Keystone 12s hold off Muncy, move to district title game

BEECH CREEK, PA – It wasn’t easy for the Keystone 12 All-Star team Wednesday evening, but they did enough to hold off a challenge from Muncy, the 5-3 win putting Manager Ben Falls’ squad in the District 12 title game at Little League’s Volunteer Stadium Friday night.

Wednesday’s win was a nail-biter to the end. Keystone pushed across single runs in the first, a bases-loaded walk to Blake King, and the third, an RBI single from Jaiden McCloskey following a Kyle Everett double. That gave Keystone a 2-0 lead and the score stayed that way into the bottom of the fifth, Muncy the home team on the flip of the coin. Muncy used a single from Kinton Fish and a two-run homerun over the centerfield fence from Chase Bennett to knot things at 2-2.

Keystone waisted little team in regaining the lead in the top of the sixth and final inning. They used singles from Luke Nonemaker and Hayes Donley, followed by a walk to Everett; through that sequence, Muncy pitchers threw multiple wild pitches, allowing all three runners to score to take a 5-2 lead.

But Muncy was not done. They started the bottom of the sixth with two singles and a walk and with two outs used a hit batter to force in a run to make the score 5-3 Keystone and the bases loaded. Muncy’s Brody Gross then drilled a groundball off the leg of the Keystone third baseman and it caromed to shortstop Donley who calmly threw the ball back to third for a game-ending force-out.

Blake King, the last of four Keystone pitchers, picked up the save in relief of Ashton Falls who had come on in the fifth to work out of a jam and picked up the win. Everett and Donley had pitched earlier for Keystone.

The winners totaled 11 hits but left 11 runners on base. Nonemaker led the way with three singles, Falls and Donley with two each. Evert had a double and singles came from King, McCloskey and Charlie Ramos. The Keystone pitchers held Muncy to five hits, four singles and the Bennett homerun.

Keystone executed, other than one infield error, another strong defensive game. Left-fielder Joey Miller robbed a Muncy batter of a single when he fielded a hard-hit ball on one bounce and threw to second base to get a force-out on the lead runner. Falls, playing second base at the time, got Keystone out of a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the first inning when he fielded a ground ball, tabbed the runner going by and threw to first for the final out of the inning.

Keystone’s Friday title game will come against either Muncy or Montoursville, scheduled to play in a Thursday losers’ bracket final in South Williamsport. Keystone earlier had defeated Montoursville by a 6-0 score. The Keystone game will be preceded at 5:45 p.m. Friday with the Keystone 11s seeking that division title. Both games will be carried on therecord-online.

K 1 0 1 0 0 3 = 5-11-1

M 9 9 9 9 2 1 = 3-5-2

 

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