Friday, April 19, 2024
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Comets drop Mounts


Penn Manor defeated Ephrata, and will now face Donegal in the championship game at Clipper Magazine Stadium Thursday at 7 p.m. The Comets defeated Ephrata 5-2 in Tuesday's semifinal action.

Penn Manor's victory didn't require the same late-inning magic. The Section One runner-up built a 4-0 lead through the first two innings and held on against Ephrata.

The Comets only collected five hits. Andrew Hershey and Jared Shearer delivered RBI singles and Cody Buterbaugh knocked in two runs with fielder's choice grounders.

That was enough support for starter Patrick Welsh, who pitched a complete game. The righthander allowed two earned runs on six hits. More importantly, he didn't surrender any walks.

"He commands all three of his pitches," Penn Manor coach Jim Zander said. "He's got a good fastball. He's got a good curveball. And he's got a great changeup. He kept the changeup down. I think that was the big secret to his success. He didn't get himself in trouble by giving up any freebies."

Ephrata assisted the Comets with some shaky defense.

The Section Two champs likely needed to play a flawless game if they were going to pull off a Donegal-esque upset. They didn't. The Mounts made three errors, issued eight walks and hit three batters.

"That's the thing that stings the most," Ephrata coach Adrian Shelley said.

"We did some things that eventually led to us losing. But at the same time we did enough to stay around up until the final out was recorded. Effort-wise I though the kids gave it their all."