BUTLER TOWNSHIP – It came down to two of the best teams in the Valley Senior Babe Ruth League playoffs Wednesday night.

And, ironically, the team that won two of the three regular-season matchups wasn’t the favorite.

Weatherly, seeded third in the postseason, was the boss against No. 1 seed Drums during the year. Twice, the Wreckers posted victories against their opponent.

What makes that even more impressive is the fact that Weatherly stumbled out of the gates at the start of the year.

“We lost six games to start the season,” said Weatherly head coach Louis Mastroddi.

After that poor start, the Wreckers played lights out — winning their final eight games, including a semifinal win over Hazle Township.

Unfortunately for Weatherly, the momentum died at Freedom Field in the title game as it watched the eventual champions — Drums — scurry in front early and never look back in registering an impressive 8-0 win.

“We weren’t taking that team lightly, at all,” said Drums skipper Heath Sakusky. “I was a little nervous coming in to be honest. They beat us the last two games, and we weren’t overlooking them.”

Drums shot out in front 2-0 in the first inning, parlaying a leadoff single from Joey Halcisak, and a sacrifice bunt and a fielder’s choice grounder off the bat of AJ Jordan for the first run before a Dean Ambosie RBI double plated the second tally.

The hosts scored an unearned run in the second frame as hot-hitting Marcus Kassick singled and scored on an error for a 3-0 lead. They added three more in the third to take control. Carter Frask singled, Ambosie got on board with an error and both runners scored thanks to an RBI single from the coaches’ son — Heath Sakusky. Kassick then scorched a triple to the gap in left center for another RBI.

“They jumped on us early and they built that big lead, and it was tough to come back,” said Mastroddi. “Our game is to play (small ball). We like to try and steal when we get on base, but we struggled with our hitting.”

A trio of Drums pitchers allowed only five hits by the Wreckers. Andrew “Sting” Ray and Matt Buck accounted for four of those hits, each with two singles. The other hit came from Bruce Keil.

“We have a pitching limit,” said Drums’ manager Sakusky. “Our pitchers are only allowed seven innings (a week). So we used all three of our (pitchers) because we were basically forced to. They did a nice job, as you can tell.”

Indeed, pitching shuts down hitting. That was the tale of the tape in this title game.

POUNDING IT OUT … Drums had 11 hits; four of those were extra-base smacks, including two doubles and two triples. Kassick provided the big stick with three hits (two singles and a triple) and two RBIs.

MISCUES HURT … Weatherly kicked the ball around, and it was costly, as the pitching staff gave up just four earned runs.

Weatherly 000 000 0 - 0 5 2

Drums 213 020 x - 8 11 1

Derr, Moser (3), Keil (6) and Knepper; Stemko, Sakusky (4), Leatherman (6) and Jordan. W - Sakusky. L - Derr.