KUTZTOWN — Kobe D’Agostino wanted another chance to find out who the Schuylkill-Berks Legion League champion is.
Last season, Pine Grove and Muhlenberg were crowned co-champions after extra innings of scoreless baseball yielded no winner in the league final at Pine Grove’s Stump Stadium.
This year, they’ll try again.
D’Agostino struck out seven and walked none in a 4-2, complete-game victory over Oley/Topton on Monday night to advance the Grovers into tonight’s league championship against Muhlenberg.
Tonight’s game is at 7 at Kutztown’s Breidegam Field. Monday’s victory also qualified Pine Grove for the Region 2 Tournament — which begins this weekend in Freemansburg — for the second straight year.
“We never really got to figure out who the champion was,” D’Agostino said of last year’s final. “We were co-champions. Now, we’re really going to find out this year.”
D’Agostino allowed one earned run Monday. He plunked Patriots power hitter Dan Kristan to lead off the second. Kristan scored on Damian Mace’s sacrifice fly before Brody Lesher, who reached on an error, came home on Zach Tiongson’s RBI single.
That was all the offense Oley/Topton could muster. D’Agostino pitched four innings of no-hit ball until Lesher singled to left in the seventh.
“I changed my mechanics. I wasn’t following through the way I should’ve been, and my back wasn’t 100 percent healthy,” D’Agostino said. “Once I started dialing it in
a little more and remembering my mechanics, every one of my pitches started working again.”
D’Agostino needed more than 13 pitches in an inning only once between the second and seventh. He only allowed three hits — one each in the first, second and seventh innings.
“He struggled early on with his command a bit; he pitched behind. But third or fourth inning on, he did a really good job throwing all his pitches for strikes,” Pine Grove manger Frank D’Agostino III said. “(Catcher) Stevie (Zimmerman) did a heck of a job calling the game for us and (Kobe) gave us what we needed, which was a quality effort going out and we played good defense behind him.”
After the second-inning error allowed Lesher on base, the Grovers sealed the defense behind D’Agostino. Dylan Brown made two perfect throws from third base in the fifth and second baseman Dilan Smith made a barehanded pick to get Kristan out in the seventh.
As for the Grovers’ offense Monday, a little luck was involved.
Trailing 2-0, Tanner Levan singled to center to lead off the fifth and moved to second on Jason Soper’s sac bunt. When Brown singled to right in the next at-bat, Levan was waved around third.
That was when trouble struck. Levan stumbled on his way to home and was caught up in a rundown. After two throws, the ball was tossed over the head of Patriots catcher Mace, who scrambled for the ball and ran back to the dish, but missed the tag as Levan acrobatically twisted to duck out of the way and touch home with his hand.
“At first I thought he was going to make it no problem,” Brown said. “Then I saw him stumble so I just tried to get to third base.”
Which he did, and was brought home by D’Agostino’s squeeze bunt to tie the game at 2.
More luck was required when Zimmerman led off the sixth with a double to center. Zimmerman saw the throw to second might go wide and broke for third.
But when Patriots second baseman Bryson Turner stopped the ball, Zimmerman danced around the tag and made it back to second safely. He moved to third on a passed ball and scored on Zach Boltz’s sacrifice fly to give the Grovers a 3-2 lead.
“They were interesting, to say the least,” Frank D’Agostino said of the plays on the base paths. “But it all worked out for us so you kind of forget about them when they work out for you.”
Brown knocked in an insurance run in the seventh by singling up the middle to score Soper and set a date with Muhlenberg in the league championship.
Pine Grove beat Muhlenberg 4-2 on Sunday to stay alive in the tournament. The regular-season meeting between the two went the A’s way in a 7-6 Muhlenberg victory June 6.
“We have a lot of respect for Muhlenberg,” Frank D’Agostino said. “They’re a well-run organization. We wouldn’t want to be playing anybody else in that game. The game will be played well (today) and the best team will win.”
Game Summary
Schuylkill-Berks Legion League
Playoff Tournament
At Breidegam Field, Kutztown
PINE GROVE (4) — D’Agostino p 3 0 2 1, L. Levan ss 4 0 2 0, Zimmerman c 3 1 1 0, Boltz 1b 2 0 0 1, Weinus cf 3 0 1 0, Smith 2b 3 0 0 0, T. Levan rf 3 1 1 0, Soper lf 2 1 1 0, Brown 3b 3 1 2 1. Totals 26 4 10 3.
OLEY/TOPTON (2) — Williamson cf 3 0 0 0, Fisher p 3 0 0 0, Vaccaro ss 3 0 1 0, Wentzel rf 3 0 0 0, Kristan 1b 2 1 0 0, Lesher lf 3 1 1 0, Turner 2b 2 0 0 0, Mace c 2 0 0 1, Tiongson 3b 2 0 1 1. Totals 23 2 3 2.
PG (16-7) 000 021 1 — 4
O/T (16-7) 020 000 0 — 2
E — Pine Grove 1, Oley/Topton 3. LOB — Pine Grove 4, Oley/Topton 3. 2B — Zimmerman. SB — Weinus. CS — L. Levan, Weinus. S — D’Agostino, Soper, Turner. SF — Boltz, Mace.
Pine Grove IP H R ER BB K
D’Agostino W 7 3 2 1 0 7
Oley/Topton IP H R ER BB K
Fisher L 7 10 4 3 0 6
HBP — by D’Agostino (Kristan). WP — D’Agostino. PB — Zimmerman, Mace. T — 1:34.