Pottsville and Oley/Topton split doubleheaders both times the teams faced each other this Schuylkill-Berks Legion League season.
They split the regular-season meetings at Pottsville on June 21, then split a qualifier-round doubleheader Sunday at Oley.
The Patriots finally broke the tie Monday.
Pete Vaccaro hit a two-run home run in the first inning and Oley/Topton never looked back, securing an 8-1 win over the Lions at a rain-soaked Steidle Field and a position in the league tournament.
The first pitch was delayed 39 minutes after heavy rain muddied the field. A steady rain resumed during the second inning, but later subsided.
Seeded No. 4, Oley/Topton (13-6) hosts No. 5 Pine Grove in the first round of the double-elimination, eight-team tournament at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Pottsville (4-14-1) ends another season on the outside of the playoffs. Finding pitchers proved difficult for
the Lions this summer. The team was the last in the league to start its schedule due to Pottsville’s high school baseball team making a run to the state semifinals.
“We’re struggling to find pitchers. We’re pitching guys who never pitched before,” Pottsville manager Tyler Heffner said. “But they battled and I’m proud of them. (Oley/Topton) hit the ball well today and that’s how it goes.”
The Patriots compiled 12 hits against Pottsville pitchers Brandon Daubert and Alex Everly.
The Lions, the visiting team in the scorebook, started the game with a 1-0 lead after first-inning singles by Eric Wapinsky and Darion Jacoby set up Collin Herndon’s RBI single to left-center.
Pottsville left the bases loaded, though, after Oley/Topton pitcher Gray Williamson struck out Sam Siminitus and Bryan Wilson looking.
“We had two innings in a row there where we had guys on and hit balls right at kids,” Heffner said. “That kind of gave them a lot of momentum and killed ours.”
Williamson led off the bottom of the first with a liner over the third-base bag before Vaccaro sent the first pitch he saw from Daubert over the right-center fence. Brody Lesher’s sacrifice fly scored Tyler Wentzel later in the inning to put the Patriots up 3-1.
“The Vaccaro home run puts us right up two runs at that particular moment,” Oley/Topton manager Fred van Gulik said. “I think we hit the ball well even though the weather wasn’t the greatest.
“But we had trouble with Pottsville all year. We split here earlier, then split again (Sunday). It’s baseball, anything can happen any given day.”
Oley/Topton didn’t struggle much Monday. The Patriots piled it on in the second, scoring three more runs after Pottsville got two outs. Williamson singled, stole second and scored on Matt Fisher’s single to deep left field. Vaccaro blooped a single to shallow right field before Dan Kristan’s two-run single also dropped into right.
Two more runs scored in the fifth inning off Everly after a leadoff error and three straight singles from the Patriots’ bottom of the order — Bryson Turner, Damian Mace and Zach Tiongson.
Williamson, the No. 4 pitcher on Oley/Topton’s roster, shut the Lions down after the first inning. He only gave up one more hit — a two-out single to Wapinsky in the fourth — over the next 5.2 innings. He finished with 10 strikeouts and five walks.
Nate Christman relieved Williamson with two outs in the seventh and allowed a single to Daubert and walked Herndon before striking out Siminitus to end the game.
Williamson, who threw 132 pitches Monday, would’ve completed the game, but an error on a ball hit by Jacoby prompted van Gulik to remove his starter.
“(Williamson) pitched a pretty good game,” Heffner said. “We took a lot of strike threes today and that’s not very typical of us. We just didn’t hit the ball very well today.”
The eight-team, double-elimination league tournament starts Wednesday. Other first-round matchups are:
• No. 8 Tamaqua at top-seed Hamburg at 7:30 p.m.;
• No. 6 Valley View at No. 3 Southern Area at 5:30;
• No. 7 Wyomissing at No. 2 Muhlenberg at 6:30.
Game Summary
Schuylkill-Berks Legion League
Qualifier Round Playoff
At Steidle Field
POTTSVILLE (1) — Wapinsky ss 4 1 2 0, Renninger 3b 2 0 0 0, Jacoby cf 4 0 1 0, Daubert p-2b 2 0 1 0, Herndon c 2 0 1 1, Siminitus lf 4 0 0 0, Wilson 1b 3 0 0 0, Everly 2b-p 3 0 0 0, Liptock rf 1 0 0 0, Holobetz rf 1 0 0 0. Totals 26 1 5 1.
OLEY/TOPTON (8) — Williamson p 3 2 2 1, Christman p 0 0 0 0, Schlegel rf 0 0 0 0, Fisher dh 3 1 1 1, Vaccaro ss 4 2 2 2, Wentzel lf 2 1 0 0, Kristan 1b 4 0 2 2, Lesher cf 3 1 0 1, Turner 2b 4 1 2 1, Mace c 4 0 2 0, Tiongson 3b 3 0 1 0, Hook pr 0 0 0 0. Totals 30 8 12 8.
Potts. (4-14-1) 100 000 0 — 1
O/T (13-6) 330 020 x — 8
E — Pottsville 3, Oley/Topton 1. DP — Oley/Topton 1. LOB — Pottsville 11, Oley/Topton 9. HR — Vaccaro. SB — Williamson. CS — Daubert. S — Fisher. SF — Williamson.
Pottsville IP H R ER BB K
Daubert L 4 8 6 6 2 3
Everly 2 4 2 1 0 1
Oley/Topton IP H R ER BB K
Williamsn W 6.2 4 1 1 4 10
Christman 0.1 1 0 0 1 1
HBP — by Williamson (Daubert). T — 1:59.