Township’s Brayden Yonki (center) gets mobbed by his teammates at home plate after hitting one of his two home runs.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
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Township’s Parker McAndrew celebrates as he heads back to the dugout after hitting a two-run homer against Greater Pittston Area on Saturday morning.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
Township’s Drew Whitling is congratulated by manager Pat McAndrew after a two-run double in the fifth inning.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
Roman vs. Roman as GPA pitcher Patrick Roman throws against his cousin Frankie Roman for Township as he hits a single.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
GPA’s Patrick Roman pounces on home plate after hitting a two-run homer in the third inning.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
GPA’s Griffin Maynor (43) attempts to break up a double play as Township’s Chase Dudek tags the bag and readies to toss to first.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
PITTSTON — Just when the Greater Pittston Area all-stars got back in the game Saturday morning, Township knocked them out of it.
Way out of it.
Township snapped a tie game in the fifth with nine runs on the way to a 15-7 victory over GPA in a District 16 Little League major baseball game.
Township used seven hits, a walk and three GPA errors to break the 6-6 deadlock. GPA had scored four times in the top of the inning to tie the score 6-6.
“We strive with adversity,” Township manager Pat McAndrew said. “We get knocked down, the first thing we say is ‘Good,’ because we can get better from it. And that’s exactly what happened.”
Township pieced together five consecutive hits in the fifth — an RBI single by Vinny Cocco, an RBI double by Chase Dudek, a single by Colton Ziobro, a three-run homer by Brandon Yonki and a solo homer by Michael DeAngelo.
Frankie Roman also singled and score in the fifth. Drew Whitling had a two-run double.
“You got to give Township credit,” GPA manager Pat Roman said. “They smashed it around the field. I told our kids usually the team that has more hits is going to be the team that wins. I think that was true today. I didn’t do our book, but I think they had more hits than us.”
Yonki’s homer was his second of the game. He hit a similar moonshot to center in the second inning. Parker McAndrew lined a two-run homer to left in the first as part of Township’s three-run inning.
GPA cut Township’s lead in half on a two-run homer by Patrick Roman in the third. Township got the runs back in the bottom of the inning. Frankie Roman singled and moved to third on a double by Whitling. He scored from there on a wild pitch. Whitling later crossed the plate on a fielder’ choice by McAndrew to make it 6-2.
GPA, though, battled back to tie the score 6-6 in the fifth. Brady Warnek led off with a double and Matthew Welkey, Luke Borino and Vinny Krashnak drew consecutive walks to force in a run. Armondo Oliveri followed with a two-run single and John Walsh walked to reload the bases. An out later, Patrick Roman walked to force in the tying run.
GPA also used three walks to load the bases in the sixth, but managed just one run before a double play ended the game.
Plains 12, Hanover 2
Donny Stark used his bat and arm to propel Plains to a four-inning victory over Hanover.
Stark went 2-for-2 at the plate, including a two-run home run, while pitching four innings with seven strikeouts and no walks to get the win.
Landon Havard also helped pace the Plains attack with a clutch two-out double and a single. Jacob Antolik and Jayce Miller also chipped in with two hits apiece.
Hanover was led by Cian Hummer, who hit a two-run homer. Will Conklin and Jackson Carlo also chipped in two hits for Hanover.
Mountain Top 12, Nanticoke 2
Mountain Top’s Bryce Williams picked up the win while striking out 10 batters in the five-inning victory.
Williams also had two hits and an RBI. Kelten Rivera had three hits and two RBI. Connor Paulson had two hits with a double and three RBI.
William Mitchell drove in a run for Nanticoke.
District 16 Junior Baseball
Hanover 13, Wilkes-Barre 3
Ryan Bennett threw a one-hitter over five innings and also added three hits and three RBI for Hanover in a District 16 Junior Baseball game.
Also for Hanover, Joe Korus had three hits and two RBI and Conor Richardson two hits and two RBI. Brody Richardson, Logan Richardson, Braeden Mullery, Leo Seiger, Trey Mishanski and Alex Knapich also had hits.
For Wilkes-Barre Area, Dylan Hughes had one hit and one run scored and Patrick Merrick scored twice.
District 16 Major Softball
Mountain Top 2, Hanover 1
Fallon Stavish was the winning pitcher for Mountain Top, striking out 13. Stella Styczen for Hanover had five strikeouts.
Alexx Fromm tripled for Mountain Top. Brianna Petzold had a triple and scored the game-winning run.
District 16 Major Baseball
Township 15, Greater Pittston Area 7
Greater Pittston`AB`R`H`BI
P.Roman ss`2`1`1`3
Pisano cf`3`0`1`0
Tibel p-ss`3`0`0`0
R.Oliveri c`2`1`0`0
Maynor 3b-p`2`0`1`0
Warnek lf`2`1`1`0
Welkey 1b`2`1`0`1
Bronio 2b`2`1`1`0
Krashnak eh`1`1`0`1
A.Oliveri eh`2`0`1`2
Walsh eh`1`0`0`0
Larkin rf`2`1`0`0
Totals`24`7`6`7
Township`AB`R`H`BI
F.Roman c`2`3`2`0
Whitling p-cf`3`3`3`2
McAndrew 1b-p`3`2`1`3
Bryk eh`2`1`0`0
Cocco cf-p`3`0`1`1
Dudek 2b`3`1`2`1
Ziobro ss`2`1`1`0
Yonki eh-p-3b`3`2`3`4
DeAngelo lf`2`1`1`1
Slusser 3b`3`0`0`0
Solovey eh`2`1`0`0
Romanski rf`2`0`0`0
Totals`30`15`14`12
Greater Pittston`002`041 — 7
Township`312`09x — 15
2B — Warnek, Whitling 2, Dudek. HR — P.Roman, McAndrew, Yonki 2.
Greater Pittston`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Tibel`2.0`4`4`4`0`2
P.Roman (L)`2.1`5`5`4`2`3
Maynor`0.2`5`6`0`1`0
Township`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO
Whitling`3.2`4`2`0`0`7
Cocco`0.1`1`3`3`2`1
Yonki`0.0`1`1`1`2`0
McAndrew (W)`1.0`0`1`1`4`3
Ziobro`1.0`0`0`0`0`0