Latrobe, Murrysville Legion squeeze out wins; West Point stays alive
Haden Sierocky beat out an infield single to deep shortstop that scored Erick Batista, and Latrobe edged Hempfield East, 1-0, on Saturday in Game 1 of the District 31 American Legion semifinal playoffs at Latrobe High School.
Game 2 of the best-of-3 series will be at 11 a.m. Sunday at Pitt-Greensburg.
The teams battled throughout with stingy defense and a pitcher’s duel between Hempfield East’s Connor Burkey and Latrobe’s Jack Stynchula.
“It was a fantastic game and one of the best I’ve been involved in,” Latrobe coach Jason Bush said. “It was well played.”
Colin Bush had three doubles for Latrobe, and Lou Amatucci had two hits.
In the bottom of the seventh inning Batista reached on a one-out single. Amatucci reached on a bunt single, and Batista moved to third on Logan Bradish’s fly out to right. That’s when Sierocky delivered the winner.
Murrysville 4, Bushy Run 3 — At Harrison City, Nolan Boehm scored two runs and drove in two runs to lead Murrysville to a Game 1 victory.
The game ended when Erik Streussnig threw out Jon Lovre trying to score from second base on a Brody Hoffman single.
Carmen Metcalfe opened the game with a home run to give Bushy Run a 1-0 lead.
Murrysville scored two runs each in the second and third innings for a 4-1 lead. Bushy Run scored two runs in the bottom of the third.
Metcalfe and Hoffman each had two hits for Bushy Run.
Brody Reese had two doubles for Murrysville, and Boehm had a double and single.
Game 2 of the best-of-3 series will be played at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Haymaker Park in Murrysville.
West Point stays alive
Jayelyn Luft tossed a two-hit shutout and struck out 11 to lead West Point to a 4-0 victory against Titusville in the Pennsylvania Little League Softball Major State Tournament.
The victory keeps West Point alive in the losers’ bracket.
West Point took a 1-0 lead in the first inning after Jocelyn Luft tripled and scored on a ground out.
Jocelyn Luft and Morgan Maiers each drove in two runs.
West Point will play the winner of the Caln/Plymouth game at 5 p.m. Sunday.
Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.
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