ORWIGSBURG – Two heavy hitters in the Schuylkill Baseball League engaged in a classic pitchers dual on a brisk Tuesday afternoon at Blue Mountain’s Allan Greenawalt Field.

Blue Mountain surely came into the meeting with Tamaqua in the favorite role and the Blue Eagles — who are undefeated in league play — lived up to that billing, scraping out a 2-0 victory.

“It was a great baseball game with two very good pitchers going at it,” offered highly successful Blue Mountain manager Tom Kramer as he evaluated the game, which took all of 80 minutes to complete. Kramer is in his 27th season at the helm.

“Their guy (Tate Ligenza) and Nabby (Nate Nabholtz) both threw great games,” Kramer said. “We got the timely hits, fortunately. Nabby has such a high pitching IQ. He knows how to set batters up, and when to throw certain pitchers. He just has a feel for the game.”

The 6-3 junior allowed six hits, did not issue a walk and struck out seven throwing 84 pitches, 68 for strikes. Ligenza (94 pitches, 59 strikes) was right there battling the highly touted Nabholtz who is a high Division I collegiate prospect. Ligenza surrendered only five hits, but two of those were off the bat of Mike McKivigan, one of which was a key run-scoring hit in the fifth inning uprising that produced all of the game’s runs.

“(Ligenza) did a nice job, but we didn’t give him the run-support you need to have against a quality team like Blue Mountain,” said Tamaqua skipper Jeff Reading. “We had chances to score, but we just didn’t get the hits down that you need to win a game like this.”

The Blue Raiders (5-5, 3-3) had a couple of opportunities early. The best came in the third inning when the bottom half of the Tamaqua order produced the threat. It started when Braydon Knoblauch and Mike Bonetsky lined back-to-back singles with one away.

However Nabholtz dug deep and got the next two batters out without any further damage.

“You don’t get chances like that often against a kid like Nabholtz,” offered Reading. “We just don’t seem to have any luck against Blue Mountain, they’re very tough on us.”

The pitchers dual came down to the fifth inning when the Eagles scored twice. Kentucky-bound junior shortstop Drew Grace singled after hitting a ball off the plate that bounced up and hit the batter in the head. Grace would be removed from the game after his hit, and later taken to the local hospital feeling nauseous.

Billy Gerlott laid down his second sacrifice bunt in the game before McKivigan stroked his double. Moments later Kaleb Sophy singled in the insurance run.

“We just got to find a way to move on,” said Reading. “We get Pine Grove next and we still have a long way to go with Pottsville and North Schuylkill to play.”

TIGHT BATTLES ... This was the second time Blue Mountain (11-2, 7-0) edged Tamaqua this season, the first was a 6-4 win at Tamaqua earlier in the month.

WEB GEMS

… Tamaqua came up with two big plays in the fourth. Center fielder Bonetsky tracked down a sure extra-base hit and on the very next at-bat Nate Boyle went deep in the hole between short and third to field a grounder and throw out Nabholtz.

STAR STATUS

… Nabholtz, a right-handed junior, is the nephew of former major league pitcher Chris Nabholtz, who lives in Pottsville, and pitched for the now defunct Montreal Expos and the Chicago Cubs during his career.

Tamaqua 000 000 0 – 0 6 0

Blue Mtn. 000 020 x – 2 5 1

Ligenza and Rother; Nabholtz and Tidmore. W – Nabholtz L – Ligenza.