From Staff Reports
Cumberland Times-News
—
BEL AIR — The Tri-State Titans succeeded in returning to the finals of the Maryland State Semi-Pro Baseball Tournament, but couldn’t take advantage of their opportunities as the Perdue Chicks squeezed out a 7-5 victory during the finals Saturday at Harford Community College.
The Titans began the day on fire and ripped through what was statistically a strong pitching staff to beat Putty Hill Select 15-6 in the quarterfinal game before losing to Perdue in the finals.
Tri-State took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning of the title game, but fell behind when the Chicks put up three runs in the third. The score jumped to 6-1 in the fifth, and although the Titans scored twice in the top of the sixth, the Chicks countered by getting a run back in the bottom half.
Tri-State mounted a small rally with two runs in the top of the ninth, but could only score twice before being shut down.
Joe Harbach, Justin Jenkins and Jimmy Barrett all finished 2-for-4 for the Titans. Harbach had two singles and two runs scored, Jenkins hit a triple and a single with a run and an RBI, and Barrett had two singles and a run.
Bill Reams, who had a monster first game, added an RBI single, and Brian Powell went 1-for-3 with a run scored.
Kevin Lindsey had two singles for Perdue, while Brandon McCabe tripled home two runs and Brian Hallman went 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Tri-State pitchers Greg Beachy, Tony Burns, Chris Stein and Jay Witasick combined for 13 strikeouts, but they let seven men reach base either by walk or by hit batter. Five of those seven came around to score, and five of Purdue’s seven runs were scored with two outs in the inning.
The Chicks entered the tournament on a 20-game winning streak and finished 23-6 overall.
Against Putty Hill, Reams got five hits in six at bats and collected 10 runs batted in as the Titans scored 12 runs over the final five innings. He had two doubles and two singles entering the ninth inning when he added the finishing touches by hitting a three-run home run.
Besides pitching a complete game, Powell wound up with two singles and two walks to go with three runs scored. Matt Wright also had two singles and scored three runs, and Jenkins was 2-for-4 with four runs. Barrett added two singles, a run and an RBI, and Brian Lenhart had three singles, two runs and an RBI.
Putty Hill’s Jason Jutson had allowed just 10 earned runs all year before allowing six to the Titans.
Tri-State repeated as the Pen-Mar/WV League champion when it defeated the Oakland Oaks on July 31. The Titans finished the season 22-8.
