Looking at Andrew Shreiner after he helped the Chambersburg baseball team to a win Monday evening, you might have thought somebody had dumped a cooler of Gatorade on him.

 

No, it was just sweat that had soaked through his T-shirt and uniform.

 

It was a good sweat, though. Shreiner fired a four-hitter and went 2-for-3 to lead the Trojans to a 5-2 victory over Ephrata in the first round of the District 3 Class AAAA tournament.

 

Shreiner held the Mountaineers (15-7) in check through six innings with a 2-0 lead. Then, after the Trojans (14-7) scored three runs in the top of the seventh to take a 5-0 lead, Shreiner lost a little of his precision in the bottom of the inning and Ephrata took advantage to score twice.

 

"When you sit around for a while during an inning like that, your muscles get relaxed," Shreiner said. "I wasn't finishing my pitches that inning and I got a little tired. It was a little humid today."

 

That's a weather condition few players have experienced this chilly spring.

 

Trojan catcher Nick Graham said, "That might have been his best game this year. He had everything working for six innings, but he may have gotten a little tired with the heat."

 

Until the seventh, the Mounts had touched Shreiner for just two hits and had only one runner reach second base.

 

In the seventh, Colin Albright led off with a walk, just the second issued by Shreiner. Brady Sipe hit a wicked liner to right that Tyghe Bowers seemed to get a late jump on, but Bowers stretched his 6-foot-4 frame flat out to make a splendid diving catch.

 

Josh Gehman doubled in Ephrata's first run, and after an out, Bobby Nye doubled in Gehman. But Shreiner fanned Nate Cummings for his eighth strikeout to end the game.

 

Chambersburg's defense made one harmless error and turned one double play.

 

Trojan coach Bob Thomas said, "We got a well-pitched game, we played really good defense and we got a few key hits."

 

It was a winning formula.

 

In the top of the first, Ephrata pitcher Scott Leibl got the first two batters, but then lost his control - he walked Shreiner and Angelo Hronis and hit Colby Dice with a pitch to load the bases. On a 1-2 count, Graham smacked a ground single to center that plated two runs to give the Trojans an early jump.

 

Graham said, "With the way he was pitching and with two strikes, I had to expand the strike zone a little. I think the pitch I hit was a ball (outside), but I didn't want to leave all those guys out there."

 

From there until the seventh, Leibl allowed only two more hits, and even though he had only one 1-2-3 inning, Chambersburg could not add to its lead.

 

In the seventh, Shreiner lined a one-out hit to left. A chopper to shortstop by Hronis was dropped and Dice followed with a line-drive single to left that scored courtest runner Jonathon Brown.

 

"I told Colby before that inning, when you get up, the last two times they've thrown you a fastball right down the middle, so look for it," Thomas said. "He fouled it off the two times before that, but he came through and drilled it."

 

Graham then topped one that Leidl fielded, but when he tried to catch the lead runner at third base, nobody was covering, and his throw to first was wide, loading the bases.

 

Carlin Christian then saw a first-pitch fastball he liked and jacked it to the wall in left for a double that scored two more runs.

 

It turns out that the three added unearned runs were needed, even it did not seem like it at the time.

 

NOTES: Shreiner threw 112 pitches, 74 for strikes, and had 16 first-pitch strikes. Shreiner and the Mounts' Gehman each had two hits.