Published: August 02, 2009 11:48 pm      

Titans take series

17 runs, 21 hits push Tri-State into final round

CUMBERLAND — A day after pounding 17 hits to take a 1-0 lead over Romney in the Pen-Mar League Semifinals, Tri-State upped the stakes by collecting 21 hits and advanced to the finals by beating Romney 17-4 Sunday at Allegany College of Maryland.

Tri-State is now 23-5 and will play the first game of the best-of-five championship series against either the Cumberland Orioles or the Oakland Oaks on Saturday at ACM. Game one will be a nine-inning contest, with games two and three being played Sunday as seven-inning outings. If needed, games four and five will be played the following weekend.

It was Romney that struck first on Saturday, picking up two unearned runs on three Titan errors in the first inning. Tri-State struggled its first time through the order, but took command in the third inning by scoring nine runs on timely singles. Romney closed the gap with a pair of runs in the fifth inning, but Tri-State countered with five of its own in the bottom of the inning. It scored its final three runs in the sixth.

Justin Jenkins drove in a game-high four runs batted in on a triple, double and a single, and Brian Powell hit two doubles and a single to score three runs and drive in another. Josh Logsdon was 3-for-5 with two RBIs, two stolen bases, and a run scored. Corey Twigg, Tony Burns, Matt Wright and Mike Carter all finished with two singles. Wright had three RBIs, while Burns and Carter had two each.

Bill Davis struck out nine batters, allowed seven hits and put six more on base by either walking them or hitting them. As he’s done all season, Davis was able to work out of most of the jams he got himself into.

Romney was led by Paul Nicol with two singles and a run scored, and T.M. Frye had a two-run single.