LL States: Saturday Recap

Two games were played Saturday, with Council Rock Newtown and Back Mountain National meeting as the lone unbeatens remaining. The late game would see an elimination contest between Greencastle and Northern Lebanon.

NEXT: Back Mountain National and Greencastle meet in the elimination bracket final Sunday night at 6:00. LISTEN to all the action.

Council Rock Newtown 9, Back Mountain National 6(LISTEN to the replay)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
Back Mountain National	0	0	0	5	0	1	6	8	1
Council Rock Newtown	1	0	1	4	3	X	9	7	2

WP: Neeld LP: Nulton

The long awaited battle between two undefeated giants in the tournament lived up to the billing, and so were the players you would expect.

Sav Longo again dazzled, pitching two innings of one-hit four strikeout ball to open the game. He remained perfect at the plate, going 2/2 and scoring a run. With him at bat in the first inning, Brayden Peiffer advanced to third on a wild pitch and went home on an error to give Newtown the quick 1-0 lead.

Dean Hamilton relieved Longo in the third, hitting two batters but induced a 5-4-3 double play to end the third. Ryan Uhl led off the bottom of the third with a solo home run out to center, moving the Newtown lead to 2-0.

The fourth inning was all Back Mountain at first. Carter Samanas and Ben Nulton did what they do and led off with a couple of singles. Nick Federici, on the heels of a grand slam in his previous game, cracked a 3-run shot out to center and the boys from Dallas were in front 3-2 just that quickly. The inning didn’t end there. Wyatt Engel and Logan Vanvalkenburgh kept things going with singles and Engel came home on a Mattie Lapidus RBI single up the middle. Rocco DaBronzo dropped one in left off the bat of Sam Grablunas allowing Back Mountain to increase their lead to 5-2.

Council ROck Newtown responded. Brayden Peiffer led off the bottom of the inning with a walk and Tyler Neeld singled. Longo walked on a full count to load the bases. Greyson Gage then got an RBI on a bases loaded walk, as he took ball four with a 3-2 count. Gavin Caudill hit a sac fly to Nulton and Newtown clawed back to within 5-4. With two out, Ryan Uhl followed up his home run with a 2RBI double out to center, scoring Longo and Gage, putting the Blue Dawgs back on top 6-5.

Newtown added insurance in the fifth with timely, two-out hitting by Peiffer and Neeld, bringing in three runs and increasing the lead to 9-5. For Back Mountain, Ben Nulton led off his team’s final turn at bat with a deep shot to center, but the next three were retired and Newtown advanced to the state title game Monday morning. Newtown awaits the winner of Sunday’s game between Greencastle and Back Mountain.

Greencastle 4, Northern Lebanon 3(LISTEN to the replay)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
Greencastle	0	0	2	1	1	0	4	8	2
Northern Lebanon	1	0	0	0	2	0	3	3	3

WP: King LP: Good

With their seasons on the line, Greencastle and Northern Lebanon clashed in another epic contest at the Newville Little League complex.

After allowing a leadoff single, Isaac Good struck out the side in the first. Bryce King quickly responded, striking out the leadoff batter for Northern Lebanon in Luke Copenhaver. However, after getting Nolan Anspach to ground out, Good got the better of King, launching one out to deep center and giving Northern Lebanon the 1-0 lead early.

Ryan Emlet tied the game on an RBI double, scoring Jake Stephens. Following Kolston Piper being hit by a pitch to load the bases, Chase Cordell walked, forcing in a run and giving Greencastle the 2-1 lead. In the fourth, the lead grew to 3-1 on a bobble at third, scoring Reed Sholes.

King’s RBI single in the fifth grew the lead to 4-1 and it seemed the game was out of reach for Northern Lebanon from there. However, a pair of errors and Parker Wright being plunked loaded the bases with just one out. Ethan Allen took the mound and walked Connor Kapp and Shelbie Fry, forcing in two runs to make it 4-3. Ryan Emlet then came on in relief and got Copenhaver to fly out to left and induced a groundball off Nolan Anspach to record the final out and get out of further trouble. Emlet struck out two in the sixth to close the door and send Greencastle to the elimination bracket final for a rematch with Back Mountain National.