High-fives all around

Linglestown Twilight completed a three-game sweep of Lawnton with a 12-0 win Friday, sending the team to the East Shore Twilight League championship series for the second straight year. They will face either Middletown or Valley View in the next series that will begin at Koons Park next week (day and time to be announced).

In Friday’s game at Koons, Lawnton got off to a miserable defensive start for the third straight game, giving up seven runs on two hits and an error in the opening inning. Linglestown pitcher Jason Kelly added to Lawnton’s woes by hurling one of his best games of the season, giving up only six hits and striking out six. Brian Zellers and Shawn Berwager each had three hits for Linglestown.

In the three-game series, Twilight pummeled Lawnton by banging out 41 hits and scoring 41 runs.

Twilight notes … Scott Montgomery helped Twilight get off to a good start by lining a double into the left field corner that scored a pair of runs in the seven-run first inning. … A pair of Twilight players got key hits coming off the bench – Aaron Confer got playing time behind the plate and recorded an RBI single in the fifth inning, and Jim Miller ripped an RBI single in the sixth inning. … During mop-up time, pitcher Josh Muscalus made a rare plate appearance and drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch. Plus, he caught a fly ball on the run in right field after expertly calling off other fielders. … On the “Where’s Rhys?” front, despite sporting a damp jersey that would have distracted most players (a family mix-up caused his uniform to be washed very late in the day), Rhys Wolford showed his versatility by coming off the bench to play first base. He had a hand in the game's final out, a 5-3 play that ended the seventh inning. (Regulation sandlot baseball games are seven-inning contests.) … Finally, veteran pitcher Pete Hayden showed all who asked his sizable chest bruise that came as a result of getting nailed with a line drive in game #2 of the series. The incident has added another tidbit to Hayden's seemingly never-ending collection of sandlot baseball war stories.