‘Burg bounces back

June 28--FREDERICKSBURG -- The Fredericksburg Legion baseball team entered Thursday night's matchup against Campbelltown in a place it has rarely been in its long and proud history in the Lebanon County league.

Dead last in the standings and sporting a very un-Fredericksburg-like 2-6 record.

That's the bad news for Fredericksburg. The good news is if it continues to play like it did Thursday, last place will belong to another team before too long.

Under the lights at Earl Wenger Field, a very young Fredericksburg club took some tentative steps toward coming of age in an encouraging 5-4 win over the defending county champs.

Playing fundamentally sound ball in all phases and getting quality starting pitching from Brett Minnich, the 'Burg jumped to a 5-1 lead with the help of a three-run third inning, then hung on for dear life in the seventh after Campbelltown put together a late rally that ultimately fell just short.

There's no need to plan a county title celebration just yet, but the smile on manager Jim McKinney's face was evidence that Fredericksburg may be finally heading in the right direction again.

"Overall, we did well," McKinney said evenly. "We hit, we moved runners, we did what we had to do to win a ballgame -- finally. Everything kinda came together. The kids stepped up. Everything went together good tonight."

The opposite was true for Campbelltown, which continued its own struggles while dropping to 2-5.

Manager Tim Morgan's squad lit up the scoreboard first, grabbing a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Evan Aftosmes drilled a triple to right and scored on Bobby Dorta's subsequent sac fly to center.

But Fredericksburg quickly responded in the home half of the third against Campbelltown ace Mitch Sauley, plating the aforementioned three runs with the help of a two-run double by Tyler Faller and Darrin Shirk's RBI single.

Fredericksburg would not trail again, despite being outhit 9-8 and seeing C-town twice load the bases during promising at-bats.

"It's one of those years, we're in a funk," Morgan said. "We just can't get it going. We're out-hitting everybody, but we can't get the runs when we need them. As you saw. We left the bases loaded how many times?"

Meanwhile, Fredericksburg took advantage of its opportunities, adding on insurance runs in the fourth and fifth on RBI hits by Dylan Blauch and Zane Merkel, and aiding Minnich with some timely defensive plays.

The highlight of that was center fielder Shirk's sixth-inning double play, in which he snared Sauley line drive to right center on the dead run, then fired back to first to double off a straying John Binner.

"They're a fun team to coach," McKinney said with a chuckle. "You never know what's gonna happen. But fundamentally, we're getting a little more sound. I don't want to get too optimistic yet, but they're a good solid core team. They're just too young."

But they grew up some in the seventh while holding off Campbelltown's comeback bid, which was highlighted by Zach Miller's two-run single.

Nick Gonzalez relieved Minnich after Miller's hit and, after walking Binner to load the bases, got Sauley on a bouncer to second to end the game.

"Nick is our specialist guy," McKinney laughed. "That's what he likes to call himself. He said, 'If you need a specialty pitcher, coach, I'm your guy.' I said, 'OK, I'm gonna remember that.' So I brought him in that special situation."

And for one night at least, the good times were back for Fredericksburg.

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