Playing their fifth game in as many days, the Punxsutawney Post 62 Junior Legion baseball team traveled to the Saltsburg area on Thursday with a chance to sweep the best-of-three finals series against Young Township and claim the Indiana County Junior Legion title. In a pitchers’ duel, Punxsy was able to do just that with a 4-2 win. The members of the team and their coaches are pictured here posing with their championship hardware.
Up next for Punxsy is Western Regionals, to be played July 21-25 at Homer City. It’s an eight-team, double-elimination tournament that will see Punxsy play at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday in Game 1 against the second seed out of the Westmoreland league. Young Township will play the top seed out of the Northwest, and Marion Center will serve the role of host in the tournament, taking the place of a young Homer City squad.
“Going forward, we expect to see a lot of good teams and a lot of good baseball,” Coach Doug Mesoraco said. “I think we are ready for that. The one thing we are lacking is that we’re not making the contact we need on a regular basis. We’re getting the contact once we get the guys on base, but we just need to get those guys on base in order to do some of the things we do that make us different from other teams. We’re super-aggressive on the bases, and we’re never satisfied with one if we can get a second base out of a play.”