Regardless of the outcome of Monday night's Carbon County Junior Babe Ruth championship game, the winning trophy was headed back to the Towamensing area for a second straight year.

Initially, it looked as if the Towamensing Bombers were going to be the ones staking claim to the Paul Yuricheck Memorial Championship trophy.However, after putting up solid fifth and sixth innings, the Towamensing Joe's showed why they were defending the title from a year ago.The Joe's got their grasp on the trophy once again by posting a 14-5 victory over the Bombers.The Palmerton baseball team had a very successful season as it captured a District 11 championship and advanced to the second round of the PIAA State playoffs. That baseball success has continued for several of members of Blue Bombers' baseball program who are playing Babe Ruth ball for the Towamensing teams"I think it speaks of the quality of the baseball we have here in the Palmerton area," said Towamensing Joe's coach Steve Serfass. "The guys on the Joe's, and the guys on the Bombers, they have been playing with each other as teammates all through the ranks ... even going back to T-ball. So, this has been a great season for our boys. I'm just really proud of them."Cody Waterhouse smacked an inside-the-park grand slam for the Bombers in the second inning, which temporarily put them ahead."I'm proud of the way they came out here, drove the ball and never got back on their heels," Serfass said. "Even when the Bombers threw the four spot up on the board. It looked a little discouraging for us in the second inning, but we came back and played every inning to the hilt and came out on top."Zach Schoenberger and Luke Eitner silenced the Bombers' bats over the final five frames - and the Joe's offense took charge.Devyn Rehrig started a wild third inning for the Joe's with a two-run single and then Eric Keck followed later with a two-run double.Joe's put the finishing touches on back-to-back championships with a five-run sixth inning. Eitner started it off with a RBI double. Rehrig followed with a RBI triple and Schoenberger added a sacrifice-fly."Both of their pitches threw well," Bombers coach Matt Reis said. "They hit the ball when they had to. They found the holes. They found the gaps. They got the base hits. So, there's not much we can do about that. Hey, we played the best we could. Our players gave it their all. We gave them a game."JOE'S CAN HIT ... Eight out of the 10 spots in the Joe's lineup recorded a hit on the day. Leading the way was clean-up hitter Rehrig with two singles, a triple, two runs scored and three RBIs. Luke Eitner (single, double, four runs scored and an RBI) and Eric Keck (single, double, three RBIs) also had big games. Ben Serfass (two singles, three RBIs) and Eric Nothstein (two singles, run scored, RBI) also contributed.LEAD BOMBER ... Eric Baumgardt had two singles and an RBI for the Bombers.Bombers 140 000 0 - 5 5 3Joe's 204 035 x - 14 12 3Haydt, Schoch (5), Burnett (6) and Burnett, Reis (6); Schoenberger, Eitner (5) and Rehrig. W - Schoenberger. L - Haydt. HR: Bombers - Waterhouse (2nd, three on).