WEST PITTSTON – Being behind by four runs wasn’t about to discourage the Dallas baseball team.
The Mountaineers were in a position of being four games under .500 earlier this season before battling back to win their final five games and force Wednesday’s Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 tiebreaking game for the title.
So when the team was down by four to Tunkhannock early on, there was no slouching or heads hanging.
“We were struggling but we’ve had bigger deficits and bigger comebacks,” said first baseman and pitcher Christopher Huntington.
Then slowly, Dallas came back. eventually getting a game-winning sacrifice fly from JD Barrett in the bottom of the sixth inning as the Mountaineers defeated Tunkhannock 5-4 for its first division title since 2014.
With the win, the Mountaineers claim the No. 2 seed for the District 2 Class 4A playoffs and will host Nanticoke on Friday in the tournament opener.
Tunkhannock falls to the third seed and will host sixth-seeded Wyoming Area on Friday.
“(We’re) beat up. Exhausted. Emotionally, physically, everything,” Dallas coach Ken Kashatus said. “But they’ll go eat their chicken wings tonight. … And we’re gonna try to preserve as much energy as we can in practice (today) and let it fly on Friday. Because you lose, you collect uniforms.”
It was a rare pitching performance by Huntington and some key baserunning that were key for Dallas.
In the bottom of the sixth, the senior led off the frame with a bunt single to third base. Then on an errant pick off attempt, while the first baseman was down with an injury after being spiked, Huntington fled to third to set up the winning score.
“I work on bunting a lot in practice because my average dropped off a bit in the middle of the season so I expanded my abilities in the game and forced it down third base because I saw him laying back,” Huntington said. “I had a little compassion there (on the spike) then I was on my way to third.”
Huntington also pitched 1.2 innings, striking out four and allowing just two hits to get to Josh Lydon, the fourth pitcher of the game for Dallas. Lydon went the last 2.1 innings only giving up a pair of singles. But it was the first time he pitched since the first game of the season.
“Honestly, I think that was the biggest part of the game,” Kashatus said about Huntington’s outing on the mound. “He gave us productive outs, and from a guy who doesn’t pitch that much. That bridge to get to the guy you want on the mound at the end of the game, I thought that was the biggest part of the game. He hasn’t done it all year. But you can’t substitute a senior with experience.”
The Tigers raced out to a 4-0 lead after the top of the second thanks to an RBI single from Connor Huslander in the first and a run-scoring double by Tyler Faux and a two-run single courtesy of Matt Goodwin in the second.
After Dallas pulled within two at 4-2 in the bottom of the second on a RBI hit from Will McCrum, the defense worked some magic in the top of the third.
With the Tigers threatening again with runners on second and third and no outs, a fielder’s choice play at home was recorded for the first out. Then Drew Patton picked a runner off first. A popout ended the inning and Dallas looked to take the momentum at that point.
“With Drew Patton the mound, firing in and striking kids out, that was probably the momentum swing, down 4-2,” Huntington said. “He came in and got a bunch of big outs. Then we came back in and started working out way back for some runs.”
McCrum added another RBI hit in the third inning as Dallas cut the deficit to 4-3. An error in the fourth inning by Tunkhannock allowed the tying run to score.
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WVC Division 2 Championship Game
Dallas 5, Tunkhannock 4
Tunkhannock`AB`R`H`BI
Reposa p`3`2`1`0
TFaux ss`4`1`3`1
Goodwin 3b`3`0`2`2
DeMarco 3b`0`0`0`0
Huslander dh`4`0`1`1
DFaux p`0`0`0`0
Muckin cf` 3`0`2`0
Fennick c`3`0`1`0
Brown 1b`3`0`0`0
Munley lf`2`0`0`0
Robinson lf`2`0`0`0
Hopkins rf`3`1`0`0
Totals`30`4`10`4
Dallas`AB`R`H`BI
Kerdesky p`3`0`0`0
Barrett 2b`2`1`1`1
Lewis cf` 0`0`0`0
Luksic dh`4`0`1`0
Kocher lf`3`1`1`0
Patton 3b`1`0`0`0
Giacometti 3b`2`0`1`0
Mathers c`2`1`1`0
Collins rf`3`1`0`0
McCrum ss`3`0`2`2
Huntington`1b`2`1`1`0
Totals`25`5`8`3
2B: T. Faux
Tunkhannock`130`000`0` —`4
Dallas`021`101`x`—`5
Tunkhannock`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Reposa `2+`4`3`3`2`2
DFaux (L) `4.0`5`2`1`2`0
Dallas`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Kerdesky `1.2`5`4`4`1`1
Patton `1.1`1`0`0`1`1
Huntington `1.2`2`0`0`2`4
Lydon (W)`2.1`2`0`0`0`2