It was no secret that the strongest division in District 31 American Legion baseball this season was the Western.
Even though Eastern champion Latrobe finished with the best record (16-0-3), the Western had five of the eight teams that made the playoffs.
Pairings for the playoffs, which begin at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, were announced Monday following a league meeting at the Latrobe American Legion Post.
Latrobe received the No. 1 seed based on its total points of 73. The Western Division champion was Bushy Run (16-2-1) with 71 points and the No. 3 seed was Western Division runner-up Murrysville (15-3-1) with 69 points. No. 4 seed was Eastern Division runner-up Young Township (10-8-1) with 57 points.
The top two teams in each division were awarded one of the top four seeds no matter what their record was.
The fifth and sixth seeds were from the Western Division and both teams — Hempfield East (13-5-1) with 65 points and Mt. Pleasant (11-8-0) with 59 points — had better records than Young Township.
Hempfield East coach Jason Willis said he fought against the rule before the season and league president Jason Bush said that decision was made prior to the season. Hempfield East finished third in the Western Division and Mt. Pleasant was fourth.
The seventh seed is Somerset (9-10-0) with 56 points and Yough (7-11-1) with 53 points is the eighth seed. Yough was the fifth team from the Western Division.
The quarterfinals and semifinals are best-of-three series. All weekday games begin at 5:30 p.m.
The games Tuesday will see Latrobe will play host to Yough at Latrobe High School, Somerset battle Bushy Run at Penn-Trafford, Murrysville play host to Mt. Pleasant at Haymaker Park and Hempfield East travel to West Lebanon to face Young Township.
Game 2 is scheduled for Wednesday at Yough High School, Somerset High School, Mt. Pleasant High School and Pitt-Greensburg. Game 3, if needed, is Thursday.
“We’ll see how things play out,” Willis said. “We’ve had a really good season and we have excellent chemistry.
“Last year, we qualified for regionals and couldn’t go,” Willis added. “I made sure from Day 1 we’d have enough players to go to regionals if we qualify.”
Willis said shortstop Tyler Martin, pitcher/centerfielder Conner Burkey, pitcher/first baseman Grayson Willis and catcher Liam Randolph are having good seasons and are leaders of the team.
“I’d say the difference this season is the players are playing to their abilities and we have a great coaching staff,” Willis said. “We’ve had some great practices all season.”
Returning champion Bushy Run hasn’t lost in its past 15 games. It did tie Yough in a rain-shortened game.
“The season has turned out as I expected,” Bushy Run coach Scott Peyman said. “The best teams turned out to be the best. The now everyone starts 0-0.
“It’s going to be a weird few weeks for us. We’re going to be a different team because we’ll be missing some players because of graduation parties, vacations and (college) football camp. We have enough players to play. It’s been like that all season.”
