ELIZABETHVILLE - Upper Dauphin hitters were prepared for Shenandoah pitcher Anthony Merejildo in their District 24 Little League 11-12-year-old Tournament Pool 1 game Tuesday.
Knowing that his team was going to be facing a hard thrower, Upper Dauphin manager James "Lefty" Lower conducted off-day batting practices that held nothing back on speed.
Upper Dauphin got the results it was looking for, touching Shenandoah for seven runs in the first two innings on the way to an 8-0 victory.
UDC pitchers took care of the rest as Dylan Lower and Levi Engle combined to hurl a two-hit shutout and strike out 10.
The win clinches the Pool 1 championship for Upper Dauphin (3-0), which advances to Saturday's quarterfinal round. Shenandoah, which needed a win to keep its hopes alive, completed pool play with a 2-2 record.
"We threw to the kids a lot harder than we normally would at practice," James Lower said. "What you have to do against a pitcher like that is just try to make contact. The rest will take care of itself."
Merejildo entered Tuesday's game having thrown 10 scoreless innings in wins over Upper Schuylkill and Minersville.
Upper Dauphin's offense had Merejildo timed from the start as Carson Barge led off the bottom of the first with a double to center field. Mason Wiest followed with a walk and both advanced on a double steal, putting two runners in scoring position.
Engle put the first run on the board with a sacrifice fly to center field. The second run scored on Nick Savage's high chop infield single to shortstop.
Savage was out on the
next play when a line drive off the bat of Lower hit him while running the bases, putting Lower on first on a fielder's choice.
But Sam Jury delivered with a two-run triple and Shane Harris made the score 5-0 by knocking in Jury on an infield single.
Upper Dauphin got to Merejildo again in the second inning when Barge led off with a triple and scored on a one-out fielder's choice grounder to shortstop by Engle.
Lower then helped his own pitching cause with a single to center field to up Upper Dauphin's lead to 7-0.
Merejildo settled down to give up only one hit the rest of the way, but gave up a run in the fourth inning when Savage doubled home Engle, who reached on an error.
Shenandoah manager Bill Conroy credited Upper Dauphin with having a good approach against Merejildo.
"He can throw hard, but he can't throw anything off-speed," Conroy said. "He really doesn't know how to do that yet and they were ready for his fastball."
Upper Dauphin's pitchers, meanwhile, were mixing it up.
Lower struck out six batters without a walk. His only potential trouble came in the fourth inning when Shenandoah loaded the bases on singles by Avery Dombrosky and Zack Chowansky and when Merejildo was hit by a pitch.
Lower got out of the jam by getting a force out at the plate on a grounder back to him by Will Conroy, and striking out Pablo Lugo.
Engle relieved Lower in the fifth inning and threw two innings of scoreless relief, giving up only two walks.
"We have great pitchers on this team," James Lower said. "We have 6-7 kids that can pitch if we need them to. They can throw change-up, fastballs and curveballs. They can throw anything." Game Summary