Shillington Bats Silent in Legion Regions Saturday

Red Sox' bats silent in regional opener on Saturday By David Conard For Shillington it was a plethora of missed opportunities that led to a 7-2 defeat at the hands of Bux-Mont champion Hatfield, bumping the Red Sox into the Losers bracket of the Region Two tournament held at Sam Balliet Stadium in Coplay. You don't get this far in the season by only registering four base hits in a game, but that is exactly what happened on Saturday. Shillington had men on second and third with one out in three separate innings and could not get the critical hit needed to push a run across the plate. On the day, the Red Sox were 1-for-9 with men in scoring position and struck out an uncharacteristic 14 times, including six times looking. "We have to hit better than we did today," said head coach Chris Hole. "All of the kids know that: We struck out like 14 times today and that just killed any chance we had, we are going to put this behind us and come out tomorrow with a better frame of mind than we had today." The one bright spot in an otherwise gloomy day for Shillington was Rich Schlamowitz who went of 3-for 4 with a double, unfortunately he was stranded three times on second base. "It's hard to do three times in a row (being stranded at second)," said Schlamowitz. " You have to keep supporting your team mates, but we just didn't get the hits when we needed them today. Their pitcher made good pitches when he had to and we pressed and gave it to them." The Red Sox got into a bit of a wars of words with a few of the Hatfield players right at the start which may have contributed to them being slightly off their usually efficient game plan. For the second game in a row Shillington was not able to utilize it's team speed while trailing. "I am going to be honest," added Schlamowitz. "We are probably going to go out tonight and get some pizza and wings and forget about this game as a team, tomorrow will bring a new day and new attitude. The Red Sox came out of the gate fast drawing first blood in the first inning when Mark Yost drove in Jeff Ruffner with a sacrifice fly, but in a preview of things to come, Shillington could not get anymore out of it leaving the bases juiced. Hatfield snagged a 2-1 lead by rapping three extra base hits in the bottom half of the inning, as Brian Sullivan started the frame with a triple and was followed up by doubles from Robbie Zinmeister and Scott Christy. Heading into the sixth inning the score was unchanged until the Sox tied the game when Schlamowitz drove in Casey Casantini with a one-out single to left center. Hatfield didn't take long to reclaim the lead, as designated hitter Scott Christy started the bottom of the inning with a 370 ft home run to left center which was followed up by a single by James Smith (2-for-4, run scored, RBI), who later score to make it 4-2 in favor of Post 933. "It's pretty big," said Smith. "Anyway you contribute to one of these big games is huge. We are team that has to keep our selves up the entire game." Hatfield added two more runs in the seventh and one in the eighth, which was a mute point, as the Red Sox had no answer to starter Kevin Christy. "It's important to get in front of the hitters," said catcher James Smith. "The few times he (Christy) got down 3-0 he was able to battle back and get them to swing over a pitch, you have to analyze what they are doing and attack them from there." For Shillington, it's journey to a regional title will travel through the losers bracket, starting on Sunday with a 1:00 match up with host Coplay. "The key now is to shake this game off," said Red Sox coach Chris Hole. "We faced a tough pitcher today that really kept us off balance. Against good team you have to scrape some run in. I have faith in our boys because I have seen them respond before."