SPRINGBROOK TWP. — Opportunity presented itself in the fourth inning Sunday and Greater Pittston Area took full advantage.
Some of those same opportunities came Back Mountain National’s way later on, but it wasn’t as fortunate with them.
The end result gave Greater Pittston Area a 10-7 victory at North Pocono Little League and put it in the driver’s seat for the Section 5 Little League Major Baseball championship.
District 31 champion BMN will need three wins to get the title. First up is D31 champ Throop, a team it defeated 13-0 on Saturday, in the elimination bracket final at 5:30 p.m. Monday. Throop eliminated D16 champion North Pocono 10-7 on Sunday.
D16 champion GPA is off until Tuesday when it will play the BMN-Throop winner at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. A win means the championship; a loss means a rematch at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
“It will be good to sit and relax a little bit,” GPA manager Ted Montigney said. “Tonight they’re probably going to have a good time. A night off will actually be good, but I can’t really call it a night off because we’ll practice tomorrow.”
GPA might need some time to decipher the whirlwind fourth inning where it scored seven times with two outs to take a 9-4 lead.
After the first two GPA batters were retired on groundouts, Nico Cielo and Devon Cerasaro drew consecutive walks. Silvio Giardina followed with an RBI single, then an error brought in two more runs. Then there was a single by Matt Walter, a hit batter, another error and a bases-loaded walk by Elijah Mead.
Brandon Wardecki knocked in the final two runs of the outburst with a single to left.
“That’s baseball,” said BMN manager Eric Williams, whose team suffered its first loss of the postseason. “Baseball will do that to you. You’re riding high, then there were a couple mistakes we made and they capitalized.
“Good teams will do that when you’re at this level, and Greater Pittston Area is a very good team, a well-coached team. They were able to take advantage of the mistakes and capitalize on it.”
BMN appeared primed to cut into the deficit in the fifth after Zach Williams hit a two-run single and Nick Pisaneschi was plunked with a pitch to load the bases. The rally fizzled when Mead, GPA’s center fielder, caught a flyball and threw a strike to home to cut down a BMN runner for an inning-ending double play.
BMN made some more noise in the sixth, but not enough. Dom Zangardi opened the frame with a bloop double to left and scored on Sam Finarelli’s single. BMN also worked a couple walks, but a fielder’s choice ended the game. BMN stranded 10 runners in all, including five in scoring position.
Dom Innamorati picked up the win in relief and had GPA’s only extra-base hit, a solo homer in the first inning.
Section 5 Major Baseball
Greater Pittston Area 10, Back Mountain National 7
BMN`AB`R`H`BI
Coyne cf`4`0`0`1
Zangardi 1b`4`2`3`1
Finarelli ss`3`1`2`2
Brunn lf`0`0`0`0
Sholtis p`2`1`0`0
Geskey 3b`3`0`1`1
Zapoticky rf`2`1`1`0
Casey ph`0`0`0`0
Williams c`2`0`1`2
Dale ph`1`0`0`0
Leandri 2b`0`1`0`0
Steinruck ph`1`0`0`0
Pisaneschi ph`0`0`0`0
Totals`25`7`9`7
GPA`AB`R`H`BI
Giardina p`4`2`3`1
Innamorati ss`3`2`1`1
Walter c`4`1`2`0
Montigney 3b`3`1`1`1
Rusinovich 1b`3`1`0`0
Mead cf`1`0`0`1
O’Malley ph`1`0`0`0
Wardecki lf`2`0`1`2
Tonte ph`1`0`0`0
Johnson rf`2`1`0`0
Cielo ph`0`0`0`0
Lentowski 2b`1`1`0`0
Cerasaro ph`0`1`0`0
Totals`25`10`8`6
Back Mtn. National`130`021 — 7
Greater Pittston Area`101`71x — 10
E — BMN 4, GPA 2. DP — GPA 1. LOB — BMN 10, GPA 5. 2B — Zangardi. HR — Innamorati. SB — Leandri, Innamorati. CS — Finarelli. SAC — Leandri.
BMN`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Chesman`2.1`3`2`2`0`3
Geskey (L)`1.1`3`5`2`2`1
Sholtis`0.2`1`2`0`2`1
Leandri`0.0`0`1`0`0`0
Finarelli`0.2`1`0`0`0`1
GPA`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Giardina`1.0`2`2`1`1`2
Montigney`2.2`3`2`0`1`5
Innamorati (W)`2.1`4`3`3`2`3
