Latrobe wins District 31 American Legion baseball championship

Playing fundamental baseball proved to be the right recipe for the Latrobe American Legion team in the District 31 championship game Wednesday.

Despite two delays, an hour and 45 minutes because of rain and 25 minutes because the lights went out, Latrobe rolled to a 7-0 victory.

The Jethawks will now enter the Region 7 tournament at Claysburg on Saturday as Westmoreland 1, while Murrysville goes as Westmoreland 2.

The third-place game between Hempfield East and Bushy Run was canceled because of heavy rain. Bushy Run enters the tournament as Westmoreland 3 and Hempfield East as Westmoreland 4.

Haden Sierocky led the Jethawks with two hits and three RBIs.

He singled home Erick Batista in the first inning and drove in two more in the sixth inning.

The Jethawks were also aggressive on the basepaths, and their bunting game forced Murrysville into mistakes.

“I thought we ran the bases well,” Latrobe coach Jason Bush said. “We bunted well, and we took advantage of their mistakes.”

Latrobe took a 2-0 lead in the second inning as pitcher Cole Short scored on a wild pitch.

In the fourth inning, Latrobe scored two more runs. Cooper Basciano walked and moved all the way to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Jeff Hantz. He continued around third and scored when he noticed the catcher was at third base. Lou Amatucci scored after he was hit with a pitch, moved to third on an errant pick-off throw and came home on a wild pitch.

Murrysville biggest threat came in the third inning when it loaded the bases, but Short got Nolan Boehm to fly out.

In the sixth inning, Murrysville had two on with one out when Sierocky made a diving catch of a Josh Hudak shot to the left-center gap.

Bernadowski had three hits for Murrysville. He opened the game with a double, but Short stranded him at third. Murrysville only had four hits.