One night after an impressive victory over Wesleyville, the Latrobe Jethawks got knocked down Tuesday in a five-inning shortened, 10-0 loss to Harrisburg Paxton in a winners’ bracket nightcap of four games in Pennsylvania’s American Legion State Tournament at Rosa-Oglietti Park in Derry Township.
Latrobe, coming off that 7-1 victory over Wesleyville, managed just four hits — two by Haden Sierocky — against Harrisburg right-hander Bubba Dorris and committed five errors, three during a five-run fifth that halted the game.
Dorris also homered for one of three Paxton long balls.
“That might have been one of the worst games we’ve played all year,” said Latrobe assistant head coach Zach Bush, who is managing the Jethawks in the absence of his father, Jason Bush, the Region 7 director who is overseeing the tournament’s return to Western Pennsylvania after a long absence. “In some ways, it’s better to lose like that than a tight one that’s 10 innings. We told them to flush it because we have to play another good baseball team tomorrow.”
Latrobe (1-1) will face Levittown Falls at 3:40 p.m. Wednesday in a losers’ bracket game.
Paxton (2-0), which banged out nine hits against two Latrobe pitchers, advances in the winners’ bracket to play Region 2 champion Quakertown at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday.
In other games on the second day of the tournament Tuesday, Quakertown belted Charleroi, 10-0 in five innings; Wesleyville eliminated Region 7 champion Beech Creek, 5-4; and Falls sidelined Greater Pittston, 7-2.
Paxton also got home runs from Nick Keane and Ben Long, taking advantage of the short field conditions at Rosa-Oglietti Park, which serves as home to the Latrobe Derry Area Teener League.
“Every fly ball here, you sort of hold your breath,” Paxton coach John Mazzolla said.
Dorris’ two-run homer in the first gave Paxton and early lead that expanded to 4-0 in the second on Keane’s two-run homer.
Long sent a ball onto the roof of the ATI Allegheny Ludlum plant in the third inning for Paxton to make it 5-0 before the Region 4 champion scored five runs with two out in the fifth to end the game.
“We certainly didn’t play very good baseball tonight,” Zach Bush said. “The team said it, the coaches said it: For as good as last night was, today was a disappointment for a lot of people. Our pitchers deserved a little better. We kicked the ball around a little bit. We just didn’t make some plays.”
Quakertown 10, Charleroi 0 — Ethan Beil homered twice and Cole Reich slugged a grand slam to spark a six-run fourth as Quakertown (1-1) beat Charleroi (1-1) in a five-inning shortened victory.
Region 6 champion Charleroi faces Region 8 champion Wesleyville in a losers’ bracket game at 12:40 p.m. Wednesday.
Peyton Myers limited Charleroi to one hit before the game was stopped by the 10-run rule on Thomas Kozlusky’s RBI single with one out in the bottom of the fifth.
Beil’s three-run homer in the first inning gave Quakertown a 3-0 lead, and he added a solo shot in the six-run fourth.
Reich and Beil had two hits and drove in four runs apiece, and Kozlusky also had two hits for Quakertown.
Remmington Lessman’s fourth-inning single was the only Charleroi hit against Myers, who struck out four and walked three.
Wesleyville 5, Beech Creek 4 — Brady Rzodkiewicz’s two-run homer in the sixth inning broke a 3-3 tie and carried Wesleyville (1-1) past Region 7 champion Beech Creek (0-2) in a losers’ bracket game.
After Gabe Johnson gave Beech Creek a 1-0 lead with a home run in the second, Ty Houtz led off the third with a homer and Beech Creek added a run on an error to take a 3-0 advantage.
Wesleyville cut it to 3-2 on David Gibson’s two-run homer in the third.
Alez Manendo’s solo homer in the fourth pulled Wesleyville even before Rzodkiewicz launched a shot over the left-field fence, scoring Tyler Burick, who singled, giving Wesleyville a 5-3 lead.
Falls 7, Greater Pittston 2 — Eric David, Alex Matlack and Aiden Kenney hit sixth-inning homers during a five-run rally that lifted Falls (1-1) to a victory over Greater Pittston (0-2) in a losers’ bracket game.
Matlack’s homer broke a 2-2 tie, and Kenney followed with one of his own to give Falls a 4-2 lead.
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After James Baker’s RBI single made it 5-2, David hit a two-run blast to give Falls a five-run advantage heading into the seventh inning.
Dave Mackall is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.