Jul. 21—HARVEYS LAKE — Luca Pietraccini kept putting up zeroes on the mound waiting for his team to come through at the plate. As the game moved into extra innings still scoreless, a familiar hero broke the deadlock with his second walk-off hit of the postseason.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Cole Langdon lined a pitch just out of the reach of a leaping centerfielder to give Back Mountain National a 1-0 victory over Abington in the Section 5 9-11 Baseball championship Tuesday at Harveys Lake Little League.
Back Mountain advances to the state tournament, which starts Saturday at Pittston Township Little League. It will play Section 1 champion DuBois in the opening round at 7 p.m.
Pietraccini pitched all seven innings for Back Mountain, allowing just two hits with two strikeouts and no walks. The last hit he gave up was a bunt single by Greyson Locker leading off the fifth inning. He struck out the next batter and then started a 1-6-3 double play to end the inning. He retired Abington in order in the sixth and seventh innings.
“He got on the mound and he pitched probably one of his best games I’ve ever seen him pitch,” Back Mountain manager John Morris said. “He did an awesome job.”
Pietraccini needed to be sharp as Abington starter Darsh Patel matched him with five scoreless innings. Patel allowed five hits and struck out three, but was at his best with runners on base as he stranded eight over his five innings.
“Darsh, that’s why he’s pitching in a championship game,” Abington manager Paul Locker said. “He’s one of our best pitchers and he kept it 0-0 for five innings. The kids gave it everything they had.”
Back Mountain had three hits in the second inning but left the bases loaded. Mitch Onzick singled to lead off the inning, but was thrown out by center fielder Greyson Locker as he tried to stretch the hit into a double. Christian Maier then cracked a double to left field and went to third on Talan Geskey’s single. Patel struck out the next batter but walked Hayden Romeo to load the bases. He then got a groundout to end the inning.
Pietraccini gave up a two-out single to Alec Weinberger in the second inning, but got a lineout to first to end the threat.
“I was throwing mainly fastballs and then, to their Nos. 2 and 3 hitters, I mixed in a couple of curveballs,” Pietraccini said. “They were working in the beginning and then towards the end, I believe it was their No. 3 hitter (Jason Jones) started pulling them so I mixed out and I threw a high fastball and it worked. I just mixed very well and we had a very good performance.”
Back Mountain had two runners on base in the fifth inning after an error and a one-out single by Pietraccini, but Patel got a pair of groundouts to end the frame.
Race Moraski relieved Patel and gave up a leadoff single in the sixth, but got three straight groundouts to force extra innings.
“They stayed focused,” Paul Locker said. “They got down a little bit on themselves when one or two got on, but then they just took a deep breath and locked down and zoned in and threw strikes. Right down to the last pitch. There’s no reason to hang their heads.”
In the seventh, Joey Nocito was hit by a pitch with one out and went to second on a groundout to the pitcher. Langdon then delivered his second game-winning hit after having the walk-off winner in the Back Mountain Little League championship.
Abington Back Mountain
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Millett 2b 2 0 0 0 Morris c/2b 4 0 0 0
Spinelli rf 1 0 0 0 Nocito ss 2 1 0 0
Mraski 1b/cf/p 3 0 0 0 Pietraccini p 4 0 1 0
Jones lf 3 0 0 0 Langdon 3b 4 0 1 1
Cottell c 3 0 0 0 Onzick 1b 3 0 1 0
Locker cf/2b 2 0 1 0 Casey ph 0 0 0 0
Weinberger 3b 1 0 1 0 Maier rf 3 0 2 0
Sartori 3b 1 0 0 0 Geskey cf 2 0 1 0
Kehoe ss 2 0 0 0 Mason ph 1 0 1 0
Patel p/rf 2 0 0 0 Shook 2b/c 1 0 0 0
Lalley rf 1 0 0 0 Dlssandro ph 2 0 0 0
Ramey 1b 1 0 0 0 Romeo lf 1 0 0 0
Rinehimer ph 1 0 0 0
Totals 22 0 2 0 Totals 28 1 7 1
Abington 000 000 0 — 0
Back Mountain 000 000 1 — 1
Two outs when winning run scored
2B: Maier.
Abington IP H R ER BB SO
Patel 5 5 0 0 2 3
Moraski, LP 1.2 2 1 1 0 0
Back Mountain IP H R ER BB SO
Pietraccini, WP 7 2 0 0 0 2