Back Mountain reached the winners’ bracket semifinals before settling for a tie for fifth place at the Prep American Legion Baseball state tournament in Berwyn July 29-31.
After winning its first-round game during the tournament’s opening day, Back Mountain had leads get away while suffering consecutive losses the next two days. It finished 1-2, playing all of the games against teams from the Philadelphia suburbs.
“We did very well,” Back Mountain manager Chuck Youngman said. “No team blew us out.
“We could have won all three games.”
Ty Federici led the offense, getting two hits in each of the three games.
“He hits the ball pretty hard,” Youngman said of Federici, who batted third in the lineup while playing first base and pitching. “He hit one off the top of the fence even though he cracked his bat on it.”
Federici and Austin Finarelli each had two of the team’s 10 hits in an 8-6 win over Lionville from Chester County.
Austin Finarelli also joined Nick Finarelli and Chris Killian in handling the pitching duties in the win.
Plumstead, from Bucks County, rallied in the seventh inning to defeat Back Mountain, 13-7, on its way to the tournament final.
Back Mountain led, 6-5, before Bucks County scored eight times in the top of the inning.
Federici, Jared Adamski, Nick Nocito and Will Youngman each had two hits in the loss. Federici had a double. Adamski drove in two runs.
Back Mountain was eliminated with an 8-4 loss to Nether Providence from Delaware County in a game which it led 3-0 early.
Federici had a single and double in the loss.
Youngman said the team proved it could compete with the top Prep Legion programs in the state.
“It was just little things, like just staying focused for seven innings instead of five or six innings,” Youngman said. “That’s what you get with 13-year-olds.
“I was very happy, though. I was very pleased with the way they competed down there.”
