WEST LAWN - Southern Area went into the top of the seventh inning of its Berks County Area Junior Legion Youth Division Tournament losers' bracket game with the prospect of being no-hit.
The Junior A's prevented that from happening on John Ege's RBI single.
But one hit seldom wins games, as West Lawn pitchers Jason Anundson and Dalton Emerich combined to stifle the A's in a 9-1 victory at Owls Field that ended Southern Area's season.
The Owls (28-9), who advance to play top-seeded Boyertown today, broke open a 1-0 game with a three-run fifth inning and a five-run outburst in the sixth in which they sent nine batters to the plate.
Anundson helped himself with a 2-for-3 effort that included a two-run triple in the sixth inning. Jordan Fisher also drove in two runs for West Lawn with an RBI single in the fifth and drawing a bases-loaded walk in the sixth.
Southern Area (16-8) starter John "Kicker" Werbacher allowed three hits and one run in 3.1 innings before West Lawn touched reliever Robbie Oliver for eight runs in its final two at-bats.
"This is the third time we played Southern Area and they are a very good ball club," West Lawn manager Mike Zietek said. "We had trouble with (Werbacher) the first time we played them. We were concerned when we saw he was pitching today."
Despite the lack of hits, Southern Area had scoring opportunities in the game, collecting seven walks and one hit batter to go along with its one hit. The A's numerous chances were the reason Zietek opted to change pitchers in the fourth inning, bringing in Emerich to replace Anundson.
"When you're getting no-hit like that through six innings, the starting pitcher usually has eight strikeouts," Southern Area manager Jim Misstishin said. "We were putting the ball in play, but a lot of the time, it was right at them. Their outfielders did a nice job making a couple of nice catches."
West Lawn took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning when Jacob Schultz doubled and later scored on a groundout by Westin Keiser.
Southern Area threatened in the top of the fourth when Matt Kalyan was hit by a pitch and Brandon Baver walked with one out. Zietek brought in Emerich, who recorded seven straight outs before Southern Area scored in the top of the seventh.
The loss ended a successful first season for Southern Area, finished 15-6 in the regular season and went 1-2 in the playoffs in its first year in the Junior Legion circuit.
"We did well with having only six 15-year-olds," Misstishin said. "We were one of the younger teams. I can't wait for next year to have these kids back." Game Summary