Today'Big three' pushes Post 143 to date with Enola
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Article RatingDILLSBURG — The big three gave Post 143 the effort it desperately needed.
Behind starter A.J. Weaver, Post 143 staved off elimination, with a 4-2 defeat of Dillsburg in the Cumberland County Legion baseball tournament, meaning 143 will take on unbeaten Enola today at 2 p.m. at East Pennsboro High School.
A Post 143 win later today means the two teams will square off in a winner-take-all contest Monday night. If Enola wins today, they are the Cumberland Co. champions.
But Saturday’s victory didn’t come without some controversey.
In the seventh, with the score tied, Post 143’s Josh Erney drew the ire of the Dillsburg fan base as he was issued a walk on a close pitch. Erney would steal second and third base, again drawing reaction from the Post 26 fanbase on a close tag. Erney then scored on Colin Rider’s single to center field, lifting Post 143 to its date with Enola later today.
“This was a total team effort. I just tried to throw strikes to give us a chance,” said Weaver. “I was getting all of my pitches over the plate and they were hitting them in the air.”
Weaver enduced 13 fly ball outs and his defense committed only one error that led to a Dillsburg run. Weaver struck out two and did not issue a walk.
Post 143 was able to jump out in front early in the first inning on Corey Latsha’s two-RBI double to plate Joey Murphy and Eric Ort for the 2-0 lead. Murphy connected on a double to start the inning.
Dillsburg came back to get a run in the bottom of the second but ran itself out of what could have been a bigger inning. With runners on second and third Cam Richardson ripped a one-hopper at short that led to Corey Strausbaugh getting caught between second and thirdbase. As he was tagged out, Sam Crater sailed home for the run.
Post 26 would take the lead in the fourth as Crater again lined a single to center. The ball took a funny carom boucning off Ort as Crater made it to second. Richardson then hit a long fly ball to left that would drop at the base of the fence for a double but Crater could only get to third base with one out. With two gone, Quinton Taylor lined a single through the box to score the run.
Post 143 would respond when Matt Wilson flared a double to right that rolled out of play. He moved up on a wild pitch and scored on Colin Rider lined the next pitch to left to score Wilson to tie the game.
“Colin came through big for us with the bat,” Weaver said. “Matt who is our other pitcher, had a key hit again today. These are guys who usually don’t play the field but with only nine players we have to do whatever we need to do. We’ll go (today) and see what happens. I’ll throw again if I need to.”
Weaver retired the final 10 batters of the contest. Tyler Follmer took the loss allowing only seven hits, striking out 13, but issued six walks.
“We haven’t hit the ball well this week,” said Post 143 manager Dave Sherman. “We had double digit strike outs for the third straight night but we somehow found a way to win. Those three, Weaver, Rider, and Wilson have carried us all season.
“Weaver gave us another good effort on the bump. We are living on borrowed time as no one expected us to be here so we’ll go out (today) and have some fun and see what happens.”
“It has been a really good run for us. We won 18 games and made it to the playoffs. We only lose four players so we have a good nucleus for next year,” said Dillsburg manager Hank Sanders. “Weaver is the perfect kind of pitcher against us because we are a fastball hitting team. You saw how many balls we hit in the air today. We had our chances but we didn’t make some plays. A break here or there and this could have been a whole different ball game. I am proud of the kids for their effort and never quit mentality.“
