Beech Creek Falls to Ephrata in State Legion Opener

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EPHRATA — The Beech Creek American Legion team, a solid hitting team all season long, proved to be no match for Ephrata’s Dillon Good on Tuesday night. Good was near perfect, pitching five and two-thirds innings of no-hit ball as the home-standing Chryslers downed the Crickets by a 9-4 score in a first round state tournament game.

Good was dominant from the get-go, giving up two walks in inning number two but otherwise picking up nine strikeouts and not allowing the Crickets to hit a ball to the outfield. Meanwhile Ephrata pulled away in the middle innings, putting up one run in the third, four in the fourth and four more in the fifth to open a 9-0 lead. Keystone would pick up their three hits and four runs on the night in the eighth inning against several Ephrata relievers, but it was not enough.

The Keystone runs came on a single from Wyatt Koch, a double from Landon Breon, followed by a walk to pinch-hitter Mahlik Houtz. Pinch-hitter Connor Bauman followed with an RBI single, followed by RBI walks to Evan Prough and Brandon Miller; the final run scored on a fielder’s choice RBI from Talon Falls.

Ethan Watkins started for the Crickets and was strong into the fourth, trailing 1-0 at that point. But Ephrata bunched three hits in the fourth and three in the fifth, along with some walks, errors and hit batters off Watkins and reliever A-J Smith to pull away. Trevor Hanna came in and put up two and two-thirds innings of shutout ball in relief.

The loss dropped Beech Creek into the loser’s bracket, a 12:30 p.m. Wednesday game against Spring City, a 7-6, 11-inning loser to Ambridge-Baden in its Tuesday opener.