Latrobe blanks Young Township to repeat as District 31 American Legion baseball champs

By: Paul Schofield
Wednesday, July 13, 2022 | 9:39 PM

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Latrobe used strong pitching from Jake Albaugh and Adam Moreland and timely hits from Logan Short and Erick Batista to claim its second consecutive District 31 American Legion baseball title Wednesday at Legion-Keener Field.

Albaugh and Moreland combined on a two-hit shutout as Latrobe defeated Young Township, 3-0, in a pitchers’ duel.

Young Township pitcher Haden Brink allowed six hits and struck out 13.

“He’s the best pitcher we’ve seen all season,” Latrobe coach Jason Bush said. “It’s the same type of pitcher we’ll see at the Region 7 tournament at Bedford.”

Latrobe scored the game’s first run with two out in the third inning. Lou Amatucci and Vinny Amatucci were hit by pitches, and Lou Amatucci scored on a bad-hop RBI single by Short.

Short’s hard grounder bounced over the shortstop’s head.

“Haden pitched a great game,” Young Township coach Ryan Staats said. “That bad-hop hit and the broken-bat hit cost him. It probably should have been a 1-0 game. We just didn’t hit the ball after the first inning,”

Young Township got one-out singles from Dustin Coleman and Braden Staats in the first inning and eventually loaded the bases but did not score. It had a runner tagged out at third base in the second inning.

Beyond that, Young Township’s bats were silent.

Latrobe tacked on two more runs in the fourth inning when Rayce King singled, Tyler Fazekas singled, Broderick Schreyer walked and Batista singled. Lou Amatucci then reached base on catcher’s interference to score Fazekas.

Albaugh pitched into the fifth inning. He allowed the two hits, walked four and struck out six. Moreland didn’t allow a baserunner in more than two innings of work.

“We laid an egg offensively,” Coach Staats said. “You can’t win games when you don’t hit. They were lucky enough to put the ball in play a couple times.”

Bush said his team dodged some raindrops early but settled down.

Latrobe will open the Region 7 tournament Saturday against Hollidaysburg at 2 p.m. while Young Township faces Phillipsburg at 11 a.m.

Bushy Run also advanced to the Region 7 tournament by defeating Unity, 7-2, in the third-place game. Bushy Run will face St. Michaels at noon Saturday at Everett.

Winning pitcher Peyton Bigler helped his own cause with a two-run single in a four-run first inning. Eric Birosak had a two-run hit in the third inning for Bushy Run.

Matt Lichota and Gavin Good each hit a double and single for Bushy Run, while Tyler Freas and Chuck Fontana had two hits.

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.