RIDGE, Md. \u2014 The Stripes & Strikes Post 76 baseball team has embraced a \u201cnothing easy\u201d mantra all season.<\/p>\n
In fact, team members proudly wear T-shirts with that very saying.<\/p>\n
Even in racking up team-record 29 wins against only four losses and advancing deeper into the summer than the Hazleton-based team ever has, things haven\u2019t always gone smoothly for the locals. Just in the past two weeks alone, Stripes & Strikes Post 76 rallied after losing its first game in its first state tournament to win its next four to punch its ticket to this week\u2019s American Legion Baseball Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament and then needed a late comeback from a three-run deficit to outlast New Castle, Del., 4-3, in 10 innings in its second regional game on Friday morning.<\/p>\n
Nothing came easily for Stripes & Strikes Post 76 in the winners\u2019 bracket final later in the day either, as Cherry Hill, N.J. broke open a close game in the latter innings for an 11-2 victory over the locals, sending them into an elimination contest against Chesapeake, Va., Saturday, at 1 p.m. back at Joe Cannon Stadium. S&S will need to win that game and defeat either New Castle again and\/or the New Jersey team, possibly twice, on Sunday to advance to the American Legion World Series Aug. 14-19 in Shelby, N.C.<\/p>\n
After stranding 15 baserunners against New Castle, the same dilemma haunted the locals against Cherry Hill. Only this time, there would be no comeback.<\/p>\n
With them game scoreless in the home third, S&S table setters Riley Katchur and Ryan Racho singled off hard-throwing righthander Josh Litsky with one out, the latter on a well-placed bunt. Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch with Bryant Diaz at bat. One pitch later, Katchur was cut down trying to score on Diaz\u2019s sharp grounder to third base. Litsky then retired Jamie Martoccio on a foul popup to thwart the locals\u2019 best chance to score until the game was no longer in doubt.<\/p>\n
Cherry Hill broke through against Stripes & Strikes Post 76 starter Sam Miller in the top of the fourth. Mason Kelleher drew a one-out walk and raced to third on Luis Sanchez III\u2019s single up the middle. Brian Martello followed with an RBI single on Miller\u2019s next pitch for the game\u2019s first run, but Miller managed to keep his team\u2019s deficit at 1-0.<\/p>\n
In the bottom half, Hazleton\u2019s Josh Witner singled down the left-field line and took second on Darian Haraschak\u2019s sacrifice bunt. After a walk to Shea Higgins, Litsky set down the next S&S batters to keep the locals\u2019 side of the scoreboard stuck on zero.<\/p>\n
Cherry Hill added three more runs in the top of the fifth to bump its lead to 4-0. Brett Chiesa and Kelleher delivered the biggest base hits in the rally with an RBI double and two-run single, respectively, both part of their team\u2019s 16-hit barrage.<\/p>\n
In the sixth, Jake Barletta singled in one run and later came home on a wild pitch to make it 6-0.<\/p>\n
Litsky, meanwhile, allowed only S&S batter to reach in the fifth and sixth innings, that coming on a hit batsman.<\/p>\n
Back at the plate, the winners continued their assault with five more runs in the top of the seventh. Chris Aherns\u2019 two-run double, Noah Harvey\u2019s RBI double, Chiesa\u2019s sacrifice fly and a bases-loaded walk to Kelleher accounted for the brunt of Cherry Hill\u2019s final offensive push.<\/p>\n
Stripes & Strikes avoided the shutout in the bottom half as James Festa started a two-run rally with a double, Andrew Burns walked and Katchur singled to load the bases against Cherry Hill reliever Andrew Bechtel. Racho\u2019s fielder choice grounder plated Festa and Martoccio\u2019s grounder brought in Katchur with the game\u2019s final tally.<\/p>\n
Cherry Hill, N.J\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026. 000 123 5 \u2014 11 16 0<\/p>\n
Stripes & Strikes Post 76\u2026. 000 000 2 \u2014 2 6 0<\/p>\n
Litsky, Bechtel (7) and Kelleher; Miller, Higgins (5), Frask (6), Yenchko (7) and Witner.<\/p>\n
W \u2014 Litsky. L \u2014 Miller<\/p>\n
AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL<\/p>\n
Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament<\/p>\n
At Joe Cannon Stadium<\/p>\n
Ridge, Md.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, Aug. 6<\/p>\n
Game 1 \u2014 Cherry Hill, N.J. Post 372 5, Wheeling, West Va. Post 1 4<\/p>\n
Game 2 \u2014 New Castle, Del. Post 30 4, Chesapeake, Va. Post 280 1<\/p>\n
Game 3 \u2014 Cecil County, Md. Post 194 3, Bristol, Pa. Post 382 2<\/p>\n
Game 4 \u2014 Hazleton Stripes & Strikes Post 76 4, St. Mary\u2019s, Md. Post 255 0<\/p>\n
Thursday, Aug. 7<\/p>\n
Game 5 \u2014 Bristol, Pa. Post 382 6, Wheeling, West. Va. Post 1 3 (Wheeling eliminated)<\/p>\n
Game 6 \u2014 Chesapeake, Va. Post 280 8, St. Mary\u2019s, Md. Post 255 3 (St. Mary\u2019s eliminated)<\/p>\n
Game 7 \u2014 Cherry Hill, N.J. Post 372 11, Cecil County, Md. Post 194 6<\/p>\n
Game 8 \u2014 Hazleton Stripes & Strikes Post 76 3, New Castle, Del. Post 30 3, suspended after eight innings<\/p>\n
Friday, Aug. 8<\/p>\n
Game 8 \u2014 Hazleton Stripes & Strikes Post 76 4, New Castle, Del. Post 30 3, 10 innings<\/p>\n
Game 9 \u2014 Chesapeake, Va. Post 280 8, Cecil County, Md. Post 194 4 (Cecil County eliminated)<\/p>\n
Game 10 \u2014 New Castle, Del. Post 30 4, Bristol, Pa. Post 382 3 (Bristol eliminated)<\/p>\n
Game 11 \u2014 Cherry Hill, N.J. Post 372 11, Hazleton Stripes & Strikes Post 76 2<\/p>\n
Saturday, Aug. 9<\/p>\n
Game 12 \u2014 Chesapeake, Va. Post 280 vs. Hazleton Stripes & Strikes Post 76, 1 p.m.<\/p>\n
Game 13 \u2014 New Castle, Del, Post 30 vs. Cherry Hill, N.J. Post 372 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
Sunday, Aug. 10<\/p>\n
Game 14 \u2014 Game 12 winner vs. Game 13 winner, 1 p.m.<\/p>\n
Game 15 \u2014 if necessary, 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 8, 2025 at 11:31 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIDGE, Md. \u2014 The Stripes & Strikes Post 76 baseball team has embraced a \u201cnothing easy\u201d mantra all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,33241,3837,3838,27201,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-235281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-carbon-county","10":"tag-luzerne-county","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-schuylkill-county","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114997081145368678","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}