Young Township, Latrobe pick up wins in District 31 American semifinals
A fast start is all Young Township needed to get past Bushy Run in the District 31 American Legion semifinals Saturday at Penn-Trafford High School.
Back-to-back two-run doubles by Bradley Felix and Haden Brink in a four-run first inning led Young Township to a 7-2 win in Game 1 of the best-of-three series.
Game 2 will be 3 p.m. Sunday at the West Lebanon field in Indiana County.
“Jumping out early here was big for us,” Young Township coach Ryan Staats said. “This isn’t an easy place to play. We left a lot of runners on base, and their center fielder (Matt Lichota) made a fantastic catch with the bases loaded.”
Bushy Run coach Scott Peyman said he was just happy to play the game. Because of travel ball tournaments, some of his players drove hours just to get back to Harrison City to play.
“We didn’t have to forfeit, that was key,” Peyman said. “I threw a couple younger guys, so hopefully, we’ll be in better shape the rest of the tournament.”
Young Township led 6-0 before Bushy Run scored. It actually had a run taken off the board in the fourth inning when a baserunner failed to touch third base on Ian Temple’s double.
Bushy Run did score two runs in the fifth inning on an RBI double by Chuck Fontana Jr. and a groundout by Ty Freas.
Young Township added another run on fly ball.
Braden Staats, Nicholas Reeping and Brink (two doubles) had two hits each for Young Township.
Gavin Good had two doubles for Bushy Run.
Latrobe 7, Unity 1: Vinny Amatucci hit a two-run homer, and Rayse King tossed a three hitter to carry Latrobe to a Game 1 victory at Legion-Keener Park.
King struck out five and walked two in a complete game.
Game 2 of the series will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at Whitney.
Latrobe took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a pass ball and extended its lead to 3-0 on a two-run single by Logan Short.
Latrobe coach Jason Bush said he has never seen a ball travel so far at Legion-Keener as Amatucci’s blast to center field.
Erik Batista and Short had two hits each for Latrobe.
Anthony Massari had two hits for Unity. Alex Woodring was charged with the loss.
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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