Section 5 Little League: Back Mountain National eliminates Plains

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DALLAS TWP. — Back Mountain National proved throughout all-star play that it can hit.

The issue with playing an extra game — like Tuesday night’s Section 5 Major Baseball elimination contest with Plains — would be whether the pitching could withstand the workload.

The pitching was just fine as four hurlers combined on a three-hitter with 16 strikeouts as National eliminated Plains with a 11-2 victory.

District 31 champion National will play District 17 champion Abington at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Back Mountain Little League. Abington is the Section 5 champion with a win. A National victory would force another game at 6 p.m. Thursday.

It was another long night at Back Mountain Little League as the game started 45 minutes late at 8:15 p.m. because a Section 5 8-10 baseball game ran long. National finally sealed the victory two hours later.

Starter Logan Van Valkenburgh struck out four in 1.1 innings. Reliever and winning pitcher Henry Kovach fanned five in 1.2 innings. Ben Nulton struck out four in 1.1 innings and Jordan Medrano had three strikeouts in 1.2 innings.

Plains’ Ashton Dutter hit a two-run homer in the second to account for his team’s runs.

National’s Kevin DeFalco hit a solo homer in the third inning. Matte Lapidus and Medrano had RBI singles in the second. Sam Greblunas had an RBI single in the fourth followed by an RBI double by Liam Dieffenbacher.

Medrano also brought in a run in the sixth with a sac fly to short right field.