SA baseball clinches title

BERNE — The Starfires rule the conference in sports played on diamonds.
The South Adams High School baseball team defeated county rival Adams Central 4-2 on Wednesday, clinching at least a share of the Allen County Athletic Conference title.
The baseball team’s championship comes two days after the SAHS softball team beat the same school for a share of its conference title.
South Adams (13-11, 5-1 ACAC) took a 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. Adams Central tied the game with a run in each of the third and fifth innings, but the home Starfires responded with two more runs in the bottom of the fifth.
The Flying Jets threatened during the seventh with runners on the corners and one out, but a game-ending double play gave the Starfires their first baseball conference championship since 1995.
Freshman Grant Besser was stellar on the mound once again, scattering five hits over seven innings while allowing two runs — one earned. He struck out seven and walked two.
Jayden Dull had a double, a single and an RBI, with Justin Nussbaum also adding a pair of hits. Joe Stuber and Besser both chipped in with singles.

Raiders rout
BERNE — South Adams’ softball team had trouble keeping Wapahani off the scoreboard in a 13-0 loss Wednesday to the Raiders.
Wapahani scored three times in the third inning before breaking the game open with four in the fourth to lead 7-0.
It pushed the lead to 9-0 after five innings before tacking on four more in the seventh.
Meanwhile, the Starfires committed four errors, struck out 13 times and only managed one hit, a single from Lexi Dellinger.
Katelin Augsburger took the loss. She gave up nine runs — four earned — on 11 hits.
She walked three and struck out six in five innings of work.
Anna Nussbaum also pitched, allowing four earned runs on five hits in 1 2/3 innings.

Hundley leads Inman
Dawson Hundley hit two home runs and added a double as Inman U-Loc defeated Portland Optimist in Portland Junior League’s Willie Mays division.
Cohen Henry complemented Hundley by hitting a triple, a double and a single, while Lucas Strait added a double and a single. Sam Myers had two doubles and a triple for Inman.
AJ Myers led Optimist with a triple and a double. Jeremiah Canterbury had a double and a single while Dyllan Garringer contributed two singles.

Barnett’s wins
In Rookie baseball action of Portland Junior League, Barnett’s Auto Parts defeated Williams Auto Parts 5-2.
Troy Lee was a home run shy of the cycle for Barnett’s, and he also scored once. Sylas Wenk and Cavan Hartzell both had a double, two singles and an RBI, and Skyler Esparza added two singles and drove in one run. Gavin Thomas chipped in with a double and an RBI.
Iziah McAbee led Williams with two singles and two runs. Joe Geesaman had a double and a single, and Dawson Goldsworthy tallied two singles and an RBI.

Correction
There was an error in Wednesday’s newspaper in an article about junior league baseball.
In the Willie Mays division of Portland Junior League, Williams Auto Parts defeated Pak-A-Sak by a 13-9 score Tuesday night.