Greater Pittston Area and Township each were well on their way to advancing to the semifinals of the District 16 Major Little League Baseball All-Star Tournament after winning two of their first three games.
GPA, Township and Plains were tied for second place in the six-team tournament behind 3-0 Mountain Top heading into the weekend. Those four teams were on the verge of eliminating Hanover and Nanticoke, both 0-3, from contention with the last two games for each team finalizing the seedings and pairings for Wednesday’s semifinals.
The final is scheduled for July 8 at 7:35 at the Jenkins Township Little League field.
Township 15, Greater Pittston Area 7
The two local entries met in one of the June 22 tournament openers.
Just when Greater Pittston Area got back in the game, it was knocked out of it by Township.
Way out of it.
Township used a nine-run fifth inning to snap a tie on the way to the victory.
The outburst, which created a 13-6 lead, featured seven hits, a walk and three GPA errors. It came in response to GPA scoring four times in the top of the inning to force a tie.
Township pieced together five consecutive hits — an RBI single by Vinny Cocco, an RBI double by Chase Dudek, a single by Colton Ziobro, a three-run homer by Brandon Yonki and a solo homer by Michael DeAngelo.
Frankie Roman also singled and scored in the fifth. Drew Whitling had a two-run double.
“They smashed it around the field,” GPA manager Pat Roman said.
Yonki’s homer was his second of the game. He hit a similar moonshot to center in the second inning. Parker McAndrew lined a two-run homer to left in the first as part of Township’s three-run inning.
GPA cut Township’s lead in half on a two-run homer by Patrick Roman in the third. Township got the runs back in the bottom of the inning. Frankie Roman singled and moved to third on a double by Whitling. He scored from there on a wild pitch. Whitling later crossed the plate on a fielder’ choice by McAndrew to make it 6-2.
GPA, though, battled back to tie the score 6-6 in the fifth. Brady Warnek led off with a double and Matthew Welkey, Luke Borino and Vinny Krashnak drew consecutive walks to force in a run. Armondo Oliveri followed with a two-run single and John Walsh walked to reload the bases. An out later, Patrick Roman walked to force in the tying run.
GPA also used three walks to load the bases in the sixth, but managed just one run before a double play ended the game.
Yonki and Whitling each finished 3-for-3. Yonki drove in four runs and scored twice. Whitling, who also struck out seven without allowing an earned run while pitching the first 3 2/3 innings, scored three runs and drove in two.
Greater Pittston Area 10, Hanover 7
Vinny Krashnak and Chris Tibel homered and drove in two runs each for Greater Pittston Area in Monday’s bounce-back win.
Levin Pisano, who went 3-for-3, and Patrick Roman, who was 2-for-2, each scored three times.
Tibel struck out 10.
Mountain Top 14, Township 4
Mountain Top used 14 hits to down Township in five innings Monday.
Township 7, Hanover 6
Township trailed 5-2 in the bottom of the third Wednesday when action was halted because of rain, but recovered to win in seven innings when the game concluded Thursday.
Frankie Roman provided the game-winner with a two-run double in the extra inning.
Patrick McAndrew helped extend the game with a two-run homer.
Roman and Chase Dudek had two hits each while Aiden Bryk doubled.
Colton Ziobro came on in relief to strike out three and earn the win.
Greater Pittston Area 5, Nanticoke 0
Patrick Roman and Griffin Maynor combined on a two-hit shutout in another game that started Wednesday, but had to be concluded Thursday.
Roman struck out 10 while giving up just two walks and a hit in four innings. Maynor struck out four while allowing a hit in the final two innings.
Levi Pisano and Christopher Tibel each homered to lead GPA. Roman and Maynor each added to the offense with a triple and RBI.
DISTRICT 31 MAJOR
Kingston/Forty Fort 9, Greater Wyoming Area 5
KINGSTON — Kingston/Forty Fort was able to find some much-needed separation from Greater Wyoming Area with six runs in the top of the sixth inning in Thursday’s completion of a game that was suspended Wednesday.
When GWA put together a rally in the bottom of the inning, that offensive flurry became even more important.
GWA scored three times and brought the tying run to the plate before Kingston/Forty Fort closed out the win to improve to 3-0 in round-robin play. GWA fell to 1-1.
Kingston/Forty Fort led 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth when the game was interrupted.
When the game resumed, GWA scored. Chase Evans doubled with one out and scored on a Kellan Bradshaw single. Frank Pacelli’s RBI single in the fifth pulled GWA within 3-2.
Nate Lewis had a two-run single and Jonah Labar singled in another run for GWA in the sixth.
GWA had two hits Wednesday: a base hit from Labar in the second inning, and a long double out to the fence in left-center from Brian Reynolds in the third.
Greater Wyoming Area 15, Northwest 0
Greater Wyoming Area rolled in its opener of the five-team tournament, posting a shutout in the minimum three innings by opening the 15-run lead.
DISTRICT 16 JUNIOR
Hanover 12 Township 8
Hanover defeated Township in Monday’s district championship game.
Township 13, Wilkes-Barre 4
Township won the June 23 game to improve to 1-1 in the three-team tournament and earn a rematch with Hanover in the championship game the next day.
DISTRICT 16 9-11-YEAR-OLDS
Greater Pittston Area 15, Hanover 5
David Klansek drove in four runs, scored three and had two hits as Greater Pittston Area opened the tournament with a five-inning win Tuesday.
Jack Homschek, Jordan Tonte and Logan Luckasavage also drove in two runs each.
Brian Wood struck out four in two innings to pick up the win.
Mountain Top 11, Greater Pittston Area 0
Brian Wood went 2-for-2, but Greater Pittston Area managed just one other hit in Thursday’s five-inning loss.
DISTRICT 16 8-10-YEAR-OLDS
Greater Pittston Area and Township each take 1-1 records into their Sunday meeting to complete round-robin play and determine seedings for the semifinals.
Township 13, Mountain Top 6
Landry Henries had two hits and drove in two runs each for Township in the Thursday victory.
Josiah Martinez also drove in two runs while Colston Talerico and Rocco Skula each had two hits.
Plains 4, Greater Pittston Area 2
Joey Pirillo and Angelo Macario combined on a one-hitter and did not allow an earned run Tuesday, but Greater Pittston Area came up short.
Macario struck out five without allowing a hit.
Deklan Bender led the offense with a hit, run and RBI. Jaxson Bender and Deklan Bender had back-to-back doubles in the fifth inning.
Greater Pittston 12, Mountain Top 2
Cooper Warnek led the way as Greater Pittston pounded out 13 hits in Tuesday’s four-inning win.
Warnek drove in five runs, had two hits and scored twice.
Winning pitcher Jacob Hulse scored three times and went 2-for-2. He struck out five and did not allow an earned run in 3 2/3 innings.
Joey Pirillo, Jaxson Bender and Warnek all went 2-for-3.
Plains 13, Township 1
Malakai Vanderburg went 4-for-4 with a double and scored four times as Plains won Tuesday’s opener in five innings.
DISTRICT 31 8-10-YEAR_OLDS
Back Mountain National 2, Greater Wyoming Area 1
Jack Katyl’s RBI single in the bottom of the sixth decided Thursday’s game.
Greater Wyoming Area will play at Northwest Sunday at 2 for second place in the three-team Pool A and a berth in the tournament semifinals.
GWA turned a triple play in the loss.
Stephen Arnold had two hits in the loss while Michael Fanti added a double.
Kevin Carroll and Tom Robinson also contributed to this report.
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