Honesdale brought an early end to a long wait.
With their first Lackawanna League baseball title since 2001 on the line, the Hornets needed less than four innings to finish off Old Forge, 15-0, in the Division 2 championship game Friday at Schautz Stadium in Dunmore.
It was Honesdale’s second win, both by shutout, in three meetings with Old Forge this season. The teams split their regularly scheduled division games and each wound up 12-2, three games ahead of the rest of the pack, requiring a playoff to determine the champion.
Honesdale jumped in front with 5 runs in the bottom of the first, then scored 10 more times in the fourth to end the game on the Mercy Rule with one out.
Joseph Curreri outhit the Blue Devils by himself, going 3-for-3 while pitching a one-hitter. He walked one and struck out three.
Nathan Hugaboom led the offense, going 2-for-3 with a double, home run, three runs scored and two RBI.
Trent Gombita also homered and drove in two runs. He was 2-for-2 with a run scored.
Jackson Morton, Max Mickel, Peter Modrovsky and Grant Tonkin also drove in two runs. Morton had a triple and Mickel a double.
Morton, Modrovsky, Nate Greene and Nick Martin also scored twice.
Joseph Granko had the only Old Forge hit.
Honesdale made the most of Lackawanna League realignment this season.
The league switched from four to three divisions. While the rest of the former Divisions 1 and 2 merged, Honesdale joined all but one of the teams from the old Division 3.
Lackawanna Division 2 was the only one of five in District 2 that required a playoff to decide the baseball title.
North Pocono won Division 1 and Elk Lake Division 3 in the Lackawanna. Hazleton Area and Holy Redeemer won Divisions 1 and 2 of the Wyoming Valley Conference.
