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An elusive third out proved costly for Nanticoke in its Little League Major Baseball state tournament opener Sunday morning at Rostraver Township Little League.
Section 8 champ Morrisville scored four times with two outs in the fifth to take control and post an 11-4 victory over Nanticoke.
District 16 and Section 5 champion Nanticoke will now have to win six consecutive games, starting with an elimination game 10 a.m. Monday against Section 7 champ West Side of West Chester, to capture the state title. West Side lost 8-5 to Section 6 champion Warwick Township. Morrisville and Warwick Township play at 4 p.m. in a winners bracket semifinal.
“We’ll have Derek Cease on the mound for us tomorrow,” Nanticoke coach Al Brown said, “so we’re in about as good of a situation as we could be in in the losers bracket having our No. 1 guy available. “
Cease and Ethan Egenski hit solo home runs for Nanticoke, which finished with five hits. Cease had two of them, adding a single to lead off the first. He was erased on a fielder’s choice. Egenski accounted for Nanticoke’s first run of the game with a solo shot to right in the second inning.
Nanticoke fell behind 5-1 going into the bottom of the third, but scored twice to cut the deficit to two runs. Nick Matson had an RBI single in the third to score Bryant Keegan, who had reached on an error and moved to second on a single by Justin Spencer. Spencer and Matson then pulled off a double steal, with Spencer scoring on the play.
Morrisville, though, got a run back in the fourth to make it 6-3 and busted open the game in the fifth.
Nanticoke reliever Devyn Sura got two groundouts to start the fifth. Morrisville then started its outburst as Kyle Incollingo bunted his way aboard. Callan Fang followed with a double, one of his five hits in the game. Danny Ciotti brought home both boys with a single. Pinch hitter Colin Gillen capped the inning with a two-run homer to right for a 10-3 advantage.
“We battled back,” Brown said. “We had a rough start and made mistakes we don’t normally make. We got it to 5-3 and they had a pretty big inning. We had two outs (in the fifth) then they got an infield hit and a walk and then a home run. Before you know it, it was 10-3.”
Cease started the fifth inning with a home run to center for Nanticoke. That was it for the offense as the next five batters were retired in order to end the game, including four via strikeout. Nanticoke finished the game by striking out nine times.
“We saw three different guys today and they all threw the ball around the same as the other teams we’ve been playing, high 60s maybe 70 mph,” Brown said. “We had opportunities. We got four runs and hit a couple home runs. We had guys on base. We just weren’t able to come through with a couple more key big hits.”
Morrisville 11, Nanticoke 4
Morrisville`AB `R `H `BI
Fang 3b `5 `3 `5 `1
Ciotti cf `5 `1 `1 `2
Schilling c`3 `1 `1 `0
Schrader p `3 `1 `1 `0
Mitrovich 1b `3 `1 `0 `0
Buell ss `1 `1 `0 `0
Gorman 2b `2 `1 `1 `2
Kuhnow rf `2 `0 `1 `0
Hawkes ph`1 `0 `0 `0
Christopher rf`1 `0 `0 `0
Gillen lf `2 `1 `1 `2
EBrown ph `1 `0 `1 `0
Incollingo lf `2 `1 `1 `0
Totals`31 `11 `13 `7
Nanticoke`AB `R `H `BI
Cease ss `3 `1 `2 `1
Spencer 2b`3 `1 `1 `0
Matson p`3 `0 `1 `1
Piestrak 1b `2 `0 `0 `0
Reakes ph`1 `0 `0 `0
Egenski lf`3 `1 `1 `1
Sura 3b `2 `0 `0 `0
Everett ph`2 `0 `0 `0
OBrown lf `1 `0 `0 `0
Mackiewicz ph `1 `0 `0 `0
Casey c `1 `0 `0 `0
Keegan cf `1 `1 `0 `0
Butczynski rf `1 `0 `0 `0
Totals`24 `4 `5 `3
Morrisville`212`141`—`11
Nanticoke`012`010`—`4
E: Morrisville 1, Nanticoke 1. DP: Nanticoke 2. LOB: Morrisville 9, Nanticoke 2. 2B: Fang. HR: Gillen, Egenski, Cease. SB: Matson, Spencer.
Morrisville`IP `H `R `ER `BB `K
Schrader (W) `2.0 `2 `1 `1 `0 `2
Schilling `2.0 `2 `2 `1 `0 `3
Gillen `1.2 `1 `1 `1 `0 `3
Ciotti `0.1 `0 `0 `0 `0 `1
Nanticoke`IP `H `R `ER `BB `K
Matson (L) `2.0 `3 `5 `3 `5 `7
Sura `2.2 `8 `5 `5 `0 `1
Egenski `1.0 `1 `1 `1 `1 `1
Butczynski `0.1 `1 `0 `0 `0 `0
Next Game: Nanticoke 10 a.m. Monday vs. West Side
Next Game: Morrisville 4 p.m. Monday vs. Warrick Twp.
