PLAINS TWP. — Those five runs in the top of the sixth inning Monday night looked like the final touches on a District 16 Little League Major Baseball championship for Plains.
Instead, they were needed to hold off a valiant comeback attempt by Mountain Top as Plains held on for a 12-9 victory.
Plains will host the Section 5 playoffs from July 19-23 that will also feature District 31 champion Back Mountain National and a pair of district champs from the Scranton area.
“A rollercoaster of emotions,” Plains manager Rock Stahovic said. “I said these kids are the cardiac kids. I knew it was going to be a battle. I didn’t care what happened the first time we played Mountain Top (an 11-1 win). I knew it would be a different game.
“We battled, they battled. It was back and forth. One of our mottos this year is we bend but we don’t break. And how many times did that happen tonight?”
The answer is several.
Plains entered the sixth with a 7-6 lead thanks in part to a grand slam by Nolan Franchella in the first inning. But the lead was 7-3 going into the bottom of the fourth when Mountain Top got two runs on a single by Luke Zeneski.
Then came the sixth where Plains’ first six batters walked, with Franchella and Jordan Yuhas forcing in runs with their free passes. Jordan Maurer followed the walks with a two-run single and Omar Contreras’ sac fly brought in the final run for a 12-6 lead.
Mountain Top did not go quietly. Miles McShea and Luke Zeneski led off the bottom of the sixth with singles. An out later, Bodhi Malay walked and Mountain Top then got a run on a fielder’s choice. Zach Zeneski and Miles Metz followed with base hits, with Metz’s single cutting the deficit to 12-9. An error kept the rally going, but reliever Tyler Daugherty got a strikeout to end the game.
“Very nerve wracking, very nerve wracking,” Stahovic said of the sixth. “But again, we have confidence in our players, confidence in our pitchers. We’re deep with pitching. We knew when we put Ben Thomas in the game when we took Jaden (Maurer) out he might not get through four innings with 85 pitches. So we were prepared for that.”
Thomas had seven strikeouts in 3.2 innings of relief. He, Maurer and Daugherty combined to strike out 10.
Mountain Top answered Franchella’s first-inning grand slam with a two-run homer from Avery Brace in the bottom of the frame. McShea’s bouncer up the middle scored another run in the third. Caiden Wright’s fielder’s choice moved Mountain Top within 7-6 after five innings, but it couldn’t ever get the lead.
District 16 Major Baseball Championship
Plains 12, Mountain Top 9
Plains`AB`R`H`BI
McKeown lf`2`0`0`0
Contreras ph`2`1`1`1
Stahovic c`2`3`1`1
Thomas ss`3`2`1`0
Daugherty 1b`2`2`1`2
Franchella cf`3`2`1`5
Cinti 2b`2`0`0`0
Yuhas ph`1`0`0`1
Mauer p`3`1`2`2
Kapelan ph`1`0`0`0
Hossage 3b`2`1`1`0
Dunsmuir rf`2`0`0`0
Faatz ph`1`0`0`0
Totals`26`12`8`12
Mountain Top`AB`H`R`BI
L.Zeneski 3b`4`1`3`2
Smith rf`4`0`0`0
Malay c`2`2`0`0
Brace 1b`4`2`2`3
Z.Zeneski lf`4`0`1`0
Metz p`1`1`1`2
Bleiler ph`0`1`0`0
Brown ph`0`0`0`0
Wright ss`2`0`0`1
O’Neill ph`2`0`0`0
E.Zeneski cf`3`0`0`0
Ciocco ph`1`0`0`0
McShea 2b`3`2`3`1
Totals`30`9`10`9
Plains`400`305 – 12
Mountain Top`210`213 – 9
2B – Hossage. HR – Franchella, Brace
Plains`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Maurer`2`3`3`2`1`2
Thomas W`3.2`6`6`6`4`7
Daugherty`0.1`1`0`0`0`1
Mountain Top`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Metz L`4`7`7`6`3`0
McShea`1`0`2`2`3`0
Wright`1`1`3`3`4`0
