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Boyertown Midget Baseball League

Boyertown Midget Baseball League

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31

Jul, 2024

Bear Cubs are State Champs!

The Bear Cubs completed a dominant undefeated run through the 2024 Junior Legion State Tournament to earn the title of State Champs for the 15th time in team history! They outscored their opponents a combined 61-11 in the tournament and haven't lost a game since the second round of the Berks League Playoffs.

The tournament started with a 21-1 dismantling of the host Homer City team in a mercy rule-shortened four-inning contest. Bear Cub pitchers Jake Musselman and Christian Calautti combined to hold Homer City to 2 hits while Bear Cubs hitters amassed 22 hits. Four Cub hitters had three hits in the game - Gianni Costello, Mason Reinert, Joey Goddard, and Sam Letter.

Game 2 was another lopsided victory for the Bear Cubs - a 16-6 defeat of Sunbury Norry in five innings. Bear Cub hitters again swung hot bats, accumulating 18 hits to only 6 for Sunbury Norry. Kaden Gabel led Boyertown hitters going 4-4 with three RBI and two doubles. Sam Letter got the pitching start and win for the Cubs, scattering five hits and only two earned runs over 4.2 innings.

The Bear Cubs, having won their first two games, faced familiar Berks League foe Hamburg in the winner's bracket final. This game had the same outcome as the other two - a lopsided Bear Cubs victory, this time 13-2 in five innings. Cub starter Jake Musselman went the distance, holding Hamburg batters to only three hits and striking out four. Gianni Costello went 3-4 at the plate and Connor Houck drove in five runs by virtue of two doubles to lead the Bear Cubs attack.

In 8-team double-elimination tournaments, such as are held throughout the playoffs for all levels of American Legion baseball, the winner of the winner's bracket is guaranteed a spot in the championship game. As a result, the game between the winner's bracket final and the championship game is sometimes referred to as the "throwaway game". It seems as though Boyertown pitcher Joey Goddard did not consider this game to be a throwaway. Instead, he threw a 97-pitch complete-game no hitter against Penn Trafford, striking out seven and walking only one. This feat was made even more spectacular by the fact that this was the first game that the Cubs had to play all seven innings in the tournament - the game was scoreless through five. The Cubs began the bottom of the sixth with a lead-off single by Chase Artim. Mason Reinert followed with a single to third, with Artim eventually scoring on the play thanks to two Penn Trafford errors. Connor Houck kept the hit train going with a single of his own, scoring Reinert. Kaden Gabel made it 4 singles in a row to put two on and nobody out. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch to put them in scoring position. Houck would later score on a Joey Goddard sacrifice fly and Gabel would also later score on a Jake Musselman double. Four runs were all that the Cubs needed, given the dominant pitching performance by Goddard; their 4-0 victory guaranteeing them two chances to win the State Championship.

The championship game featured a rematch against Hamburg the fourth time the two teams faced each other in 2024. The Cubs scored first, converting three straight singles to lead off the bottom of the first (Costello, Artim, and Reinert) into two runs (2 RBI for Reinert). Hamburg responded by scoring two in the top of the second to tie the game at two. The top of the Cubs order said "let's do it again" and repeated the first inning magic in the bottom of the third with one-out singles from Costello and Artim followed by a two-RBI double by Reinert to put Boyertown up 4-2. These turned out to be the winning runs, as the Cubs would never trail again, on their way to a 7-2 victory and the State Championship. Boyertown starter Jayden Madeja went 5 1/3 strong innings on the mound, scattering four hits and two runs while striking out three. Connor Houck came in to close the game in the bottom of the sixth and got the final five outs to secure the championship. The top three of the Bear Cubs order (Costello, Artim, and Reinert) each went 3-4 on the day, with Reinert racking up 4 RBI.

Bear Cubs catcher Mason Reinert was awarded both the Sportsmanship Award and the MVP Award for the tournament. Cubs pitcher Joey Goddard received the Outstanding Pitcher award, thanks to his no hitter in the semifinals.

Contact

Boyertown Midget Baseball League
PO Box 34 
Boyertown, Pennsylvania 19512

Email: [email protected]

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