The Blue Mountain Major Division baseball team will officially be competing for a state championship.
On Friday night, Blue Mountain defeated Newtown Edgmont 9-2 out of Section 8 and District 19 to advance to the Pennsylvania state championship round starting on Monday evening.
Eight different Blue Mountain hitters recorded RBI in the win including Judein Marx leading the team with a pair of RBI.
Blue Mountain jumped out to an early lead on Friday night, scoring four runs in the second, including Owen Borger driving in one run with a single down the left field line. They’d tack on another run in the third thanks to a Chase Goodman double.
Newtown Edgemont picked up a pair of runs in the third, but Blue Mountain put the game away with a three-run fourth inning before Anthony Grimminger put an exclamation point on the win with a solo home run in the fifth.
Chase Goodman got the start, pitching four innings, striking out four while working around two hits and three walks. Max Porrino pitched two-thirds of an inning, striking out one and allowing a hit before Grimminger closed out the last inning and a third, striking out two.
Coming out of the winner’s bracket with a perfect 3-0 record this week, Blue Mountain will have the advantage in the championship round having to lose twice to be eliminated, while only having to win once.
If Blue Mountain loses on Monday to Newtown winner Edgmont vs. either East Side or Hollidaysburg, they’ll have a chance at redemption on Tuesday.
The winner of next week’s championship round will advance to the Mid-Atlantic Regional to be held from August 8 through August 14 in Bristol, Connecticut. The eventual Mid-Atlantic champion will represent the region at this year’s Little League World Series in Williamsport starting on August 19.
The last Schuylkill County team to win the Pennsylvania state tournament was Pottsville’s 1997 Railway Park team that went on to represent the Mid-Atlantic region in the Little League World Series.