The Tyrone Legion felt many different sides of blow-outs over the weekend. They won a blow-out against Sheetz, lost a blow-out to Locker Room, and finished a blow out loss to ReMax Realty that should have never been played.
In Tyrone\’s match-up against Sheetz, new leadoff man Matt Morrissey got things started with a single to lead off the game, went to second on an error, and he scored on Tyler Golden\’s single. Justin Schopp brought in Golden with an RBI double, and two wild pitches allowed Schopp to come home.
Sheetz took advantage of Tyrone Legion starter Golden\’s wildness to tie the game in the bottom of the inning. Golden walked the first three batters of the game, and all three came home making the score 3-3 after one inning.
The Tyrone Legion took advantage of wildness themselves in the top of the second inning. Jamie Levinson and Morrissey drew walks and eventually scored on wild pitches, but Sheetz got a run back in the bottom of the inning when Ty Miller walked and later came around to score on a wild pitch.
In the top of the third inning, Levinson brought home Tyler Hoover and Jesse Hertzler with a two run double, and singles by Mike Romano and Golden led to two more runs.
Golden held Sheetz scoreless in the bottom of the inning, and the Tyrone Legion took control of the game in the top of the fourth inning.
The Legion used singles from Hoover, Hertzler and Morrissey, coupled with walks to Hoover, Romano and two each to Tyler Gillmen and Derrick Soellner to score seven runs and take a 16-4 lead.
However, Sheetz refused to give in and put together a rally in the bottom of the fifth to avoid the 10-run mercy rule. Three straight singles coupled with three Tyrone Legion errors led to three runs as Sheetz climbed back into the game 16-7.
Sheetz added two more in the sixth inning fueled by a Jeff Gates double, but Tyrone Legion Manager re-entered second base man Morrissey, who immediately turned a double play to end the threat.
“Things got much more tense than they should have in that sixth inning. Golden was struggling on the mound a little bit, and Morrissey really bailed us out,” Boytim said.
The Tyrone Legion added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh. With one out, David Rodland singled, moved to second on a Morrissey single, went to third on a fielder\’s choice and scored on a wild pitch. Schopp brought home another run with his second double of the game.
Golden struck out two batters in the bottom of the inning, going the distance on the mound, leading the Tyrone Legion to a 18-9 win.
“We got the win and stopped running on wild pitches and stealing bases after we got a big lead. It may have caused us to play a couple more innings than we should have, but we didn\’t embarrass the other team. That\’s how you play the game,” Boytim said.
In the final inning preceding the Sheetz game, the ReMax Realty coaching staff did not feel the same way as Boytim.
Leading 16-0 when the game was picked up in the fourth inning, a decision made by the league that was protested by Boytim before the game, ReMax Realty took advantage of the fact the Tyrone Legion left their substitutes in to play and pitched Derrick Soellner, who has pitched only once prior to the game in his George B. Kelley Federation career.
ReMax Realty stole five bases and re-entered all of their starters despite leading 16-0. The stolen bases all came against Tyler Golden, who was catching for the second time in his life.
ReMax Realty scored six runs to stretch their lead to 22-0 before Golden threw out Darryl Morris trying to steal yet another base to end the inning.
ReMax was able to hold the Tyrone Legion scoreless in the bottom of the inning, and the game ended 22-0.
The ruling to pick up the game 16-0 in the fourth inning was controversial, because league rules state that a game must go five innings before it can be suspended, or in other words, picked up from where it was left off.
The game was mistakenly called a 15 run mercy rule decision in the third inning the first time the teams met. The mistake occurred, because the umpires were not made aware that Federation mercy rules varied from high school rules. Neither team contested the umpire\’s choice, but when the league decided the game was not finished, controversy arose over at what point the game should begin.
Because the game did not go five innings, it was not eligible to be a suspended game, thus should have seemingly been restarted, as a game stopped due to rain or darkness before the fifth inning would have been.
The protest will be heard by an arbitration committee.
Back on the field for action Sunday, the Tyrone Legion were missing many of their starters due to a football camp.
With Schopp, Gillmen, Golden and Donnie Conrad all absent, a shorthanded Tyrone Legion team lost to Locker Room 17-0.
Soellner, Morrissey and Levinson singled for the Tyrone Legion offense, which could not manage to get a runner past second base.
Tyrone Legion starter Mike Romano held Locker Room to only one run in each of the first two innings, but tired in the sweltering heat as Locker Room broke the game open in the third inning.
Brett Weibley homered to start the six run inning that saw Locker Room score five runs with two outs.
Romano had nothing left when he came out for the fourth inning, but with little pitching options, he had to take one for the team and remain in as long as he could. Romano gave up a triple to Greg Macionsky, an Aaron Harris double and a single before walking a batter and giving way to Matt Morrissey.
Morrissey didn\’t fare much better, but finally got out of the inning with the Tyrone Legion down 17-0, and a candidate for the 15-run mercy rule, because the game was in its fourth inning, if they did not score.
Levinson managed a single, but Weibley made an amazing play to get Brandon Oswalt on a double play grounder that looked like a double down the line off the bat.
“Not having a big part of our team is hurting us. Schopp is batting .500, Golden is over .400, and Gillmen leads the team in runs batted in,” Boytim said.
Tyrone Legion 18 Sheetz 9
TYRONE LEGION – Morrissey, 2b, 4-4-3; Miller, 2b, 1-0-0; Golden, p, 5-2-2; Schopp, cf, 6-2-3; Soellner, c, 4-1-1; Gillmen, lf, 1-1-1; Conrad, lf, 1-0-1; Hoover, 1b, 3-2-1; Hertzler, 3b, 3-2-1; Oswalt, 3b, 2-0-0; Levinson, ss, 4-1-1; Romano, rf, 2-2-1; Rodland, rf, 2-1-1. TOTALS 38-18-16.
SHEETZ – Gates, 2b, 4-2-2; Schmitt, 3b, 3-1-0; Yerty, ss, 2-3-1; Shaffer, 1b, 0-0-0; Adams, dh, 3-1-2; Steinbugl, cf-p, 2-1-2; Tom, lf, 4-0-1; Wyper, p, 2-0-0; Burchfield, ph, 1-0-0; Dillen, rf, 4-0-0; Miller, c, 2-1-0; McCloskey, cr-ph, 1-0-0. TOTALS 28-9-8.
Tyrone Legion 324 700 2 18-16-5
Sheetz 310 032 0 9-8-9
2B: Schopp 2, Soellner 1, Levinson 1, Gates 1, Tom 1.
RBI: Adams 3, Steinbugl 1, Tom 1, Schmitt 1, Schopp 3, Golden 2, Morrissey 2, Hoover 1, Hertzler 1, Levinson 2.
SO: Golden 9, Steinbugl 3 Wyper 3.
BB: Golden 7, Steinbugl 6, Wyper 5.
WP: Golden LP: Wyper
Tyrone Legion 0 Locker Room 17
TYRONE LEGION – Morrissey, cf-p, 2-0-1; Romano, p-cf, 2-0-0; Soellner, c, 2-0-1; Hoover, 1b, 1-0-0; Hertzler, 3b, 2-0-0; Levinson, ss, 2-0-1; Oswalt, 2b, 2-0-0; Rodland, rf, 1-0-0; Miller, lf, 1-0-0. TOTALS 15-0-3.
LOCKER ROOM – M. Albright, p, 2-0-0; Ryan, cr-ph, 0-1-0; Rahoi, ss, 2-1-0; Weibley, 3b, 4-3-2; Reese, lf, 4-2-1; Harris, 2b, 2-2-1; Smith, 1b, 1-0-1; Macionsky, 1b, 2-1-1; Mills, lf, 1-1-1; Thompson, lf-ss, 3-2-1; Clawson, c, 3-0-1; Blackburn, cr, 0-1-0; Wood, rf, 1-2-1; Ford, rf, 0-0-0. TOTALS 25-17-10.
Tyrone Legion 000 0 0-3-6
Locker Room 116 9 17-10-1
HR: Weibley 1.
3B: Macionsky 1.
2B: Harris 1.
RBI: Weibley 3, Rahoi 1, Reese 1, Smith 1, Macionsky 1, Ryan 1, Thompson 1, Clawson 1.
SO: M. Albright 4, Romano 1.
BB: Romano 5, Morrissey 1, M. Albright 1.
WP: M. Albright LP: Romano
