Hempfield East, Latrobe stay perfect in Region 7 Legion tournament

Hempfield East didn’t play well five days ago in losing the District 31 American Legion Championship game to Bushy Run.

Things were different Saturday at Derry in the Region 7 tournament.

Hempfield East pounded out 14 hits and got a solid pitching performance from Andrew Rosenberg to cool off the hottest team in the tournament, Bushy Run, 12-2, in five innings.

Rosenberg collected three hits, including a double, and allowed five hits.

“We were a different team,” Hempfield East coach Scott Smith said. “We came to play. Maybe we wanted it a little more.”

Bushy Run started strong as Jordan Sabol opened with a triple and scored on Cade Patterson’s sacrifice fly.

But Hempfield East struck for four runs in the bottom of the second inning, two scoring on Reid Amundson’s double.

They tacked on four more runs in the third inning, and Matt Wicker’s two-run triple in the fifth inning ended the game because of the 10-run mercy rule.

“It wasn’t our day,” Bushy Run coach Scott Peyman said. “We committed too many errors and didn’t play well in all phases.

“I told them to wash this one off and come back tomorrow. Being in the losers’ bracket gives us no room for error.”

Reid Hipps also tripled for Hempfield East, and Noah Sweeney and Hunter Eperesi doubled.

“Andrew pitched a lot better, and we played better,” Smith said. “We hit the ball well.”

Hempfield East (21-3-1) will face Latrobe (19-11-1) at 5 p.m. Sunday in a winners’ bracket game.

Bushy Run has an 11 a.m. game against Beech Creek.

In other games:

Latrobe 3, Bedford 0

The Jethawks used a strong pitching performance from Ben Rafferty and clutch hitting in the sixth inning to earn its second win in the tournament.

Matt Henderson singled in Logan Gustafson with the winning run after Gustafson singled and moved to second on a sacrifice fly by Clay Petrosky.

Drew Clair’s squeeze bunt scored a second run and a sacrifice fly by Tucker Knupp finished the scoring.

Rafferty scattered nine hits, walked one and struck out three.

Beech Creek 3, Claysburg 1

Winning pitcher Trevor Hanna hit a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning to rally Beech Creek to a victory in an elimination game.

Hanna allowed four hits. Caleb Gampe was the tough-luck losing pitcher.

Mifflin County 9, Punxsutawney 1

Winning pitcher Colby Boftorf helped his own cause with three hits as Mifflin County won an elimination game.

Max Oburn had three hits, including a double, and Bordtorf doubled.

Punxsutawney committed eight errors.