DORRANCE — The Mountain Top 9-11 baseball all-stars did something Tuesday that no District 17 Little League team could accomplish. They scored against Abington.
But one run against the District 17 champion which blitzed its way to the Section 5 tournament certainly wasn’t going to be enough.
Instead, Abington finally pulled away with a four-run sixth inning to defeat Mountain Top 8-1 in the tourney opener for both teams.
Abington will play Back Mountain at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the winners bracket finals. District 16 champ Mountain Top will play Mid Valley at 5:30 p.m. in an elimination game.
The entire tournament is at the Mountain Top Little League.
“We have our two best pitchers available to throw tomorrow,” Mountain Top manager Brian Gryboski said. “At this point now, you have to win out Wednesday through Saturday to win sectionals. I think the boys will come back ready to play and they’ll learn from this.”
Abington, which outscored its opponents 49-0 in three District 17 games, took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first as Dylan Lyle singled and scored on a double by Max Vazquez. Vazquez later scored on an error.
Mountain Top then scored its only run in the bottom of the first. Leadoff hitter Garrett Chalker doubled and scored on an error on a grounder by Eli Metz.
“We had a 10-day break and my big concern was what was going to happen if we fall behind or give up a run,” Abington manager Paul Locker said. “We gave up a run, made it 2-1. Tight game and how are the kids going react.”
Methodically in all aspects.
Mountain Top’s only other hit was an infield single by Anthony D’Arco in the sixth. Abington reliever Penn Eckenrode struck out six in 2.1 innings of work and the defense pulled off two double plays.
Abington also took advantage of six Mountain Top errors, with two coming in the four-run sixth. Patrick Keeler and Julian McDonough had RBI singles in the inning. Ben Hillebrand also had an RBI.
“We came out in the first inning, hit the ball and got a run,” Gryboski said. “But I think we got a bit exposed defensively. We relied on strong pitching throughout District 16 play and knew coming into this game Abington has a really strong team from a pitching standpoint and offensive standpoint.
“We made some errors in the field. I don’t know what the final tally was, but I think most of the runs we gave up were unearned.”
Abington increased its lead to 3-1 on an RBI single by Noah Tajan in the second inning. Max Vazquez brought home James Kane with a sacrifice fly in the fifth to make it 4-1.
Section 5 9-11 Baseball
Abington 8, Mountain Top 1
Abington`AB`R`H`BI
Eckenrode ss`3`0`0`0
Lyle p`1`1`1`0
Vazquez 3b`2`1`1`2
Johnson 1b`3`0`0`0
Giroux cf`3`0`0`0
Tomachick 2b`1`1`0`0
Keeler rf`3`1`1`1
Hillebrand lf`3`1`0`0
Snyder eh`1`2`1`0
McDonough eh`2`0`1`1
Tajan eh`2`0`2`1
Kane c`3`1`1`0
Totals`27`8`8`5
Mountain Top`AB`R`H`BI
Chalker p`2`1`1`0
Nealon 2b`2`0`0`0
Metz ss`2`0`0`0
Bendowski 1b`1`0`0`0
O’Neill 3b`2`0`0`0
George eh`1`0`0`0
Fauerbach rf`2`0`0`0
Schappert eh`1`0`0`0
D’Arco cf`2`0`1`0
Malay eh`2`0`0`0
Wenzel c`1`0`0`0
Stravinski lf`1`0`0`0
Totals`19`1`2`0
Abington`210`014 — 8
Mountain Top`100`000 — 1
2B — Vazquez, Chalker.
Abington`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Lyle`1.2`1`1`0`0`2
Eckenrode (W)`2.1`0`0`0`1`6
Vazquez`1.1`0`0`0`2`1
Johnson`0.2`1`0`0`0`0
Mountain Top`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Chalker (L)`1.2`3`3`2`3`4
Nealon`2.0`0`0`0`1`0
George`0.2`3`1`1`1`0
Metz`1.0`1`2`1`1`2
D’Arco`0.2`1`2`0`1`0
