Osman Avila singled in the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth to send the Township All-Stars through to the District 31 Junior Baseball championship game with a 2-1 win over Kingston/Forty Fort on Thursday night.
A pitcher’s duel throughout, Kingston/Forty Fort scored their lone run in the top of the first with an RBI groundout from Ryan Bobb that scored Chase Evans.
Township tied things up in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Cody Karboski, and the two teams finished seven innings of regulation tied 1-1.
After holding KFF scoreless in the top of the eighth, Avila’s one-out base hit into left field brought Chris Tibel home to score the winning run.
Tibel pitched all eight innings for Township to earn the win, allowing just one unearned run on four hits with five strikeouts.
Bobb pitched the first 2.1 innings for KFF, and Brayden Tarnalicki covered the remaining five-plus innings, allowing two runs (one earned) and striking out eight.
With the win, Township secured the first spot in Monday’s district title game. They’ll wait to take on the winner of Saturday’s Kingston/Forty Fort and Back Mountain clash.
Back Mountain 18, Wilkes-Barre 12
Trailing by as many as nine runs at one point, Back Mountain put together an explosive rally to fight their way back and keep their season alive with a win over Wilkes-Barre.
Back Mountain trailed 12-3 heading to the bottom of the fourth after Wilkes-Barre plated seven runs in the top half of the inning, but would score 15 unanswered runs to come out on top.
Jayden Lyons doubled, drove in a run and scored twice for Back Mountain. Five Back Mountain players drove in two runs apiece: Samuel Greblunas, Benjamin Neher, Chance Susko, Fred Gunn and Ryan Jones.
Wilkes-Barre’s offense was led by Lucas Smith, who had three of his team’s five hits and drove in three runs. Jeramy Perdomo had a hit and two RBI.
Back Mountain and Kingston/Forty Fort will play Saturday in an elimination game to see who will advance to the District 31 championship.
Local journalism matters, and your support makes it possible. You can help sustain this work by making a donation or choosing one of our subscription options. Subscribers enjoy valuable benefits, including full access to our e-edition, a reduced ad experience on timesleader.com, and more.
Your support helps ensure independent, high-quality local news remains available today and for future generations. Thank you for standing with local journalism.