Hamburg Reds set for rare appearance in Region 2 Legion tournament

Hamburg returns to the American Legion Region 2 Tournament Friday for the first time in nearly 30 years after winning the Schuylkill-Berks League qualifying tournament earlier this month.

The Reds open play in the double-elimination tournament against Birches of the Norco League at 1 at Quakertown. It is their first tournament appearance since 1993.

Norchester, the Berks Senior Legion champ, will open against Pennridge, the Bux-Mont champ, at 4.

In other opening-round games South Parkland faces Northampton at 10 and North Parkland faces Quakertown at 7. The five-day tournament is scheduled to be completed by Tuesday.

Connor Licklider has been the Reds’ top hitter, with a .449 batting average, team-high .551 slugging percentage and 15 RBIs in 14 games.

Luke Bensinger is batting .360 with a team-leading 18 RBIs and a .500 on-base percentage. Isaac Krick is batting .326 and Tristan Baer .318.

Baer posted a team-best 1.08 ERA over 25 innings, with 31 strikeouts. He is 4-0.

Krick has a 1.35 ERA with 16 strikeouts over 13 1/3 innings. Braden Fetherolf is 3-0 with a 3.68 ERA over 22 innings. Austin Miller leads the team with 29 innings pitching and 43 strikeouts.

The Reds came back to beat Wyomissing in the final two games of the qualifying tournament after losing its first game to the Warriors. Hamburg is currently in first place in the Schuylkill-Berks North Division with a 12-4 record. Regular season play continues through Saturday; the league tournament begins July 18.

The Schuylkill-Berks region qualifying tournament was moved up this season so that the regular season and post-season tournament would not be truncated.

Norchester went 13-1 in regular season play and swept through last week’s league tournament unbeaten; the Bulldogs topped Boyertown 10-3 Sunday to clinch the title.

The Bulldogs won their first Region 2 title last season. They were the first Berks Legion team to win that tournament since Twin Valley in 2013.

In last year’s Region 2 Tournament, at Owls Field, Wyomissing represented the Schuylkill-Berks League and Norchester the Berks Senior League. Wyomissing won three games but lost twice to West Lawn, the second time in an elimination game in the loser’s bracket finale.

Norchester won the region championship, beating West Lawn 5-2 on the final day, then went on to win the Pennsylvania state championship.