Blue Mountain's Riley Sebastian stands in batter's box as the Eagles hosted Route 61 rival Pottsville on a damp and cold Monday afternoon in a Schuylkill League Division I baseball game. Also pictured is Pottsville's Alan Kushwarra (catcher) and umpire Frank Larkin. Blue Mountain narrowly defeated Pottsville 5-4 (Photo by Eli Doyle).

ORWIGSBURG — The gray sky and chilly conditions couldn’t slow down one of Schuylkill County’s most notorious rivalries.

While almost every other team in the Schuylkill League opted to postpone due to persistent poor weather conditions, Blue Mountain and Pottsville added another chapter to their longstanding Route 61 rivalry as the Eagles narrowly defeated the Crimson Tide 5-4 in a tightly contested Schuylkill League Division I baseball game Monday at Allen Greenawalt Field.

Evan Setlock, a junior right-hander, pitched a complete game in 83 pitches for the Eagles (5-4, 4-1 D-I), who fell behind 3-0 early. Setlock is 3-0 on the hill this season for Blue Mountain and allowed his first runs of the season against the Crimson Tide before settling in during the third inning.

“We didn’t hang our head when we were down 3-0,” Eagles head coach Jarrod Kramer said. “I’m proud of them for that and you have to give our guys credit. You got to give Setlock credit, he even admitted he didn’t have his best stuff today. He battled through it and kept us in the game. But we had timely hitting with Brady Strause and Matt Grasso with the big game-winning hit.

“We had good at bats; we had a lot of guys on base with walks. There is more to offense than just hitting. Our guys used pretty much every aspect of that.”

Pottsville (1-7, 0-3) wasted little time finding its mark in the top of the first inning as Dominic Rynard hit a leadoff double to right field. Rynard moved up to third base on a wild pitch and scored on a fielder’s choice by Max Clews. Alan Kushwarra followed with a double that put runners on second and third for the Crimson Tide. Luke Schane later plated Clews on an RBI single up the middle as Pottsville led 2-0.

Schane, a senior righty, was the starter for the Tide on the hill. He retired the Eagles 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first.

Landon Trout, a freshman, singled to lead off the top of the second inning for Pottsville. He came around to score after Rynard lined a ball to short left field as the Crimson Tide were manufacturing runs early and jumped ahead 3-0.

“We talked to them about how Pottsville’s not a 1-6 team, in my opinion,” Kramer said about his message to the Eagles. “Every game other than one they’ve lost by three runs or less. They’ve been playing everybody tough. This is like Christmas Day for us. Last night, we told the kids it’s Christmas Eve, (Monday) is Christmas Day because this is like Yankees versus Red Sox in Schuylkill County. There is nothing better than this. Our guys are motivated to play, Setty (Setlock) was motivated to pitch. We did just enough to win.”

Trailing 3-0, Blue Mountain’s offense began to find its stride.

Frankie Russo grounded into a fielder’s choice after Dean Faust hit a single to begin the bottom half of the second. Brady Strause unloaded on the second pitch of his at-bat and doubled off the left field wall, scoring Russo from first base.

And as the Eagles’ bats were heating up, Setlock was finding his rhythm on the rubber. He retired the Tide on eight pitches in the bottom of the third, and it didn’t stop there. He used only four pitches to sit down Pottsville’s lineup in the fourth inning, before doing it again in the fifth and retiring the Tide using only four pitches. Riley Sebastian, Blue Mountain’s freshman catcher, caught Schane trying to steal second base to end the top of the fifth inning.

As Blue Mountain’s defense maintained, the offense followed through in a big way in the bottom of the third. The Eagles’ four-run rally began as Strause collected his second RBI by drawing a bases-loaded walk. Five pitches later, Russo took home on a passed ball and tied the game 3-3. Setlock walked to reload the bases for Grasso, who plated a pair of runs with a single to right field.

Blue Mountain led 5-3 through the fifth inning before Pottsville tacked another run on the board in the top of the sixth. Designated hitter Jacob Filiac earned a walk and Brody Eroh followed with an infield single for the Tide. Harrison Ciavarella entered the game to pinch run for Filiac on second before Trout dropped a sacrifice bunt, moving both runners up a base. Andrew Allen scored Ciavarella with a sacrifice fly to right field to bring the Tide within one run.

Aidan Grace made a terrific snag in center field on a shot by Rynard to end the top of the sixth inning.

The Eagles couldn’t manage to get any insurance runs but quickly retired Pottsville in order in the top of the seventh inning as Blue Mountain held on to win.

“We’ve gotten used to playing in them, unfortunately we just haven’t come through in those big moments,” Pottsville skipper Mike Welsh said about the close games. “But I have got to believe that at some point we will start coming through in those moments. Little moments here and there early in the game I thought we needed to get a run across the board with one out and we didn’t. Ultimately, that kind of stuff comes back to haunt you. We’re going to keep working a try to come through in those moments.

“I see a lot of growth with the way their processing is,” Welsh added. “At home plate with two strikes, making adjustments, choking up a little bit, going through their deep breath cycle and really focusing in on what they need to do, and fouling pitches off. Brody Eroh late in that game fouls two or three pitches off and gets an infield hit. That allowed us to get a bunt down, executing a bunt and manufacturing a run late to get it to a 5-4 game.”

For the Crimson Tide, it’s their fifth loss of the season by one run, seventh by three runs or less. Pottsville, which has a solid mix of players across all grade classes, manufactured four runs from four different players. Rynard, Clews, Schane and Allen each collected an RBI for the Crimson Tide, while Rynard pitched 3.1 innings of relief, allowing one hit and struck out three. Walks were costly as Pottsville’s pitching combined to issue seven bases on balls and two hit batsmen.

“Obviously, we were looking to tie it up,” Welsh said. “The ball hung up and the center fielder ran it down on a real nice play by him. And hats off to (Setlock), he pitched around some stuff did a really good job of battling for seven innings.

“Any time you’re playing Blue Mountain it’s going to be a tough, tough ballgame and you know what kind of lineup they are going to throw out there every year. They’re well coached and we were hoping to come out on the other end of this, and here we are, 5-4. We’re going to keep our heads up and keep battling.”

Game Summary

Blue Mountain 5, Pottsville 4
At Allen Greenawalt Field

POTTSVILLE (4) — Rynard cf-p 4 1 2 1, Hess 2b 3 0 0 0, Clews 3b 3 1 0 1, Kushwarra c 4 0 1 0, Schane p-1b 3 0 2 1, Alvarez 1b-lf 0 0 0 0, Filliac dh 2 0 0 0, Ciavarella pr 0 1 0 0, Eroh lf-cf 3 0 1 0, Trout rf 2 1 1 0, Allen ss 1 0 0 1. Totals 25 4 7 4.

BLUE MOUNTAIN (5) — Sebastian c 3 0 0 0, Grace cf 2 1 0 0, Hoover rf 4 0 1 0, Faust 1b 4 0 1 0, Russo 3b 3 2 0 0, Strause 2b 2 1 1 2, Finn lf 2 1 1 0, Setlock p 2 0 0 0, Grasso ss 1 0 1 2. Totals 23 5 5 5.

Potts (1-7, 0-3) — 210 001 0 — 4

BM (5-4, 4-1) — 014 000 x — 5

E — Pottsville 0, Blue Mountain 1

LOB — Pottsville 7, Blue Mountain 6

2B — Rynard, Kushwarra, Strause

SB — Rynard, Schane, Finn, Grace, Setlock

CS — Schane

SAC — Trout

SF — Allen

Pottsville
Schane (1-3) 2.2, 4, 5, 5, 5, 1
Rynard 3.1, 1, 0, 0, 2, 3

Blue Mountain
Setlock (3-0) 7, 7, 4, 4, 2, 2

HBP — By Schane (Russo), by Schane (Sebastian), by Setlock (Schane). WP — Schane, Selock. PB — Kushwarra. T — 1:55