Section 5 Little League: Valley View edges Back Mountain National to force decisive game for 8-10 title
By Kevin Carroll,
2024-07-16
Valley View’s Talon Prutzman dives back to first base as Back Mountain National’s Jack Katyl waits for the ball in the fourth inning. Fred Adams | For Times Leader
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DALLAS TWP. — Just like when they met on the first day of the tournament, Valley View and Back Mountain National went right down to the wire on Tuesday, both games seeing a potential tying run end up just 60 feet from home plate.
On this occasion, however, it was Valley View digging deep to make the final out, keeping its Section 5 title hopes alive as a result.
Rocco Forgione induced a groundout to third to strand the bases loaded, getting the final out in a 9-8 Valley View win over Back Mountain to send the Section 5 8-10 Baseball championship to a second, winner-take-all game on Wednesday.
In both the fifth and sixth innings, Back Mountain National managed to cut Valley View’s lead down to a single run, with the tying run aboard.
But Brady Scoblick escaped the fifth with a strikeout, and Forgione got the biggest out of all — with some help from a nice play by Valley View third baseman Chase Bauer to make the force play.
In between, Valley View put four more runs on the board in the top of the sixth, some insurance runs that would prove absolutely crucial as Back Mountain rallied once more in the sixth.
“We battled from the start, we knew our pitching was going to get us to a certain point and then we’re going to have to piece everything else together,” Valley View manager Stan Buczynski said.
A great starting effort from Mason Buczynski helped get Valley View deep into the game; Buczynski threw 4.2 innings, allowing three runs (all in the fourth inning; his first three frames were scoreless with just one hit).
Valley View led 5-0 heading to the bottom of the fifth, but Back Mountain began to hone in at the plate, turning what had been a fairly pedestrian ballgame into a barn-burner.
A one-out triple from Matt Wycallis sparked a four-run inning for Back Mountain, with an RBI single from Isaac Tribendis and a two-run double from Jordon Rollins helping trim that deficit down.
Rollins represented the tying run on second base, but with two outs, Scoblick was able to strike out Max Kovach to escape the inning with Valley View’s lead intact, albeit shrunk down to just 5-4.
Momentum had shifted toward Back Mountain, but Valley View took advantage of a couple defensive miscues to score four times in the sixth, making it a 9-4 game.
Every single one of those runs proved to be a difference-maker, as four hits and four walks brought Back Mountain right back to the cusp of a tie ballgame.
Oliver Bross and Bruce Knowles each singled in runs, and back-to-back walks with the bases loaded from Mac Hanson and Andrew Salko made it 9-8.
“Once we got into a groove, once we got some confidence, we were doing okay,” Back Mountain manager Brian Wielgosz said. “At the end of the day, we kind of beat ourselves … made some errors in the field, some baserunning goofs.”
A critical run that didn’t score was Bross’, as he was the victim of a great defensive play by Valley View. With Bross on third and Knowles on first, Valley View catcher Bryce Warnetsky faked the throw down to second as if he was trying to catch Knowles stealing.
Instead, he fired to his shortstop, who nailed Bross at home with plenty of time to pick up the first out of the inning, and take a critical run off the board for Back Mountain.
The second out came on a strikeout, and after a base hit and two straight walks, one bringing in a run, Forgione came on to get the final out.
It wasn’t pretty: Forgione walked Salko to cut Valley View’s lead down to a single run. But he got the next batter to hit a grounder to third, smothered by Bauer who got to the base just in time to make the force out and end the game.
“Everything’s coming together now,” Buczynski said. “It’s to the point where, if we don’t get it together now, it’s time to go home.”
Valley View and Back Mountain National will meet one more time on Wednesday evening for the Section 5 8-10 Baseball championship. First pitch is set for 5:30 p.m. at the Back Mountain Little League.
Section 5 8-10 Softball
Back Mountain 16, Pittston Area 5
Back Mountain jumped ahead early and stayed ahead, beating Pittston Area to force a second game in the Section 5 championship.
Everleigh Morris had an inside-the-park home run and a double for Back Mountain. Olivia Aten earned the win, allowing three runs on just one hit over two innings.
Back Mountain and Pittston Area will play at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at the Carbino Club complex in Jessup to determine the Section 5 champion.
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