ORWIGSBURG — With a short bench, Southern Area knew efficient baseball was required for victory.
Behind crisp pitching from Kyle Emerich and Justin Hammer, the A’s held off Tamaqua and manufactured runs for a 3-2 win in Saturday’s Schuylkill-Berks Legion League game at Allen Greenawalt Field.
Southern Area (3-2) started the scoring in the second inning when walks to Rob Oliver and Dave Kyslinger set up Luciano Valenti’s RBI single to the left-center gap. Lane Koury reached on an error in the next at-bat, scoring another run to give the A’s a 2-0 lead.
“They played textbook small ball and that’s what we needed to,” Southern Area coach Jerry Friewald said. “We had 11 guys, very short bench today. They did a good job when they had to. We had to manufacture (runs). Our bats were a little weak the last two games, so we had to play a real good game of baseball today.”
Tamaqua (2-3) tied the game in the top of the third. Two Southern Area errors put Blue Sox runners on the corners with Matt Roberts at the plate. The hard-hitting Roberts executed a hit-and-run perfectly, lining a shot to where the second baseman would’ve been to cut the A’s lead to one.
Adam Bates’ sacrifice fly later in the inning tied it at 2.
But the A’s weren’t done manufacturing.
Danny Greenawalt walked to lead off the Southern Area third and advanced on Shane Grapsy’s sacrifice bunt. As planned, Oliver dropped a single into shallow right field in the next at-bat to plate Greenawalt and give the A’s all the offense they needed.
Emerich breezed through the fourth inning thanks to two sparkling defensive plays by Oliver at third. Oliver also helped Emerich get out of a jam in the fifth by knocking down a sharply-hit ball by Roberts and forcing out Casey Rother at second base for the second out.
“The grass was high so I just tried to stay low,” Oliver said. “It took a bad hop on me earlier so I was just trying to stay in front of it.”
Emerich, in his first Legion season, gave up four hits but recorded outs after each one to prevent Tamaqua runners from advancing.
“Kyle did a great job for five innings today for us, which is exactly what we wanted him to do,” Friewald said. “He threw strikes, pitched to contact and let the defense play.”
Hammer pitched no-hit ball in the sixth and seventh in relief. Tamaqua’s Pete Baddick threatened to tie the game in the sixth after reaching on a fielder’s choice and advancing to third on a stolen base and a wild pitch, but Hammer struck out Brad Fedor and Joe Heery to end the inning.
The Blue Sox had runners at third base three times — the third, fifth and sixth — but couldn’t get them in.
“We’re not hitting the ball,” Tamaqua coach Todd Heisler said. “First two games we won, we hit. Since then, we’ve been pretty flat.”
Tamaqua started the season with back-to-back wins over Schuylkill Valley (9-1) and Kutztown (3-2), but have now lost three straight after dropping a doubleheader with Post 625 last Sunday.
Southern Area also opened the season with wins over Schuylkill Valley and Kutztown, but dropped two straight to Post 625 and Muhlenberg before Saturday’s win.
Pine Grove 10
Pottsville 5
PINE GROVE — Zach Boltz homered twice, including a grand slam in the sixth inning, to lead the Grovers to a Schuylkill-Berks Legion League win over the Lions at Stump Stadium.
Boltz finished with six RBIs in the game, which saw six lead changes before Pine Grove grabbed a hold of the lead for good in the sixth.
Darion Jacoby led Pottsville with two hits and three runs.
Pot (0-1) 102 050 0 — 5 7 1
PG (4-3) 000 424 x — 10 8 7
Spehrley, Painter; Fick, Zimmerman. W — Fick. L — Spehrley.
HITS: Pottsville — Wapinsky, Jacoby 2, Daubert 2, Spehrley, Renninger. Pine Grove — L. Levan, Zimmerman, Boltz 2, T. Levan 2, Wolfe, Soper.
HR — Boltz 2.
Oley/Topton 13
Schuylkill Valley 7
OLEY — Ian McCole, Jeff Yordy and Derrick Reese had multi-hit games, but the Patriots pounded the Falcons in a Schuylkill-Berks Legion League game.
McCole was 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. Yordy went 2-for-4 with a triple, two runs and an RBI. Reese was 2-for-3 with three RBIs.
Tyler Wentzel and Zach Tiongson homered for Oley/Topton.
SV (2-4) 112 300 0 — 7 10 1
O/T (5-1) 411 313 x — 13 12 3
Middleton, DeAngelo (2), Erbe (5); Fisher. W — Fisher. L — DeAngelo.
HITS: Schuylkill Valley — Johns, Yordy 2, McCole 3, De. Reese 2, Skrincosky, Dy. Reese. Oley/Topton — Schlegel, Vaccaro 2, Williamson 3, Wentzel 2, Fisher, Lesher, Boice, Tiongson.
2B — McCole, De. Reese, Skrincosky. 3B — Yordy, Lesher. HR — Wentzel, Tiongson.
Valley View 7
Wyomissing 3
HEGINS — Jordan Marlow, Conrad Opozda and Chase Schaeffer each doubled and drove in two runs to lead the West Enders to a Schuylkill-Berks Legion League win over the Angels.
Hunter Bordner scored two runs for Valley View, which won for the first time this season.
Wyo (2-4) 000 010 2 — 3 6 1
VV (1-1) 400 012 x — 7 7 1
Ramos, Velzaquez; Steinhilber. W — Steinhilber. L — Ramos.
HITS: Wyomissing — Kuczala 2, Nunez 2, Peguero 2. Valley View — Bordner, Herb, T. Lucas, Marlow, C. Opozda, C. Schaeffer, Steinhilber.
2B — Marlow, C. Opozda, Schaeffer.
Tulpehocken 10
Pottsville 7
Brandon Daubert hit a two-run homer in the third inning, but the Thunder beat the Lions in a Schuylkill-Berks Legion League game at Steidle Field.
Matthew Martin had three hits to lead Tulpehocken, while Eric Hartranft had two hits, one a double.
Eric Wapinsky, Darion Jacoby and Daubert each had two hits for Pottsville.
Tulpy (3-3) 202 003 3 — 10
Potts (0-2) 103 201 0 — 7
Wanner, Kerber (5) and Berry; Kalinich, Wapinsky (7) and Daubert. W — Kerber. L — Kalinich.
HITS: Tulpehocken — Berry, Martin 3, Kerber, Hartranft 2, Kiebach, Emerich, Lochman. Pottsville — Wapinsky 2, Jacoby 2, Daubert 2, McGarry.
2B — Hartranft. HR — Daubert.
Schuylkill Region
Player of the Week
Kobe D’Agostino
TEMPLE — Pine Grove’s Kobe D’Agostino was selected the Schuylkill Region Player of the Week by the Schuylkill-Berks Legion League.
D’Agostino went 5-for-13 during the week, scoring five runs, driving in three and stealing five bases.
He also struck out six in a 5-1, complete-game victory against Hamburg on Sunday.
Game Summary
TAMAQUA (2) — MacDonald ss 3 0 0 0, Moll cf 1 0 0 0, Rother c 4 1 1 0, Roberts p 4 0 1 1, Bates rf 1 0 0 1, Lehman rf 0 0 0 0, Titus 3b 3 0 1 0, Hartung 1b 1 0 0 0, Baddick 2b 3 0 1 0, Fedor lf 3 0 0 0, Heery cf-ss 3 1 0 0. Totals 26 2 4 2.
SOUTHERN AREA (3) — Hammer ss-p 4 0 0 0, Greenawalt 2b 3 1 0 0, Grapsy 1b 2 0 1 0, Oliver 3b 2 1 1 1, Martin lf 2 0 1 0, Emerich p-ss 3 0 0 0, Kyslinger c 1 1 0 0, Valenti cf 2 0 1 1, Koury rf 1 0 0 0, Bobbin ph 1 0 1 0. Totals 21 3 5 2.
Tamaqua (2-3) 002 000 0 — 2
So. Area (3-2) 021 000 x — 3
E — Tamaqua 1, Southern Area 2. DP — None. LOB — Tamaqua 5, Southern Area 8. SB — Roberts, Baddick, Heery. S — Grapsy, Martin, Kourey. SF — Bates.
Tamaqua IP H R ER BB K
Roberts L 6 5 3 2 5 6
Home IP H R ER BB K
Emerich W 5 4 2 2 2 2
Hammer S 2 0 0 0 1 2
WP — Hammer. T — 1:37.