During the regular season, a potent offense by the Franklin Township Shockers helped produce a 16-1-1 record and a league championship.

But on Tuesday in the semifinals of the Keystone Senior Babe Ruth playoffs, that offense came up empty.Stymied by Bushkill Township's Colton Miller and Justin Albert, the top-seeded Shockers dropped a 1-0 decision and were eliminated from the postseason."We'd get something going and then we couldn't get the big hit," said Franklin Township manager Donnie Rehrig. "I think we outscored our opponents 153-37 this season ... But baseball's a funny game. Sometimes one run is enough and it was tonight."I honestly didn't think we'd be in this type of game. I thought we'd score some runs. Hats off to their (starting) pitcher. He pitched well and pitched ahead. They were the better team today. Are they a run better than us? In my opinion, no. We just couldn't come up with the big hit."For six straight innings, Franklin Township created opportunities to get on the scoreboard. And six straight times, it was unsuccessful.The Shockers had at least one runner in scoring position in each of those first six frames but failed to produce any runs.Probably the best chance FT had to dent the plate came in the home fourth. Moments after a line-drive double play, Jacen Nalesnik singled to right. An error on Zach Kamowski's grounder kept the inning alive and Vince Mele followed with a line drive single to center.Bushkill's Andrew McFarland, however, came up throwing and gunned down Nalesnik at the plate to end the threat and keep the game scoreless."That's the pressure you have to put on teams in that situation," said Rehrig. "You're going on contact, you have a fast runner like Nalesnik out there who's really heady and knows what he's doing out there. The centerfielder charged hard and made a perfect throw. Nine times out of 10 he doesn't make that type of throw. They just made a good play.""That throw from centerfield was spot-on," said Bushkill head coach Tim Sutter, whose team is seeded sixth in the playoffs and upset East Stroudsburg in the quarterfinals. "In my mind, that's what changed the game. That changed momentum. We needed a little luck later and we got it with that blooper."That blooper Sutter was referring to came off the bat of McFarland in the top of the seventh inning and produced the game's only run.With one out, Nick Novak singled to center. An error at first on a pickoff attempt moved him up a base. After a pop-up for the second out, McFarland muscled a ball just over Kamowski's head at second and Novak raced home."The ball got away from our first baseman and put a guy in scoring position," said Rehrig. "And then that little Texas League bloop hit scores a run to win the game. That hit came on an 0-2 pitch and it wasn't hit hard. But he got enough on it to send us home."That hit not only ended the Shockers' season, but it spoiled an outstanding pitching effort by Nalesnik.Normally a catcher, the right-hander struck out 10 and walked just one."He threw 99 pitches in seven innings and you couldn't ask for more that what he did tonight," said Rehrig. "He's a competitor and he's going to give you his best shot. You trot him out there and he knows what he has to do. And he did it. He had their hitters off-balanced, working up, down, in, out, hitting that outside corner."Nalesnik's counterpart, Miller, struck out four over six innings and worked out of trouble throughout the contest. Albert tossed a 1-2-3 seventh frame for the save."The first time we played them (Shockers) they mercy-ruled us," said Sutter, whose team will now face the Panther Valley Black Diamonds in a best-of-three championship series. "The second time we ended in a 1-1 tie. That second game was a confidence-builder ... When our team shows up to play, we're hard to beat."James Farano and Alex Storm each had two hits for the Shockers, who closed the year with a 16-2-1 record.Bushkill Twp. 000 000 1 - 1 7 2FT Shockers 000 000 0 - 1 7 1Miller, J. Albert (7) and Bachert; Nalesnik and T. David. W - Miller. L - Nalesnik.