Penn-Trafford headed to finals of state American Legion Youth tourney

Jason Sabol drove in six runs and Chuck Fontana plated four as Penn-Trafford continued its dominance in the Pennsylvania American Legion Youth Baseball State Tournament on Monday in Berwick by defeating Connellsville, 16-4, in five innings.

It was the third time in three weeks that Penn-Trafford defeated Connellsville.

Penn-Trafford, now 3-0, is guaranteed a spot in the finals Wednesday win or lose Tuesday. The Warriors will play Upper Perk, which defeated Conneaut, 10-1, in a loser’s bracket game, at 12:30 p.m.

The Warriors have outscored their opponents, 33-8.

Connellsville, which suffered its first loss, will face Boyertown Grizzlies at 10 a.m. Boyertown eliminated Northampton, 6-0.

Penn-Trafford used a five-run second inning to take command. It increased the lead to 6-0 with a run in the fourth inning before Connellsville scored two runs.

The Warriors scored 10 runs in the fifth inning to invoke the 10-run rule.

Winning pitcher Ian Temple threw three scoreless innings. He also doubled and singled.

Tyler Freas had three hits, including a double, scored three runs and drove in a run. Sabol had a triple and double.

Ethan Septak had a double and single, and Drew Sherwin had a double.

Penn-Trafford out-hit Connellsville, 12-9.

Uniontown stays alive

At Ephrata, Uniontown stayed alive in the loser’s bracket by eliminating French Creek Valley, 14-4.

Tyler Sankovich, Brant Bonadio, Santino Marra and Alex McClain had three hits each for Uniontown, which will face Norchester on Tuesday.

Cole Shearer had a double and single for the winners, McClain doubled and Kaleb Scott had two hits.

Braeden O’Brien was the winning pitcher.

Henry Shaffer hit a grand slam for French Creek Valley.

Paxton and Ephrata will play in the other game.

Ephrata defeated Northampton, 4-3, and Paxton edged Norchester, 4-2.