Published: August 08, 2009 11:21 pm      

Tri-State’s Powell’s pitching blanks O’s

Titans take 1-0 lead in best of 5 Pen-Mar championship series

CUMBERLAND — Brian Powell setup Tri-State with a chance to win the Pen-Mar Championship today by shutting out the Cumberland Orioles 9-0 Saturday at Allegany College of Maryland in the opening game of the best-of-five finals.

Powell was in complete control of the Orioles on Saturday, allowing four hits, striking out nine, walking one and hitting one. He struck out the side in order in the ninth to finish out. Cumberland threatened in the first inning with the help of a few Tri-State errors, but Powell escaped and cruised to the shutout.

He was also a part of Tri-State’s 17-hit offense by going 3-for-6 with a run scored. Justin Jenkins drove in two runs on three hits, a triple, double and single. Bill Davis had two singles and a double to drive in two runs and score another, and Nick Bible had two singles and a sacrifice fly to drive in a pair and score once. Jimmy Barrett had two RBIs with a double and a single, and Mike Carter singled twice and scored once.

The Titans have outscored their opponents 33-4 over the playoffs, and had a 20-plus hit showing in the final game of the semifinals. On Saturday, the Titans scored a run in each of the first three innings to take a 3-0 lead. They added a couple of runs in the fifth, and finished out the scoring by getting four runners across in the bottom of eighth.

Joe Durham had the only extra-base hit for the Orioles, a double, and added a single. Brandon Benson and Sean Lindner also singled.

Games two and three will be played today beginning at 1 p.m. at Bel Air Field. The Titans can win the series by winning both, and if Cumberland wins at least one the series will continue on Saturday.