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Tamaqua blanked by Southern Area

ORWIGSBURG - It's impossible to win if you don't score.

And during Game 2 of the Schuylkill-Berks Legion play-in series between Tamaqua and Southern Area, only one team capitalized on its opportunities.The A's executed with runners on base during a 7-0 victory over the Blue Sox on Sunday afternoon. The win capped a 2-0 series sweep of Tamaqua, as the A's took Game 1 with a 7-1 win on Saturday."We did a decent job getting runners on, but just couldn't move them any further," said Tamaqua Blue Sox manager Todd Heisler. "We just couldn't get them in. And that's what we needed to do to score runs."The Blue Sox stranded a runner in scoring position in each of the first four innings.Casey Rother was left at second in the opening inning, after poking a single to right field and moving to second on an error. Earl Akins was left on second base in the second, and Nick Breiner was caught stealing third in the third frame.While Tamaqua had a few opportunities to try and capitalize, Southern Area took advantage aplenty, especially on its first chance in the opening inning.Jack McGivigan and Austin Clauser hit back-to-back singles for the A's, and both soon crossed the plate after the Blue Sox committed their first of five errors.In the third, Jakob Biever delivered a two-run double to cap a three-run inning for Southern, which gave them a 5-0 advantage.The A's added single runs in both the fifth and sixth innings for insurance."They executed when they needed to execute," said Southern coach Jerry Freiwald. "They knew what they had to do. They didn't want to play a third game against these guys (the Blue Sox). So, they did what they had to do. They just hit the ball well. And scored runs when they could."The Tamaqua coach was pleased to see his Blue Sox finally get more than two hits against the A's. In each of the first two games against them, the locals were only able to muster two total hits."We got used to them I guess," Heisler said. "They were seeing the ball enough today that they were able to put it in play. But it's just heart breaking, we just couldn't string enough hits together to produce some runs to keep ourselves in it."RAIN DELAY … It rained several times throughout the game. However, the umpires only stopped play once in the fifth inning. The delay only lasted for about six minutes, before Southern Area players were back out on the field.TWICE AS NICE … Breiner and Mike Minchhoff were the lone two Tamaqua players to finish with multiple hits.Tamaqua 000 000 0 - 0 8 5Southern Area 203 101 x - 7 10 1Kupchinsky, Inama (4), Akins (5) and Rother; Caulfield, White (4) and Clauser. W - Caulfield. L - Kupchinsky.

Tamaqua's Josh Inama is tagged out as he slides into second base during Saturday's game against Southern Area. RON GOWER/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS