Senior League Eastern Regional Title Goes to Auburn, MA

From Senior League's Mike Hirschman:

Four days removed from throwing a no-hitter, Tyler Lamanda caught the line drive double play that sent Auburn, MA, to the Senior League World Series.

Lamanda danced his way over to the bag and celebration was on as Auburn downed Upper Moreland, PA, 5-4, in the championship game of the Senior League Eastern Regional at Wednesday.

Auburn will face the Central Regional champion in its first game of the World Series on Sunday at 8 p.m. at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor, ME. The Central Regional semifinals and finals are being played Wednesday night in Peru, IL.

The two teams played their second one-run game in as many days. Auburn downed Upper Moreland in the winner’s bracket final on Tuesday morning, 4-3, in nine innings.

Josh Boucher pitched a complete game to earn the win for Auburn, scattering seven hits and allowing three earned runs. He walked two and struck out three during his 92-pitch effort. Drew Goodrich led the Auburn offense, going 2-for-4 with three RBIs.

Upper Moreland manufactured the first run of the game in the first. Robert Knox singled, stole second and moved to third and scored on a pair of ground outs.

Auburn struck for three runs in the third on an RBI double by Joe Fahey and two run single by Goodrich. Upper Moreland tied the game, however, in the bottom half of the inning. A sac fly by Charlie Hooker made it 3-2 and the game was later tied on an Auburn throwing error.

Upper Moreland regained the lead in the fourth on a sac fly by Tyler Jennings, but Auburn scored twice in the fifth. Goodrich lined a single to center to score Boucher. Destardin stopped around third, but when the ball was bobbled in center, he raced home with what wound up being the winning run.

Upper Moreland threatened in the seventh. White, the No. 9 hitter, singled to right to open the inning. He moved to second on a ground out. But Irwin’s liner up the middle was snared by Lamanda and White had no chance to get back to the bag. Lamanda leaped in the air several times on his way to turning the double play to send Auburn to its first World Series.