NEW PHILADELPHIA - Using strong pitching and three solo home runs, Upper Dauphin County secured its spot in the District 24 Little League championship game.
Sam Kerwin struck out eight in five innings, and Macklin Ayers, Kade Matter and Hunter Lentz slugged home runs as UDC outlasted Saint Clair/Port Carbon/New Philadelphia 6-4 in an 11-12-year-old semifinal Sunday.
The victory advances Upper Dauphin County (6-0) to Tuesday's championship game, where it will play Orwigsburg, a 7-2 winner over Pottsville Rotary, at 5:30 p.m. in Gratz.
"My first feeling was relief," Upper Dauphin manager Jeff Lentz said after the win. "I knew SPN would be tough, so I've been looking forward to this game all year."
Upper Dauphin jumped out to an early 2-0 lead when Sam Kerwin hit an RBI single and Sawyer Morgan hit an RBI double off SPN starter John Holobetz in the top of the first.
After walking Macklin Ayers, Holobetz was taken out of the game after facing five batters and not recording an out.
"John has some good off-speed pitches, so we thought we could get a couple of innings out of him," SPN manager Gerry Kuperavage said. "They got on him early though."
J.C. Rodrian came in to relieve Holobetz. After a passed ball put Upper Dauphin up 3-0, Rodrian struck out all three batters he faced.
Rodrian finished with nine strikeouts, allowing three runs on five hits over 4.1 innings.
In the third inning, Ayers hit a solo home run deep to left field and Matter and Lentz hit back-to-back homers to give Upper Dauphin a 6-0 lead.
"That was Matter's first District 24 home run," Lentz said. "I didn't expect him to hit it, but he came up big for us."
SPN (5-1) mounted a comeback in the bottom of the third inning when Rodrian picked up an RBI and got on base after an infield error.
Ryan Lindenmuth then hit a two-run double to right and Jake Kuperavage knocked home a run to make it 6-4.
Lindenmuth finished 2-for-3 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored.
"Ryan's a strong kid," Gerry Kuperavage said. "When the game was on the line, he stepped up and hit it into a gap."
Kerwin and relief pitcher Maison Grow shut down SPN's offense after the third, combining to allow just two more hits and no runs.
Kerwin recorded eight strikeouts over five innings to earn the win and Grow picked up two strikeouts in one inning of relief.
"Sam threw a gem for us tonight," Lentz said. "He's really a crafty lefty."
SPN stranded seven runners, only showing signs of their powerful offense in the third inning.
"This year was a lot tougher than years past," Gerry Kuperavage said. "Everyone knew we'd be good, so we had a target on our backs from the beginning.
"But as a team, these kids battled and never quit. They put in a lot of hard work and they grew as players because of it. I'm very proud of their effort."
After the win, Upper Dauphin's manager discussed his game plan for facing Orwigsburg.
"We're gonna come to play our best," Lentz said. "We proved that our hits can come from top to bottom and that makes it hard to prepare for us.
"Orwigsburg is a good team, so I know our next game will be a good one like this was."