Spring City's Season Ends In Heartbreaking Fashion

FROM THE PA LEGION BASEBALL WEBSITE

All good things must inevitably come to an end. Over the course of the past few weeks, it appeared that the talented bunch from the Chester County League in Southeastern PA would close their season earlier than anticipated. They dropped their first game of the Region 3 tournament, before rallying for the championship. They did it again last week, dropping the first game of the state tournament to Millcreek before winning five in a row.




This week, they had the tough task of taking on the top teams in the Mid-Atlantic. On Thursday they took on one of the most notorious legion teams in the country in Brooklawn, New Jersey. Despite a hard fought contest, they lost that opener too, heading in the loser's bracket for the third straight week. Spring City bounced back yesterday with an impressive come from behind win over West Lawn, the tournament's host.




Today they took on Newark, Delaware who has proven themselves to be the top team in the tiny state over the past few years. The Red Sox jumped out to a two run lead in the top of the first, on two rbi basehits by Ken Pieston and Eric Pizzico. Newark answered back in their half of the inning, grabbing one run in the first and two more in the second.




Sean Larkin tied the game in the third with an rbi basehit, scoring Pieston. Again, the Delaware champions rallied. They put up four unanswered runs, one in the fourth, two in the sixth, and another in the seventh. All seemed lost, but ever resilient, Spring City had another trick up their sleeve.




Facing elimination, the Red Sox rallied in a big way. With a little help from their opponent, they plated five runs in the top of the ninth. With one runner on and two out, the team's bats came alive. An error by the first baseman, a hit batter, a two rbi double by Pieston, an error by the second baseman, a stolen base, and an rbi basehit by Sean Larkin accounted for the damage.




Things quickly went downhill in the bottom of the inning. A leadoff walk and basehit put two runners on with nobody out. A wild pitch after a flyout put both runners in scoring position. A huge strike out followed for the second out. An infield hit to the second baseman plated the tying run, with the winning run coming on an errant throw on the same play.




After an incredible season, it was an incredibly tough way to go out. Walks and errors will come back to haunt you, and this is a great example of that. That in no way diminishes the historic run by the Red Sox, who claimed their first ever PA legion title last week.




What should come as a bit of a scare for the rest of the competition in PA next year, and across the Mid-Atlantic, is that Spring City has all but one of their players eligible to return next year. This year was just a preview of things to come.

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