Jul. 21—CRESSONA — Forget that Ashland’s ages 9-11 All-Stars had dropped their first game of the Section 3 tournament.
Dismiss the idea that, according to manager Greg Keninitz, Ashland had never won a Little League baseball section championship and that Tuesday’s game was a winner-take-all event.
None of that mattered to Ashland or left-handed pitcher Nico Capone.
Capone held District 13 champion Selinsgrove to five hits and four runs over four innings, and Ashland backed him with a big first inning en route to a 15-4 romp at the Harold Luckenbill Memorial Complex, completing a four-game run to claim the Section 3 banner.
“It’s new territory, and we’re going to go to states,” Keninitz said after Ashland used an eight-run first inning to take firm command 24 hours after the District 24 champions had pounded Selinsgrove 11-1 in four innings to force Tuesday’s showdown.
With the victory, Ashland became one of Pennsylvania’s final eight ages 9-11 teams, which will gather this weekend at the Pittston Township Little League for the state tournament. Ashland opens its bid at 12:30 p.m. Saturday against the Section 7 champion.
“We’ve got three solid pitchers, and anybody can come in at any time,” Keninitz said. “… I feel anybody that we call on can come out on that mound and do the job.”
That certainly was the case for Capone on Tuesday. Retiring Selinsgrove on nine pitches in the first inning, he finished with just 59 tosses while striking out seven and walking one.
“Nico was ice. He didn’t get rattled one bit today. Nico was great. He was spot-on,” Keninitz said.
Capone also put himself into the middle of Ashland’s offense. With two hits, two runs scored and two runs batted in, the cleanup hitter was part of a balanced attack that took full advantage of early wildness by Selinsgrove starting pitcher Nick Kratzer. He never got an out before he was replaced by reliever Evan Gatewood.
Selinsgrove manager C.J. Ford, whose team won its first two games to enter the title round unbeaten, said, “Unfortunately, they came out firing on all cylinders just like the game last night, and they hit all of the right spots.”
The visiting team after the pregame coin toss, Ashland gave Selinsgrove no chance to settle into the game. Selinsgrove issued three walks and committed six errors in the opening frame, when Capone hit a two-run single and Tanner McGee added a run-scoring single for two of Ashland’s three hits.
Selinsgrove answered with three runs in the second inning behind an RBI single by Landon Hupp, on which a second run scored on an error, and a run-scoring groundout by Gatewood to trim the deficit to 10-3.
But Selinsgrove never got the shutdown inning it needed.
After sending 14 batters to the plate in the first inning, Ashland tallied twice in the second as Bobby Holmes scored on a wild pitch and Jaxon Sweeney scored on Brock Holmes’ groundout.
In the third, Ashland posted consecutive hits from Robert Selgrade, Capone and Garrett Keninitz and tallied two runs, with Capone scoring on an outfield error.
With its team consisting entirely of 11-year-olds, Selinsgrove recovered a run in the third when Noah Ford singled, advanced to third on two wild pitches and scored on a single by Tanner Fry.
Ashland then tallied three times in the fourth as Bryson Nagle singled and scored on Brock Holmes’ triple. Selgrade hit a run-scoring single and eventually scored on McGee’s sacrifice fly.
Then it was up to Capone, who got a grounder back to the box to begin the fourth. After he bobbled a another comebacker hit by Jaren Hackenberg and then tossed a wild pitch to put Hackenberg into scoring position, Capone struck out two straight hitters to clinch the victory and set off the celebration.
“This is 70 years that we’ve never had this banner, never had this opportunity,” Greg Keninitz said about organized youth baseball in the northern Schuylkill County borough.
It was more impressive that Ashland achieved the title after losing 8-3 to Keystone in its first section game. Ashland beat Roosevelt Trail 17-1 and then avenged the loss to Keystone with an 11-6 victory. Ashland followed by outscoring Selinsgrove 26-5 in a pair of four-inning games on back-to-back days for the championship.
“This is sort of the game plan we had. Come back through the bracket tough, get people looking at us and knowing we can play, and maybe (put) a little fear in them,” Keninitz said. “Have the other team a little off balance, and that’s what we did.”
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