Published: July 12, 2009 12:04 am      

Somerset outslugs Cernic’s in Legion semifinal

Somerset and Cernic’s Conemaugh Valley/Johnstown combined to score 32 runs in a two-day epic Game 3 of their best-of-3 Cambria League American Legion semifinal.

The marathon contest, which lasted close to three hours on Friday, was called because of darkness with the teams deadlocked at 15 after eight hard-fought innings.

The Businessmen tallied two runs in the top of the ninth on Saturday at Franklin Field and shut down Cernic’s in the bottom of the frame to take the

17-15 win and a 2-1 victory in the series.

A single by leadoff batter Ryan Fisher and a home run off the top of the fence in left field by winning pitcher Cody Hemminger gave Somerset its margin of victory.

“I knew we were in a good spot where our batting order was,” Somerset manager Bob Hay said. “We were at the 3, 4, 5 spots and they were at the bottom of their order. And I knew that gave an extra day for Cody (Hemminger) so we were in a pretty good spot there. I knew if we could score there in the top of the ninth, we would be pretty good.”

Added Hemminger: “We had the middle of our lineup coming up and we knew we could score runs and if we were going to do it, we were going to do it in the first inning (Saturday). (Friday) night we could have pulled it out but we got it done (Saturday).”

The momentum went back and forth the entire game with Cernic’s scoring four runs in the first and Somerset coming back to send 13 batters to the plate and put nine on the board in the second.

“We scored four runs and then gave up nine, it would have been real easy for my kids to put their heads down and quit,” Cernic’s manager Chance Osborne said. “There are a lot of things that happened and the game could have gone either way. Coming into the series, we played them pretty well in the first game and in the second game they took it to us. In the back of my mind I figured it would be a good third game. I didn’t think this many runs would get scored. I’m really proud of my team.”

Cernic’s had a chance to break the game open in the bottom of the eighth on Friday, loading the bases, but Somerset worked its way out of the tough spot and kept the game going into the second day.

“Last night (Friday), for all of us, their was the intensity of knowing you were one pitch away from your season being over,” Hay said. “We were able to battle and somehow get out of that jam (Friday).”

For Cernic’s, Zach Henry had two home runs and Jason Lechak had five hits including a home run and a double. Adam Lechak added four hits and reached base five times while Ryan Soflarsky had three hits with a double, Dante Witten had two hits and Brian Gates had a double.

Hemminger was 4-for-5 with five runs scored and Gunnar Smith had a bases loaded triple.

Devin Pritts and Myles Ream were both 3-for-4 with three RBIs apiece with Ream scoring twice. Chase Dykstra was 2-for-5 with two RBIs and Ryan Fisher was 2-for-3 and scored four runs.

Somerset earns a spot in the league championship series opposite top-seeded Claysburg plus an automatic berth into the Pennsylvania Region 7 Tournament as both the Cambria League champion and runner-up qualify for the regional.

Game 1 of the league championship series is set for 3 p.m. today at Claysburg.

“The finals will probably be a little anticlimactic after this series because our goal is to get to the state tournament and we qualified for regionals now,” Hay said. “Every time we put on the uniform we represent Post 181 and the Somerset community so we’ll go out and play hard and see what happens. Claysburg is a great team. They’ve only lost one game this year and they beat us up pretty good at our place the one game we played them. We’ll go at it with what we’ve got and see where that takes us.”

Fifteen-year-old left-hander Austin Sleek is expected to get the start against Claysburg.