Legion baseball: Greencastle down, but not yet out, at Region 4 tournament

HERSHEY – Baseball tournaments are not just about the game on the field. Their whole nature can be changed by the playoff format that is used.

If what happened to Greencastle on Friday afternoon at the Legion baseball Region 4 tournament had happened to a high school team, the season would be over.

Fortunately for Greencastle, Legion baseball gives you a do-over of sorts.

Hummelstown defeated Greencastle 11-0 in six innings in the opening round of the Region 4 Tournament at Hershey Memorial Field. But the defeat was not a finale, it simply put Greencastle in a losers’ bracket matchup with Paxton at 11 a.m. Saturday.

“Now we’ve got to come out of the losers’ bracket,” Greencastle head coach Ray Stull said. “Our relief pitcher [Jarek Szaflarski, who entered in the sixth for starter Carter McCauley] was supposed to be in Game 3 for us if we made it that far, so tomorrow it’s all hands-on deck.”

Greencastle was held to three hits, two singles by Cole Barnhart and one by McCauley. Otherwise, Hummelstown right-hander Trey Harper was in control with six strikeouts during his 80-pitch shutout.

Hummelstown took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Connor Hassinger singled in Casey Westerberg. The Dauphin County runner-up added three runs in the fourth with an RBI double by Hassinger and a two-run home run by Isaac Ulrich to right field.

The game went from 4-0 to 11-0 quickly in the sixth, when Greencastle hurt its own cause with three errors. Westerberg also had a two-run homer to left in that frame that set up the mercy-rule victory.

“When they got those seven runs, that’s when it got away,” Stull said. “Our team, we don’t seem to hit until the third inning anyway, but when they added those runs, that when it got away from us.”

Though Stull said it was not the reason they lost, Greencastle did play the game short-handed and with some players out of position when two players were unable to fly home from vacation due to the global internet outages from Friday morning.

Postseason awards:Two Franklin County baseball players named to inaugural all-state teams

Chambersburg 3, Paxton 0: Zack Molloy’s three-run triple in the bottom of the fifth inning provided Joey Diaz with all the run support he needed to pick up the win in Friday’s first game. Diaz pitched six innings, allowing four hits and two walks and striking out seven. He did have to pitch out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the top of the sixth, but Diaz got the next two Paxton batters out with a pop up and a strikeout. Kadyn McMullen pitched the last inning, though he also had to get out of a second and third, two-out situation to finish the combined shutout. Chambersburg will face Hummelstown in the winners’ bracket semifinals at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

Northeastern 12, Hershey 1 (5 inn.): The York County champion took control of this game early with a four-run second inning. Ryan Wilson started the rally with a two-run single, followed by RBI hits by Zachary Ball and Garrett Baker. Conner Rippo added a three-run home run in a seven-run fifth inning that incurred the mercy rule. Northeastern will play Hampden in a winners’ bracket semifinal at 7 p.m. Hampden defeated South Parkland 11-1 in another mercy-rule shortened game.