By virtue of being the lone undefeated team left in the Berks County League playoffs, Boyertown had the luxury of needing just one win out of the possible two scheduled games against long-time rival Shillington on Tuesday evening. Despite facing an early four run deficit, the second-seeded Red Sox rallied back against Boyertown's pitching staff and handed the Bears their first loss of the week.
Upbeat and determined, they returned to Owls Field in West Lawn less than an hour later for a decisive championship game that would ultimately award the league's only Region 2 Tournament berth. Shillington, once again the visiting team, sent Adam Beilhart to the mound. Boyertown countered with sixteen year old Dan Woodley. After striking out the first two batters of the game, Woodley surrendered a base hit to Collin Hecker and a homerun by clean-up hitter Kyle Hartman. The drive to right field gave the Red Sox a 2-0 lead.
Boyertown, to their credit, answered right back. Leadoff hitter Ryan Schwager got things going with a base hit which was followed by Matt Purnell's hit by pitch. After a successful sacrifice bunt, Travis Kreitz drove in the first run and reached based on a fielding error by third baseman Brandon Snyder. Purnell would eventually tie the game up after scoring on a bases loaded walk to Paul Mills.
The Red Sox took back the lead in the third with two hits to open the frame, a sacrifice bunt, and an RBI groundout by Dillon Landrigan. Shillington attempted to break the game open in the top of the fifth when they plated four runs on hits by Ben Spezialetti, Landrigan, Zach Woodworth, Dave Clemens, and Kyle Summers. The Bears, again, were able to answer Shillington's rally in the bottom of the inning by plating three runs of their own. Schwager led off with a walk and eventually scored, Purnell doubled and scored, and Kreitz singled and scored on an error by the left fielder.
Ryan Pinter, fresh off a win in Monday's game against Conrad Weiser, was able to settle things down for the Bears as he tossed three perfect innings starting in the sixth. The Bears capitalized on another Shillington error to tie the game in the seventh with runs by Andrew Gehringer and Paul Mills. The flood gates opened in the bottom of the eighth, as Boyertown scored five runs on hits by Purnell and Schnell, a sacrifice bunt and throwing error on the third baseman, a hit by pitch to Gehringer (his fourth such feat of the day), a basehit by designated hitter Colby Hartman, and an error on the Shillington shortstop. The Bears were able to put pressure on early in the inning and keep things going by way of the errors committed by the Red Sox defense.
Colby Hartman came on for the Bears to try and close things out in the ninth. After a leadoff walk, he was able to retire the next three batters in order to end it. Final score: Boyertown 12, Shillington 7.
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