ORWIGSBURG — Southern Area manager Jerry Freiwald told his players they “dodged a bullet” Wednesday.
The A’s watched a four-run lead shrink from errors but got timely strikeouts from ace Nick Behm to hold off Valley View 4-3 in the first round of the Schuylkill-Berks Legion League Tournament.
Third-seeded Southern Area (15-4) plays No. 2 Muhlenberg, 10-5 winners over Wyomissing on Wednesday, in the second round at 6:30 p.m. today at Gochnauer Field in Laureldale, weather permitting.
The West Enders (6-11) will play the Angels in a second-round elimination game at 6 p.m. today in Hegins.
“We’re usually pretty solid on defense,” Freiwald said. “I think they just lost their focus for an inning. That was that inning where we fell apart. We dodged a bullet. They manned up and didn’t give up that extra run.”
That inning was the fourth. Ben Rautzahn led off the frame for Valley View with a walk, advancing to third after C.J. Steinhilber’s dribbler in front of the plate was thrown into right field.
Conrad Opozda’s squeeze bunt was also thrown over Southern Area first baseman Rob Oliver’s head, allowing Rautzahn to score and cutting the A’s lead to 4-1. Tyler Lucas’ squeeze scored Steinhilber, and Opozda scored on Chase Schaeffer’s groundout.
Behm struck out Kenny Ross to end the inning and keep Southern Area ahead.
“I started off the game pretty good — was throwing strikes — but as the game went on, I was struggling a little bit,” Behm said. “This isn’t usually how I pitch. I was struggling to find the strike zone on some of my pitches a couple times.”
When that happened, Behm fell back on his curveball — and it usually worked. The Seton Hill-bound right-hander struck out nine and walked three. Behm got strikeouts to end the second, third, fourth and fifth, stranding a total of six Valley View runners.
“He helped himself,” Freiwald said of Behm. “He got a little emotional there, then he realized he had to take care of one or two of the batters himself to get out of jams. He did a great job, calmed down, threw strikes and got out of jams.”
Perhaps most impressive about Behm’s outing was that he only allowed one hit to Valley View’s Nos. 3-6 hitters (Jordan Marlow, Hunter Bordner, Hunter Herb and Rautzahn).
The A’s scored all of their runs in the first inning. Danny Blugis dropped a single inside the right-field line and Danny Greenawalt and Dean Stramara followed with bunt base hits to load the bases. Shane Grapsy walked to drive in the first run.
Troy Moyer hit a two-run single through the right side of the infield to score Greenawalt and Stramara. Grapsy scored when the throw to third went awry as Southern Area took a 4-0 lead.
Moyer didn’t think his hit would turn out to be the difference.
“It was a two-strike curveball that I was just trying to put in play,” Moyer said. “It was a hit, thank God.”
The A’s had a chance for insurance in the sixth, but were robbed by Bordner at second base. Southern loaded the bases with Dave Kyslinger, Blugis and Greenawalt with one out before Stramara lined out to Bordner, who quickly threw to third to double up Kyslinger.
Steinhilber took the loss for the West Enders. He threw 33 pitches in the first inning, but got through the second and third with ease. He was aided in the third by a 4-6-3 double play to negate a walk to Oliver.
Another error in the fourth, however, got Valley View in trouble again. A two-out error put Southern Area’s Luciano Valenti aboard before Blugis’ single and a walk to Greenawalt. This time, a flyout to center let the West Enders escape unscathed.
“And that’s been the story all year long,” Valley View manager Ben Lucas said. “We have good players, a good team, it’s just errors. They killed us all season. Like anybody who knows baseball, if you have errors, you’re going to lose baseball games.
“All in all, the kids played a very solid game,” Lucas added. “They were upbeat. Southern Area is a good team. It’s going to be a long battle, but we have hope for the rest of the playoffs.”
Valley View won its regular-season meeting with Wyomissing 7-3 on June 13.
Muhlenberg won its only meeting with Southern Area this season, 4-0 on June 12.
Pine Grove 4
Oley/Topton 2
OLEY — Mark Weinus went 2-for-4 with three RBIs to lead the Grovers to a win over the Patriots in the first round of the Schuylkill-Berks Legion League Tournament.
Kobe D’Agostino and Jason Soper each scored two runs for Pine Grove, which plays Hamburg in the second round at 7:30 p.m. today in Hamburg.
Tanner Levan surrendered four hits to Oley/Topton, which hosts Tamaqua today in an elimination game at 5:30 p.m.
PG (13-6) 002 020 0 — 4 7 0
O/T (13-7) 020 000 0 — 2 4 1
T. Levan; Turner, Fisher (6). W —T. Levan. L — Turner.
HITS: Pine Grove — L. Levan, Boltz, Weinus 2, Kreiser, Brown, Soper. Oley/Topton — Fisher, Kristan, Lesher, Tiongson.
2B — Tiongson.
Hamburg 2
Tamaqua 1
HAMBURG — Hamburg broke a 1-1 deadlock with a fifth-inning run on a passed ball to capture a Schuylkill-Berks Legion League Tournament first-round victory over Tamaqua.
Winning pitcher Ryan Atkinson threw into the seventh inning before Ryan Smith relieved to get the final out by strikeout and to complete a one-hitter.
Brad Fedor had Tamaqua’s lone hit, a single. The Blue Sox scored their run in the first inning on an RBI groundout by Ed Titus.
Tam (8-11) 100 000 0 — 1 1 0
Ham (14-3) 001 010 x — 2 5 2
MacDonald; Atkinson, Smith (7). W — Atkinson. L — MacDonald.
HITS: Tamaqua — Fedor. Hamburg — J. Youndt, Seidel, Smith, Atkinson, J. Youndt.
Game Summary
VALLEY VIEW (3) — C. Schaeffer cf 3 0 0 1, Ross 3b 4 0 1 0, Marlow rf 4 0 0 0, Bordner 2b 3 0 0 0, Herb 1b 4 0 1 0, Rautzahn ss 2 1 0 0, Steinhilber p 3 1 2 0, Belding p 0 0 0 0, C. Opozda lf 2 1 0 1, Lucas c 2 0 1 1. Totals 27 3 5 3.
SOUTHERN AREA (4) — Blugis 3b-ss 4 1 2 0, Greenawalt rf-2b 1 1 1 0, Stramara ss-p 3 1 1 0, Grapsy cf 2 1 0 1, Oliver 1b 2 0 0 0, Moyer 2b-3b 3 0 2 2, Behm p 0 0 0 0, Martin dh-lf 3 0 1 0, Kyslinger c 2 0 0 0, Valenti lf-rf 2 0 0 0. Totals 22 4 7 3.
Val. View (6-11) 000 300 0 — 3
So. Area (15-4) 400 000 x — 4
E — Valley View 2, Southern Area 4. DP — Valley View 2. LOB — Valley View 8, Southern Area 8. CS — Martin. S — C. Opozda, Lucas.
Valley View IP H R ER BB K
Steinhilber L 5 7 4 4 6 2
Belding 1 0 0 0 1 0
So. Area IP H R ER BB K
Behm W 6 5 3 2 3 9
Stramara S 1 0 0 0 0 1
Steinhilber pitched to 2 batters in the 6th
WP — Behm 2. PB — Lucas, Kyslinger. T — 2:02.