BY JEFF FALK
PALMYRA – Most teams don’t care how they do it.
Campbelltown wants to win them all. But Post 831 wants to do it with pitching and defense.
On an overcast Tuesday night at Palmyra High School, Campbelltown turned sharp pitching, stingy defense and a little small ball into a 1-0 victory over Richland, in Lebanon County American Legion baseball action. C-town performed flawless defense and scratched out a run in the bottom of the fifth inning in support of a route-going effort by right-hander Braeden Drescher.
The contest was completed in a tidy 90 minutes.
The result kept Campbelltown, now 5-0, unbeaten and in first place in the West Divsion of the local summer legion baseball circuit. Post 831 has now outscored its opponents by a combined margin of 56-8 this season.
The loss dropped Richland to 2-3 in the East Division.
“He’s pitched well all year,” said Campbelltown skipper Tim Morgan of Drescher. “He had it going. It was a great game. Their pitcher (Dalton Reinhart) was dead on as well. It was a battle all the way, down to the end.
“We’ve got five good pitchers,” continued Morgan. “It’s something I haven’t had in a while. You’ve got to have pitching and defense.”
“I would say it was a pitchers’ battle,” said Richland head coach Travis Thome. “I can’t take anything away from their guy (Drescher). He’s shown twice this year that he has control of us. He pitched good. We had a couple of days off, or maybe he has our number.
“They’re Campbelltown,” added Thome. “They’re always near the top. They’re always going to be competitive. It really isn’t anything new.”
Drescher retired Richland in order in the second, third, fifth and sixth innings, and benefitted from a double play in the seventh. With 78 pitches, he fanned seven, didn’t walk a batter and surrendered three hits.
The only real trouble that Drescher ran into came in the top of the fourth, when he hit Richland’s Riley Blatt with a pitch and Matt Peipher singled, with nobody out. But he stranded them at second and third, to avoid serious damage.
Loading ...