Hempfield East Legion falls in regional opener
Lyon County scored three runs in the first inning Wednesday morning and held on to defeat Hempfield East, 5-2, in the American Legion Great Lakes Regional in Charleston, Ill.
Hempfield East will face Pennsylvania state champion Swoyersville at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. Swoyersville defeated Hempfield East twice in the state tournament last month.
Matt Wicker gave Hempfield East a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when he doubled home Hunter Eperesi, who singled.
But Hempfield East could get a clutch hit after the first inning.
“We stranded eight runners and didn’t get the timely hit,” Hempfield East coach Scott Smith said. “We beat ourselves with a couple miscues.”
Lyon County, the Kentucky state champion, scored three times off losing pitcher Andrew Rosenberg in the bottom of the first inning and added two more off Wicker in the fifth.
“I feel we’re the better team, but they had a couple good pitchers,” Smith said. “I felt we pitched well enough to win.”
Hempfield East did threaten in the top of the seventh inning on back-to-back hits by Reid Amundson and Dajauhn Hertzog to start the inning. But Amundson was the only runner to score on a ground out by Eperesi.
Cameron Dean had two hits and two RBIs for Lyon County, while Gabe Board and Davis Corbett added two hits.
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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