Legion baseball: Northeastern erases sting of last season with regional title

HERSHEY – A year ago, Northeastern felt it had unfinished business when it lost in the Region 4 Legion baseball championship game.

On Tuesday afternoon, Northeastern went one step farther than last summer by winning the regional title . But that does not mean they feel their business is quite “finished,”

“No, it’s not finished until we’re in North Carolina with one of these,” Northeastern head coach Dave Shindler said when asked if the work was finished, holding up the championship plaque for Region 4.

Northeastern earned that plaque Shindler was holding with a 6-0 win over Chambersburg in the Region 4 championship contest.

The contest started as a pitchers’ duel between Northeastern’s Quinn Shindler and Chambersburg’s Evan Brown. But after four scoreless innings, the York County champion broke through with a four-run fifth.

After Brown retired the first batter on a fly out, he issued walks to Brandon Charleston and Ryan Wilson. Brandy Johnson opened the scoring with an RBI double to right-center field. After a walk to Shindler loaded the bases, Brinden Floyd pushed Wilson across the plate when he was hit by a pitch. Conner Rippo capped off the rally with a two-run single to center field.

Northeastern tacked on two insurance runs in the seventh. Floyd reached on a single and scored on an infield error from Owen Wilhide’s grounder. Wilhide later scored on a base hit by Ryan Wilson. Chambersburg center fielder Brady Deneen threw Rippo out at home plate to end the inning.

Shindler, a Mansfield commit, did not need the extra run support, though, allowing just one hit and two walks for his complete-game shutout. He struck out six with 98 pitches, seven under the pitch limit.

“He knows what he’s doing,” Chambersburg head coach Brandon Kissinger said. “He has a very mature arm and executed what he needed to do.”

The only hit for Chambersburg was a one-out single by Joey Diaz in the first inning. Two other batters did reach on errors.

Those errors did allow Chambersburg to load the bases with two outs in the third inning, the only jam Shindler faced. He got Brady Truett to ground out to end the inning.

Next up for Northeastern is the state tournament, another double-elimination affair, which will take place at North Allegheny High School from July 27-31.

Brown pitched 4 1/3 innings with three walks and two strikeouts. Wyatt Kissel threw 1 2/3 innings of relief with one walk and three strikeouts. Konner McMullen threw the last inning with one walk.

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Chambersburg 5, Hummelstown 1 : Chambersburg made it to the championship game after winning two elimination games earlier in the day at Hershey Memorial Field. A four-run fifth inning broke a 1-1 tie with Hummelstown, which had beaten Chambersburg on Day 2 of the tournament. Diaz’s RBI double put Chambersburg ahead 2-1, and Kissel’s two-run single pushed the lead to 4-1. Brown added a sacrifice fly for the last run.

Chambersburg 5, Northeastern 4: In this resumed game, which had been suspended in the second inning on Monday night, Chambersburg rallied for four runs in the top of the sixth. The winning rally was capped off by Kissel’s three-run home run. Northeastern had led 3-0 in the bottom of the second inning, which was the frame in which the contest was interrupted. However, Northeastern was still undefeated entering this game, which was why it was able to play in the championship game rematch with Chambersburg later in the day.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Legion baseball: Northeastern erases sting of last season with regional title