump-back liner right at shortstop Zach Eddinger. White mistook the liner for a base hit and was easily thrown out at first for the second out of the inning.
Erb escaped trouble and kept the Grovers scoreless by getting Nick Cataldo to line out to second base.
"We knew coming into this game that they had a shortstop that like to works hard on the guys on second and a catcher that likes to throw behind people and has a very good arm," D'Agostino III said. "We knew coming in that we couldn't be what we normally would like to.
"You hope they learn from it, because there was some things that were pretty bad baserunning mistakes that we made that ran us out of innings."
While Pine Grove failed to capitalize on its scoring chances, Oley/Topton got timely hits when it needed to.
Sell's RBI single in the first inning gave the Patriots a 1-0 lead. Oley/Topton upped the margin to 3-0 with a pair of runs in the fourth on an RBI groundout by Bryce Galczynski and a run-scoring single by Jon Dekovitch, then made it 5-0 with two more runs in the sixth on RBI singles by Hunter Renninger and Galczynski.
Renninger finished 3-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI. In the two-game LCS, the lanky first baseman finished 7-for-8 with three runs scored, two homers and three RBIs.
"Their lineup is pretty solid. Their pitching staff is solid. They have a very good club," D'Agostino III said. "When you have a tough lineup like that, somebody is probably going to get you.
"You hope not, but you're going to make mistakes as a pitcher and sometimes you just have to tip your cap because they make good swings and put the ball in play where you can't field it."
Oley/Topton entered the 2013 Schuylkill-Berks Legion season as the favorite after returning nearly its entire roster from last year's squad that lost to Valley View in the league final and went 1-2 at regionals.
For the Grovers, the season was a bright spot as seven of their 12 players still have high school eligibility remaining.
"Last year we thought we could make some noise, but we had such a late high school run - which was great - that we had so many games in a short amount of time that they got wore out by the end of the season," D'Agostino III said.
"This year we were able to get going early and it was an enjoyment. We had a squad that was into the game more and more each day. It's only going to help us for next year." Game Summary