SAINT CLAIR - Tri-Valley went into Sunday's District 24 11-12-year-old Little League Tournament game looking to clinch first place in Pool 4 and a spot next weekend's quarterfinals.
But Saint Clair/Port Carbon/New Philadelphia still had aspirations of its own to earn the top spot.
SPN kept Tri-Valley from celebrating and put itself in position to advance with a 6-0 victory, creating a three-way tie for first in the pool with Pine Grove/Tremont. All three have 2-1 records.
SPN and Tri-Valley are off until Friday when they meet again at Tri-Valley. The top two teams in the pool advance to Saturday's quarterfinals.
SPN had pitcher Aiden Stanton to thank for keeping its hopes alive. He not only pitched a two-hit shutout against a good hitting team, but he helped his own cause by driving in two runs.
The first came with a two-out homer to center in the first inning to give SPN a 1-0 lead. His second RBI came on a fielder's choice groundout in the fifth. It was part of a five-run inning for SPN that put the game away.
Stanton kept Tri-Valley in check on the mound, recording five strikeouts against one walk. He threw just 71 pitches.
"They're a good team and its going to be a tough one again on Friday," SPN manager Kevin Stanton said. "The boys played their hearts out because they knew we had to win."
Aiden Stanton almost gave up a run
in the top of the second when Tri-Valley's Kolt Scheaffer hit a ball into the trees in left field for what appeared to be a home run to tie the score at 1.
But the run was wiped off the board when Kevin Stanton, believing Schaeffer never touched the first-base bag while rounding the bases, ordered Aiden Stanton to appeal the play at first.
Aiden stepped off the rubber, threw to first and Scheaffer was called out by the first-base umpire.
"We were watching him and he kind of stepped over it and he kept running," Kline said. "You have to appeal to the umpire on that base and I yelled to my pitcher to do that."
Tri-Valley manager Brent Smith said that Scheaffer did hit the corner of the first-base bag on the play and that his first-base coach would have told the player if he missed it.
"I have two of the best coaches on the bases and they both watch the kids as they're running," Smith said. "He knows he touched the front corner, that's why he didn't call him back to do it again."
Tri-Valley also had a runner thrown out at the plate in the fifth. Scheaffer drew a two-out walk and tried to come around to score on an infield single by Bradyen Smith when the ball got away from the first baseman. He recovered the ball and threw home to get the out.
SPN proceeded to score five runs in the bottom of the inning on RBI singles by Mason Kline, Jr., Matt Cromyak, J.C. Rodrian and Evan Close.
Tri-Valley's Dawson Schwalm, who took the loss, had limited SPN to only two hits prior to the fifth.
"The reason we lost the game had nothing to do with that call or anything else," Smith said. "We were not prepared to hit the ball. We have to go home and get better and learn from this situation." Game Summary