MONTGOMERY - Newberry's Ben Garverick came off the bench in middle of the fourth inning after watching his team already ahead with a 9-1 lead. Shortly after stepping into the batter's box, Garverick hit an RBI triple down the right-field line.
Even though the lead was big at the time, Newberry needed this type of total effort en route to win 21-15 over Loyalsock and advance to the District 12 Major Baseball championship game to play Hepburn-Lycoming at Lamade Stadium at 6 on Friday. Newberry would need to win that game, and an "if" game on Saturday to claim the title.
After jumping ahead 13-1, Newberry seemed as if it had the game sealed. But little did it know that the players on the Loyalsock roster would not go down without a fight.
Loyalsock never gave up. Trailing 13-1, Newberry made 2 consecutive errors which allowed Loyalsock the spark it needed. Following that, Loyalsock strung together 3 singles in a row and soon after scored 11 runs before the inning ended.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Loyalsock had the chance to take the lead before Newberry pitcher Damon Clark struck out two batters in a row with runners in scoring position.
With two outs, Torren Potts made a nice play at second base that would have allowed Loyalsock to take the lead.
"It felt really good to help my team and put us where we needed to be." Potts said.
In the top of the sixth inning, Newberry approached the batter's box with the mindset to win the game. When it mattered most, Newberry got runners on base and stood in the batter's box with patience and eventually scored another 8 runs to go ahead big.
Newberry got its first run when starting pitcher and leadoff batter, Draig Ruff connected on a ball that flew well over the center field fence to start the game.
"It feels pretty good to win, and I knew that Loyalsock was going to be a tough team so we had to bring our A game." Ruff said.
Ruff wasn't the only one who provided the team with momentum by hitting a homerun. Brandon Loner also hit a 3-run home run and Potts provided two home runs, with one of them hit about 250 feet.
"Well he just threw me a pitch I could hit and I guess I hit it right." Loner said.
"We haven't won a district championship in quite some time and haven't had a team advance this far in a while so these kids are ready to play. They know what it takes and we plan on enjoying every moment of this and hopefully knock off Hepburn Lycoming two games and become district champs." Newberry head coach Lester Loner said.
Newberry 104 808 - 21
Loyalsock 001 (10)13 - 15
Draig Ruff, Damon Clark (4), Nathan Welch, and Riley Hilner. Logan Edmonds, Payton Salvatori (4), Nicky Salvatori (5), Sam Newton (6), and Eric Hotz.
Top Hitters, Newberry: Draig Ruff 2-4 HR, 2B, 4 runs. Torren Potts, 2-4 2HR's, 5 RBI. Brandon Loner 1-3 HR, 3 RBI. Loyalsock: Mitchel Klingerman 2-3 2B. Brock Hepler 3-4 2HR's, 3RBI. Huner Webb 2-4. Eric Hotz 2-4.
