FREEMANSBURG — West Lawn leadoff batter Ryan Post popped a fly ball into foul territory during the first at-bat Saturday as Pine Grove players in the field shouted, “Up!” and “Room!”
The ball, however, was lost in the blinding sun overhead and fell harmlessly to the ground.
It was a sign of bad things to come for the Grovers.
Post drilled the next pitch into left-center and eventually scored one of four first-inning runs for the Owls en route to their 8-1 win over the Grovers in the first round of the Pennsylvania American Legion Region 2 Tournament.
The Owls produced 12 hits, drew seven walks and executed six sacrifice bunts — three of which were squeezes.
“It looked like we had maybe a little nerves going,” Pine Grove manager Frank D’Agostino III said. “Didn’t judge the sun in the first inning, didn’t make a couple other plays that I know we could’ve made and got some outs on.
“When you’re at this stage of the season, you can’t be making those mistakes against teams like this because they’re going to take advantage of it.”
The Grovers (17-8) can’t afford to make them again today. Pine Grove plays host Freemansburg, which lost 7-1 to North Parkland on Saturday, in an elimination game this afternoon.
The contest is scheduled to begin upon conclusion of the 9:30 a.m. game between Muhlenberg and Lower Macungie.
Muhlenberg fell to Hellertown 13-4 on Saturday, while Perkiomen beat Lower Macungie 5-1.
West Lawn (18-15) plays North Parkland in the winners’ bracket today following the Hellertown-Perkiomen game at 4 p.m.
Patrick Causa followed Post’s single off Pine Grove pitcher Austin Fick with one of his own. Alex Salesky then singled Post home and Ryan Brunner’s squeeze bunt scored Causa.
Back-to-back RBI doubles by Alex Twiford and pitcher Mike Simmerman made it 4-0 before Pine Grove had a chance to bat.
The inning was nothing unusual for West Lawn, which scored 44 runs on its way to the Berks League championship last week.
“It was a big start,” Owls manager Zack Williams said. “Coming out, being the away team, we got to get on offense first and that’s one of the things we did well in the Berks County playoffs.
“One thing that can’t be overshadowed is that we bunted, we squeezed three times today and put pressure on the other team,” Williams added. “We were playing percentage baseball. Even when we had a four-run lead, we kept tacking on there.”
Squeeze bunts were responsible for West Lawn’s final two runs, one each in the fifth and eighth. The Owls’ other two runs came in the third on three straight hits down the left-field line — doubles by Brunner and Twiford and a Simmerman single.
Twiford reached base in all five plate appearances. He finished 3-for-3 with two doubles, three runs, two RBIs and two walks.
Pine Grove got one run back in the bottom of the first when Logan Levan was hit by a pitch and scored on Zach Boltz’s single that dropped in front of the center fielder.
Simmerman didn’t allow another hit until Kobe D’Agostino singled in the sixth. He surrendered only three hits, walked none and struck out three.
Nick Cummings relieved Simmerman, who pitched in the Berks League championship game, for the eighth and ninth. Cummings struck out three more and gave up one hit — also to D’Agostino.
The victory was West Lawn’s 11th in 13 games, including a victory over Norchester in the second round of the Berks League tournament that saw the Owls rally to overcome a 7-1 deficit in the fifth inning.
Pine Grove, which had won seven of its last eight, now faces another elimination game. After losing to Hamburg in the Schuylkill-Berks Legion League Tournament winners’ bracket, the Grovers won three straight elimination games to earn a regional playoff berth.
“Great thing is we’re not out of it yet,” Frank D’Agostino said. “It’s one game. We didn’t lose in a while. Baseball’s a game where you usually don’t win every game. If you can, that’s great, but it’s not designed to win every game.
“We’ll just get right back at it tomorrow. If we play a quality game, we should be OK.”
Game Summary
Region 2 Legion Tournament
At Freemansburg
WEST LAWN (8) — Post cf 6 1 1 0, Causa ss 5 2 1 0, Folk rf 4 0 2 0, Salesky c 3 1 1 1, Brunner lf 2 1 1 2, Barczynski lf 0 0 0 0, Twiford 1b 3 3 3 2, Simmerman p 3 0 2 2, Cummings p 0 0 0 0, Murphy 3b 4 0 1 0, Himmelreich 2b 4 0 0 1. Totals 34 8 12 8.
PINE GROVE (1) — D’Agostino cf 4 0 2 0, L. Levan ss 3 1 0 0, Zimmerman c-3b 3 0 0 0, Boltz 1b 4 0 1 1, Weinus lf 4 0 0 0, Smith 2b 4 0 1 0, Fick p 0 0 0 0, T. Levan dh-3b-c 4 0 0 0, Soper rf 2 0 0 0, Kreiser rf 1 0 0 0, Brown 3b-p 3 0 0 0. Totals 32 1 4 1.
West Lawn (18-15) 402 010 010 — 8
Pine Grove (17-8) 100 000 000 — 1
E — West Lawn 1, Pine Grove 2. DP — None. LOB — West Lawn 12, Pine Grove 6. 2B — Brunner, Twiford 2, Simmerman. S — Folk, Salesky, Brunner 2, Murphy, Himmelreich.
West Lawn IP H R ER BB K
Simmerman W 7 3 1 1 0 3
Cummings 2 1 0 0 1 3
Pine Grove IP H R ER BB K
Fick L 5.2 11 7 7 5 3
Brown 3.1 1 1 0 2 2
HBP — by Simmerman (L. Levan). PB — Salesky. T — 2:09.