GREENCASTLE — The Franklin County baseball showdown between Chambersburg (ranked No. 1 in District 3 in Class 6A) and Greencastle-Antrim (3rd in Class 5A) did not feature a lot of impressive hitting.

But the Blue Devils didn’t need their offense’s usual pyrotechnics, because left-hander Ryder Linn threw what may have been his best-ever performance, limiting the Trojans to just 2 hits.

Ryder Linn

Linn’s quality start and Greencastle’s ability to manufacture runs led to a 4-0 non-league victory Friday afternoon at home.

“This had a big-game feeling, with lots of people here, and it was a playoff atmosphere,” G-A coach Eric Shaner said. “I thought we handled that well.”

For sure, Linn handled it well.

“My changeup was working really well,” Linn (5-0) said. “I was getting ahead in the counts, and then I could throw my fastball up. And once we scored some runs, my confidence went up.”

Chambersburg (12-3) went down 1-2-3 four times and made outs on ground balls 11 times. The Trojans had two runners on in the third when Konner McMullen singled sharply to left and Bryce Deneen followed with Linn’s only walk of the game.

But two infield pop-ups ended the threat. In the fifth, McMullen reached on a bad-bounce error. In the seventh, Ceagan Truett lined a hit to right, but Greencastle (13-1) ended the game with a double play.

Shaner said, “We wanted Linn to face Chambersburg. He’s a little different from the pitching they usually see — even if you see that changeup, it’s hard to hit. When he’s getting ahead in counts, and he’s got three pitches working, he’s tough. And to do that against Chambersburg is pretty impressive.”

“He was throwing breaking balls for strikes and we were chasing them,” Trojan coach Scott Folmar said. “And then he’d sneak the fastball in and it was effective. We needed a better approach and better at-bats.”

Brady Truett started for Chambersburg and allowed only four hits. But it seemed like every time the Blue Devils reached base, they scored, thanks to some aggressive running and some quality at-bats.

“When we lost to Boiling Springs (on Wednesday), we got runners on, but it was usually with two outs and we couldn’t really do what we wanted,” Shaner said. “Today, we got lead-off guys on, and that changed things. I was really happy to see that some of things we talked about us needing to do after that loss, we did today.”

In the bottom of the second, Avery Horst led off with a bouncing double down the left-field line. He moved to third on a wild pitch, and then scored when Bo Brookens put down a perfect squeeze bunt.

To open the third, Truett isssed his only two walks, and a double steal by Bryce Davidson and Andrew Weaver, followed by a sacrifice fly by Nolan Sullivan, made it 2-0.

In the fourth, Manny Brookens singled and moved to second when the ball was dropped in the outfield. He swiped third base and scored when Bo Brookens hit a sac fly to center.

The final run came in the fifth after Weaver and Cam Rakaczewski hit one-out singles. On another double steal attempt, the throw to third got away from the fielder and Weaver crossed the plate.

Folmar said, “Brady did a decent job of keeping us in the game, but we botched a couple of plays that didn’t help at all. I just think we were too emotional coming into the game.”

The Blue Devils produced six stolen bases.

“We trust our running game against anybody,” Shaner said.