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Early offense leads St. Michael over Bedford for second straight Cambria County American Legion League title

jake oswalt, the tribune-democrat, johnstown, pa.
·4 min read

Jul. 11—SIDMAN — Scoring four runs with two outs within the first three innings gave St. Michael a tremendous jolt of energy against Bedford in Monday's Cambria County American Legion League championship game.

Six different Saints drove in a run to provide enough offense for their top three hurlers to hold off a late surge from Bedford. St. Michael won its second straight league title with a 7-4 triumph at Forest Hills Junior-Senior High School.

"It's been an amazing experience just being with all these guys," said St. Michael first baseman Devin Kreger, who produced two hits and a run batted in. "When we come out back-to-back champions, there's nothing better than that."

Both teams will play in the Region 7 tournament that starts Saturday at Bald Eagle Area. No. 1 seed St. Michael (13-3) jumped ahead 7-0 after the first three innings. No. 3 seed Bedford (11-10-2) chipped away with a pair of runs in the fourth and single runs in the fifth and sixth.

Early offense allowed St. Michael to dictate the tempo of Monday's game and play from ahead.

"This is such a good lineup," St. Michael head coach Matt Gramling said. "They never make things easy for some reason. To win a championship, to go back to back, it's so difficult in this league with the talent that we have. To pull that off, it's very special."

Kreger and Kaden Christ each contributed two-hit games.

St. Michael right-hander Kirk Bearjar earned the victory as he allowed three runs over five innings, striking out five.

Christ pitched the sixth, and Andrew Miko notched the save in the seventh with two strikeouts.

"When you jump out to a seven-run lead, you can start pitching with confidence," Bearjar said. "They came back a little bit, but I never wavered in our confidence."

The Saints took advantage of two-out lightning in the first inning. Kreger doubled deep to left field to bring in Tyler Orris. Christ lined a two-strike RBI single to right field to bring in Kreger for a 2-0 lead against Bedford starter Owen Taylor.

"It gives us great confidence because we got the lead after the first inning," Kreger said.

An RBI fielder's choice from Miko and Bearjar's run-scoring groundout increased the advantage to 4-0 after the second.

Jake Yatsky's RBI fielder's choice made it 5-0 in the third. With two outs, Orris got on top of an elevated pitch and drove in two runs with a double to left-center field.

"I had two strikes," Orris said. "I shortened up. With a high pitch, I just kind of threw my hands at it and get it in play. It went pretty far."

Bedford tallied two runs in the fourth.

Joey Huxta's RBI infield single drove in Calvin Iseminger, who led off with a double. Reece Russelman's run-scoring groundout made it 7-2.

If the fifth, Eion Snider's RBI groundout cut the deficit down to four.

A run batted in by Ty Decker on an error brought the Hurricanes within three after six frames.

Bedford reliever Hayden Webb tossed three shutout innings and allowed one hit.

A semifinal sweep over Richland allowed St. Michael to throw its top three arms in Monday's title game. On the other hand, Bedford had to beat Hollidaysburg in Saturday's Game 3.

The rested arms prevailed.

"We got to throw our top three pitchers tonight," Gramling said. "Kirk didn't pitch against Richland at all. That's why he started today. Miko was a little bit sore, so he thought he could only give us one inning. Kaden did a nice job with a hold in the middle. All three of those guys threw very, very well."

Gramling is hoping to use Monday as a learning moment for this weekend.

"We just need a little bit more killer instinct," Gramling said. "When you get that lead, we got to finish. You definitely don't want to let that game get as close as we did."

Jake Oswalt is a copy editor for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @TheWizOfOz11.