Little League: Back Mountain opens Section 5 play with two-hit shutout

DORRANCE — To win a district championship back on Saturday, Back Mountain let their offense control the ballgame.

To open up the Section 5 9-11 Baseball tournament with a win, it was the pitching’s turn to shine.

Four pitchers combined for a two-hit shutout, striking out a combined 13 hitters as Back Mountain beat Mid Valley 5-0 on Tuesday during the opening night of the tournament.

After Logan Hornak got the first four outs, Back Mountain manager Chris Mayerski turned to reliever Mark Coach to carry the bulk of the innings, and Coach certainly didn’t disappoint.

Coach threw 3.2 innings of near-spotless relief, striking out six and allowing just two base hits, the first of which was immediately turned into an out after Mid Valley’s Kellen Hughes tried to stretch his single into a double.

Dante Pietraccini got the first two outs in the sixth, then allowing two walks. CJ Mayerski came in and slammed the door shut, notching a strikeout to give his Back Mountain squad a big win to open up sectionals.

The idea was to keep Hornak fresh and available to pitch on Wednesday, and the Back Mountain offense did help make the coaching staff’s decision to pull Hornak a bit easier.

Back Mountain led 3-0 after their first time at the plate, with three base hits and a Mayerski double doing the damage early. Mayerski’s double drove in a run, as did a single from Neil Suchodolski and a sacrifice fly from Coach.

Michal Walton made it 4-0 in the bottom of the second with a hot smash to third that was mishandled by the Mid Valley third baseman.

Walton would come up big again for Back Mountain in the fourth inning, driving in the team’s fifth and final run with an RBI single. Isaac Neiman came around to score, one batter after he nearly left the yard with a double off the fence in left-center field.

Mid Valley’s relief tandem of Hughes and Brennan Mitchell did a good job calming things down, allowing just one run over their final three innings, but they couldn’t match the six zeroes put on the board by Back Mountain’s staff.

Before Hughes’ one-out single in the fifth inning, Back Mountain had retired 11 straight batters between Hornak and Coach.

Back Mountain will play Abington, the winner of Tuesday’s first opening-round game, at 7:30 p.m. at the Mountain Top Little League on Wednesday.

Mid Valley will take on Mountain Top in an elimination game at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Section 5 9-11 Baseball

Back Mountain 5, Mid Valley 0

Mid Valley`AB`R`H`BI

Mitchell 3b`2`0`0`0

Hughes ss`1`0`1`0

Rivera cf`2`0`1`0

Perez 1b`2`0`0`0

Matthews eh`2`0`0`0

Hillier p`2`0`0`0

Hollow eh`2`0`0`0

Zuraski lf`1`0`0`0

Boynton 2b`1`0`0`0

McGrath rf`2`0`0`0

Alunni c`1`0`0`0

Chmil eh`1`0`0`0

Totals`19`0`2`0

Back Mountain`AB`R`H`BI

Hornak p`3`1`1`0

Bonomo 3b`3`1`1`0

Coach ss`2`0`1`1

Mayerski 2b`2`1`1`1

Pietraccini rf`2`0`0`0

Suchodolski c`2`0`1`1

Liparela 1b`2`0`0`0

Scavone cf`2`1`0`0

Neiman lf`2`1`1`0

Walton eh`2`0`1`2

McCormick eh`2`0`1`0

Totals`24`5`8`5

Mid Valley`000`000 — 0

Mountain Top`310`10x — 5

2B — Mayerski, Neiman.

Mid Valley`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO

Hillier (L)`2`5`4`3`0`1

Hughes`1.2`2`1`1`0`2

Mitchell`1.1`1`0`0`0`0

Back Mountain`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO

Hornak`1.1`0`0`0`1`3

Coach`3.2`2`0`0`0`7

Pietraccini`0.2`0`0`0`2`2

Mayerski`0.1`0`0`0`0`1