SOMERSET — Somerset nailed down its top spot in the American Legion Cambria County League standings with a convincing 6-2 win over No. 2 Claysburg on Wednesday and a sweep of the Blair County squad in the regular season.

But manager Bob Hay and his squad were in a similar situation last year and are not looking too far beyond the win.

“We’re probably going to have to play them again,” Hay said. “They won the most important game last year. We beat them in the regular season, but we weren’t able to beat them in the playoffs in a best of 3. We still have some work to do in the playoffs. This puts us in good shape with I think four games left to finish out the regular season and hopefully we can take care of business and get the No. 1 seed in the playoffs and see them down the line.”

Key to 18-0 Somerset’s win on Wednesday was the pitching performance by left-hander Austin Sleek, who scattered six hits, struck out six and walked four.

“Sleek threw a heck of a game. We played defense and had some hitting,” said Somerset catcher Tanner Stull, who was 2 for 3 and scored three times. “His curve ball, that was the best that his curve ball has looked in years. I’ve caught him for a couple years now and that was the best I’ve seen him. His fast ball, he was hitting his spots. Everything was working for him.”

Hay said pitching coach Mike Sube went down a little early and worked with Sleek in the bullpen before the game.

“They really focused on the curve ball,” Hay said. “Claysburg has a lot of lefties and we knew that we were going to need that pitch. He wasn’t very sharp on Friday. I knew he would bounce back. Mike did a great job with him and we were able to reap the benefits of that.”

Somerset helped itself by getting on the board in the first inning.

Stull led off hitting a ball deep in the hole. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ross DiRienzo, and a throwing error advanced Stull to third. Drew Hemminger’s double, the first of three for the day, scored Stull.

The one-run advantage held up until the bottom of the fifth, when Somerset added two more runs with Jake Nickelson driving in Raven Beeman and Stull.

Claysburg, 16-2, scored a pair of runs in the top of the sixth on a walk to Austin Cunningham and base hits by Logan Stern, Tyler Ickes and Trent Forshey before Sleek was able to register two of his strikeouts to get Somerset out of the jam.

“We came through in the sixth and got a couple of timely hits and had things going our way,” Claysburg manager Dave Aungst said. “When you have innings like that, you have to go out and get them back in quick. We just weren’t able to do that. They had an answer for us. Every time we got some momentum and got things going, they answered the calls. That’s what good teams do.”

The hosts responded with four more runs in the bottom of the inning, aided by doubles from Michael Van Lenten, Bryce Mostoller and Hemminger.

“We made one or two more mistakes than them and they cashed in on one or two more opportunities with runners in scoring position,” Aungst said. “I thought we hit the ball well today, but we hit it at people at times. As we did last year, they got the battles, now we just have to get ready and go after the war at the end of the year and see what happens.

“We love playing these guys (Somerset). We have a lot of mutual respect. We look forward to these games because it’s always a challenge.”

Stern and Forshey were both 2 for 3 for Claysburg.

“This win is huge to us,” Stull said. “We’ve always been rivals with Claysburg. We came in there and beat them in the first game 9-1, but they were missing a few guys.

“It gives us a lot of confidence and I think we have that No. 1 seed locked up. Most likely we’ll see them again in the playoffs so we want to continue to play our best ball going into the playoffs.

“We play Somerset baseball and don’t take anything for granted. We just play our baseball and hope for the best.”