HEGINS - The situation was clear for both Tri-Valley and Saint Clair/New Philadelphia/Port Carbon in its District 24 11-12-year-old Little League Tournament Pool 4 game Friday.
A win by either team would mean advancing to today's quarterfinal round; the loser would be eliminated.
With their backs against the wall, Tri-Valley manager Brent Smith had one standing order for his team.
They had to swing the bats.
He did not want the all-star season to end because they were not aggressive, as was the case in his team's shutout loss to SPN last Sunday.
Smith's club responded, banging out 10 hits and using a pair of big innings to rout SPN 12-3 to win the Pool 4 berth in the quarterfinals.
Tri-Valley will host Orwigsburg in a quarterfinal at 5:30 p.m. today.
"Today they weren't afraid to hit the ball," Smith said. "They shut us out last time, but it was because we weren't swinging the bats. We were waiting for walks. Today, it was attack the ball."
Ashton Buchanan was the star of the game for Tri-Valley, both on the mound
and at the plate.
Buchanan threw shutout ball after giving up three runs over the first three innings.
Zak Ternitza drove in all of SPN's runs - on an RBI single in the first and two-run single in the third.
"His pitching was phenominal," Smith said. "He kept the batters at and edge. They got a hit here and there, but he battled back."
Daulton Leedy helped Tri-Valley with a 3-for-4 effort and four RBIs.
Tri-Valley trailed 3-2 going into the bottom of the third inning before putting six runs on the board and sending 12 batters to the plate.
Leedy gave Tri-Valley the lead for good when his two-run single made the score 4-3. Nick Parobek followed with another two-run single to up the lead to 6-3 after SPN starting pitcher Aiden Stanton was lifted for J.C. Rodrian.
Both Jimmy Dietrich drove in a run on a fielder's choice, and Dawson Schwalm added an RBI ground out to give Tri-Valley an 8-3 lead.
Stanton had pitched a shutout in SPN's win over Tri-Valley earlier in the week. SPN manager Kevin Stanton thought he might be capable of doing it again.
"I thought maybe we could get another win out of him, but they were on to him," Stanton said. "We didn't execute when we had to and they did. They were prepared for us today."
Tri-Valley tacked on four more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning when Schwalm and Leedy each hit RBI singles and Issac Lucas hit a two-run single.
Buchanan was not permitted to complete the game in the top of the sixth inning, having thrown 86 pitches after giving up a leadoff single.
Kolt Scheaffer got the last three outs on a fielder's choice and two strikeouts. Game Summary