Speeney pitches Connellsville Legion past Colonial
Connellsville's Anthony Speeney fires a pitch against Colonial 3 Friday evening at Rowes Run. Speeney struck out 10 batters in a six-hit performance.
Connellsville's Brandon Freed strikes the ball into the outfield for a stand-up single in the top of fourth inning allowing two scoring runs and bringing the tally to 9 runs over Colonial 3's two.
Colonial 3's Noah Saxon is congratulated by his teammates after scoring a solo homerun against Connellsville Legion Friday evening in Rowes Run.
Colonial 3's Fred Heiser beats the tag at first against Connellsville's third basebman Colvin Adey.
Connellsville's Colvin Adey (8) can't beat the ball at 1st base against Colonial 3's Jake Bevard (16) Friday evening.
Roberto M. Esquivel|蘑菇视频
In this July 2, 2012, file photo, Connellsville蘑菇视频 Anthony Speeney fires a pitch against Colonial 3 during a Fayette American Legion Baseball League game at Rowes Run. Speeney, a 2011 Geibel Catholic graduate, struck out 10 batters in a six-hit performance to mark a successful return back to the pitching mound after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2010 and a year-long recovery and rehabilitation through his junior year in high school.
ROWES RUN 鈥� Friday evening Connellsville generated some much needed offense to back the six-hit pitching of Anthony Speeney and beat Colonial 3, 15-2, in Fayette County American Legion baseball action in a game was stopped after five innings with Connellsville holding a commanding lead.
Speeney struck out 10 batters and scattered six hits, while Brandon Freed provided much of the offense, collecting four hits and driving in five runs.
鈥淪peeney was amazing today; he蘑菇视频 a gamer. He蘑菇视频 a great kid with a good personality and a great heart. He put the team on his shoulders today,鈥� Connellsville蘑菇视频 John Pryzbylinski said.
鈥淏randon Freed has been hitting for us all year. Today he just kept it up and pounded the ball today. He came up big.鈥�
Colonial (9-6) looked as though it were going to repeat Wednesday蘑菇视频 18-9 win over Connellsville.
They took a 2-0 lead in the second inning, while starting pitcher Tyler Spohn struck out six through the first three innings.
In that second inning, Colonial did its damage with two out. Noah Saxon stroked a solo homer to right, Fred Heiser singled and stole second, and Ryan Novotney drew a walk, putting two on for Phil Gnus who singled to drive in Heiser.
鈥淪peeney had 10 strikeouts against us today. If you don鈥檛 hit the ball you don鈥檛 score,鈥� Colonial蘑菇视频 A.J. Novotney said. 鈥淲hen we got to him early, we thought we were going to be in the game. I think I made a mistake by leaving my pitcher in too long in the fourth. Connellsville hit the ball well today.鈥�
In that fourth inning Connellsville (7-7) got some timely hitting while putting up 11 runs in the inning.
Connellsville sent 15 men to the plate with Freed getting two hits and driving in three runs. John Malone singled to drive in two, and J.T. Stevenson tripled off the left field fence to drive in two more.
鈥淏aseball is a funny game. The kids felt something in the loss Wednesday. They knew they had to come out and perform today and they did,鈥� Pryzbylinski said. 鈥淭hey battled and did a good job of two-strike hitting. They put the ball in play and did a great job of base running.鈥�
Connellsville added four more in the fifth. Kolin May was hit by a pitch with the bases-loaded to force in a run, Freed singled to drive in two more, and Stevenson had a ground out to third that brought in the other run.