Cashtown and Hanover Advance to SPL Finals

Cashtown and Hanover will square off for the SPL championship for the third straight year after each team closed out its semifinal series with victories on Sunday.

Cashtown survived a spirited Biglerville comeback attempt and hung on to down the Black Sox 6-5 at Oakside on Sunday. The Pirates led 6-0 entering the bottom of the sixth, but Pat Armor's 2-run homer in the sixth and Travis Byers' 3-run jack in the bottom of the seventh cut the lead to one. The Black Sox put the tying run on base but Zach Ketterman, the fourth Pirates pitcher of the game, came in to notch the final two outs for the save. Alex DeHaas tossed five plus to get the win. Michael Tempel had three hits, Ethan Ketterman two, and J.C. Collins drove in a pair for Cashtown. Byers and Armor each had three hits and Brandon Miller and Kyle Gillingham two each for Biglerville.

In a tightly contested game at Diller Field, New Oxford led 4-2 heading into the fifth but a three-run Hanover rally, highllighted by Pat Brady's 2-run double, put the Raiders ahead to stay in their 6-4 win. Joel Clabaugh, Jeff Deveney, and Kevin McManama had run-scoring hits to give the Twins their early cushion, but the Raiders cut into the Twins lead via RBI hits by Jon Karlheim and Clint Roche. Brady, Roche, Karlheim, Austin Kibler, and Mark Phillips each had two hits for the Raiders, while McManama and Mitch Collins had two hits each for the Twins. Andrew Burke got the win despite allowing all four Twins runs, and Brady tossed two shutout innings for the save.